Elden Ring: Nightreign Character Tier List

Tier List Breakdown

I want to start this section off by saying resolutely, that for three player games, there are no bad characters. The differences in implicit power level are pretty marginal compared to most other games as each character excels in their particular role and you can’t really go wrong with any of them as long as you’re well versed in how they work. That said, it’s still useful to see in a general sense who is the most helpful in your average team (and who does well in solo play if you’re interested in doing that) so the rankings are based on how useful the character seems to be.

As a final note, the Solo Play Character Breakdown will only build on what’s already established here rather than reiterating all the same points.

S Tier

Ironeye

Positives

• Sustained ranged damage with no opportunity cost
• Can revive allies consistently from a distance
• Passive is best in the game for teams to discover additional/better items
• The Mark ability is an excellent damage source for teams
• Ultimate is excellent at clearing out lower health enemies and reviving teammates from a distance
• Excellent Dexterity and Arcane scaling so can use bows, status weapons, and other DEX based weapons well

Negatives

• Damage can be lacking so can have slower clear times than other characters
• Medium health pool makes tanking hits tricky

A Tier

Wylder

Positives

• Great all around stat distribution with good health, Stamina, Strength, and Dexterity
• Good Strength and Dexterity stats allows you to use any weapon effectively
• Arguably the best individual passive in the game, especially in earlier levels
• The Grappling Hook is excellent both in and out of combat to cover distance
• Ultimate can reliably knock even bosses down with a little assistance, also great at reviving teammates

Negatives

• Middling Arcane scaling means status weapons are not great on him
• While he can use any weapon, you really want to keep a Greatsword on him to make the best use of his move set and relics
• Spellcasting not ideal with only C in Intelligence and Arcane on top of smaller FP pool

Executor

Positives

• With an S in Dexterity and Arcane, Executor uses Status weapons better than any other character which leads to extremely consistent and high DPS
• With any Relic that grants your starting weapon a status, you can reliably use your starter throughout your run (as long as it gets upgraded)
• Parry ability is very powerful when you get good at it
• The Ultimate ability is incredible for clearing out smaller enemies or reviving allies quickly

Negatives

• The parry can be hard to time and slow down normal encounters
• Passive likely won’t be relevant often barring you find a weapon with Seppuku on it

Recluse

Positives

• When on a good run, likely the highest DPS character in a game
• Sustained damage from range with the ability to recover FP
• With an S in both Intelligence and Faith, Recluse can use Sorceries or Incantations depending on which is better
• Excellent support character as you have versatility in what spells you’re using

Negatives

• Tiny health pool means going down constantly and being reliant on your team to draw aggro
• Functionally all damage must be magic based as both Strength and Dexterity are sad
• Running out of FP means you’re useless until you can restore it
• Highest skill ceiling character in the game

B Tier

Raider

Positives

• The best stance breaker in the game with an S in Strength and affinity towards colossal weapons
• Second largest health and stamina pool in the game
• Has a lot of versatility with being able to use any colossal weapon effectively
• Can use Shields extremely effectively if it makes sense for your build
• Totem Stella is one of the best support Ultimates in the game when your team can capitalize on it

Negatives

• The clunkier play style requires greater risk taking compared to other characters
• The Retaliate can be unreliable considering the short range, mistiming it can also cause you to lose health you wouldn’t have otherwise lost
• Functionally no passive as it’s just an addendum to Retaliate

Duchess

Positives

• Restage can create incredible bursts of damage, stance damage, and status buildup when timed correctly
• An A in Intelligence makes Duchess a solid caster so effective both close and at range
• The best Dodge Roll in the game
• Great mobility with her specialty dodge rolls
• Ultimate is good at picking up allies and setting up backstabs

Negatives

• A small health pool means you can not take many hits before going down
• Only a B in Dexterity and C in Arcane means she’s not great at status buildups nor does she deal much damage by herself
• Generally pretty reliant on party members to make Restage ability good
• Ultimate ability is pretty weak
• Very low stamina pool

Guardian

Positives

• Highest health and stamina pool in the game
• Counterpoke play style is extremely safe, especially with the Guardian passive and massive stamina pool
• Primary ability is really good at clearing early encampments quickly
• Ultimate ability is extremely good at reviving downed allies

Negatives

• Reliant on finding a good shield and good weapon to be the most effective it can be
• Main ability only really useful against smaller enemies
• Counterpoke play style, while reliable, is very slow making it rough for clearing camps or Field Bosses (very detrimental in a game with a large time crunch)

Revenant

Positives

• The best “snowballing” character as getting a lot of passive triggers can create many allies to trivialize encounters
• S in Faith makes you extremely good at Incantations when you find a good Seal
• Summons are extremely good at distracting enemies and can even revive you or other downed allies
• Ultimate is the best ability to revive allies in the game

Negatives

• Extremely small health pool which does not work well with a somewhat up close play style
• Low overall damage barring many summons
• Very reliant on having summons to take aggro off of you
• No implicit way to regain FP so it’s very easy to run out in tougher fights
• Summons are not particularly strong in the face of a tougher encounter
• Hard to consistently use the Ultimate as you want to save it when allies go down meaning you only get the benefits of one ability most of the time