Elden Ring Nightreign Guide | How To Play Raider

Raider is a Strength-focused class in Elden Ring Nightreign that excels at drawing aggro and crushing enemies with colossal weapons. 

This build is analogous to a "meat shield" Strength build, designed to soak up damage with high Poise while dishing out powerful attacks. Unlike the Guardian, who emphasizes defense with a great shield, you will focus on offense and intimidation.

If you have enjoyed other Strength builds in Elden Ring and appreciate a high-risk, high-reward playstyle, the Raider will be an excellent fit. In group play, you will act as the frontline DPS, often functioning as a de facto tank by maintaining enemy attention and applying relentless pressure with great hammers or colossal weapons. 

With your natural tankiness, you can absorb hits that would otherwise kill squishier classes, allowing you to dive into combat without fear of being two-shotted. For every run, all you need is the right gear and to know how to use your core skills to your advantage.

Stats and Qualities

You will start with good base stats for a tanky Strength fighter: a lot of Health, a lot of Stamina, and good damage resistance. Your starting traits give you an "A" in Health and Stamina, which means you'll always be on the front lines. The Raider's "D" in FP implies that, while you can use weapon skills, you won't rely on them too often unless you plan to invest in FP-restoring relics. 

Your physical scaling is notable, with "S" in Strength and "C" in Dexterity. Intelligence, Faith, and Arcane start at "D," "D," and "C," respectively, which means you will not focus on sorceries, incantations, or status-heavy builds. What the Raider lacks in magical versatility, you more than compensate for with sheer physical power and Poise.

Your Poise is deceptively high, allowing you to bulldoze through enemy attacks without flinching—an essential trait since your weapons are slow but hit devastatingly hard. 

Because your scaling depends on Strength, you will gravitate toward weapons that deliver maximum Strength damage, such as colossal swords, great axes, and great hammers. 

These weapon categories allow you to exploit your Strength scaling fully without worrying about heavy Dexterity requirements.

Skills

Retaliate

Your primary skill, Retaliate, is a forgiving parry. You briefly defend and punch whatever is in front of you when activated. Training dummies take 120 damage from Retaliate at lower levels. Around 296 damage by level 10. While the animation plays, you earn significant damage negation, allowing you to survive even the most brutal boss attacks. 

Retaliate may neutralize massive damage without needing to memorize boss attack patterns due to its broad timing window. You can overuse the talent in long boss bouts because it has a 12-second cooldown. Use Retaliate anytime you're unsure of a boss's timing. This avoids vulnerable timeout rolls.

Fighter's Resolve (Passive)

Fighter's Resolve, your passive skill, complements Retaliate. You become "charged up" when you suffer enough damage and obtain a smoke aura. When charged, Retaliate turns your right jab into a powerful left uppercut and extends your reach with an aftershock wave. 

This charged move deals 444 damage at level 10. Level 1 does 186 damage. The charged state never ends, so you can conserve it for when you need to stop a boss's lethal move. 

Additionally, Retaliate becomes uninterruptible while you are charged, ensuring that even heavy attacks will not stop you. The passive also grants greater survivability by allowing you to outlast powerful enemy strikes. Mastering the timing of when to activate your charged Retaliate will dramatically improve your damage output and tankiness simultaneously.

Totem Stella (Ultimate Art)

Your ultimate art, Totem Stella, is unique and can initially bewilder teammates, but it offers significant strategic advantages. When activated, you plunge a stone dagger into the ground, triggering a brief 1–2 second animation that has invincibility frames. After that, a massive stone tombstone erupts beneath you, dealing substantial area-of-effect damage to all nearby enemies. 

The tombstone stays in place for about 15 seconds and gives you and any friends within a small radius a 15% boost to your attack power. The attack buff lasts for an extra 15 seconds after the tombstone is gone, giving you and your party a total of 30 seconds of extra time. 

When put right under a boss, this buff is beneficial because it makes all allies stronger. Some close-range fighters can use the raised tombstone as a fake high ground to snipe, and spellcasters can use it to get a better view.

But keep in mind that Totem Stella can make mistakes and cause problems. Bad guys can get stuck in the tombstone's hitbox, which makes them harder to target. Mages and other ranged allies may find the pillar obstructs their shots or spells, forcing them to reposition constantly. To avoid frustration, coordinate with your teammates. 

When facing another melee-heavy party, deploy Totem Stella aggressively around the boss. When mages are present, place it slightly to the side to provide height without blocking the line of sight. Totem Stella can change the course of a battle if used properly, but if you don't, it could hurt your allies.

Weapons and passives

The first weapon you get is the Raider's Great Axe, which is a vast tool that mainly scales with Strength. Its weapon skill, Endure, briefly makes you less vulnerable to damage for one hit and makes you more resistant to poison. To maximize Endure's effectiveness, two-hand your Great Axe and combine it with Retaliate, ensuring you maintain near-constant damage negation. As you progress, you will want to seek out dual-wielding opportunities. 

Dual wielding either two great hammers, two great axes, or two colossal weapons unlocks high-damage jump attacks and dual-wield light attack combos. Unfortunately, these options require you to find two similar heavy weapons. 

If you only see one hammer and one axe, you may not be able to dual-wield optimally. Avoid greatswords or colossal swords for Raider since they have shorter reach and lower effective Strength scaling on your build; they often feel like "toothpicks" in your hands and deal less damage.

As you explore, prioritize weapons with built-in status effects or exceptional scaling. Blue-rarity weapons like the Great Omen Killer Cleaver, Rotten Battle Hammer, Great Stars, Rotten Great Axe, and Great Club all introduce status ailments while delivering excellent damage. 

The Gargoyle's Black Axe, the Cranial Vessel, the Candlestand, the Rotten Staff, Plett's Infernal Crosier, and Giza's Wheel are all purple-rare items. 

These less common tools often work better than more common ones, particularly when used by two people at once. In addition to picking the right weapons, look for passive benefits that make you a better tank. Anything that boosts damage negation, jump attack damage, or damage while dual-wielding will complement your playstyle. 

As a heavy-hitting frontline, your goal is to break the enemy stance frequently, then chain into critical hits. Build toward bonuses that capitalize on stance-breaking, and you will dominate whichever boss you face.

Relics

From the Raider quest line, you can earn two unique relics plus three Chalice drops that slot into your weaponry or armor. The primary relic you should obtain restores Health when enemies are defeated near your Totem Stella and fills your "Old Gauge" more rapidly after kills. This sustains your frontline presence, letting you trade blows without retreating to heal. 

The chalice slots consist of Red, Green, and Green, while the Goblet provides Red, Blue, and Yellow, and the Chalice offers Red, Red, and Multicolored sockets. Focus on relics that accentuate your tankiness: prioritize Health bonuses, Stamina bonuses, Stamina Recovery, and Physical Damage increases. Anything that improves your survivability during Retaliate cooldown is invaluable.

Additionally, consider relics that reduce your Character Skill cooldown. The less time you wait between uses of Retaliate, the longer you will remain uninterruptible and virtually untouchable. 

If you find relics that improve your Critical Hit damage or boost performance while dual-wielding, they can also enhance your overall damage output. 

In summary, your relic selection should focus on sustaining your health pool, cycling Retaliate quickly, and amplifying your heavy damage potential.

Party Composition

The Raider integrates seamlessly into almost any party composition due to your role as a durable frontline. Your primary function is to hold aggro and protect glass-cannon allies while dishing out consistent melee pressure. 

Because you can handle most damage that comes your way, your teammates gain breathing room to perform their roles, whether they are casters, ranged DPS, or support. In a team lacking a dedicated tank, you will effectively fill that void. 

If your party includes three frontline fighters, the pace may become slow and clunky, so it is ideal to have at least one ranged character alongside you. 

This setup ensures that attacking and defensive duties are evenly shared. You don't have to worry about teamwork much with the Raider, though, because they are so flexible. They can fit into almost any group build. 

Keeping the aggro on bosses and giving your friends room to use their skills is key to doing well. Learn to time your jump attacks and Retaliate to maximize your ability to disrupt enemy attacks and protect your party.

Final Thoughts

As you master the Raider, you will find him to be a more robust and versatile version of similar classes like the Wilder. His increased tankiness and damage output make it difficult to return to any other melee build once you acclimate to his playstyle. 

To truly shine, learn to utilize Retaliate and Fighter's Resolve to their fullest potential, secure dual-wield heavy weapons that scale with Strength, and leverage Totem Stella in strategic ways that empower your team without obstructing them. 

Also, check our Elden Ring Nightreign Review and other guides below:

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