Nearly all of the bespoke Nightlord boss fights in Elden Ring Nightreign are colossal monstrous beasts of some kind, so upon completing the special Night Aspect Expedition you unlock after beating four of them in FromSoftware’s new co-op roguelike, you may be surprised to find that the final boss and ultimate bringer of the Night plague isn’t some leviathan.
Instead, it’s an armored humanoid warrior that’s barely any larger than you are — but like other Soulsborne bosses such as Slave Knight Gael and Sword Saint Isshin before him, Heolstor the Nightlord proves that size isn’t everything. Indeed, Heolstor is, without question, one of Nightreign’s toughest and most brutal bosses, as he has an aggressive moveset with tons of tricky melee combos and incredibly high damage-per-hit.
Still, his arsenal of sweeps and slices is well-telegraphed and readable, and ultimately, there’s nothing in the fight that can’t be mastered with patience and practice. To help speed up that process and ultimately get you the W over the final boss, I’ve put together a detailed guide below that goes over his weaknesses, moveset, and everything else you need to know.
Heolstor the Nightlord weakness and best classes
- Heolstor has a major weakness to Holy damage, so if possible, try to spec into it with your upgrades, find a good weapon that deals it, or use Holy Grease. Phase 2 in particular tends to wear down your healing resources, so anything you can do to help whittle his HP down faster and end the battle as soon as possible is good.
- Every character class is good against Heolstor, but Executor is the best — if you’re good at parrying. Pretty much every move in the boss’ arsenal can be reliably deflected with Executor’s Cursed Sword, and the Holy attack it gets after parrying several hits does huge damage to Heolstor each time it’s used.
- Heolstor’s Magic damage attacks are his biggest threats, though in Phase 2 he can end up using nearly any other element or status ailment as well. Build up resistances to Magic damage if possible on the run leading up to him, and also try to get mitigation against other damage types and status effects as well.
Boss guide: How to beat Heolstor the Nightlord
- At the start of the fight, you’ll face The Shape of Night, a weaker form of Heolstor with simple sword slash melee attacks. While its moves are pretty easy to roll through and give you large punish windows after they end, take care not to get careless and take too much damage; you don’t want to have to waste healing flasks on this early stage of the battle.
- Killing The Shape of Night will cause it to spread darkness all over the arena before it transforms itself into Heolstor the Nightlord, kicking off the real fight.
- One of Heolstor’s signature moves is a two-hit combo in which he imbues his greatsword with magic, thrusts forward to stab you, and then lifts it high into the air before stabbing it into the ground and creating a huge explosion. The stab is best avoided by rolling forward and through it, while the follow-up blast should be dodged by sprinting a short distance away from Heolstor before it lands. Once it does, run back in and land a few hits of your own.
- Another deadly move sees Heolstor charge up his greatsword in the same way, then swing it to send arcs of magic at you twice before delaying a leaping thrust at you. The boss tends to use this move on players that are a good distance away, so keep your eye on him so he doesn’t surprise you with it. Dodge through each of the magic arcs, then delay the final roll you’ll need to do for the thrust. Note that the thrust will close the gap between the two of you, regardless of how far away you are.
- Another common combo with three hits involves Heolstor slashing at you horizontally and then vertically with his smaller sword, then heavily delaying a sweeping slash with both blades. Roll through the first two hits, then patiently wait for the delayed sweep before dodging it as well. If you have a decently fast-attacking weapon, you can get a hit or two in during the delay. Otherwise, attack him after the combo is over.
- Heolstor may also do two quick horizontal attacks with his smaller sword, then follow it up with a heavy thrust from the weapon. Like his other moves, roll forward through the strikes and get your damage in after the combo ends.
- Heolstor also has a basic attack where he’ll perform a single leaping slash at anyone at medium distance. This attack is easy to avoid and retaliate against after; just don’t panic roll when you see him jump, and instead make sure you do it when he’s landing on and swinging at you.
- Rarely, Heolstor will also cover the entire arena in darkness before spawning and raining down explosive magic bolts that track to players and combust after a few seconds. This attack, despite how scary it looks, is actually quite easy to avoid getting hit by. Either Surge Sprint to the side to make all the bolts miss, or dodge roll spam away from them.
Heolstor the Nightlord Phase 2
Once you and your allies get Heolstor down to about 50-60% health or so, he’ll kick off Phase 2 of the fight with a special new attack. Here’s how to deal with everything in Phase 2 so you can emerge from this climactic battle victorious.
- Heolstor begins Phase 2 by floating into the air and slashing open a tear in the sky itself before charging up a huge slam that sends an explosive quake out from the impact in several directions. Steer clear of Heolstor as this is happening, and note that if you’re not standing on one of the visible lines of shifted earth that appear on the ground after the slam, you won’t be threatened. If you are, delay a sideways roll for just a moment so your invincibility frames activate just as the ground you’re on explodes.
- The color of the tear in the skybox indicates an element or ailment that Heolstor has now buffed himself with. Orange is Fire, yellow is Madness, blue is Frostbite, green is Poison, and purple is Sleep. Take note of this if you have spells or consumables that counteract these damage types or effects.
- Note that Heolstor can use this phase transition attack periodically throughout Phase 2, and each time he does, he’ll swap to a different damage type. Remember to pay attention to the color.
- Most of Heolstor’s attacks in Phase 2 are identical, but his melee combos now inflict the damage type or ailment he chose with the previously described move. Depending on your resistances, this might mean you’ll take more or less damage from them than you did in Phase 1.
- Another important thing to note is that his melee attacks will now create delayed linear shockwaves in the direction he swings or thrusts his swords, and these, too, deal damage that matches the type he chose. Make sure to perform an extra slightly delayed roll when dodging his melee combos if you end up standing on or near one of these shockwaves after avoiding the sword attacks themselves.
- Heolstor’s one new Phase 2 attack sees him perform a huge wind-up with his smaller sword before doing two heavy slashes with it followed by a delayed pair of quick ones, and then a final one before raises into the air and performs an explosive slam similar to the phase transition move. Carefully time rolls through the melee hits, and then either try to stay close to where the impact is coming and roll the slam as it happens if you’re brave or Sprint Surge away if you’d prefer to be safer. Bravery (and successful dodge timing) is rewarded with a huge counter-attack window as Heolstor recovers.
While Heolstor’s moveset is perhaps less mechanically complicated than attacks used by many other Nightlords, the fact he uses lots of different melee combos as well as combinations of fast and delayed strikes means that he’s still quite tricky. His incredibly high damage also makes mistakes incredibly punishing, but as long as you and your allies avoid most of his moves and bravely persist, you’ll eventually overcome the challenge and cleanse the Lands Between of Night for good.
Elden Ring Nightreign is a bold new experimental spinoff from FromSoftware that spices up the original game’s Soulsborne combat with a roguelike, co-op driven twist. Though it has sizable issues like only having one map or underwhelming enemy variety, it’s nevertheless going to be one of this year’s best Xbox games and best PC games for Souls fans craving action. It’s $39.99, but you can get it for $33.99 at Newegg with the promo code XVSAVE (Xbox) or EPES3Z23 (PC).
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