Runs

I’ve been playing a lot of Elden Ring Nightreign… and I mean a lot. At the time of writing, I’ve ploughed around 70 hours into chaotic Expeditions and touching Remembrance quests, experimenting with what each Nightfarer is capable of and getting to know the Nightlords all too well.

Still, this has nothing on how much time I’ve spent playing Elden Ring. Both solo and via Seamless Co-op, I’ve sunk hundreds of hours into The Lands Between. In all that time, however, there is one thing I often neglected and rarely used: consumables. Cleansing Boluses, Throwing Pots, Warming Stones, and Boiled Crabs are just a few of the items left to waste away in my inventory for the rest of time.

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Nightreign throws these items at you often, and while you can forgo them for Smithing Stones and expensive Physicks and still have a successful run, these consumables – and the power-up they appear to have had in Nightreign – can make troubling fights and Nightlords that bit easier. And who doesn’t love throwing a pot at a big, beastly boss and watching it cancel its attack as a result, saving your teammate from almost certain death? It’s a rush!

Now, one of the first things I purchase during a run – after spending Runes on my first few levels – is an Item Pouch from a Merchant. More consumables? Yes, please. After this, it becomes a mission to pick up all of the Throwing Pots and Grease that I can that caters to our chosen Nightlord’s weakness. Let’s not forget Cleansing Boluses either, which when consumed, provide a permanent Resistance buff. Perfect for all those Deathblight and Poison ruins scattered around Limveld!

Let’s say I am queued up against the big, three-headed wolf that is Tricephalos, who’s notably weak to Holy Damage. Not only is my main goal for the Expedition to find a weapon with a Holy affinity, but to pick up and hold tightly onto any Holy Water Pots or Holy Grease I can get my hands on, just in case. Maybe I don’t find a Holy weapon in time and this is all I’ve got, or maybe one of my teammates is less lucky, so I can hand over all of my Holy Grease to them pre-Nightlord to maximise our chances of winning the fight.

Image credit: Bandai Namco/FromSoftware

There’s also Exalted Flesh and Boiled Crab, with the former buffing your attack and the latter buffing your physical damage negation quite significantly for a time. If your pouches are empty, these never go amiss, especially if the character using these buff consumables happens to have Nightlord Augur’s Relic equipped, which causes used items to confer effects to nearby allies. This means that when you enter a fight or stagger a boss, one player can pop their consumables while the others attack, and everyone will benefit from the buff. Similarly, one thing most Nightfarers can’t get enough of is Stamina, and what helps with this in a pinch? Pickled Turtle Neck. I can’t get enough of the stuff.

Last, but not least, Warming Stones and Starlight Shards. These two consumable items are situational, but taking two Warming Stones into a Nightlord fight is never a waste. Given just how huge the arenas are, it’s often quite easy to throw a stone down and stand over it – regaining your HP slowly – while your team aggros the boss. This saves you using a flask, allowing you to take part in the fight for even longer and have a better chance of winning.

Likewise, Starlight Shards are a must-have for any class that uses FP (such as the Revenant), as they’ll refill a good portion of your FP bar instantly, unlike the base game, where Starlight Shards restore FP very slowly. And that’s a running theme with Nightreign’s consumable items: they’re so much more powerful than they ever were in Elden Ring or Shadow of the Erdtree, and thus, genuinely make a difference and are highly useful to any Expedition. Your pouches aren’t needed for the Spectral Seed or Spirit Summons, so go wild lining your pockets with consumable items!

Image credit: Bandai Namco/FromSoftware

Throwing Pots alone can do a good chunk of damage to a boss, which the Duchess can then restage if you have her on your team, or you can simply use them to aid with the Frost stacks or Poison build-up that your teammates are currently working on. Playing around the weaknesses of Nightlords is also vital in Nightreign, and these particular items help you with doing that, giving you an extra, much-needed boost for taking these formidable opponents down at the end of your Expeditions.

Next time you see a Fire Pot or some Boiled Crabs, pick them up. Don’t let your consumables go to waste and don’t hesitate to switch things out of your pouches as you find items better for your particular Nightfarer or the Nightlord you’re coming against, you never know whether that handful of Warming Stones, stack of Starlight Shards, or those few Exalted Flesh buffs may make the difference between winning and losing an Expedition…

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