Elden Ring Nightreign Ironeye build, tips, and best weapons

Putting together the best Ironeye build in Elden Ring Nightreign can be quite challenging when so much is randomized and down to what you find during your expedition to trounce each Nightlord. Instead, the best build for each Nightfarer depends on what you find, who you're fighting, and even what you have available in of starting relics.

That doesn't mean you should just give up and grab whatever comes up, though. Nightreign's buildcrafting is more about prepping yourself with the right relics where possible—often ones with universal utility—and then keeping an eye out for valuable weapons, ives, and talismans while exploring and defeating bosses.

Knowing how to play your Nightfarer and coordinate their abilities with your teammates is also key to victory. Here, I'll run through the best relics, weapons, talismans, and ives for Ironeye, plus give you a little guide down below that illustrates his optimal playstyle while out on an expedition.

Elden Ring Nightreign Ironeye build

Crafting a build for a character in Nightreign is a little limited by the fact that you can only equip the best relics and hope that you'll find some good weapons and bonuses in your run-up to the final boss. Any potential build is also impacted by the fact that you want to bring or find a weapon affinity that the Nightlord is weak to, and so that's generally what you're searching for. Still, if you follow the build tips below, you should have a far easier road to victory.

Elden Ring Nightreign Ironeye best relics

As mentioned, one of the few ways you can pre-build Ironeye is through relics, despite the fact that most of the ones you get are random. Ironeye has some unique relic affixes that can come up, like "Art charge activation adds poison effect", granting poison to his Single Shot ultimate. These relics are always marked with [Ironeye], so keep a lookout for any dropping.

Otherwise, these are the relic affixes I recommend bringing where possible:

• [Ironeye] Art charge activation adds poison effect
• [Ironeye] Extends duration of weak point
• Starting armament inflicts X (if you can match a Nightlord's weakness)
• X attack power up (match the above weakness)
• Improved X resistance (match the Nightlord's damage type)
• X damage negation up (match the above damage type)
• Increased rune acquisition for self and allies
• Rune discount for shop purchases while on expedition
• Items confer effect to all nearby allies
• HP restored when using cured meats, medicinal boluses, etc. (this one also stacks with the above, letting you heal allies when you consume these)
• Character skill cooldown reduction +1
• Defeating enemies fills more of the Art gauge
• Poison and rot in vicinity increases attack power (if you are using poison or rot)
• Dexterity/vigor/endurance + (increased bow damage via scaling, health, and stamina respectively)
• Flasks also heal allies

Elden Ring Nightreign Ironeye best weapons and ives

Another way to make Ironeye strong is to pick up as many weapons with favourable ives as possible during an expedition, since having them in your inventory will grant you the ive (unless it's marked with a red hand, meaning it needs to be equipped). I also think longbows or shortbows are best for Ironeye versus greatbows, which have a slow cooldown making it likely you'll get smacked about during the Nightlord boss.

Since Ironeye is a high dexterity hero, he can also use daggers, rapiers, katanas, twinblades, and just about anything with good dex-scaling, so don't feel locked to range if you don't find a good bow.

Here are the best weapon ives I recommend watching out for:

• Improved ranged weapon attacks
• Improved X attack power (match the Nightlord's weakness you're covering)
• Improved attack power when two-handing
• HP restoration on attacks
• Improved damage negation at full HP
• Successive attacks negate damage (only if using a dagger or melee weapon instead of bow)
• FP restoration on attacks (less important but useful if you want to use weapon skill)
• Improved X damage negation (match the Nightlord's attack affinity if known)
• Add X to weapon (if you don't have the Nightlord's weakness covered)
• Improved attack power at full HP
• Defeating enemies restores HP (less useful in most Nightlord bosses)
• Improved item discovery (stacks with Ironeye's pre-existing item discovery buff)
• Less likely to be targeted

Elden Ring Nightreign Ironeye best talismans

There are also some talismans you can find by defeating scarabs that are definitely worth grabbing if you find them, or get a fort map marking their location. The best talismans for Ironeye in order are:

1. Arrow's Reach Talisman: Projectile damage drop off reduced
2. Arrow's Sting Talisman: Improved ranged weapon attacks
3. Milicent's Prosthesis: Improved dexterity and successive attacks boost attack power
4. Ritual Sword Talisman: Improves attack power at full HP
5. Ritual Shield Talisman: Improved damage negation at full HP
6. Green Turtle Talisman: Improved stamina recovery
7. Erdtree's Favor: Increase maximum HP and maximum stamina
8. Viridian Amber Medallion: Increased maximum stamina
9. Crimson Amber Medallion: Increased maximum HP
10. Crimson Seed Talisman: Improved flask HP restoration
11. Dragoncrest Shield Talisman: Improved physical damage negation
12. Pearldrake Talisman: Improved non-physical damage negation
13. Blessed Dew Talisman: Continuous HP recovery
14. Taker's Cameo: Defeating enemies restores HP

Elden Ring Nightreign Ironeye tips

In of actually playing as Ironeye, there are definitely some things to take into . The archer is one of the best classes due to his varied kit and ability to deal consistent damage at range. Here are some things to bear in mind when playing him.

1. Use your Marking skill before you activate Single Shot

Marking is a melee dash that hits enemies and marks them for increased damage, so hitting a boss with this before your party uses their ultimate Arts is definitely optimal. This skill has a very fast cooldown, so you won't have to wait long before using it.

2. You can also dodge with Marking

Marking is such a versatile skill—since it lets you dash forward to strike the enemy, you can also use it to dodge through a charging boss, or reposition to their other side for a potential backstab. If you're not confident dodging a tricky Nightlord attack, hit your skill to dash right through, marking them for extra damage in the process.

3. Bows are incredible at reviving fallen squad

Another reason Ironeye is amazing is that bows are very strong for reviving downed party . Simply target them, plink away with your bow, and before long they'll be right as rain. In particular, I recommend using shortbows as you get the Barrage skill, letting you fire lots of arrows in rapid succession for even faster revives. You can even use your Single Shot art to revive allies as a clutch move—I managed to revive two fallen allies next to each other with this in a Nightlord fight.

4. Aim for weak spots manually

One of the advantages of bringing a bow is that you can manually aim for weak spots on certain enemies. Say you're fighting a troll, for instance—aim at the head and you should get a stun. A surprising number of enemies have weak spots that'll flinch, and it's quite often their head, so have a little experiment and see who you can stun.

5. Time your Single Shot with Duchess

Ironeye's Single Shot Art also damages enemies in an AoE/fixed line in front of it, so it can be pretty powerful. If you've got a Duchess on the team, and you're on comms, make sure to warn them in advance you're going to use it so you can make sure they have the Restage skill ready to go to double the damage and effect.

6. Don't feel you have to stick to bows

Since Ironeye is a high dex Nightfarer, you can consider using dex-scaling weapons that aren't bows, such as daggers, twinblades, rapiers, katanas, or spears. This is potentially worth it if you find a dex weapon with the Nightlord's affinity weakness, but don't have a bow with it, or if you find a good weapon with bleed, frost, poison, or scarlet rot.