Our Elden Ring Nightreign Recluse guide is a how-to on mastering the mage and spellcaster class, a powerful witch that uses affinities and cocktails to drain and detonate opponents from a distance. However, the Recluse's actual abilities and skills are incredibly poorly-explained, making her one of the least intuitive classes in all of Elden Ring Nightreign.
Until now. Below we've got all the details you need to know about how to use the Recluse in Elden Ring Nightreign, including clear, easy explanations of how to use the affinity and Magic Cocktail skills, to say nothing of her Soulblood Song, a massive AOE that can turn the fight in your favour if used wisely.
How to play as the Recluse in Nightreign
The Recluse in Elden Ring Nightreign is the dedicated ranged spellcaster, with both incredibly high Intelligence and Faith, but very low health and stamina. This is a character who is meant to stand at the back, throwing out spells of all sorts, and keeping a safe distance from all enemies.
We'll go into more detail on her skills later, but the "Elemental Defense" and "Magic Cocktail" skills support this. The former allows her to drain energy from foes after they take certain damage types, and that energy goes towards creating a special cocktail spell that has a different effect based on what you absorb. Not only that, but absorbing affinities allows her to regain some FP, fueling further spellcasting.
It's worth clarifying that the fragility and complexity of the Recluse puts her lower down on the Elden Ring Nightreign class tier list, though the right combination of items and buffs can make her unrivalled for sheer damage output. All the Elden Ring Nightreign best weapons for the Recluse are Staves and Seals, used to generate spells, though a shield isn't a bad idea if you can find one. She is a pretty squishy character.
All Recluse Abilities explained
Here we'll cover all three of the Recluse's main abilities, what they do and how exactly they work, as she's by far and away the most complicated of the different characters.
Elemental Defense
This passive power simply causes enemies and allies to generate an Affinity Residue when they take damage of any of the following types (but no others):
- Fire
- Magic
- Lightning
- Holy
The Residue generated is different for each attack type (Fire Residue, Magic Residue, etc). These Residues are completely harmless and don't do anything to the character they're attached to, but you can tell if a character has Residue by locking onto them. If the reticle shows a coloured circle, they have Residue, with the colour indicating what kind: red for fire, blue for magic, yellow for lightning, and so on.
Your teammates can have Residue stuck on them when they get damaged too, but this doesn't do anything for them. Only the Recluse can make use of Affinity Residue through Magic Cocktails, which brings us to the second skill.
Magic Cocktail
When an enemy or ally has Residue on them, you can lock onto them and activate this skill to drain the Residue off them. This restores some of the Recluse's FP, but more importantly it fills one of the three slots for creating a Magic Cocktail, as seen at the bottom of the screen.
When all three slots are filled, triggering the skill again casts a Magic Cocktail, a custom spell that varies depending on what the three slots are filled with. For example, three slots filled with Magic Residue creates a cocktail that inflicts Magic damage over time on an enemy. One filled with Magic, one with Fire, and one with Holy causes the Recluse to temporarily exhale divine flame that hurts foes and heals allies.
There are a lot of combinations, but it's important to remember that Magic Cocktails made from three different ingredients are more powerful and effective overall. The more Residues that go into the Cocktail, the better it will be.
Soulblood Song
This Skill causes the Recluse to explode with a special power that marks all nearby foes, causing them to take additional damage from all sources temporarily. Not only that, but any damage they take also causes the Recluse to regain health, effectively making it a vampiric effect.
Because of the damage-magnifying effect, it's best to use Soulblood Song just before enemies are about to take huge damage, to get the most out of it. Trigger it before a stance-breaking attack or before hitting them with a Mixed Cocktail.
Recluse guide, tips and strategy
With all that established, here's a basic summary of how the Recluse should be played in Nightreign, and some general rules of thumb for playing this versatile witch that are more specific than the broader Elden Ring Nightreign tips.
- Look for Glintstone Staves and Sacred Seals. The Recluse has S-tier ranking in both Intelligence and Faith, so can be devastating with both. Check forts and towers, as well as the hermit shacks and under churches.
- Keeping draining foes. A Recluse who's out of FP is basically useless, but by draining Affinity, you also regain some mana. This means you can hit them with a spell, apply an Affinity, then drain it to refuel your next spell, allowing you to cast forever.
- Try to mix up the spells you cast. By casting different spells, or having allies with diverse weapon types, you'll get more mixed cocktails that do better on the battlefield.
- "While walking" buffs are good for the Recluse: Certain powers can trigger on characters who walk, such as bringing down projectiles. Because the Recluse is often at the back slinging spells and doesn't have to frequently dodge, these work out very well for her.
- Remember, there's no benefit to two-handing a spell focus. The Elden Ring Nightreign two-hand feature is purely for melee attacks, so unless you're physically beating them with the staff, it won't do anything for the spells you cast through it. Better to dual-wield focuses for a variety of magics, or to have a shield in your off-hand.
Want to know how long is Elden Ring Nightreign? It's probably longer than you think, at least if you're determined to see everything it has to offer. Or if you want to team up with allies, find out the limitations of the Elden Ring Nightreign crossplay mechanics here.
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