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Elden Ring Nightreign Heolstor: How to Unlock and Beat the Final Boss
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Image: Bandai Namco Entertainment / FromSoftware
Heolstor the Nightlord is Nightreign's final boss. How to unlock the Night Aspect expedition, both phases, his weaknesses, and what beating him gives you.
Elden Ring Nightreign Heolstor the Nightlord is the game's final boss, fought at the end of the Night Aspect expedition. You unlock it by defeating four Nightlords. The fight has two forms, The Shape of Night and Heolstor the Nightlord, and both are weak to holy damage.
Heolstor at a glance
| Expedition | Night Aspect |
| Unlock | Defeat four Nightlords (Gladius plus any three others) |
| Arena | Spirit Shelter in Limveld, after surviving two nights |
| Weakness | Holy (both phases) |
| Phase 1 also weak to | Fire |
| Phase 2 also weak to | Lightning |
| Statuses that work | Sleep (strongly), scarlet rot |
| Immune to | Poison, blood loss, frostbite, madness, death blight |
| Difficulty | Hard |
| Rewards | Primordial Nightlord's Rune, Night of the Lord |
How to unlock Night Aspect
Every Nightlord you defeat adds a charge to your Trace of Night. With four charges, the Night Aspect expedition opens.
Gladius at the end of Tricephalos is the default first Nightlord, so in practice you need Gladius plus any three of the other six base-game Nightlords. You do not have to beat them all.
Who is the final boss of Nightreign?
Heolstor. He is the Nightlord behind the Night itself and the target of the Night Aspect expedition. The DLC's Nightlords, Traitorous Straghess (Dreglord) and Weapon-Bequeathed Harmonia (Balancers), are separate expeditions and do not replace him as the story's final fight.
Phase 1: The Shape of Night
The first form is a hunched figure in tattered grey robes, fighting with a broken sword, a dagger and a magic greatsword.
| Damage type | Phase 1 negation |
|---|---|
| Holy | -35% (takes extra damage) |
| Fire | -20% |
| Slash | -15% |
| Pierce | -10% |
| Strike | +10% |
| Lightning, magic, standard | 0% |
Holy and fire are both good here. Slash and pierce weapons also do slightly better than strike.
He opens with long, winding straight sword swings and thrusts. At about 75% health he draws a greatsword and dagger, and his attack speed rises sharply, with fast dashes that close distance. Treat this phase as a warm-up for your resources: save flasks and ultimates for what follows.
Phase 2: Heolstor the Nightlord
He rises as a hollow suit of silver armour with a purple cape, standing upright and fighting faster. The phase opens with an immediate charge and a wide greatsword arc, followed by a ground stab with an area effect.
- Three-swing greatsword combos with glowing area attacks.
- White homing bolts that appear while the screen darkens. Time your dodge to their arrival rather than rolling early.
At half health: Heolstor tears the Night
At about 50% health he floats up, tears a rift through the sky and slams his sword down, setting off elemental explosions. The element varies: fire, lightning, poison, sleep, madness, holy or frost.
After this he is at his most dangerous: very fast combos that leave elemental trails, and a five-hit combo ending in a rising slam with a ground explosion. Roll toward him through that combo. He slows down briefly afterwards, and that is the best moment for everyone's ultimates.
| Damage type | Phase 2 negation |
|---|---|
| Holy | -20% |
| Lightning | -20% |
| Pierce | -15% |
| Strike | -10% |
| Slash | +10% |
| Fire, magic, standard | 0% |
The weaknesses shift: fire stops helping and lightning starts. If you carry both a fire and a lightning backup, swap at the transition.
Attacks to watch
- Lava trails and wide area attacks that punish standing still.
- Teleport strikes that chain into a dash. When he vanishes, dodge diagonally, not backwards. Backing straight away is what the dash is built to catch.
Strategy
Before the fight. Heolstor rewards preparation more than any other Nightlord. Over the two days, prioritise:
- At least one holy weapon or incantation for each player if possible.
- A sleep source. He is highly susceptible, and a sleeping final boss is a free damage window.
- A fire option for phase 1 and a lightning option for phase 2.
Solo. Be patient. Most solo deaths come from panicking during the teleport chain. Learn the tell, dodge diagonally, and punish only the recovery.
Trio. Save ultimates for phase 2 and for revives. A Guardian's Wings of Salvation or Revenant's Immortal March can undo the moment his area attacks catch the whole team.
Rewards
Defeating Heolstor gives the Primordial Nightlord's Rune and Night of the Lord. It also counts toward the Grail vessels at the Small Jar Bazaar, the last of which unlocks after beating him; see the builds overview.
Every other Nightlord and their weaknesses are on the all bosses page.