Elden Ring Nightreign Complete Duchess Guide

The Duchess is one of the unlockable Nightfarers in Elden Ring Nightreign. Like the other playable characters, she has her own Remembrance quest with plenty of lore for you to dive into. Here’s everything you need to know about the Duchess in Elden Ring Nightreign.

How to Unlock the Duchess in Elden Ring Nightreign

First things first, the Duchess isn’t immediately available to you in Elden Ring Nightreign. You’ll need to unlock her as a playable Nightfarer first.

To do this, you’ll need get an item called the Old Pocketwatch, which is obtained from failing or clearing Expeditions. A lot of players have reported that clearing the first Expedition and defeating Gladius rewarded them with the Old Pocketwatch, but this isn’t a guaranteed drop. There have also been reports of players randomly getting it even though they failed an Expedition. In my own playthrough, I failed to kill Gladius on my first run but did so on my second run, and I got the Old Pocketwatch that way. It seems to be completely random, so this may take a bit of time.

Either way, once you get the Old Pocketwatch, go back to the Roundtable Hold and speak with the Priestess. Show her the Old Pocketwatch, and a cutscene will play. After that, the Duchess will become a selectable character that you can play as.

Elden Ring Nightreign Duchess Starting Equipment

The Duchess starts with the Duchess’ Dagger weapon, which comes with E scaling in Str and S scaling in Dex. This is a Dagger type weapon that deals Slash and Pierce damage, and comes with the Magic Dagger weapon skill. The stats are listed below:

She also gets the Duchess’ Urn, which is a Chalice item. This changes the Duchess’ characteristics to different colors, as listed below:

Elden Ring Nightreign Best Duchess Build

The thing about the Duchess is that her DPS output feels a lot lower compared to most other Nightfarers, especially Wylder and Ironeye. She requires quite a bit of investment, so I’d recommend playing as her once you have a few good Relics under your belt. If you complete her Remembrance quest (outlined below), she also gets a very powerful Relic that lets you trigger her skills to repeat attacks for even more damage. By pairing this with some powerful Bleed attacks, the Duchess gets pretty dangerous.

Best Duchess Weapons

I’ve listed my picks for the best Duchess weapons below, along with their stats. Generally speaking, you really want to stick with Daggers to get the most out of her high attack speed. Katanas are good too, but Daggers will really help her shine.

Even her starting weapon can carry you all the way to Day 3 if you have the right Relics and Talismans equipped. It’s all about making use of her attack speed, weaving in and out, using Restage, and repeat.

Best Duchess Relics

In my playthrough so far, I’ve found three Relics that feel far and away the best picks for the Duchess. Two of them can only be obtained from her Remembrance quest, while the other requires you to defeat Adel, Baron of Night in the Gaping Jaw Expedition. I’ve listed the Relics below along with their effects:

General Tips for Playing Duchess

Of course, having the best weapons and Relics won’t make a difference if you don’t actually know how to play the Duchess and use her skills effectively. Here are a few key tips to keep in mind:

• Learn to dodge. Duchess has one of the smallest HP pools, but makes up for it with high mobility. Use this to your advantage and avoid getting hit as much as you can.
• Use Restage in conjunction with your Bleed weapons. This lets you repeat your last attack, and pairing it with a Bleed proc can deal massive amounts of damage.
• Use Restage to repeat Ultimate Arts from your teammates.

One of the nifty things about the Duchess is that her Restage ability works with teammate moves as well. For instance, if you have a Wylder on your team who’s just used Iron Stake, immediately hit Restage to repeat the move for double damage. It’s pretty insane.

Elden Ring Duchess Remembrance Quest Walkthrough

The Duchess’ Remembrance quest is a pretty long, multi-step affair. Below, I’ll go over all the quest steps, including the rewards you get for each one.

Chapters 2 and 3

Chapter 1 is unlocked by default, and you’ll need to complete a few Expeditions in order to unlock Chapters 2 and 3. You simply need to go on an Expedition and farm Memory Fragments by defeating enemies and bosses. Enemies aren’t guaranteed to drop Memory Fragments though, so you may have to farm them for a while.

Either way, once you have enough Memory Fragments, head back to the Roundtable Hold and examine the Duchess’ journal to read through Chapters 2 and 3.

The Golden Dew

Alright, now we’re getting into the fun bits. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of what you need to do for this next sequence:

1. Talk to Raider in the main room.
2. Talk to Wylder just past the Journal room.
3. Talk to Raider in the main room again.
4. Start an Expedition and check your map to find an orange quest marker in the southwest. Head there.
5. Fight the Guardians of the Dew and examine the plant to get the Golden Dew.
6. Go back to Roundtable Hold and give the Golden Dew to Wylder, who will then give you the Faded Iron Coins.
7. Talk to Raider.
8. Talk to Revenant in the training/garden area.
9. Talk to Iron Menial, then interact with the ghostly spring that appears after that.

Completing these steps will reward you with the Golden Dew Relic.

Wylder

This next part of the Duchess’ Remembrance quest is pretty straightforward. After reading Chapter 5 of the Duchess’ Remembrance, you’ll need to look for Wylder.

Head towards the training area where the Revenant typically is, and you’ll get an in-game prompt that says, “A rich aroma drifts from somewhere nearby.” Wylder’s location will now be marked on your map, and you can find him sitting against a wall in the area.

Talk to Wylder, then choose to eat the pita bread. This will reward you with the Pita Bread item.

After that, talk to Iron Menial and say, “My mother”. You’ll then be rewarded with the Duchess’ Chalice.

The Weathervane’s Words

This next bit of the quest involves a bit of combat, but here’s the step-by-step breakdown:

1. Talk to Raider in the dining room and choose the dialogue options “Maybe we shouldn’t defeat the Nightlord” and “Explain”.
2. Start any Expedition and head to the objective marker in the northeast part of the map.
3. Kill the Fallen Mercenaries that spawn here and collect the Weathervane’s Words item.
4. Head back to Roundtable Hold and talk to Raider again.
5. Go to the beach in the southeast to fight Revenant.
6. Interact with the ghostly spring that shows up after defeating Revenant.

Completing this part of the quest will reward you with the Crown Medal Relic and the Double Sided Coin.

Blessing the Iron Coin

We’re now at the final part of the Duchess’ Remembrance quest. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Read Chapter 8, then interact with the table at Roundtable Hold to bless the Iron Coin. This rewards you with the Blessed Iron Coin.
2. Talk to the Iron Menial and give him the Blessed Iron Coin.
3. Find Wylder’s position on your map, then talk to him. Choose the dialogue option that says “Let us defeat the Nightlord.”
4. Talk to the Iron Menial again to complete the quest.

Upon completing the Duchess’ Remembrance quest, you’ll get the Blessed Iron Coin Relic, as well as her Remembrance skin.

All Duchess Skins

Listed below are all of the skins and outfits you can get for the Duchess in Elden Ring Nightreign, as well as how to unlock them.

Skins in Elden Ring Nightreign have no bearing on gameplay, and are just there for cosmetic purposes. After clearing two Expeditions successfully, the dresser will become available in the Roundtable Hold, where you can start buying new skins and swapping them out.