Nightreign Recluse Build Guide and Tips

Everything you need to know about playing as Recluse, the pure ranged spellcaster class, in Elden Ring: Nightreign.

Abilities and Relic Effects

Unlike most other Nightfarers, Recluse’s Passive Ability and Character Skill work together and rely on each other to function. Their in-game descriptions also barely explain anything.

Passive Ability: Elemental Defense

Discover affinity residues that can be collected to replenish FP.

Affinity residues are just little colored circles that appear around the target reticle of players and enemies after they’ve taken damage from an attack that deals affinity damage.

Affinity residues never fall off, but they are overwritten as soon as the target takes affinity damage from another source. There are 4 affinity damage types:

Magic
Lightning
Fire
Holy

When you use your Character Skill, you replenish a small, flat amount of FP (mana) and collect the affinity type for your Magical Cocktail.

This passive means you have effectively infinite FP, but because it only recovers a flat amount, it doesn’t scale as well with the amount of mana you will want to expend in the late game.

There is 1 exclusive Relic effect that strengthens Elemental Defense:

• [Recluse] Collecting affinity residue activates (a weaker version of) Terra Magica (for 30s)
• [Deep][Recluse] Collect affinity residues to negate affinity (collected affinity residues grant damage negation for the associated affinity for 30s)

Terra Magica is also a spell, but it just puts a blue circle on the ground where you cast it that increases your magic damage while you stand in it. The spell version offers a 20% magic damage boost, while this Relic version only offers a 16% magic damage boost.

Despite one being worse, you can only put down one at a time, so one will overwrite the other. The Relic version also has a 30s rate limit, so you can’t put it down again until it wears off.

Keep in mind that Terra Magica only boosts magic damage, not holy, fire, or lightning. As Recluse, you will have the capability to cast spells of all types, so the Relic effect isn’t as great as it sounds.

Still, it synergizes with the Deep Relic effect, which is a lot better. The terrible wording just means that when you collect an affinity residue, your damage negation against that affinity is increased for 30s.

Collecting multiple of the same affinity does not seem to stack the damage negation, but you can get damage negation from multiple different affinities at the same time. Be sure you harvest affinity residue from your allies during boss fights so you can protect yourself from the damage type dealt by the boss.

It’s a little weird to differentiate the Recluse’s capabilities like this, but that’s the extent of her Passive Ability.

Character Skill: Magic Cocktail

Collect affinity residues of targets to fire an affinity-exploiting magic cocktail.

Your Character Skill has 2 phases. First, you collect 3 affinity residues, recovering FP each time thanks to the Passive Ability. Second, you release the 3 affinity residues as a Magic Cocktail spell. The spell you cast is determined by and related to those 3 affinities you collected.

All Magic Cocktails have their uses, but the spells that combine more affinities are stronger than the ones that combine fewer (i.e. Magic Cocktail with different 3 affinities > 2 > 1).

Holy affinities tend to create buff/debuff effects. Lightning and magic both mainly contribute damage. Fire tends to amplify and extend the attributes of other affinities.

Single Affinity Cocktails

These cocktails require you to combine 3 of the same affinity. They’re the easiest to make because you just have to spam the same attack in quick succession.

Dual Affinity Cocktails

These cocktails combine 2 different affinities, so you’ll have 2 of one affinity and 1 of the other affinity. It does not matter which affinity is contributing 2 vs 1, the effect is the same regardless.

Triple-Affinity Cocktails

These cocktails require 3 distinct affinities to cast. They’re difficult to make in the early game because you won’t have reliable access to 3 affinities and will be more focused on recovering mana with the ability.

As you get more FP, you can afford to be more selective with your affinity collection and be opportunistic about picking up 3 different affinities to make the best cocktails.

Ultimate Art: Soulblood Song

Unleash forbidden blood chant to brand nearby foes with blood sigils.

Like all Ultimate Arts, you are immune to damage during the activation animation, but the base effect deals a small amount of damage and applies a debuff to all nearby enemies for 13s that makes them take ~15% more damage.

Whenever any player hits one of these debuffed enemies, they recover a small amount of HP and FP, similar to the Crimson and Cerulean-Sapping Cracked Tears from SotE.

The AoE radius is roughly the same as the maximum range of most sorceries and it can chew through a little more than the first third of the purple revival gauge of incapacitated players.

There are 2 exclusive Relic effects that strengthen Soulblood Song:

• [Recluse] Activating Ultimate Art raises Max HP (by 50% for 30s or until you lose the bonus health)
• [Recluse] Suffer blood loss and increase attack power (by ~17%) upon Art activation (for 30s)

The blood loss effect can trigger things like the Lord of Blood’s Exultation, but your Arcane stat isn’t anything to write home about and you aren’t reliably going to be in range of anyone else’s bleed triggers, and you won’t ever get killed by using it.

All of the effects combined make it ideal to activate your Ultimate Art when you have 30-60% of both HP and FP, a slow acting or multi-tick Magic Cocktail ready to go, and a teammate who is either dead or popping off, and the boss is in the middle of attacking you.

If you have too much HP and FP, you basically waste the recovery effect for yourself, but if your HP and FP are too low, you run into other problems, especially if you’re using the blood loss Relic.

The FP recovery effect is strong, but not enough to cover the entire cost of most spells. You need enough mana left to cast 2-3 spells in a row even if Soulblood Song wasn’t active so you don’t stall out right at the starting line.

Likewise, if your health is too low going into it and the boss is about to attack, you won’t be able to survive an initial hit and will have to spend more time dodging. That’s part of why it’s important to use it when the boss is in the middle of attacking you.

Recluse Unique Relics

Recluse has 2 unique Relics you get from her remembrance quest, and you can purchase an extremely synergistic one from the Collector Signboard for 3 Sovereign Sigils.

Recluse Attributes and Weapons

A Nightfarer’s attribute scaling, described with tier letters, determines which weapons they will be most effective with, defining their playstyle. Everyone wants to use weapons that scale well with their stats.

Recluse Attribute Scaling

Recluse is a spellcaster and a bit of a glass cannon. She can deal high damage with Sorceries and Incantations alike and afford to cast them as much as she wants. However, she’s not built to use melee weapons thanks to her lower survivability, poor damage scaling with melee stats, and limited stamina.

• S: Intelligence, Faith
• A: Mind
• C: Dexterity, Arcane, Endurance
• D: Strength, Vigor

Weapon Types

As a Recluse, you’ll be almost exclusively casting spells using catalysts, namely, staves and seals. Melee weapons are primarily for other Nightfarers, though you’ll still want a single melee weapon that can deal affinity damage.

It’s more important for Recluse to find the right spells than finding the right weapon.

It’s important to note that while the Recluse wants these weapons, she doesn’t have any Preferences listed, so loot tables are not modified to increase the drop rate of these weapon types.

Staves

Staves allow you to cast Sorceries, which scale with your Intelligence stat. A purple or gold staff can make a low tier Sorcery more usable, but good spells don’t need as much to be great.

Unlike past FromSoftware games where you had to attune spells at a Site of Grace or Bonfire, each staff just has 2 Sorceries it can cast as its light and heavy attack. The Incantation shown is the one you cast with the heavy attack.

One of the Sorceries is guaranteed to match the school of magic associated with the staff and the other one seems to be random. For example, the Crystal Staff always has at least 1 Crystalian Sorcery.

Seals

Seals allow you to cast Incantations, which scale with your Faith stat. You’ll probably be built to take better advantage of Sorceries, but keep your Shabriri Grapes peeled for any exceptional Incantations.

Unlike past FromSoftware games where you had to attune spells at a Site of Grace or Bonfire, each seal just has 2 Incantations it can cast as its light and heavy attack. The Incantation shown is the one you cast with the heavy attack.

One of the Incantations is guaranteed to match the religion associated with the seal and the other one seems to be random. For example, the Frenzied Flame Seal will always have at least 1 Frenzied Flame Incantation.

Single Melee Weapon with Affinity Damage

As Recluse, you only need a single melee weapon that can deal affinity damage. It’s your backup method to regenerate mana in case you ever run out and lack a Starlight Shard.

Recluse isn’t built to deal melee damage, so will hardly ever use it once you have a few quality spells under your belt. Give your teammates any legendary melee weapons and you pick up whatever scraps they leave behind.

Weapon passives make this a bit more complicated, but we’ll get to that later.

I want to emphasize that your teammates get first dibs, but if you get to pick, your Recluse will do slightly better with the following weapon classes, assuming the weapon deals affinity damage:

• Whips
• Swords
• Spears
• Halberds

Torches are also a safe bet for Recluse since they always deal affinity damage and sometimes have a bonus passive effect.

I still like to put my staves on the left and melee weapon and seals on the right, but like in other FromSoftware games, it does not matter if melee weapons are equipped in the left or right hand. It does the same damage either way.

Recommended Relic Effects for Recluse

We’re going with an ice cream sundae metaphor for Relic effects. You have your foundational effects that you really need to have as the ice cream, followed by the fudge and sprinkles as necessary to make them worthy of use, and finished with the cherries on top turning them into the delicious god roll sundae.

The sundae metaphor only applies to Recluse-specific Relic effects. Generic or universally useful effects will be listed afterwards.

Ice Cream

These are the foundational Relic effects you should seek out and equip as Recluse. If the Relic does not have at least one of these buffs, your Relic probably isn’t all that great.

Max FP Up with 3+ Staves | Seals Equipped

This Relic effect gives you a flat 50 additional FP for having 3 staves (or seals) equipped. At level 3, that’s a whopping 50% boost to your total FP, and even at level 15, it’s still an effective 25% boost that all the percentage-based buffs build upon.

It is absolutely worthwhile to swing by a castle or Sorcerer’s Rise right away and just pick up all 3 staves even if they don’t have good spells.

It does restrict your weapon selection slightly, but it’s definitely worth it. I highly recommend buying and equipping the Grand Tranquil Scene sold by the Collector’s Signboard.

Improved [School] Sorcery | Improved [Religion] Incantations

There are buff effects for select schools of Sorcery and religions of Incantations, though not all schools of Sorcery | religions of Incantations have a Relic buff. It’s unclear why some exist while others don’t.

If you prefer spells of a specific school | religion, I highly recommend getting the equivalent buff. Some of the best include:

• Improved Crystalian Sorcery
• Improved Gravity Sorcery
• Improved Giant’s Flame Incantations (red flame)
• Improved Godslayer Incantations (black flame)
• Improved Dragon Communion Incantations (dragon breath)
• Improved Dragon Cult Incantations (lightning)
• Improved Fundamentalist Incantations (holy)

I don’t recommend equipping every single one of these, just pick 1-2 of your favorites. The rest are fudge and sprinkles.

Magic Attack Power Up (+1 | +2)

Most Sorceries deal magic damage, so this is a pretty solid and universal buff to your damage output. Keep in mind that this does not apply to Incantations (cast with seals).

[Recluse] Activating Ultimate Art raises Max HP

This is the only mainline Recluse-exclusive Relic effect that you ought to seek out. The health buff is substantial and doesn’t get removed until your health drops below the granted amount.

[Deep][Recluse] Collecting Affinity Residues to Negate Affinity

This is a Recluse-exclusive Deep Relic effect that makes it so the affinity residues you have collected for your next cocktail improve your damage negation against that affinity. For example, if you’ve collected a magic affinity residue, you get a buff to your magic damage negation.

Fudge and Sprinkles

If a Relic has one of these effects, on top of the ice cream, it’s a pretty solid roll and may be worth equipping even if there isn’t a third effect.

Fire | Lightning | Holy Attack Power Up (+1 | +2)

Magic is your “main” affinity, but getting damage boosts to other types of affinities is valuable as well.

Max FP increased for each Sorcerer’s Rise unlocked

More FP is nice, but the amount isn’t as significant as that from having 3 catalysts equipped and as valuable as they are, sometimes they just don’t appear in practical locations.

Additional Improved [School] Sorcery | Improved [Religion] Incantations

You really ought to focus on getting 1-2 of your favorites, but it’s not like additional buffs to spell types are bad.

Cherries on Top

The following are nice to have, and while they don’t contribute enough to be worth seeking out on their own, they are probably necessary to qualify as a god roll if they come in concert with the ice cream, the fudge, and the sprinkles.

• Intelligence | Faith | Arcane | Mind +X
• [Recluse] Collecting affinity residue activates Terra Magica
• [Recluse] Suffer blood loss and increase attack power (by ~17%) upon Art activation (for 30s)

I want to note that the blood loss buff for Recluse makes using your Ultimate Art a lot harder to use and largely prevents you from activating it responsively. You really have to plan it out to make the most of it.

Lettuce

Lettuce does not belong in an ice cream sundae. Below, you’ll find 2 other Recluse-exclusive Deep Relics that seem like they are meant to be used together:

• [Recluse] Improved Vigor, Endurance, and Dexterity, Reduced Intelligence and Faith
• [Recluse] Improved Intelligence and Faith (+3-10%), Reduced Mind (-24-50%)

I have not obtained the Vigor/Endurance/Dexterity one yet, but I did some testing on the other one and it reduces your FP by a massive percentage and only gives you a little bit more damage on your catalysts.

I suspect you’re meant to use both together so you trade Mind for Vigor, Endurance, and Dexterity and then you get to use different types of weapons with the Recluse and her FP regen capabilities.

Generic Useful Relic Effects

These Relic effects are useful regardless of what Nightfarer you’re using:

• Ultimate Art Gauge +X
• Increased Maximum HP
• Increased Maximum FP
• Attack power increased for each evergaol prisoner defeated
• Improved Poise and Damage Negation when knocked back by damage
• Increased Rune acquisition for self and allies
• Partial HP Restoration upon Post-Damage attacks
• Character Skill Cooldown Reduction +X (if your skill has a cooldown)
• Continuous HP Recovery
• Slowly Restore HP for self and allies when HP is low

Spells and Talismans Tier Lists

Below, you’ll find tier lists for all spells in Nightreign as they apply to Recluse. Range, reliability, relative effectiveness, and utility largely determine a spell’s tier.

Recluse has low survivability and an everflowing wellspring of mana, so short range spells are a lot riskier and need to be extremely powerful to be worth using.

In particular, you may notice that Carian Sword Sorceries are not ranked very high compared to their popularity. This is because the Recluse doesn’t need to care about FP efficiency, but survivability and stamina come at a premium.

Spell Differences Between Nightreign and Elden Ring

Many spells that were weak or unpopular in regular Elden Ring tend to be stronger or at least on par with the best in Nightreign.

Crystalian Sorceries are the clearest example of this, with Shatter Crystal being one of the best and most common Sorceries in the game. Meanwhile, channeled spells like Comet Azur and Meteorite (of Astel) have had their damage and posture damage nerfed considerably.

Since Recluse is forced to be squishy and everything moves faster, it’s more important to minimize your vulnerability and get damage out as soon as possible. Bosses will jump out of range or might not be safe to get close, so you need spells that can handle that.

Due to this mobility and the fact that you have team members, groupwide buff and enemy debuff effects are more valuable, particularly healing, damage reduction, Scarlet Rot, and Frostbite.

Spell damage scaling is simplified to Intelligence (INT) for Sorceries and Faith (FTH) for Incantations. As Recluse, you don’t have to care about that because you have S scaling for both stats.

The fact that you can mix and match both Sorceries and Incantations is also notable. Assuming you have good spells, it’s absolutely worthwhile to use multiple Staves and Seals to cast both types of spells.

Tier Legend

• S: These are the best spells in the game. If you ever find a catalyst with one, it does not matter what the other spell is. It’s worth picking up and upgrading this catalyst to purple or gold for this spell alone.
• A: Great spells that might be the best you’ll find in your run. They are second only to the exceptional.
• B: Good spells with an issue like long cast time, short range, or low damage. They may have a direct upgrade forcing them down to B tier.
• C: Weak spells you find in the early to mid-game. They’re typically either weaker versions of what you’ll find on nicer catalysts or are super situational.
• D: Barely useful for Recluse and weaker versions of lower-tier spells.
• F: Problematic spells that can cause problems for you or your teammates. Some effects might be powerful, but they will be placed here if they have any adverse or conflicting effects whatsoever.

All Spells

If this list looks a bit overwhelming, don’t worry, keep scrolling to see how only Sorceries and only Incantations compare to each other.

I want to comment on a few hot takes embedded in this tier list:

• Carian Sword Sorceries are ranked lower than some expect. I think you’ll be far better off playing as Duchess if you want to use those spells. Weapon buff spells are similarly useful to Duchess (and Revenant), but not so much for Recluse.
• Law of Regression is trolling. You will purge all of your group mate’s buffs along with your own. Genuinely, FromSoftware needs to remove it from Nightreign.
• Bosses move too fast for spells like Flame of the Fell God or Rykard’s Rancor to deal reliable damage.
• Some of you like parrying, but I think most of you are playing Executor or something, not Recluse, which is why Thops’ Barrier and Carian Retaliation are ranked so low.

Sorceries Only

Below, you’ll find the same spells tier list for Recluse with only Sorceries shown.

Incantations Only

Below, you’ll find the same spells tier list for Recluse with only Incantations shown.

Talismans Tier List

Below, you’ll find the tier list for Talismans. Keep in mind that this is just a default list. Recluse does skew a bit towards Sorcery and Magic damage, which is why I ranked those talismans above Incantation-oriented ones.

I only recommend holding onto S, A, and, situationally, B tier Talismans. Everything below that should be given to whoever else in the group can use it more right now.

I considered putting Primal Glintstone Blade in the F tier. I don’t recommend using it as Recluse because the HP cost just isn’t worth what you can get with a weaker version of a weapon passive.

Charged vs Uncharged Spells in Nightreign

Some spells can be charged and held indefinitely by holding down the associated casting button and releasing after the animation flourish occurs, at your discretion. Stars of Ruin is an example of a chargedable spell.

Charging allows you to increase the damage dealt of relevant spells by 25%, notably resulting in greater damage per hit and superior mana efficiency, and maximize your damage ouput following a period of downtime.

Please note that channeling a spell is different from charging one. Channeled spells will automatically fire when the animation finishes and continue to fire until you run out of mana or let go of the button. Comet Azur is an example of a channeled spell.

Due to factors like game pacing and mana recovery, the calculus for charging a spell in Nightreign is different from what it is in Elden Ring.

In Elden Ring, charging spells is only worthwhile beneficial in specific openings against bosses and as an initial hit against enemies because mana is practically limitless.

In Nightreign, charging spells is usually better whenever you have enough time to do it because mana is more limited. Damage per FP is far more relevant than it is in Elden Ring. Also, charged spell damage boosts are more ubiquitous.

Keep in mind that you often don’t have enough time to charge a spell before needing to move. Getting your cast off without taking damage is better than getting whacked for a damage boost.

Priority Locations for Recluse

Recluse benefits more than others from visiting Sorcerer’s Rises, Mines, Forts, and Cathedrals. To be clear, other locations are fine, but these places are particularly worth visiting as Recluse. 

Sorcerer’s Rises

Sorcerer’s Rises contain 3-4 Starlight Shards and a free item. The loot pool always contains 2 magical weapons, at least one of which is usually a blue or purple staff, along with either an [affinity]-Shrouding Cracked Tear Physick or a caster-focused talisman. 

The specialized loot pool is more important for Recluses because they don’t have a weapon drop preference, unlike most other Nightfarers.

If you’re playing Recluse, you need to know how to quickly unlock the Sorcerer’s Rise by breaking the Seal in or around the tower. 

It’s worth noting that even though you can technically recover an infinite amount of mana with your Character Skill, the amount recovered is a flat amount. 

Meanwhile, Starlight Shards recover 60% of your max FP immediately, making them way more valuable in the late game.

Mines

It is worthwhile to visit a Mine if it’s on the way to somewhere else you want to go, or if you find an A or S-tier spell on a white or blue catalyst.

Always pick the Smithing Stone [2] that drops from the mini-boss in there. You can find upgrade anvills next to merchants, which are located at all Forts, War Camps, and Castles.

If you don’t end up needing it for a catalyst, you may want to use it to upgrade your backup melee weapon or give it to a group member who had bad luck.

Forts

Forts each have a lootable holder containing 3 staves in the tallest tower. If you’re using a Relic that grants Increased Max FP for 3+ Staves (and you totally should be), try to swing by a Fort early on to get the FP boost ASAP and fish for good Sorceries.

Cathedrals

Cathedrals each have a lootable altar containing 3 seals. If you’re using a Relic that grants Increased Max FP for 3+ Seals, be sure to swing by a Cathedral (or shack) early in the game to get that FP boost and fish for good Incantations.

Unlike with Forts, there are 2 different locations for the altar depending on the location of the miniboss. If the miniboss is in the basement, you’ll find the altar in an alcove directly across from the arena.

If the miniboss is on the main level, the altar will be on the upper level, which you can reach by climbing up the scaffolding along the outside. Be prepared to fight a colony of bats or procession of Oracle Envoys.

Shacks

Wood shacks contain a box with multiple seals in it. They don’t have any sort of puzzle, but they aren’t listed on the map as relevant locations. Once you learn the layout, I guess you just need to have a bit of faith that they’re there…

Essential Weapon Passives for Recluse

Weapon passives are buffs granted to so long as they’re in your inventory. Unless they have the little hand next to the icon, your Nightfarer doesn’t need to be physically holding them in their hands. In most cases, these buffs will increase your chances of success than Relic effects.

Top Priority

You really need to get at least one of each of these if you want to maximize your effectiveness in combat. It is more important to have these effects than it is to have a bunch of legendaries with effects you don’t care about.

I’m hesitant to say this, but it may be worthwhile to hold onto a weapon that is more useful but not top tier to someone else in your group if it provides one of these buffs.

Probably don’t hold onto something like a Rivers of Blood if there’s an Executor in the group and they’re still using a blue weapon, but if you don’t expect them to use it as their main weapon, I say hold onto it for one of these passives.

Casting Speed

Casting Speed +1/+2 reduces the time it takes to cast spells by increasing your virtual dexterity by 30/60, the same way the Radagon Icon and Beloved Stardust talismans work in Elden Ring. You can benefit from +2 early on, but by the time you reach level 15, you’ll only need +1 to get max Casting Speed.

If you have Radagon Icon, it’s better for you to give it to a Duchess or Revenant and use a +1 weapon instead, assuming you can get something equivalent in return and still have access to a separate source for the buff.

You only need 1 Casting Speed passive.

Damage Negation Up While Casting Spells

I know, I know; you would never get hit by an attack while casting a spell because you just never make any mistakes, but hear me out.

Sometimes, the boss switches targets in the middle of a cast or they’ll start and finish an attack after your cast as begun, leaving you trapped in the animation and otherwise doomed without this.

Less Likely to Be Targeted

Enemies tend to attack whoever has dealt the most damage to them. Recluse has immense damage potential and can be the first one to hit an enemy, so it’s easy to build threat and keep aggro.

Since Recluse has such horrible survivability and is vulnerable while casting, you really need a way to give the poor Guardians, Raiders, and Wylders a chance to get aggro.

Reduced Spell FP Cost

Reducing your FP consumption is valuable in general, but it helps immensely with allowing you to channel spells like Comet Azur and Meteorite of Astel for a longer period.

Secondary Priority

Hold onto these as much as you can, but don’t let them interfere with more important buffs.

Improved Sorceries | Incantations

Improved Sorceries | Incantations buffs the damage dealt by the given spell type. It goes without saying that you should only pick one up if you have the relevant catalysts.

It’s an excellent, flat buff to your damage output, but it doesn’t really expand your capabilities, so it’s not as valuable as some of the other weapon buffs.

Improved Charged Sorceries | Incantations

Improved Charged Sorceries | Incantations buffes the damage dealt by charged versions of the associated spell type, just like Godfrey Icon. In exchange for being more specialized, the damage boost is larger than the one that applies regardless of whether the spell is charged or not.

Just like the unspecialized version, it’s nice to have, assuming you have chargeable spells. Channeled spells like Comet Azur and Meteorite of Astel do not benefit from this effect.

Improved Damage Negation at Full HP

For the most part, you’re either at max health, barely alive after taking a single hit from a boss, or you’re crawling around on the floor like your weird human(?) baby.

Improved Damage Negation at Full HP enables you to survive heavier hits and increase the likelihood that your Flask will return you to full health.

Essential Non-Weapon Passives (Dormant Powers)

These passives drop directly from defeating bosses and are the only thing that drop from the end-of-day bosses. You can pick up one of them instead of a weapon, which is usually the way to go.

Top Priority

You should prioritize these Dormant Powers as Recluse whenever you see them.

Increased Maximum FP

More FP is always good, and the fact that it’s an additive percentage means you can make that blue bar stretch to the moon!

Reduced FP Consumption

Reduced FP Consumption means you become less reliant on your non-scaling Character Skill and can spend more time fighting the boss. It’s particularly helpful with channeled spells because it means you can capitalize more effectively on those long openings.

Improved Dodging

Recluse is very squishy. It’s imperative that you avoid taking damage as much as possible. Improved Dodging increases your reliability. Keep in mind that this effect does not stack.

Improved Affinity | Physical Damage Negation

Recluse is still very squishy. You really need all the Damage Negation you can get, though I recommend focusing more on getting these passives and using weapon slots for damage boosts.

Improved Poise

A little bit of poise is actually valuable for Recluse. Without any Poise, you’ll get interrupted from spellcasting if a Wandering Noble so much as blinks in your direction.

With a little bit of poise, like the +25% you can get from a single boss drop, you’ll be able to trade hits without getting interrupted. You don’t need any more than that because you just won’t survive any hit that requires more poise anyway.

Violent Deluge of Rain While Walking

Violent Deluge of Rain is just the Founding Rain of Stars. Since it’s free and is cast automatically, it’s way better than the spell version. You will spend a lot of time walking as a Recluse because that’s the only kind of movement you can do while casting spells, so you’ll get a lot of mileage out of this perk.

It gets bumped up into the essential category because it also has a pretty strong stagger effect, which helps to slow the enemy’s advance when you get aggro.

Secondary Priority

If you can’t select one of the Top Priority options, consider one of these instead.

Periodical Giant Glintblade

Periodical Giant Glintblade is similar to the Violent Deluge of Rain While Walking. Instead of automatically casting Founding Rain of Stars, it casts Greatblade Phalanx on a short timer.

Keep in mind that all floating projectiles occupy the same slot and overwrite each other, so this passive conflicts with things like:

• Power of a Demon (floating Frenzied goat eye)
• Multiple Periodical Glintblades
• Many Periodical Glintblades
• Phalanx Sorceries
• Wraiths

I recommend it only if you don’t have another source and don’t think you’d benefit more from an alternative available.

Improved Stamina Recovery

While Stamina isn’t quite as essential to Recluse as it is to melee Nightfarers like Guardian and Raider, you’ll still be draining that green bar to cast spells and dodge, and Improved Stamina Recovery helps to reduce downtime where you can’t deal or avoid damage.

If you’re a big fan of the Carian Sword Sorceries, this is effect is a bit more important.

Increased Maxumum HP | Stamina

More HP means you can survive bigger hits. More stamina means you can have higher uptime on the boss and have a greater chance to have some stamina left when you need to dodge.

Increased Sorcery & Incantation Duration

Buff spells are more worthwhile in Nightreign, so making them last longer is better. It’s important to note that this buff (and the similar effect found on the Old Lord’s Talisman) do not extend the duration of your Ultimate Art.

Flame of Frenzy While Walking

Flame of Frenzy While Walking is comparable to the Violent Deluge of Rain While Walking, but it doesn’t have as much uptime, requires more aiming, and does cause Madness buildup, all of which make it less useful. Libra doesn’t like it though.

Lightning upon Dodging

Lightning cocktails (the things you make with your mana recovery skill) are among the most powerful in the game, so having a consistent source yourself without needing to juggle so many catalysts is nice.

It’s less useful if you’re able to stay away from enemies reliably or your fellow Nightfarers are doing a little too good of a job of wailing on the boss, resulting in the affinity residue getting replaced before you have a chance to grab it.

Improved Affinity Attack Power

Recluse deals almost exclusively affinity damage, so this is almost always just a flat damage boost. It’s worth noting that in Nightreign, Gravity Sorceries seem to deal magic damage rather than physical.

Spells that apply bleed, poison, or rot, including Thorn Sorceries, Servants of Rot Incantations, and some Dragon Communion Incantations, do not deal affinity damage.

Improved Sorceries & Incantations

Improved Sorceries and Improved Incantations are separate effects that apply to spells cast with a staff or a seal, respectively. Prioritize whichever you use most. Their damage boost is higher than that of Affinity Attack Power because it’s more specialized.

This buff applies to both charged and uncharged versions, just like the Graven/Canvas Talismans.

Improved Charged Sorceries & Charged Incantations

Improved Charged Sorceries and Improved Charge Incantations are separate effects just like the non-charged versions. The buff is stronger because it’s more specialized, but you won’t use it as much.

Improved Charged buffs are more valuable to more mana-constrained Nightfarers like Revenant and Duchess.

Blood Loss in Vicinity Increases Attack Power

If you use a Relic with the effect [Recluse] Suffer blood loss and increase attack power upon (Ultimate) Art activation, this passive is just free damage when you are most at liberty to spam.

The trigger raidus is pretty short though, like you probably won’t benefit from this effect if you have an Executor in the group or are using Briars of Punishment.

Creates Holy Ground at Low HP

Holy Ground is kind of the Faith equivalent of Terra Magica. It gives you a little recovery cushion and makes you safer inside Terra Magica, assuming you survive the initial hit.

Recluse Costumes

Below are all 6 of Recluse’s appearances. Remembrance skins are unlocked after completing her quest. Dawn and Darkness skins are available as soon as you unlock the appearance changer. The named outfits are based on characters from Dark Souls and unlocked after you defeat Heolstor for the first time.