The latest Elden Ring Nightreign character reveal is an aging viking whose hobbies include swigging ale and punching dragons in the jaw

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We have Godfrey at home.

The Raider takes a swig from a bottle in Elden Ring Nightreign.
(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

One of my favorite things about Souls games is that sometimes the best method for dealing with tragic, corrupted knights and primordial horrors is simply hitting them very hard with a large object. It's an ideal embodied by the Raider, the subject of Bandai Namco's latest Elden Ring Nightreign character reveal trailer, who seems just as comfortable using himself as a bludgeoning implement as anything else.

At first blush, the Raider looks a bit like someone's Skyrim character wandered out of Nord country and into Limgrave. For all you Elden Ring buffs, he's Godfrey-coded—or maybe Hoarah Loux-coded is more accurate: He's a burly, bearded, viking-looking gent, who starts the trailer cracking his knuckles as though he's not particularly interested in the massive axe he's got strapped to his back.

If I was the kind of person who would casually deliver an uppercut to a dragon like the Raider does just a few seconds later, I'd probably be pretty ambivalent about my own great axe, too.

It's unclear if the Raider's brawling abilities are unique, or if they can be found as Ashes of War for any Nightreign character to use. But still, he has a clear passion for pugilism. He socks wyrms in the mouth. He headbutts knights wearing full plate armor. And if engaging FromSoft enemies in fisticuffs wasn't enough to charm you, we get a shot of him enjoying a cold one. (It's important to treat yourself between bouts of dragon boxing.)

At the end of the trailer, we get a look at what seems like the Raider's ultimate ability. He stomps the ground, causing a damaging eruption of sharp rocks as a large stone slab bursts from the ground and lifts him into the air.

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

The slab provides some interesting utility. It can elevate you and your teammates above the reach of enemy attacks, and even provides a safe shooting position for someone like Ironeye, Nightreign's archer character, to fire down at targets without risk. And best of all, the slab serves as a platform you can leap off of for a timely plunging attack, which as we all know is the coolest form of attack anyone can do.

Bandai Namco has followed up previous Nightreign reveals with longer videos providing more details about the character's abilities, so if you're keen to learn more about the Raider's whole deal, keep an eye on the publisher's YouTube channel.

Elden Ring Nightreign launches on May 29, 2025.

Lincoln Carpenter
Lincoln Carpenter
News Writer

Lincoln has been writing about games for 12 years—unless you include the essays about procedural storytelling in Dwarf Fortress he convinced his college professors to accept. Leveraging the brainworms from a youth spent in World of Warcraft to write for sites like Waypoint, Polygon, and Fanbyte, Lincoln spent three years freelancing for PC Gamer before joining on as a full-time News Writer in 2024, bringing an expertise in Caves of Qud bird diplomacy, getting sons killed in Crusader Kings, and hitting dinosaurs with hammers in Monster Hunter.

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