Elden Ring Nightreign Raider guide: all stats and abilities explained

If your usual Elden Ring and Dark Souls build involves heavy armor and massive two-handed weapons, then the Raider is the character for you. This hulking beast has the best strength of any Nightfarer in Elden Ring: Nightreign, in addition to skills that can make a huge difference in tough boss scenarios.

Most enemies can’t stand for even three seconds when in the ring with Raider, and if you want to make the most of his abilities in Elden Ring: Nightreign, then just read through our breakdown below.

Raider attributes breakdown – ER Nightreign

A character’s attributes tell you two things: what their starting stats will be in terms of health, stamina, magic pool, and strength, and what weapons they’re most comfortable with. The highest possible stat is an S, followed by A, B, C, D, and E as the lowest. 

Here’s what each stat means: 

• HP - How large your health pool is.
• FP - How large your mana pool is.
• Stamina - How large your stamina gauge is. 
• Strength - How much physical damage you can deal, scaling with colossal weapons. 
• Dexterity - Proficiency with daggers, bows, katanas, and other fast weapons. 
• Intelligence - Your magical potency, impacting the power of sorceries. Scales well with weapons such as the Moonveil katana and Fallingstar Beast Jaw. 
• Faith - How effective your healing and holy incantations are. Scales with weapons such as Golden Epitaph and Erdtree Greatbow. 
• Arcane - Holy damage and death blight negation. Increases blood loss buildup for bleeding weapons. Scales with weapons such as Serpent Bow and Rivers of Blood. 

Here are Raider’s attributes: 

• HP - A
• FP - D
• Stamina - A
• Strength - S
• Dexterity - C
• Intelligence - D
• Faith - D
• Arcane - C

Raider abilities breakdown – ER Nightreign

Raider is all about brute strength, and his abilities reflect that, mostly revolving around giving you the time and strength you need to get up close and use heavy attacks.

Passive Ability: Fighter’s Resolve

The ability feeds back into the Retaliate Character Skill. Damage you take boosts the efficiency of Retaliate, and you won’t be knocked down during Retaliate. Also, Raider will often survive with 1 HP when taking a big attack.

Character Skill: Retaliate

If you haven’t taken much damage, this skill will be a powerful headbutt that can interrupt enemy attacks and stun, but if you’ve been taking damage, this attack transforms into a delayed uppercut strike. The delayed uppercut is awkward to use against faster foes, but can be incredibly useful against enemies that are charging up an attack.

Ultimate Art: Totem Stela

The Raider can summon a giant tombstone known as the Totem Stela. It does large damage when it first appears and it can be climbed on for a height advantage, but most importantly, allies within its range will deal additional damage. By default, the Totem Stela remains on the field for 30 seconds.

Raider’s best weapons – ER Nightreign

If you’ve played a FromSoftware action game before now, then you probably understood exactly what to equip Raider with as soon as you saw him. This beastly Nightfarer works best with only the heaviest weapons. Greatswords, Great Hammers, and more. A shield is optional for powerful Guard Counters, but in most situations you’re better off running in with a jumping heavy strike.

Thanks to a massive amount of poise and the great synergy of his abilities, Raider can get up close to fierce foes, tank hits, and keep striking back. Remember to use Retaliate and Totem Stela in battle, and it will be very hard for Raider to get taken down by anything but a powerful magic user.