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Elden Ring Nightreign
Duchess Best Build, Weapons, and Relics Guide
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This is a Duchess build guide for Elden Ring Nightreign. See the best build, weapons, and relics for Duchess, as well as her playstyle, and character profile here!
| Duchess Character Pages | |
|---|---|
| Build | How to Unlock |
| Remembrance | Skins |
List of Contents
Duchess Best Build
Duchess Best Weapons
| Daggers | |
|---|---|
 Reduvia
|
Minimum Level: 7 Attack Scaling: DEX/ARC/STR Damage Type: Physical, Bleed |
 Black Knife
|
Minimum Level: 7 Attack Scaling: DEX/FAI/STR Damage Type: Holy |
 Wakizashi
|
Minimum Level: 3 Attack Scaling: DEX/STR Damage Type: Physical, Bleed |
 Duchess' Dagger
|
Minimum Level: 1 Attack Scaling: DEX/STR Damage Type: Physical, Magic |
| Katanas | |
 Rivers of Blood
|
Minimum Level: 7 Attack Scaling: DEX/ARC/STR Damage Type: Fire, Bleed |
 Nagakiba
|
Minimum Level: 3 Attack Scaling: DEX/STR Damage Type: Physical, Bleed |
| Others | |
 Eleonora's Poleblade
|
Minimum Level: 7 Attack Scaling: DEX/ARC/STR Damage Type: Fire, Bleed |
 Godskin Peeler
|
Minimum Level: 3 Attack Scaling: DEX/STR Damage Type: Physical |
 Cleanrot Knight's Sword
|
Minimum Level: 3 Attack Scaling: DEX/STR Damage Type: Physical |
With Duchess' status effect playstyle, you want to focus on getting weapons that either make it easier to apply ailments or allow you to apply two ailments at once to maximize Restage.
In terms of general use, go for Blood Loss daggers such as Reduvia and the Wakizashi. However, since Duchess can stack status effects, it can be more beneficial to adapt to your Expedition Nightlord's weakness and bring the correct affinities.
You Can Also Use Katanas or Twinblades
While Duchess preferably wants to have daggers in her loadout, she is not limited to just those weapons. Her only soft requirement when it comes to weaponry is that the weapon must be able to apply a status effect of sorts.
The weapons listed here are not necessarily daggers but are fast-hitting weapons that can also contribute to status effects such as Rivers of Blood and Eleonora's Poleblade.
Best Weapon Passives For Duchess
| Best Passives for Offense | |
|---|---|
| Improved Stance-Breaking When Wielding Two Armaments | Improved Affinity Attack Power |
| Alternative Offense Option | |
| Improved Stance-Breaking When Two-Handing | |
| Best Passive for Defense | |
| Successive Attacks Negate Damage | |
In most scenarios, you will end up having two status effect daggers, and thus will find great value from any weapon passives that offer bonuses to dual-wielding and Affinity damage.
Alternatively, there will be a scenario where you might have a solid two-handed weapon, and can instead opt to grab Stance-Breaking passives specifically for Two-Handing.
Lastly, as you will be weaving in for attacks, you want to be able to have some form of survivability. Since Duchess strikes quickly, she can make use of the Damage Negation when performing Successful Attacks passive.
Take note that in some games, you might not be able to get these passives, so look for anything that offers improved singular Affinity attack power and increased singular Affinity damage negation.
Get Stance-Breaking To Help Your Team
In most cases, the Duchess will have the lowest effect when it comes to Stance-Breaking the enemy, and bringing Stance-Breaking passives along can allow you to assist your team in staggering the opponent each time you go in to weave your attacks.
Duchess Best Relics
| Recommended Relic Rites | |
|---|---|
 Duchess' Chalice |
|
| Relic | Effects |
 Night of the Baron
|
• Improved Critical Hits + 1 • Art gauge fills moderately upon critical hit • Critical Hit Boosts Stamina Recovery Speed |
 Golden Dew
|
• [Duchess] Improved Character Skill Attack Power • Boosts Attack Power of Added Affinity Attacks |
 Crown Medal
|
• [Duchess] Dagger chain attack reprises event upon nearby enemies • Improved Dagger Attack Power |
| Alternate Duchess Relic Passives | |
| • Ultimate Art gauge + 2 • Increased rune acquisition for self and allies • Character skill cooldown reduction • Starting armament inflicts ailment/deals affinity damage • Dexterity, Intelligence, or Arcane +2 • Vigor +3 |
|
Duchess values any form of buff she can get to either Status Effects, Stamina, Dexterity, or her abilities. For basic relics, try to look for anything that improves those stats in that order, but look to get Duchess' Golden Dew as a core relic.
Both Golden Dew and Crown Medal can be acquired from Duchess' Remembrance Quest, being unlocked at the end of Chapter 3 and Chapter 6 respectively. Duchess' Chalice is also unlocked via the Remembrance Quest upon completing Chapter 5.
Duchess Remembrance Quest Guide
Alternative Relics
In case you want to run an alternate loadout from the one listed above, look for effects such as:
- Increased rune acquisition for self and allies - Substitutes raw stats by giving you the chance to reach higher levels.
- Dexterity, Intelligence, or Arcane - This will either increase the flat damage of your main weapons or the status buildup of whichever status effect you have.
- Vigor - To make up for Duchess' innately low survivability.
- Ultimate Art Gauge - Allows you to have Finale ready in most scenarios.
Additionally, the Grand Tranquil Scene for Duchess from the Collector Signboard is a good alternative, as it provides Improved Critital Hits, as well as Character Skill Cooldown Reduction. It also makes you harder to detect after performing a backstab.
Duchess Best Dormant Powers
| FP-Related Dormant Powers | |
|---|---|
| FP Restoration upon Successive Attacks | Increased Maximum FP | Best Dormant Powers for Offense |
| Improved Affinity Attack Power | Blood Loss in Vicinity Increases Attack Power | Best Dormant Powers for Defense |
| Improved Flask HP Restoration | Improved Dodging |
| Improved Physical Damage Negation | |
In most cases, Duchess wants some way to replenish her FP as most of her daggers will likely come with weapon arts that she can frequently utilize.
This will be coupled with Affinity Power and Blood Loss buffs in order to ensure that she can keep up a steady stream of damage and make use of her status effects.
As for defensive options, anything that improves her HP restoration, dodging, and any form of damage negation will do wonders. In general, picking up Physical Damage Negation should be enough in most scenarios.
Duchess Best Consumables
| Item | Effect |
|---|---|
 Boiled Crab
|
Greatly boosts physical damage negation for a certain duration. |
 Pickled Turtle Neck
|
Temporarily boosts stamina recovery. |
 Starlight Shards
|
Restores FP. |
Boiled Crab and Pickled Turtle Neck are great all-rounder quality of life consumables that can make a fight more comfortable to navigate around.
Starlight Shards should be taken if you lack FP-restoring means as most of the Duchess' weapons are very generous when it comes to FP cost anyway, and a singular use of Starlight Shards can replenish your FP enough to finish the fight with.
Duchess Best Talismans
| Talisman | Effect |
|---|---|
 Millicent's Prosthesis
|
Boosts dexterity, raises attack power with successive attacks. |
 Lord of Blood's Exultation
|
Blood loss in vicinity increases attack power. |
 Carian Filigreed Crest
|
Reduced Skill FP Cost. |
These talismans serve to improve Duchess' damage by allowing her to benefit from successive attacks from Millicent's Prosthesis and gaining further advantages from Lord of Blood's Exultation whenever she or her allies proc Blood Loss.
Alternatively, you can swap out one of these talismans for Carian Filigreed Crest in order to give her some way to save FP during a fight.
How to Play Duchess
| How to Play Duchess |
|---|
|
|
Weave In And Out Of Fights
Duchess's Magnificent Poise gives her excellent mobility when it comes to evasion. Use this to your advantage by weaving in and out of fights. Go in for a few attacks, then quickly dodge out of an enemy's reach.
Pulling this off perfectly is a must as Duchess has one of the smallest pools of HP, so avoiding damage while still contributing to the overall damage output is a must.
Queue I-Frames With First Dodge
A tech you can use to dodge attacks that you don't have direct timings for is to queue your i-frames by dodging a little early, then hitting the second dodge just as the attack is about to come down.
This makes it so that if you time it well enough, you dodge the attack on either the first or second dodge.
Make The Most Of Restage
Restage is one of the more powerful Character Skills in the game thanks to its ability to reapply a portion of the damage that enemies recently received. If timed correctly, you can remove large chunks of HP from all enemies, even bosses.
Maximize this by running weapons that have sudden bursts of damage, like Bleed weapons. Additionally, make sure to keep an eye on the enemy's HP bar so that you can use Restage if ever your teammates deal large amounts of damage.
Coordinate Ultimate Arts To Maximize Restage
Restage can also repeat damage from Ultimate Arts, so coordinate with your team or pay attention for allied Arts and hit Restage to reapply their devastating damage.
Some examples of Restage-worthy arts are Wylder's Onslaught Stake, Ironeye's Single Shot, and Recluse's Soulblood Song.
Use Restage As a Means to Stagger
Aside from afflicting status effects and doing damage, you can use Restage as a way to repeat fast attacks onto enemy targets.
The goal here is to Restage for the purpose of repeating the hits and causing the enemy to stagger so that you can hit them with a critical strike.
Use Finale Whenever Needed
Finale's invisibility can be used in numerous circumstances, such as disengaging from fights to heal in safety, or to reposition for better attack angles. It also allows you to attack without worry for a while as the invisibility does not wear off when you attack.
Use Finale whenever you think your party needs it, as it could mean the difference between life or death.
Use Finale For I-Frames
If you find yourself in a pinch where a large attack is about to come down and you lack the stamina to dodge but have Finale ready, you can use it as a last resort to i-frame through the attacks.
This is especially useful for afflictions like Madness from the Equilibrious Beast or Sleep from Augur, giving you enough i-frames to outlast their ailment channeling.
Duchess Character Information
Duchess Nightfarer Profile
 This character is skilled in evasion, and can dodge quickly several consecutive times. |
|||
| Preferred Weapon | Daggers | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| HP | FP | Stamina | Strength |
| C | B | D | D |
| Dexterity | Intelligence | Faith | Arcane |
| B | A | B | C |
Duchess Ranking
| Tier List Ranking |  |
|---|
Duchess comes with good team damage and survival skills in the form of Restage and Finale, allowing her to give the team avenues to reposition and repeat heavy damage done.
This is only optimal on paper however, as she requires more situational awareness and skill to play due to her conditional ability impact and small health pool, setting her at B-tier as she lacks the means to cushion her own mistakes.
Duchess Abilities
Duchess Passive Ability - Magnificent Poise
Magnificent Poise - Dodge and attack swiftly with reduced stamina cost. |
Duchess's Passive Ability, Magnificent Poise, lets her dodge and attack at a reduced stamina cost, allowing her to perform more attacks and dodges compared to other Nightfarers with the same amount of Stamina.
Additionally, Duchess can double step, when dodging consecutive times, increasing the distance of her dodges. This lets her weave in and out of enemy attacks, allowing her to relocate to optimal positions to deal massive amounts of damage.
Duchess Character Skill - Restage
Restage - Reapply the last few seconds of team damage to enemies. |
Duchess's Character Skill, Restage reapplies all team damage that an enemy received in the last few seconds. This includes damage from weapons and skills, as well as status effects like Bleed.
Duchess Ultimate Art - Finale
Finale - Obscure nearby allies to hide from foes. |
Duchess's Ultimate Art, Finale, turns the entire team invisible. This invisibility lasts for quite a while, and can be used to run away from fights, reposition for better attacks, safely revive allies, or even to backstab enemies.
Duchess Initial Equipment
| Duchess' Dagger |
Minimum Level: 1 Attack Affinity: Slash/Pierce Damage Type: Physical |
|---|
Duchess Stats
| HP | FP | Stamina | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lvl 1 | 220 | 75 | 54 |
| Lvl 2 | 340 | 90 | 56 |
| Lvl 3 | 380 | 95 | 58 |
| Lvl 4 | 420 | 105 | 60 |
| Lvl 5 | 460 | 110 | 62 |
| Lvl 6 | 500 | 120 | 64 |
| Lvl 7 | 560 | 125 | 66 |
| Lvl 8 | 600 | 135 | 68 |
| Lvl 9 | 640 | 140 | 70 |
| Lvl 10 | 680 | 150 | 72 |
| Lvl 11 | 720 | 155 | 74 |
| Lvl 12 | 780 | 165 | 76 |
| Lvl 13 | 800 | 170 | 78 |
| Lvl 14 | 820 | 175 | 80 |
| Lvl 15 | 860 | 180 | 84 |
Elden Ring Nightreign Related Guides
All Character Classes
 Wylder |
 Guardian |
 Duchess |
 Recluse |
 Ironeye |
 Raider |
 Executor |
 Revenant |
 Scholar
|
 Undertaker |
||
How to Unlock
| Duchess |
Revenant |
| Scholar |
Undertaker |
Author
Duchess Best Build, Weapons, and Relics Guide
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What this guide fails to realise is that Duchess is a hybrid of Dex/Int. She actually has highter Int stat than Dex. To get the most out of her you should actually be looking for powerful staves and items that boosts your casting. While you can play her like in this guide and do alright, she really shines with a totally different build.