Elden Ring Nightreign players worship a new god: a Relic buff that gives a gigantic damage boost just for killing some pretty easy mini-bosses

Elden Ring Nightreign has just released its second souped-up Everdark boss fight, and for all the fearful hunkering-down among players leading up to its release, many folks were surprised to find that it's actually easier than the previous boss, Everdark Adel. I have a theory that this is at least partly because many players have adopted a new tactic that's swept the community like Nightreign's battle royale ring sweeps over the map. It all comes down to one little Relic buff, but it's a game-changer.

The Relic trait in question is this: "Attack power permanently increased for each evergaol prisoner defeated." This effect started to catch on just over a week ago. You could buy a static Relic, a yellow-type Grand Luminous Scene, with this effect from a new merchant unlocked by defeating the previous Everdark boss, and people quickly noticed just how powerful it is.

The wording is, per FromSoftware custom, a little wonky. But the math sleuths in the community have worked out that this Relic buffs your damage by 5% each time you beat a gaol boss. There's a difficulty gradient to these bosses, but most of them are pretty easy – some almost laughably so – and even the harder ones are nothing compared to the big Nightlords.

There's no duration on this buff; each boss you kill – rather, each encounter you clear, because multi-boss gaols don't award multiple stacks at once – provides a permanent, always-active damage buff, and there doesn't seem to be an upper limit. Not only that, the buff appears to get better multiplicatively, with players reporting a buff greater than 30% with six gaol clears.

You can only kill so many gaol bosses in a run of Nightreign, limited not just by time but also how many gaol keys you can find, but it's not that hard to clear at least four. Gaols provide lump sums of Runes, too, making them worthwhile anyhow.

You can't equip multiple Relics with this effect to double or triple the boost, but you can enhance it indirectly to take your damage straight to the moon.

For example, another Relic effect gives you a Stonesword Key at the start of a run, guaranteeing an easy Gaol clear. Everyone in your team can potentially bring a Stonesword Key in with them, meaning you have three Gaols available without even hunting for keys – most commonly sourced from chests in cathedrals or atop forts.

Because this relic is a permanent, multiplicative damage modifier, it stacks incredibly well with other effects and general character investment. The stronger you are, the stronger it is.

It's so powerful, in fact, that I'm convinced FromSoftware handed it out specifically to counterbalance the difficulty bump from the Everdark fights, perhaps learning from the difficulty blowback at the game's launch. Most other damage boosts are either weaker or more specific than this, so it's rapidly become a go-to staple among experienced players.

If you don't have this relic and you missed the previous Everdark boss, you should be able to unlock it just fine by beating the latest Everdark boss – which, again, ought to be easier than it was last week since many players are running around with damage aplenty.

Ironeye is Elden Ring Nightreign's most useful character, but their anti-soulslike style bores me to tears.