Elden Ring Nightreign tier list: Who's the best character to pick?

Putting together an Elden Ring Nightreign tier list might seem a little redundant—you're supposed to be able to pick who you want to bring to Limveld based on preferred playstyle. While that's still 100% true, I was quite surprised to see how unbalanced the roster of Nightfarer's feels.

I figured they would all be pretty good, but there are actually some frontrunners, and there's even an easily identifiable best character because of his kit of abilities, ease of playstyle, and the massive advantage he has against the game's hardest Nightlord bosses. Obviously, meta means jack all in Nightreign, and it's still important to pick who you want to play as versus choosing them based on any metric of "being the best".

Still, you might find it interesting to know who's strong and who's a lot less strong when heading into Limveld for the first time. Below I've laid out the best character as well as a tier list for all other characters, so you can see what we think of each Nightfarer after having played them extensively.

Who's the best character in Elden Ring Nightreign?

The best character in Elden Ring Nightreign is Ironeye. In a game where the most challenging bosses—the Nightlords—are endlessly mobile and even fly out of arm's reach a lot of the time, melee has a huge disadvantage. Archers, on the other hand, can deal consistent damage in a boss fight, and there's no better archer than Ironeye.

He also has an extremely versatile suite of abilities; his Marking dash lets him tag enemies for extra damage from the team, but you can also utilise it to dodge even the most annoying attacks. Add to this, his Single Shot ability staggers and damages bosses, while usually killing all smaller enemies in an AoE. There's definitely a case to be made for another character as the best for running solo, but if you're playing Nightreign as intended in a group, Ironeye is without a doubt the best.

Elden Ring Nightreign tier list

S-tier

Ironeye

Hit your mark with our best Ironeye build, weapons picks, and tips.

As mentioned above, archery is very strong in Nightreign, and so the best archer is pretty strong, too. Ironeye's versatile Marking ability s the rest of the team with extra damage, but he can also use it to dash out of the way of attacks, as with Bloodhound's Step in the original Elden Ring. Single Shot is also a great ability for stagger and damage, especially if you have Duchess to repeat it.

Duchess

Stab from the shadows with our best Duchess build, weapons picks, and tips.

The ultimate character who can also get stuck in with deadly dex-weapons—there are few parties that won't benefit from Duchess' presence. Her strength is primarily down to her Restage skill, which allows her to repeat instances of damage and stagger to bosses. If you're coordinating with teammates, you can repeat the damage dealt by ultimate art skills, or even critical strikes—the skill has a fast cooldown, too.

Making up for her low health, Duchess has an enhanced dodge, and her Finale ultimate art, turning everyone nearby invisible, is the perfect way to get a clutch revive and save an expedition from failure. Do note that you'll need to unlock Duchess before you can play her.

A-tier

Raider

Enjoy a rock in this trying time with our best Raider build, weapons picks, and tips.

My personal favorite character, Raider, loves to headbutt enemies with his Retaliate skill and summon a big rock of questionable effectiveness. Genuinely, his Totem Stella may grant increased poise and strength to nearby characters—and does damage when it appears—but it's a bit janky to say the least. Raider more than makes up for this, however, as an S-tier strength main, wielding big weapons and stance-breaking bosses for critical hits.

If you take enough damage during the initial stage of his tanky Retaliate skill, it changes into an uppercut that does massive stagger, even if it is a little hard to land it sometimes. Due to his stance-breaking and high damage, Raider is also one of the best Nightfarers if you're running solo.

Wylder

Grapple monsters with our best Wylder build, weapons picks, and tips.

Wylder is the quintessential all-rounder. He's got high strength with enough dexterity to dabble with a katana or two if you get a particularly attractive drop, he's got enough health to avoid all but the worst one-shot kills, and—I mean—look at him. That's a Dark Souls guy. If you're putting a character on the box art, you're probably going to equip him for success.

Ability-wise, Wylder's grappling hook smooths out combat by helping you close distance with Nightreign's leapfrog bosses, and you can upgrade it with remembrance relics that add potent follow-up attacks. Wylder's ultimate art, meanwhile, deals a hefty chunk of stagger damage, reliably opening up bosses for critical hits. And because you're invulnerable while using it, you can even use it as a last-ditch revival option if you don't think you can survive thwacking a teammate back to life.

Executor

Pretend you're playing Sekiro with our best Executor build, weapons picks, and tips.

The Executor, on paper, should easily be among the strongest in the cast, an S-tier candidate through and through. His character skill, Cursed Sword, allows him to no-sell most attacks, and has a far more forgiving parry window than the FromSoftware game it's lifted from, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Meanwhile, his Ultimate Art, Aspects of the Crucible: Beast, is incredible for clearing out enemies, and can keep many mid-weight bosses stun-locked. The status build-up from his high arcane stat is excellent, too, and bleed damage is as strong as it's been in every other FromSoftware game.

The problem, really, is that he's a Nightreign character. Nightreign is inherently chaotic, and his ability to go toe-to-toe with any single enemy becomes seriously less effective when he's swarmed. What's more, without aggro-boosting ives, his Cursed Sword's slow movement speed and piddly reach will see him left in the dust. This is especially noticeable if you're playing with an Ironeye, since his ranged attacks are a hate magnet. Get ready for a lot of awkward stance-shifting and chasing enemies to keep up.

High dex and arcane scaling means he'll still be useful in these scenarios—but it won't be because of his kit, it'll be because you've got your hands on a good weapon. And anybody can do that.

B-tier

Revenant

Raise an army of skeletons with our best Revenant build, weapons picks, and tips.

This doll-like necromancer can summon a member of her "Family" to tank boss attacks and draw aggro, especially effective if you summon Sebastian, the big skeleton. These allies will even revive teammates, provided they don't get distracted by nearby bosses or enemies. Her Immortal March ultimate art is also pretty clutch, reviving allies and making them temporarily immortal—though do note you can still take damage, just not die.

The main problem with Revenant is that to perform well, she needs to get killing blows on enemies, since she has a chance to summon them as temporary minions, and that means getting stuck into combat—not ideal when she has next to no health. Similarly, in Nightlord boss fights, she may be able to draw aggro temporarily, but there are no enemies for her to turn into minions, meaning a whole section of her kit goes unused and she has to risk combat to deal damage. After you unlock Duchess, you can also unlock Revenant.

Recluse

Fancy some sorcery? Check out the best Recluse build, weapons picks, and tips.

The strange thing about Recluse is that she's potentially an S-tier character if you're playing with friends and are able to coordinate what affinities you bring to give her the strongest spell combos. The Recluse is a spellcaster who effectively extracts elemental affinities from nearby targets (including allies) and uses them to cast a range of powerful spells. Sounds strong, right? The issue is that she's quite reliant on the players around her to create the best Magic Cocktails. And if she can't perform said Magic Cocktail skill due to lack of affinities, she can't collect affinity residues, the way she restores FP for spellcasting. If in doubt, you can at least spam basic combos, like three magic residues or three fire residues (a common affinity on seals and starting weapons if you use relics).

If that breaks, you'll have to get stuck into combat, which is less than ideal when she has low HP, stamina, dexterity, and strength stats. Still, her Soulblood Song ultimate art is pretty handy, marking enemies with a sigil that lets you recover HP and FP when you hit them, so maybe the key to playing Recluse is just to bring three Recluses. Either way, I wouldn't recommend her to anyone just getting started or playing with randos.

C-tier

Guardian

Become a shielded bulwark with our best Guardian build, weapons picks, and tips.

It's hard not to like the anthropomorphic bird simply because he's a badass hawk-man, but Guardian is unfortunately a bit out of place in Nightreign. He's certainly the most tanky character on the roster, with the highest base health and a unique enhanced blocking stance, but he offers little else. When compared to Raider, Guardian is outmatched in every meaningful way. Every character in Nightreign can also equip and use shields, making his speciality a little less meaningful.

His skill is only really useful against crowd-controlling trash mobs, and let's face it, no one is having too much trouble with these basic enemies. While his ultimate has niche uses, like making Guardian invincible to survive boss marks or providing a defensive buff to nearby allies, it's far from the high damage of Wylder's ult or the utility of the Duchess. It's a shame, really, as Guardian is a fun addition to the eclectic roster.