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Claiming the honour of defeating the night,Elden Ring Nightreignis no simple task, and it requires - above all else - a balanced and synergized team. No character needs that balance and harmony in a team more than the soft-spoken Recluse. Who your team comprises and what weapons they choose to wield will drastically determine the efficacy of your resident witch.
Therefore, for your best chances at surviving the rain, you need to fully understand Recluse before you take off from the round table. After all, understanding her crafty little combinations and cocktails will be your only method of ensuring you don’t accidentally cast a warming stone when you mean to cast a lightning nuke.
Arcane
C
As a witch, her stats are aligned with what one would normally expect. She’s aglass-cannon kind of character with poor defenses but high magic-aligned stats.She has a decent skill in Dexterity as well, giving you a few opportunities for some unique crossbuilds.
However, unlike all other Nightfarers, Recluse does not need to get as bogged down with obsessions over weapons. Instead,her bread-and-butter lies in her unique skills.She has a high user skill requirement for playerswho choose her, as her more complicated features require memorization, planning, and careful timing. But masterful players can likewise shine even with unlucky runs and setbacks.
Recluse Traits
Recluse’s traits are perfectly synergized to work in tandem with each other and allow her tooperate as an extremely flexible uniton the field. However, because of their unique and crafty natures,using her traits can be difficult for first-time playersand require a steep learning curve to master. Mastering Recluse will take time, but it will be highly rewarding.
Like the rest of the Nightfarers,she has three traits:
If you want to use Recluse, we highly suggeststudying the following sectionsvery carefully.
How To Use Recluse’s Character Skill: Magic Cocktail
Recluse’s Passive and Character Skills are deeply intertwined.Using one is inherently tied to using the other.Elemental Defence, her passive, allows you tosee circles displayedon nearby enemies.These circles are color-codedto show you which damage type they have last received:
You canabsorb these elements up to three timesin any combination (e.g., three Magic, two Magic and one Fire, one of each, etc.).
Absorbing affinity residues (the elements) will not only fuel your character skill below, butit will also partially replenish your FP.
The most complicated part of Recluse’s toolkit is effectively building up her Character Skill: Magic Cocktail in the way you want.Each combination will have a different effect.When you’re starting, remembering them all is complicated, so before we give you a giant and overwhelming chart of combinations, allow us to oversimplify:
Of course, there are nuances for combinations, but if you’re looking for somewhere simple to start at ground zero, this is not a bad framework to go by when you’re getting the hang of Recluse.
For those who want the nitty-gritty, we have broken downeach of Recluse’s combinations, their effects, and their benefits.The chart below is separated into the following ideas:
Best Uses
Magic
Creates magic blades that, over a course of time, deal repeated magic damage, staggering most enemies.
Although not usually very heavy-hitting in damage, it is spectacular for interruptions and staggering. Great for creating openings for teammates or escaping melee foes.
Fire
Creates a burst of fire directly ahead of you that then creates a fiery area around it, much like the fire on the ground during the Elden Ring Fire Giant fight.
Great for clearing out mobs, zoning smaller enemies, and drawing aggression away from allies.
Lightning
Gives you the ability to teleport farther with lightning effects, moving around like Bloodhound Step from Elden Ring.
Great for boosting evasion and creating more mobility for the normally slow Recluse.
Holy
Gain 30 seconds of increased Poise for yourself and all nearby allies.
This is a great support option for teammates like Wylder, Executioner, Guardian, and Raider, who can tank hits but might get staggered out of attacking animations.
Creates a fire wisp that tracks the enemy. It deals two bursts of Fire and Magic damage before it explodes.
Great synergy with the Recluse’s Ultimate Ability for high and fast damage. It draws a ton of aggression, bringing attention away from allies who might need a break. Can explode early with contact on the ground or items, creating opportunities for damage bursts when used smartly.
Recluse creates a magic lightning blade and performs an unsheathing attack maneuver. It deals impact damage and then creates a slashing attack projectile (like the Moonveil Katana) that travels a short distance forward.
This combination is one of the highest-damage attacks in Recluse’s toolkit. It is excellent for bosses with large health pools.
A shower of starlight falls over a large area. You and all allies within can use spells and skills without consuming any FP for eight seconds.
This has a huge area of effect and can easily reach all teammates on a use. This is a great skill to have, especially for a Recluse or a team with more than one Recluse, as this will make all spells in her repertoire cost nothing.
Like Blinkbolt from the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC in Elden Ring, the user dashes forward cloaked in lightning and then, on impact, explodes in a small area with a lightning burst finale.
Deals tremendous poise damage while also netting high static damage numbers as well. This is excellent for saving teammates from catastrophic attacks, knocking bosses out of animations to save your allies.
Releases a golden wisp into the air that increases your team’s Maximum Health. Those who walk into it for the first time are slightly healed.
This is a great support option, especially for boss encounters. It is essentially a strange warming stone, helping preserve your flasks for a fight.
Gain 15 seconds of Auto-Parry. Enemies that strike you during this time are all parried.
Creates huge opportunities for Critical Hit damage. Great synergy with melee Recluse builds or teams that feature both Recluse and Duchess.
All-But Cocktails
All But Magic
Create a lightning stake ahead of you that embeds itself into the ground with a lightning burst. After eight seconds, it explodes over an area to deal tremendous damage (a combination of Placidusax and the Divine Beast’s attacks).
One of the highest-damage attacks on the board, but it suffers a little against agile enemies that can move out of range quickly. This is best for large and slow bosses and those with a team that can keep enemies stationed in one spot.
All But Fire
Recluse becomes a giant ice crystal as a massive area Ice Storm forms around her for 10 seconds, dealing damage over time and accumulating Frostbite. While in the ice crystal, Recluse is immune to all damage.
Perhaps the very best combination in Recluse’s toolkit. It deals damage on top of Frostbite damage, potentially stacking with the Shattered Earth benefits from the Frost Dragons. Additionally, Recluse can become entirely immune to damage, allowing her to escape otherwise deadly encounters. This is best used for major bosses, such as Nightlords, with large health pools and deadly attacks.
All But Lightning
This unleashes a fire-breath attack that bursts from Recluse in a cone shape. This attack can be used while walking, dealing several instances of large damage to foes within.
This is excellent for difficult field enemies that also have mobs as well as bosses that can be difficult to hit with lock-on (like the Ancient Dragons). It can clear out groups while also dealing noteworthy damage to bosses. Extremely versatile.
All But Holy
Energy is gathered into a singular gravity well that pulls enemies slightly in toward the center and then erupts for massive magic and poise damage.
Great for interrupting most enemies and small-bodied bosses. It also helps slow down most enemies and will stagger most, potentially saving allies from unwelcome damage.
Ultimate Art
Recluse’s Ultimate Art, Soulblood Song, may not be as flashy as some of the other Nightfarers, but its use in combat is perhaps one of the best. When using her Ultimate Art, all enemies within range become marked. When a Recluse or an ally strikes a marked creature,they regain HP and FP.This is by far the best supporting Ultimate Art in the catalogue.
This art isbest used in two scenarios:
The latter is particularly unique becauseSoulblood Song’s long animation gives her immunity.However, the enemy is not staggered and continues to blindly attack Recluse. Thisallows for a large opening for teammates to attackan enemy while it is otherwise distracted by something it cannot damage.
Best Weapons To Use With Recluse
As a magician, the natural route to take Recluse is withstaves and sealsto make the most of her S ranks in Intelligence and Faith. While almost any stave will do,the optimal Recluse build will normally have a stave or seal in each handwith access to a different damage element.
Bymix-matching your affinity damage, you’ll have the flexibility to build and control your cocktails without relying on your teammates to do so for you.
Staves and seals are best found around the central Haight castle, but the difficult location means that you might not pick up a suitable weapon until your second day. That’s okay. Recluse does not need a new weapon from the start to be effective both days.
You can find several nice buffs at the magic towers as well. But we also find that the ruins have many staves as well. The merchant next to Fort Haight will also usually sell one seal.
In the interim, your goal should be to help teammates gather their weapons whilepicking up new weapons with traits like:
It does not matter what these weapons are. You likely won’t use them over your starting staff.You’re primarily collecting Passive skills and level-ups on Day One. On Day Two, we recommend that youvisit Fort Haight to collect your desired stavesunless there is something more interesting on your map, such as an affinity appropriate for your hunt’s Nightlord.
