Elden Ring Nightreign: Best Duchess Build for Everdark Tricephalos

Everything you need to know about the best Duchess build and Relics for Everdark Tricephalos in Elden Ring Nightreign.

Elden Ring Nightreign (Image via FromSoftware)

Everdark Tricephalos is one of the most challenging bosses in Elden Ring Nightreign, simply due to the sheer damage it can dish out. Regardless of your Vigor and damage mitigation passives, Tricephalos can one-shot you if you let the boss stack attack up buffs. At the same time, Tricephalos, i.e., Gladius, Beast of Night, is very weak to elemental damage, specifically Holy. Stacking Holy damage can help you easily break through Glaidus’s defenses and deal a ton of damage to the boss.

However, given the agility of the new Nightfarer, stacking affinity damage on it is easier said than done. This is where Duchess and her Restage skill come into play. With an optimized Relics loadout, you can easily overpower Tricephalos with the Duchess. Here’s a comprehensive guide on the best Duchess build for Everdark Tricephalos in Elden Ring Nightreign.

Also Read: Elden Ring Nightreign: Best Duchess Build for Everdark Fissure in the Fog

Overview of the Best Duchess Build in Elden Ring Nightreign

Overview of the Duchess in Elden Ring Nightreign (Image via Bandai Namco Entertainment) — Skills and Passives of the Duchess (Image via Bandai Namco Entertainment)

Usually, we prefer to stack a few dedicated survivability passives for most of our Nightfarer builds. However, when faced against Gladius, that’s not going to be of much help. Regardless of how many damage negation passives you stack, Gladius can still one-shot most Nightfarers with its AOE attacks. As such, we’re going to focus primarily on damage buffs, and more importantly, affinity damage buffs. For the Duchess build, we went with Caligo’s Relic, which applies Frost. Furthermore, we also recommend using a Relic that grants your starting armament Bleed status.

That way, you can stack both Frost and Bleed on the boss. Additionally, make sure to bring Character Skill cooldown reduction passives as well. Duchess’s Arcane scaling, as well as her Restage skill, is going to help a lot against Gladius. We also recommend using a Holy weapon in your off-hand, preferably a Dagger. Furthermore, while it’s not necessary, we do recommend using Augur’s Relic for a bit of survivability, which will help on Day 1 and Day 2.

Best Relics for the Duchess Build

Night of the Fathom

Increased maximum HP.
Flask also heals allies.
Items confer effects to all nearby allies.

Night of the Miasma

Nearby Frostbite conceals self.
Changes the compatible armament’s skill to Chilling Mist at the start of an Expedition.
Attack power up when facing a Frostbite-afflicted enemy.

Tips To Use the Best Duchess Build Against Everdark Tricephalos

Here are some tips that will help you use the best Duchess build against Everdark Tricephalos:

Against Tricephalos, you primarily want to keep your distance until the boss has finished his combo(s). With the Duchess, dodging most of Gladius’s attacks won’t be much trouble. As for the ground slam AOE, you can avoid taking damage from it by activating your Ultimate Art right after Gladius summons the last fissure.

As for the damage opportunities, it can vary greatly depending on Gladius’s AI and the RNG you get on your run. However, the best opening for damage is when Gladius has finished his three-hit AOE combo, which can be punished with a ton of affinity damage.

In addition to that, Gladius also leaves plenty of attack opportunities after the ground slam combo. Furthermore, you can stagger Gladius with Holy Affinity damage stacks.

One thing to note when fighting Gladius is that you absolutely want to avoid buffing Gladius. You can find more details on Glaidus’s attack up buff here.

Basically, you want to avoid attacking Gladius when he starts walking sideways with the sword in one of his mouths. Hitting Gladius during this stance will apply up to three stacks of Attack Up on the boss.

Additional Notes

Ideally, for Everdark Gladius, you want to use the Rotted Woods Shifting Earth. This is mainly due to the HP buff you get from the Rotted Woods. However, we have also found Crater and Noklateo to be equally as useful, at least for solo Expeditions.