Elden Ring Nightreign: All Characters and How to Unlock Them

Elden Ring Nightreign all characters, at the time of writing (October 2026): ten Nightfarers. Eight come with the base game, and six of those are playable from the start. Two more, Scholar and Undertaker, arrived with The Forsaken Hollows DLC. This page lists every one of them, what they do, and how to unlock the four that are locked.

Every Nightfarer at a glance

Nightfarer	Official description	How to unlock
Wylder	A character with well-balanced abilities; easy to handle, challenging to master	Available from the start
Guardian	A Pinionfolk captain skilled in offence and defence who prefers halberds	Available from the start
Ironeye	An archer with split-second judgement and pinpoint accuracy	Available from the start
Raider	A powerful sea-farer who favours enormous weapons	Available from the start
Recluse	A witch of the Deep Forest who deftly wields ancient sorceries	Available from the start
Executor	A condemned warrior who wields a cursed katana blade	Available from the start
Duchess	A nimble fighter who specialises in stealth and prefers daggers	Give the Old Pocketwatch to the Priestess
Revenant	The soul of a lady who manipulates spirits in her quest for revenge	Buy the Besmirched Frame, then defeat her
Scholar (DLC)	An academic with impressive arcane who gains advantages through battlefield observation	Defeat Tricephalos, then talk to the Iron Menial
Undertaker (DLC)	An abbess of impressive strength and faith, mandated to slay the Nightlord	Defeat Tricephalos, then talk to the Iron Menial

Descriptions are taken from Bandai Namco's official character pages.

The base game roster

Every Nightfarer has three abilities: a passive that is always on, a character skill on a short cooldown, and an ultimate art that charges as you fight.

Wylder

The all-rounder and the character the game hands you first.

• Passive – Sixth Sense: cheat death once.
• Skill – Claw Shot: a grappling claw that pulls enemies in or pulls Wylder toward them.
• Ultimate – Onslaught Stake: a single heavy blow that launches an iron stake with a large explosion.

Guardian

The tank. Highest base HP of the starting cast, a greatshield and a halberd.

• Passive – Steel Guard: brace the shield for a much stronger guard.
• Skill – Whirlwind: a cyclone that drags enemies to its centre.
• Ultimate – Wings of Salvation: a diving slam that raises a protective area and revives fallen allies.

Full breakdown: Guardian guide.

Ironeye

The archer, and the team's damage multiplier.

• Passive – Eagle Eye: better item drops from enemies for the whole team.
• Skill – Marking: a dagger dash that leaves a weak point; marked enemies take more damage from everyone.
• Ultimate – Single Shot: a defence-ignoring arrow with a wide shockwave.

Full breakdown: Ironeye guide.

Raider

The heavy hitter who wants the biggest weapon on the map.

• Passive – Fighter's Resolve: taking damage makes Retaliate stronger, and he cannot be knocked down while using it.
• Skill – Retaliate: a damage-reducing stance that ends in a heavy punch able to stagger even large enemies.
• Ultimate – Totem Stela: drives a wedge into the ground to raise a giant tombstone.

Recluse

The sorcery specialist.

• Passive – Elemental Defense: enemies leave affinity residues that she can collect to restore FP.
• Skill – Magic Cocktail: gathers those residues and fires them back as a spell that exploits the target's affinity.
• Ultimate – Soulblood Song: brands nearby enemies with blood sigils.

Executor

The parry specialist.

• Passive – Tenacity: an attack and stamina boost after recovering from a status ailment.
• Skill – Cursed Sword: a katana stance that deflects attacks and awakens the blade after repeated deflections.
• Ultimate – Aspects of the Crucible: Beast: a beast transformation that fully heals him and doubles his maximum HP.

Full breakdown: Executor guide.

Duchess

The evasive dagger fighter.

• Passive – Magnificent Poise: chain several quick dodges in a row.
• Skill – Restage: replays the damage recently dealt to nearby enemies.
• Ultimate – Finale: makes Duchess and nearby allies invisible to enemies.

Revenant

The summoner.

• Passive – Necromancy: raises the ghosts of defeated enemies to fight briefly as allies; holding the summon command detonates corpses.
• Skill – Summon Spirit: plays her lyre to call one of her fallen family: Helen the agile page, Frederick the burly cook or Sebastian the doting butler.
• Ultimate – Immortal March: makes her and nearby allies immortal for a short time, revives near-death allies and turns her family into immortal warriors.

How to unlock Duchess

1. Start the Tricephalos expedition, whose Nightlord is Gladius, Beast of Night. You only need to reach and attempt the fight. Defeating him also rewards the Old Pocketwatch.
2. Back in the Roundtable Hold, give the Old Pocketwatch to the Priestess, the hooded woman in white.
3. She reveals herself as the Duchess and becomes playable from then on.

How to unlock Revenant

Revenant needs the Duchess unlocked first.

1. Go to the Small Jar Bazaar in the western wing of the Roundtable Hold and buy the Besmirched Frame relic.
2. Take it to the eastern wing and interact with the spirit by the wall.
3. You are taken to a separate area where you must defeat the Night Idol and the spirits she summons.
4. Win the fight and the Revenant is unlocked.

She is a demanding fight for a solo player at low level. Bring a character you are comfortable with and take the summons down before focusing her.

How to unlock the DLC characters

Scholar and Undertaker were added by The Forsaken Hollows, the paid DLC released on 4 December 2025. You need the DLC installed, and then:

1. Defeat Tricephalos (the Gladius expedition).
2. Return to the Roundtable Hold and speak to the Iron Menial, who has a message from the Small Jar Merchant.
3. Both characters become available.

If you bought the Deluxe, Collector's or Seeker's edition, or pre-ordered, the DLC may need to be downloaded manually from your platform's store before it appears in game.

Scholar

• Passive – Bagcraft: carries more items, and each item category levels up the more it is used, strengthening its effect and later adding a bonus.
• Skill – Analyse: studies a target through a monocle and leaves spirit symbols with various effects; analysis advances faster on more enemy types and when allies are included.
• Ultimate – Communion: threads enemies together with pages of a taboo tome so that damage to one spreads to the others; it can also heal threaded allies.

Undertaker

• Passive – Confluence: an ally using their ultimate lets her use hers regardless of gauge, and absorbing certain darkness-imbued enemy attacks can trigger it too.
• Skill – Trance: bloodletting that raises agility and builds attack power with repeated hits.
• Ultimate – Loathsome Hex: pulls an uncanny bone from her body and rushes the target, with fast attacks and aerial movement.

The Forsaken Hollows DLC and what comes next

The Forsaken Hollows added more than the two characters:

• The Great Hollows, a new Shifting Earth event.
• New bosses, including the Balancers expedition.
• New raid events and bases in Deep of Night, which appear in base-game expeditions only when all three players own the DLC.

To reach the new content you need at least two bosses defeated in the main game, including Tricephalos, and both DLC characters unlocked. Then use the chapel behind the Small Jar Merchant.

Is there a second Nightreign DLC? As of October 2026 we have found no official announcement of a second expansion from FromSoftware or Bandai Namco. The DLC that Kadokawa's investor reports promised for the 2025 financial year was The Forsaken Hollows itself. We will update this page if that changes.

Remembrance quests: each character's story

Every Nightfarer has a personal questline, the Remembrance, tracked in their Journal in the Roundtable Hold. Chapters unlock as you play expeditions with that character, and some of them send you to a specific objective on the map, usually a boss that only appears for that quest.

Finishing them is worth it for more than the story:

• Relics tailored to that character's kit, often the best-in-slot effects for them.
• A Chalice vessel with more relic slots than the starting urn.
• An alternate Remembrance garb.

Only the character whose quest it is can progress it, so switch to them before starting the expedition. Step-by-step walkthroughs are on each character's page: Executor, Guardian and Ironeye.

If you are new, finish the Remembrance for your main character before worrying about optimising relics. The rewards are usually better than anything random you will find in the early hours.

Which character should you pick?

• New to the game: Wylder or Guardian. Both forgive mistakes.
• Solo: Guardian's survivability or Executor's deflects.
• Supporting a group: Ironeye's mark or Revenant's summons.
• Raw damage: Raider or Recluse, once you know the fights.
• Learning to parry: Executor, whose whole kit is built around deflecting.

For a ranked view, see the character tier list, and for how relics shape each Nightfarer, the builds overview.