Best Weapon Types and Attribute Scaling for all Nightfarers in Elden Ring Nightreign

Lots and lots of charts to explain which Nightfarers will do best with which weapon types!

An individual Nightfarer’s weapon Preference(s) as listed in the Visual Codex specifies which weapon classes use a better, unique moveset when wielded by said Nightfarer.

For example, the Scholar has a Preference for Thrusting Swords and is far more acrobatic, dynamic, and aggressive when using them. The attack sequence is reminiscent of Light Greatswords from SotE.

Preferences are often the same as their default Dormant Power helps discover X weapon class, but not always, and the benefit from using the Preferred weapon isn’t always enough to make a persuasive case for using that weapon, especially if you find a lovely Legendary.

Outside of Preferences, it’s best to map the highest scaling damage attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Faith, Arcane) for a given Nightfarer to the weapons that scale the best with those same attributes.

For example, Executor has S with Dexterity, so he will do best with weapons that have S scaling with Dexterity, like Katanas, Daggers, and Thrusting Swords.

If you can learn what every Nightfarer wants, you can put your team in a better position to win by looking for good weapons not only for yourself, but for your teammates as well.

Overall Attribute Totals Comparison

This is a bird’s eye view of attribute distribution on each Nightfarer, which matters for weapon preference and helps answer the following questionsL

• Which weapon classes should you use?
• Which weapons should you give to someone else?

All Attributes

This chart is overwhelming, so don’t stare at it for too long, but there’s a lot of interesting information we can glean by filtering based on the unique characteristics of the Nightfarers.

Damage Scaling Attributes Only

Even when we separate out the damage scaling attributes and ignore the resource bars, it’s still quite a lot.

You see that star in the middle? That’s you!

Strength Nightfarers Comparison

High Strength Nightfarers include Wylder, Guardian, Raider, and Undertaker. You can see their stats development process pretty clear here in regards to transitioning from pure Strength to Quality.

Guardian has a very similar stat breakdown to Wylder, effectively trades some damage scaling stats in favor of larger resource bars.

Raider has the most of any single stat in the game at 68 Endurance, and Undertaker effectively trades some of Raider’s Strength for Faith, though she is reliant on buffs from her Incantations to make up the difference in the overall smaller size of her stat pool.

Dexterity Nightfarers Comparison

The truly Dexterity-specialized Nightfarers are Executor and Ironeye, with Wylder having a Quality build and Duchess trading that Strength to facilitate a Spellblade build.

It’s worth pointing out that Ironeye’s stat pool is almost entirely a subset of Executor’s. Still, Ironeye can perform well as melee and is more versatile than Executor thanks to his Bow preference.

Yes, Ironeye does have more Faith than Executor (despite the latter being a former Crucible Knight), but you can see that even if Ironeye were to trade his Faith for Arcane, his stat pool would exist entirely within Executor’s.

Spellcaster Nightfarers Comparison

There’s a lot to unpack with spellcasters in Nightreign. They’re hard to define because they’re so reliant on FP, and only one Nightfarer has any built-in FP recovery method.

Spellcaster Comparison with Mind

I’m defining Spellcaster here to include any Nightfarer with high Intelligence or Faith, which includes Duchess, Revenant, Recluse, and Undertaker. I’ve also included the Mind stat so we can compare FP as well. Sorry for making you tilt your head.

From a raw spellcasting damage POV, Recluse and Revenant have the highest damage potential with spells. While Duchess and Undertaker can close that gap with specific Relic builds, they have less FP to spare.

Recluse also has greater flexibility to buff her spell damage because her unique Relics are considerably weaker than those of most other Nightfarers and she doesn’t have to worry about buffing melee damage.

Undertaker loses out on some Mind; she has 14 compared to Duchess’ 27 despite Undertaker having a similar amount of Strength and Faith compared to Duchess’ Intelligence and Dexterity. Undertaker partially makes it up with Vigor, but her total stat pool is lower.

Revenant vs Undertaker

Undertaker is literally just FromSoft incarnating the meme about Revenant with a big ol’ bonk stick.

Despite being strong, in my opinion, Undertaker’s existence eliminates the reason to use the Deep Relic [Revenant] Increased Strength (+25), Reduced Faith (-6) because it just turns Revenant into an Undertaker with a less synergistic kit.

At the same time, Revenant is a significantly weaker caster than Recluse (and far worse support than Scholar) because she has no built-in FP recovery.

I’m not sure that FromSoft is interested in making such a sweeping change, but the only way I see to solve Revenant’s identity crisis is to give her built-in FP recovery built around her ghosts (dis)appearing or something and swap her Intelligence for Arcane.

This would fit thematically with Revenant being a creepy doll, embody her Sister Friede skin, and make her better-suited to wield Claws and Scythes, both of which apply bleed by default. It would also make her excellent starting Fists(!) more compatible with Starting armament inflicts X ailment Relics.

Arcane Nightfarers Comparison

The commonly considered Arcane Nightfarers include Ironeye, Executor, and now Scholar, but I’ve included Duchess and Revenant as well for reasons that will make sense later.

The most notable piece of information from this chart is how much more Arcane Scholar has compared to Executor and Ironeye, despite Executor also supposedly having S Arcane just like Scholar.

I believe this has to do with the fact that breakpoints for status ailment proccing are lower than the raw damage scaling for Arcane, and before Scholar, Executor did have higher Arcane than anyone else. FromSoft likely just forgot to update these letters with the DLC.

Regardless, on top of being able to proc status ailments faster than anyone else, Scholar also has the greatest proficiency with Arcane-scaling weapons by a country mile.

This isn’t always enough since Arcane-scaling weapons almost always scale well with Dexterity and a little bit with Strength, aside from the Albinaurics’ “Ripple” weapons that scale purely with Arcane.

The other Nightfarers included in this chart are noteworthy as well. Ironeye and Revenant supposedly have B in Arcane but that’s practically nothing and only 2 points different from Duchess (13 vs 12 vs 11).

Duchess has a unique moveset (preference) and default increased chance to find Daggers, including Reduvia and Scorpion’s Stinger, but she relies entirely on her preference to apply status.

Quality, Polar, and Nonpolar Nightfarers

This section is all about how each Nightfarer’s points are distributed between one or more damage-scaling attributes. Some have lean heavily into a single attribute (polar), while others rely on multiple (nonpolar). Quality is a type of nonpolar build.

Quality Build Nightfarers

Quality builds use weapons that scale well with both Strength and Dexterity. Here, I’m defining it as having Strength and Dexterity that are within 10 points of each other.

Realistically, this only includes Wylder and Guardian, but technically also allows Revenant, Recluse, and Scholar to qualify.

Again, we see here how Guardian’s damage stats are a subset of Wylder’s, though Guardian gives up damage for bigger resource bars and more defensive and support-oriented abilities.

Polar Nightfarers

These Nightfarers have dumped the vast majority of their attribute points into a single attribute, creating a pole on the chart. Polarized Nightfarers include Raider, Ironeye, Executor, Revenant, and, to a lesser extent, Recluse.

The gameplay style of these Nightfarers trades versatility for specialization. The only reason I include Recluse here is because the difference between Sorceries and Incantations is fairly arbitrary and she doesn’t perform as well if she doesn’t focus on one.

This chart also shows the highest amount of each attribute you can get with any Nightfarer, at least before Deep Relics are taken into account.

With the addition of Scholar, each attribute has its champion, so there isn’t really a place for more Nightfarers with polarized stats.

Nonpolar Nightfarers

These Nightfarers have more diverse attribute point allocations. Nonolar Nightfarers include Wylder, Guardian, Duchess, and Undertaker.

Here, we see one of the bigger gaps in unfilled gameplay niches in Faith-Arcane, which was fleshed out primarily in SotE with the Kindred of Rot and Bloodflame Incantations, though Revenant could fill this role by being rebalanced rather than adding another Nightfarer.

Recluse would remain differentiated with Ghostflame, Magma, and Putrescence, while Duchess would stick to pure Magic under this framework.

Arcane-Strength is also missing, but Strength weapons are slow, which puts them at odds with status effect buildup, so you end up with awkward weapons like Ghiza’s Wheel.

Ranged vs Melee Nightfarers

While it’s also observable with their unique effects and abilities, we can see a divide in preferred stats between ranged and melee Nightfarers.

Ranged Nightfarers Comparison

Ranged Nightfarers include Ironeye, Revenant, Recluse, and Scholar. For the same reason that it doesn’t make sense to play melee Revenant over Undertaker, it doesn’t make sense to play full caster Duchess over Recluse. Scholar is included because you have to step out of melee range to Analyse and throw things and apply buffs so often.

A Strength-focused ranged Nightfarer is notably absent, but that niche is sat on by Radahn with his Greatbow and Gravity Sorcery.

Both got fleshed out somewhat in SotE, but Gravity Sorcery was already simplified to deal Magic damage rather than Physical in Nightreign, so they’d have to reverse it to accommodate an already small item pool and overly simplistic playstyle.

It’s left out of weapon preferences and Dormant Powers, but Greatbows do scale with Strength, so you can put them to great use, particularly as Raider or even Guardian or Wylder. There’s no need for Undertaker to use Greatbows since she can just cast an Incantation instead.

Melee Nightfarers Comparison

Melee Nightfarers are those that perform best with melee weapons, including the ones you might want to consider pairing with double Balancers Relics.

Arcane is a bit underrepresented, but that’s partially a flaw in how stats are doled out. Remember, Executor is/was considered to have S in Arcane, but that only equates to 28 total stat.

Scholar is also kind of a melee, when he isn’t throwing things or buffing teammates or using Analyse.

Strength vs Dexterity per Weapon Class

A weapon’s damage scaling is determined by its weapon class. Weapons of the same weapon class typically have the same or similar scaling.

If the weapon deals Affinity damage, it usually also scales slightly with Intelligence (Magic, Frost) or Faith (Fire, Holy). This affinity damage scaling is toned down for Nightreign to help differentiate casters from melee.

Affinity scaling is diminished to the point that it’s mainly just a tiebreaker for Nightfarers like Duchess vs Executor on Dexterity weapons, or Undertaker vs Raider for Strength weapons.

It’s worth noting that while you need high Faith to deal good damage with Lightning Incantations, weapons that deal Lightning damage never scale with Faith.

Some other exceptions stuck around, particularly with weapons that scale with Arcane, but that’s outside the scope of our discussion.

The main thing you need to consider for melee weapons is Strength vs Dexterity aptitude.

• Duchess does best with pure DEX leaning towards INT (top right of chart) and has a preference for Daggers.
• Executor does best with pure DEX leaning towards Arcane (top right of chart) and has a preference for Katanas.
• Raider does best with the biggest, heaviest STR weapons, doesn’t care about Affinities or Ailments (top left), and has a preference for Greataxes, Greathammers, and Colossal Weapons.
• Undertaker prefers heavier STR weapons that deal affinity damage (top left) and has a preference for Hammers.
• Wylder and Guardian do best with weapons that scale with both STR and DEX (bottom half) and have preferences for Greatswords and Halberds, respectively.
• Ironeye has a preference for Bows but can do well with pure DEX weapons (top right), particularly whatever Duchess and Executor don’t want.
• Revenant and Recluse are best suited to Sacred Seals and Catalysts but will do better with melee weapons that can make the most of their every last meager point (center bottom).

Comparing Total Stat Pools

Nightfarers have different amounts of attribute points at max level, and they are distributed differently between the damage scaling stats (STR, DEX, INT, FTH, ARC) and the resource bars (VGR, MND, END).

Most Nightfarers have pretty similar resource bar budgets at ~85, with the only exceptions being Raider, Guardian, Wylder, and Ironeye.

Ironeye’s total stat pool is noticeably lower across the board, which is a testament to his high regard in the meta.

Guardian and Raider sacrifice some of their damage scaling budget in favor of higher resource bars, which are almost entirely divided between HP and Stamina since neither has a lot of FP.

Thus, the main discrepancy between the different total stat pools for each Nightfarer primarily comes from differences in total damage scaling attribute points.

Now, you can’t just go converting these budgets to raw DPS, as attribute scaling on preferred weapon types matters a lot, as does the rest of their kit.

Attribute Point Values Table

In the table below, you’ll find the raw attribute values for each Nightfarer used to make the charts in this article. They’re pulled directly from the game files.

Nightfarer	Vigor	Mind	End	Str	Dex	Int	Faith	Arc	VGR + MND + END:	STR + DEX + INT + FTH + ARC:	Total Stat Pool:
Wylder	52	19	27	50	40	15	15	10	98	130	228
Guardian	60	14	38	41	31	10	21	10	112	113	225
Ironeye	37	14	28	19	57	7	13	13	79	109	188
Duchess	39	27	18	11	45	42	27	11	84	136	220
Raider	56	10	37	68	19	3	12	10	103	112	215
Revenant	35	31	21	21	21	30	51	12	87	135	222
Recluse	33	30	23	12	19	51	51	10	86	143	229
Executor	46	11	27	25	63	8	6	28	84	130	214
Scholar	41	20	25	14	18	28	15	50	86	125	211
Undertaker	48	14	22	50	13	5	41	10	84	119	203

I haven’t looked into it too much, but I think the breakpoints and soft/large caps are meant to be the same as in base Elden Ring, but you aren’t meant to look that closely at it.