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Elden Ring Nightreignis exactly what you’d get if you took the world of Elden Ring, but reimagined it as a purely multiplayer experience with roguelite elements. On top of the copious changes made to the game, it should still feel familiar to anyone who has played the original Elden Ring, but with one major change - pre-set characters.
Nightreign has you taking the role of various Nightfarers, all with unique skills. you may change the weapons and spells you use on the fly during a match, but they will always fit a certain overall role. Wylder is the face of the game, and the one that you play as during the tutorial. And because of that, he’s the safest bet to play as throughout.
Overview of Wylder
While you will have access to six playable characters, Nightfarers as they are known in-game, from the very beginning, Wylder is the one you will initially be put in the role of. By default, they come with a buckler shield with a quick parry, and their own signature greatsword. In practice,Wylder is a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none.
He is evenly spread across the board. Strength is where his greatest attribute lies, but he is still flexible enough in his stat growth that Dexterity weapons or even Sorceries and Incantations can be viable as support weapons in various scenarios. That said,you’ll never want to shy away from Wylder’s Strength-based expertiseif you want to deal consistent damage.
Because of that though, Wylder can be built out in more diverse ways.They can take a hit with their high HP, so you can attempt to be somewhat tanky with heavier shields and colossal swords for extra damage and hyper armour. Or, you can choose to bring them into something lighter with straight swords so you can close in on enemies quicker and dash around the battlefield.
In summary,Wylder is a very forgiving character. You won’t get the same precision build a you could with more tankier characters like Raider, or more focused magic of Recluse, but you can also adapt to whatever Limveld throws at you and never be at too much of a disadvantage.
Wylder’s Traits
As with all other Nightfarers, Wylder comes with three inherent traits to him - a Passive Ability, Character Skill, and Ultimate Art.With Wylder having no specific playstyle, his traits are just as varied as he can be.
Passive Ability
Wylder’s Passive Ability is Sixth Sense, which allows you to ‘Cheat Death’ once. What this does is,if a hit would have fully depleted your HP, Wylder will instead dive backwards automatically. This happens very quickly, barely interrupting the action you are taking, and also retains your HP at the level it was at when you took the hit, rather than dropping it to just one HP.
Because it happens so quickly,make sure you are paying attention so you don’t get hit againwithout having noticed the skill activated.
However, Sixth Sense is also quite generous. If you do die afterwards,the ability is refreshed as soon as you are revived. You can also simplywalk through a Site of Grace to refresh itas well, which is very helpful if there’s one just nearby a difficult encounter.
Character Skill
Wylder’s Character Skill isClaw Shot. This is a very versatile ability, able to be used both in combat and as part of traversal. With it,Wylder will drag lighter enemies to him, while he will insteadpull himself towards heavier enemies. In practice, most non-boss enemies can be dragged to you, and they will be briefly staggered while doing so. Larger enemies will be those that are bosses, or are otherwise significantly larger than regular enemies.
Enemies that Wylder drags himself too will not be staggered, so be careful of pulling yourself directly into their attacks.
You can only drag enemies to you if they are not guarding. However, it also has the means ofinstantly breaking the guard of anyone who is blocking, making the Claw Shot effective even at close range. You can also check the distance of the Claw Shot by holding the skill button before releasing. If the reticle is highlighted on targeted enemy, you can reach them. If it is faded, you will not.
Finally, the Claw Shot can be used for traversal. When not locked-on to an enemy, you can simplyaim at the ground to drag yourself in that direction at high speed. This is great for dodging, but also for moving quickly when the circle is quickly closing on you.
Ultimate Art
Lastly, we have Wylder’s Ultimate Art,Onslaught Stake. This is incredibly powerful, able todeal massive damage to the enemy, and dealing even more posture damage. It can also be charged, allowing it to deal even more HP and posture damage. In practice, a fully charged Onslaught Stake is all but guaranteed to break an enemy’s guard, opening them up for a critical strike.
Do note thatyou do not have invincibility or hyper armour while using the Ultimate Art. If you are hit while using it, Wylder will cancel the attack. You do retain some of your charge however, so you can charge it again more quickly. Thankfully, Onslaught Stake has quite a large are in which it hits, allowing you to start it at a small distance and still be able to strike the enemy.
Best Weapons To Use With Wylder
WhileWylder can use any type of weapon the game throws at him, he has an advantage with his default weapon, the greatsword. Not only does he have an expanded moveset from the original Elden Ring with them, many of his skills are designed to be used in tandem with a greatsword. For example, after completing Wylder’s first Remembrance, you are given a Relic that grants aunique follow-up attack to his Claw Shot, though this can only be used with greatswords.
However, that doesn’t mean you should use just greatswords. As Nightreign has removed the weight limit, you can pick up any eight armaments total without affecting your dodge. So if you want some heavier weapons with Wydler, perhapssome that can deal striking damageover all the slash damage that greatswords do, then you will have just as much luck. His Strength stat is Wylder’s greatest benefit.
While the weight and stat requirements have been removed for weapons,level requirements have been added. So make sure you’re at the correct level before trying to use a powerful weapon.
Wylder also has a B scaling in Dexterity, meaning even some faster weapons can be used by him effectively. Katanas might be a nice addition to your loadout for some bleed build-up, or some daggers for incredible fast strikes. And with aC scaling in Intelligence, Faith, and Arcane, even those can be useful to Wydler. However, magic should only ever be used as support for Wylder, with his damage and FP limit falling dramatically behind others who are more specialised.
