Action RPG

Elden Ring Nightreign: How To Play Duchess

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  • Duchess Abilities Explained

  • Best Weapons
  • Best Relics
  • Duchess Expedition Strategies
  • Best Team Comp

    • Raider
    • Revenant

As a gamer, I’ve found myself particularly fortunate if my starting class in Elden Ring was Prisoner, Bandit, or Warrior. That’s because, in Nightreign, the Duchess has brought back the Dex/Int combo! This cunning thief is a character you’ll cross paths with frequently at the Roundtable Hold, regardless of whether you’re playing as her or not.

In this game’s narrative, she plays a crucial role, and you first come across her during the tutorial, where you rescue her from peril. Later on, she appears as the Priestess at the Roundtable Hold. However, let’s shift our focus now to her combat abilities when you have her in battle.

As a gamer, I’ve found that this character packs quite a punch when handled skillfully. However, if you’re not careful or lack experience, she might seem frustratingly frail to manage.

Here’s a simple strategy for mastering the role of Duchess in Elden Ring: Nightreign. This tutorial provides tips on equipping her optimally with suitable weapons, artifacts, and other essential items, enabling you to conquer bosses swiftly.

This way, it sounds more conversational and easier to understand for a wider audience.

Duchess Abilities Explained

Ability Type Description
Magnificent Poise Passive This ability reduces the stamina reduction when Duchess performs evasive moves or attacks. Magnificent Poise also lets you evade twice, back to back.
Restage Character Skill Duchess’s character skill restages the damage dealt to nearby foes in the last few seconds. You see their phantoms taking hits, which transfer nearly 50% damage to the target.
Finale Ultimate Art Duchess goes invisible in the middle of the fight, and the enemies lose track of her. This allows her to easily backstab them or to heal if needed.

To effectively master playing the Duchess character, it’s essential to grasp her unique poise first. Unlike many other characters who perform a roll when dodging, the Duchess executes a lunge, which allows her to traverse greater distances.

What’s great is that if you dodge again right away, she attacks for a second time, covering even more ground. This leaves plenty of space between you and your opponent, giving you a chance to restore your Stamina before jumping back into battles with renewed vigor.

Instead of her ultimate being the primary source of damage for most characters, it’s her Restage ability that takes on that role for hers.

Or more concisely: Her Restage ability plays a role typically handled by the ultimate ability in other characters.

As a gamer, I find myself constantly relying on my Restage skill for my character. After a brief cool-down, I can activate it again and again. But just because it’s there doesn’t mean I should use it every time. To maximize its potential, being mindful of my game surroundings is crucial.

If you can work effectively with your team, it’s quite straightforward to employ this skill. In contrast, you need to closely monitor your team during their attacks on enemies, and apply this ability when they inflict the maximum damage for optimal outcomes.

Lastly, the Ultimate Art Duchess possesses Finale. At first glance, this skill may appear weak due to its ability to make you invisible. However, it shines brilliantly when used strategically to evade an enemy’s perception and catch them off guard with a sneak attack from behind.

In many cases, you’ll encounter this scenario particularly during the initial stages of the game as you strive to increase your character’s level.

In intense battles against your supervisor or the Nightlords, it’s smartest to employ this ultimate ability to vanish both you and your teammates momentarily. This brief disappearance offers a strategic respite from combat, enabling you to recuperate and tend to your wounds, as well as devise the optimal strategy for the next phase of the battle.

Best Weapons

As a gamer, I’ve got this character, the Duchess. She’s got a B in Dexterity, an A in Intelligence, a B in Faith, and a C in Arcane. This versatile setup opens up a variety of playstyles. To deal the highest damage, it seems like the smart choice would be to focus on her Dexterity and Intelligence for a balanced attack build.

For Duchess, the most effective tools are daggers, curved swords, bare fists, and any staffs that possess Carian sorceries. When it comes to staffs, you should generally opt for ones that have Carian Slicer, Carian Piercer, Carian Greatsword, or Adula’s Moonblade as their special abilities.

Instead of seeking out straight swords, fists, or daggers, focus on finding weapons that inflict status conditions such as Poison or Scarlet Rot, or those that accumulate Bleed or Frost effects.

Here are some weapon options to keep an eye on: Venomous Fang for poison effects, Star Fist for bleeding, Antspur Rapier for scarlet rot, and Frozen Needle for frost.

Best Relics

The Duchess is surprisingly effective at causing illnesses among your adversaries. Therefore, when practicing relic rituals, it’s advisable to select relics that boost her elemental damage or allow her initial weapon to inflict a status condition.

If you’re finding it tough to choose the ideal relics or haven’t unlocked many options just yet, consider opting for those that boost your Agility, Knowledge, Endurance, and Mental Abilities instead.

As a gamer, I’ve discovered that there are certain artifacts which boost my attack power or other attributes when I carry over three weapons of a similar class in my inventory. The cherry on top? You don’t even need to equip them. Just having them with me is sufficient for the bonus effect to kick in.

Although you might race to upgrade quickly, keep in mind that some required weapons could be missed along the way. If possible, collaborate with your team to ensure you can enjoy its advantages when needed.

In this game, there isn’t a concept of equip load, which means you’re free to amass various gear items without fretting over appearing excessively bulky or overweight.

If you’re still uncertain, you can consider enhancing your weapon with Nightlord relics that modify its affinities. Moreover, items related to her quest such as the Old Pocketwatch, essential for unlocking her, and Golden Dew, obtained from her initial Personal Objective, are also relics that provide Duchess with beneficial enhancements.

Duchess Expedition Strategies

Although Duchess appears to boast a strong agility, she is not a straightforward character for beginners. Failing to understand her capabilities could hinder you personally and potentially disadvantage your team as well.

As a gamer, I’m all about teamwork, and that’s exactly what I excel at. Here are some essential tactics to maximize my potential:

1. Leverage my abilities: Understand the unique skills I possess and use them strategically to support the team.
2. Choose the right weapons: Picking guns that complement my playstyle will ensure I’m effective in any situation.
3. Communicate with my teammates: Keeping everyone informed of my position, enemy locations, and upcoming actions is crucial for our success.
4. Master positioning: Being aware of the map and choosing the right spots to fight from will give us an edge over the opposition.
5. Adapt quickly: Stay flexible and ready to switch tactics as the game progresses and new opportunities or challenges arise.

  • Restage can help apply status ailments: When talking about Restage, the main focus is always on how it can nearly do 50% of the damage done in the last few seconds. However, one of its other easily overlooked uses is that it can also help you apply Poison, Scarlet Rot, or other status ailments on enemies faster. So, if you get a chance to unleash a barrage of strikes with such a weapon and have Restage available, be sure to use it as the status effect could just take care of the enemy for you.
  • Get weapons with skills like Bloodhound’s Step: As Duchess is a Dex/Int character, there are times when it is easy to forget that she also has quite a lot of FP. So, if you can get your hands on any weapons that have skills like Quickstep or Bloodhound’s Step, be sure to get them. You can use these skills to control the fights even better.
  • Use Finale for reviving your teammates: While fighting a Nightlord, it is very easy to forget about Duchess’ ultimate, Finale, since it doesn’t deal any damage. However, what it lacks in damage, it makes up for with stealth. This allows you to disappear from the boss’ sight, and you can use this chance to safely get to a downed teammate and revive them.
  • Finale doesn’t make you invincible: Just because Duchess becomes transparent and appears ghostly doesn’t mean she can’t take hits. When you use Finale, you can very much still take damage if an enemy decides to hit you with an AoE attack. You also aren’t immune to the enemies that can be very perceptive, from grab attacks, or homing projectiles. As such, try creating some space before using Finale so that you can heal up safely before getting back in the fight.

Best Team Comp

These are the best characters to team up with Duchess:

Raider

Although Guardian boasts the highest Health Points among all Nightfarers, it’s Duchess who synergizes best with Raider due to his impressive raw power. With an S-rating in strength, Raider is a character whose strategy is simple and direct.

This strategy involves acquiring either a massive weapon or a powerful hammer, which he will then utilize to demolish any adversaries that cross his path. In the case of Raider, it is recommended to employ weapons such as Giant-Crusher, Troll’s Hammer, Brick Hammer, Rotten Battle Hammer, or Serpent Hunter.

To maximize the effectiveness of the Raider and Duchess team, it’s essential to utilize Restage correctly. With the Raider managing to land a few blows, Duchess can then employ Restage to dish out roughly half of the damage she has sustained from the target.

The Raider’s Supreme Totem Monument amplifies the attack strength of adjacent allies, which is crucial for Duchess since her gameplay strategy often involves getting close to enemies, dealing some blows, stepping back, and then using Restage. Combining these two skills can significantly increase your team’s damage output against the boss.

If you find that your character is struggling with staying alive, consider replacing Raider with Guardian instead. And if maintaining health isn’t a concern for you, Wylder could serve as a viable alternative to team up with Duchess.

Revenant

Despite her lower health points (HP), The Revenant truly shines when it comes to casting incantations. The game offers some exceptionally potent spells for her use.

As Raider and Duchess engage in battle at the forefront, Revenant can effectively support from a safer distance. With abilities such as Erdtree Heal for healing when teammates’ health points drop, casting incantations like Black Flame to attack enemies, or even summoning creatures to create distractions allowing allies time to recuperate and regroup, Revenant is versatile in her support role.

In crucial situations where your teammates seem on the brink of defeat or moments before they’re attacked, deploying her Ultimate Art, Immortal March, proves incredibly effective in saving their lives. It also works wonderfully when they haven’t yet fallen but appear to be in imminent danger as they prepare to strike their attack.

Absolutely, if you find Revenant challenging to handle due to his complexities, it might be beneficial to consider alternative ranged characters who offer a more dependable set of tools. Depending on your opponent, you could opt for either Ironeye or Recluse as a replacement.

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2025-05-30 17:11

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