Elden Ring Nightreign Duchess build, tips, and best weapons guide

Duchess wields the smallest blade of all of Elden Ring Nightreign's champions, but don't underestimate her and her dagger: she has some of the highest damage potential in the entire game. That's thanks to her Restage ability, which repeats the damage that you and your co-op companions have dealt in the last few seconds, making every big hit that much bigger. And even when you're not Restaging an ultimate art, backstab, or critical hit Duchess's high dexterity and intelligence scaling make her mighty deadly with blades, bows and sorcery.

Assuming you can stay alive, that is. Duchess is incredibly fast but also squishy, making her a glass cannon at the start of every run. With the best Duchess build, however, you can take advantage of her proficiency with quick weapon strikes to build her into a surprisingly tanky spellsword. She's never going to be quite as beefy as Nightreign's Raider, but the best relics and weapons for Duchess will let her hang in the fight or dodge nearly every attack that's thrown her way.

Because Duchess is particularly squishy in the early game and great weapon drops are hardly guaranteed in this highly random roguelike, you'll want to make sure to memorize some of the best Nightreign rune farming route before you start focusing on your gear. You'll also need to unlock Duchess in Nightreign before you can use her, but luckily you won't have to progress far before she'll join the squad.

Elden Ring Nightreign Duchess build

Duchess can be powerful from the jump in Nightreign, assuming you luck into some good early drops and dance around enemy attacks with your tiny level 1-3 health bar. While Duchess specializes in sorceries, it can be helpful to grab a sacred seal from a Great Church early in a run for additional healing. But what you're really looking out for are powerful staves for spellcasting and weapons that deal status effects like poison, bleed, etc. which are particularly effective when dual wielding.

Every build in Nightreign revolves around relics, weapons (and their passive effects), talismans, and the buffs you score by defeating bosses. Talismans can influence what direction you want to take your Duchess build: These trinkets can up your sorcery damage and spellcasting speed while reducing FP usage, for example, and if you find a couple of those, you'll definitely want to grab a staff and start casting glintstones. There are also talismans that increase damage with successive hits and amplify the final hit in a combo chain, which pair ideally with a dex-focused, fast-hitting Duchess.

For either of those playstyles to shine, though, you're gonna need to start with the right relics.

Nightreign Executor build guide
Nightreign Guardian build guide
Nightreign Ironeye build guide
Nightreign Revenant build guide
Nightreign Recluse build guide
Nightreign Raider build guide
Nightreign Wylder build guide

Elden Ring Nightreign Duchess best relics

As with other Nightreign characters, the best Duchess build won't be available to you when you first start the game. That's because the best relics, which you earn by completing runs and defeating Nightlords, can make a significant difference in what weapons and playstyle you should focus on. Some relics will include unique affixes for Duchess that amplify her Restage ability or the benefits of dual-wielding, for example.

Here are some of the best relic buffs to pair with Duchess:

• [Duchess] Dagger chain attack reprises event upon nearby enemies
• [Duchess] Improved character skill attack power (obtainable from Duchess remembrance)
• [Duchess] Defeating enemies while Art is active ups attack power
• [Duchess] Become difficult to spot and silence footsteps after landing critical from behind
• Boosts attack power of added affinity attacks (obtainable from Duchess remembrance)
• Improved stance breaking when wielding two armaments
• Dexterity/intelligence/endurance + (Increased damage with fast blades, sorceries, and stamina respectively)
• Character skill cooldown reduction +
• Starting armament inflicts X (if you can match a Nightlord's weakness)
• X attack power up (again, if you can match a Nightlord's weakness)
• Increased rune acquisition for self and allies
• Increased maximum HP
• Flask also heals allies
• Items confer effect to all nearby allies

Elden Ring Nightreign Duchess best weapons and passives

Duchess's preferred weapons, daggers, excel at afflicting statuses. Using Restage can then re-apply the damage for even greater build-up. Some weapons in Nightreign will even have two status ailments on them, allowing you to match a boss's weakness while also inflicting bonus damage.

To take advantage of Duchess's fast attacks when using two weapons, be on the lookout for weapons with the passive "Successive attacks negate damage" skill. It can massively reduce incoming damage and let you tank boss hits that would normally flatten you like a pancake.

Look out for rare (purple) tier daggers like the Crystal Knife, Scorpion's Stinger (scarlet rot), Reduvia (bleed), and Glintstone Kris (scales on both dex and int). Another great drop is the Wakizashi, a dagger that powerstances with katanas, which all rock. Purple tier katanas Moonveil (bleed), Rivers of Blood (super bleed) and Meteoric Ore Blade (bleed and int scaling) are especially good for Duchess.

It's never a bad idea to grab a bow—they scale with dexterity so Duchess makes for a competent Ironeye stand-in, and ranged damage (that doesn't drain FP) is extremely valuable against most bosses. The Horned Bow is an ideal pick as it scales with intelligence, too.

As mentioned, staves are very powerful for Duchess, also letting you dish out damage outside of melee range. This is a different playstyle but just as effective thanks to her A intelligence scaling. The legendary (gold) Carian Regal Scepter will dish out the most sorcery damage, though to get it you'll likely need to learn how to upgrade weapons in Nightreign to legendary using the Shifting Earth: The Crater event. The purple Lusast's Glintstone Staff, Prince of Death Staff, and Azur's Glintstone Staff all have unique magical attacks and deal fantastic damage.

Here are the best weapon passives for Duchess:

• Successive attacks negate damage
• Improved chain attack finishers
• Improved spell casting speed
• Reduced spell FP cost
• Improved X attack power (if you can match a Nightlord's weakness)
• Successive attacks improve attack power
• Improved sorceries
• Improved charge sorceries
• Damage negation up while casting spells
• Taking damage restores FP
• FP restoration on attacks

Elden Ring Nightreign Duchess best talismans

As I mentioned earlier, a lucky talisman find could push you towards a magic-focused or melee-focused build with Duchess on a given run. Anytime you hear the twinkly sound that indicates a scarab is nearby, follow it until it gets louder and kill the little creature. You can also seek out a Fort and enter the tower near the boss up on the ramparts; the map inside will reveal the locations of nearby talisman scarabs.

The best talismans for Duchess in order are:

1. Millicent's Prosthesis: Improved dexterity, successive attacks boost attack power
2. Twinblade Talisman: Improved chain attack finishers
3. Lord of Blood's Exultation: Blood loss in vicinity increases attack power
4. Kindred of Rot's Exultation: Poison and rot in vicinity improves attack power
5. Graven-school Talisman: Improved sorceries
6. Green Turtle Talisman: Improved stamina recovery
7. Erdtree's Favor: Increase maximum HP and maximum stamina
8. Cerulean Amber Medallion: Increases maximum FP
9. Viridian Amber Medallion: Increased maximum stamina
10. Crimson Amber Medallion: Increased maximum HP
11. Radagon Icon: Improved spell casting speed
12. Old Lord's Talisman: Increases duration of sorceries and incantations
13. Taker's Cameo: Defeating enemies restores HP
14. Arrow's Reach Talisman: Projectile damage drop off reduced
15. Arrow's Sting Talisman: Improved ranged weapon attacks

Elden Ring Nightreign Duchess tips

The essence of Duchess is that of any fleet-footed character: You need to time your dodges well, go for backstabs against foes you can backstab, and focus on quick attacks to build up status ailments. If you're focused on magic, keep your distance, but don't stay so far back that you can't use Restage to amplify damage. That's going to be your biggest contribution to almost every battle.

1. Coordinate Restage with your teammates and use it constantly

Duchess's most important role is as a Restage machine: you want to be repeating every bit of damage you can, since her character skill applies to attacks from both your allies. If you're playing with friends, have them call out their ultimate arts before using them (Ironeyes and Wylders especially). If you're not voice chatting with your teammates, pay extra attention to a boss's health bar and trigger Restage when you see a big chunk break off.

2. In boss fights, save your ult until one or both allies are downed

Duchess's ultimate ability turns you and nearby allies invisible and drops aggro, though as soon as you attack an enemy they'll know where you are. It comes in clutch in boss fights when one or two of your allies need to be revived, granting you a few seconds of safety as long as you haven't used it too early.

3. If you can't match the Nightlord's elemental weakness, go bleed/frostbite

Ideally you're focusing your Duchess build on whatever elemental or status ailment weakness a Nightlord is susceptible to, but sometimes the random drops aren't kind. Bleed and frostbite are almost always reliable fallbacks, dealing extra damage to nearly every major and minor enemy. You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you just might find you kill what you bleed.

4. Don't forget the Magic Dagger skill on Duchess's starting weapon

Duchess's dagger is a good starting weapon, with S dexterity scaling, though you'll want to find a second dagger ASAP to pair with it. It's easy to forget you could be doing extra damage from the second you touch down in Limveld. Use the dagger's weapon art to coat the blade with additional magic damage for a minute or so. It'll really help you carve through fodder enemies in a hurry.

5. Strongly consider a bow over sorceries for ranged damage

Sorceries are great fun and make use of Duchess's very best stat scaling, but it's very easy to run out of FP. Bows, on the other hand, never run out of arrows, so you can deal constant damage at decent range. Dash in, get some status ailment procs with your daggers, and then retreat to a safe distance and use a bow for some more hits.

3. When farming mobs, hit a few before using Restage

My natural instinct is to kill off groups of enemies one at a time, but with Duchess you can actually be more efficient by hitting multiple enemies a couple of times, then triggering Restage. That way you'll repeat the damage to all of them.

7. Grab Starlight Shards if you're using sorceries

Look for the consumable item drops around churches and enemy camps and see if merchants have any Starlight Shards in their inventories. You'll chew through your FP in boss fights when casting magic, and you'll need these items to keep the spells flowing.