Elden Ring Nightreign Guide | How To Play Wylder

If you are playing Wylder in Elden Ring Nightreign and want to learn how to use him effectively, this guide is for you. It covers his core attributes—stats, skills, relics, weapons—and how to integrate him into a party. 

Wylder is an excellent all-around melee character, especially ideal for first-time melee players because his large HP pool makes him tanky and hard to kill, and his stamina allows sustained fights. However, his FP is very low, so you won’t rely heavily on weapon skills or spells. 

His strength and dexterity are strong, letting you equip a wide range of physical damage melee weapons, but do not invest in magic damage since his intelligence, faith, and arcane scaling are poor. As soon as you spawn, prioritize reaching level 2: that HP boost will make you much tankier and ready to tackle content faster.

Stats and Early Priorities

Wylder starts with exceptionally high HP, making him perfect for front-line combat. Your stamina is decent—enough for continuous attacks, blocks, and dodges—but your FP is minimal, so avoid builds dependent on weapon skills or spells. 

Because your strength and dexterity are both solid, focus on physical weapons that scale with those stats (including fire or lightning variants). As soon as you appear in the world, level up to 2. That early HP increase not only makes you harder to kill but also enables you to face more formidable early-game enemies without dying repeatedly.

Since your magic-related stats (intelligence, faith, arcane) are low, do not invest in sorceries, incantations, or arcane-scaling weapons. Instead, allocate future attribute points primarily to health (to further boost survivability), stamina (to sustain fights), strength, and dexterity (to increase damage output). 

Once your core qualities—health, stamina, and attack power—are sufficiently high, you can fine-tune your build via relics, weapons, and armor.

Skills

Six Sense (Passive Ability)

Your passive ability, Six Sense, lets you cheat death once per life. If you take a fatal blow in combat, you survive with a small amount of health and gain a chance to recover. Whenever you die and respawn or rest at a Site of Grace, Six Sense replenishes. 

As a new player, you will likely die often, so Six Sense gives you critical forgiveness, letting you learn enemy patterns without restarting entire runs. Always run by every Site of Grace you see—whether or not you notice the Six Sense trigger—so that you can restore it for the next fight. You do not need to activate Six Sense manually; it works automatically when you would otherwise die.

Clawshot (Character Skill)

Your Clawshot grappling hook can latch onto enemies or terrain, either pulling them toward you (if they are small enough) or pulling you toward them (if they are larger). Against smaller foes, you typically pull them in to close the gap; against larger enemies, the hook pulls you toward them, letting you dodge or reposition quickly. 

You can also use Clawshot to traverse terrain, close gaps, or climb faster without expending stamina. It has an eight- to nine-second cooldown, allowing you to use it frequently. Hitting a shield-bearing enemy with Clawshot can guard break them, and it deals a small amount of damage—enough to finish off weaker foes once you have leveled a bit.

Clawshot’s most significant advantage is gap closing: many bosses are very mobile, so instead of sprinting (which drains stamina and leaves you vulnerable), use Clawshot to close distance and maintain sustained melee pressure. 

Hold the skill button to aim precisely—this is especially useful when you need to latch onto a specific boss limb or a distant switch in the environment. If you mistime Clawshot, you might end up pulled into awkward boss attacks; practice the timing to avoid unexpected hits.

Onslaught Stake (Ultimate Art)

Your ultimate art, Onslaught Stake, charges over time and charges faster whenever you attack or defeat enemies. When activated, you summon a massive Iron Stake that explodes in front of you, dealing heavy stance damage (the kind that builds an enemy’s stagger meter) and moderate direct damage. 

Against bosses, Onslaught Stake can rapidly fill their stance meter, making it easier for you and your party to land follow-up critical attacks. You can hold down the activation button to channel Onslaught Stake, consuming more of its gauge for increased stance damage and direct damage. 

While you charge and release, you gain brief invulnerability frames (I-frames), so you can even tank through some boss attacks if you time the release well.

However, bosses often roam unpredictably. If you hold Onslaught Stake too long from a distance, they might walk out of range, causing you to waste the ultimate. To avoid that, consider clawshotting into a boss, then immediately firing Onslaught Stake—this maximizes the chance to hit and benefits from the i-frames. 

Learning a boss’s movement patterns helps you anticipate openings to charge and release Onslaught Stake effectively. If you can’t predict movement, always use Onslaught Stake immediately after closing distance with Clawshot; even a partially charged ultimate deals significant stance damage.

Weapons and Passives

Since you will mostly rely on melee, choose weapons that emphasize Wylder’s strengths in strength and dexterity. Seek out weapons that inflict status effects—bleed, poison, or Scarlet Rot—because even if you miss some hits, status damage still ticks over time. 

For example, a Uchigatana or Nagakiba with bleed scaling quickly builds bleed stacks, especially if your party also stacks bleed. If you find a weapon that applies both poison and Scarlet Rot, you can force bosses to endure multiple status drains simultaneously, providing persistent pressure while you reposition.

Wylder excels at breaking enemy stance: Onslaught Stake helps, but your heavy and charged weapon swings with Great Hammers, Great Swords, or Great Axes also inflict substantial stance damage. 

Breaking a boss’s stance opens a critical window: you and your teammates can pour on damage while they are staggered. Focus on stance damage alongside raw health damage throughout each fight.

Although Wylder can act as a tank, he is not as dedicated a tank as the Guardian class (the Guardian has reduced stamina damage when blocking and a skill that can pick up allies). If you plan to tank a boss, equip a sturdy shield to mitigate strong hits and keep yourself alive. 

Don’t underestimate the importance of blocking—powerful AoEs can easily kill you if you have no shield. However, if you are in a party with a Guardian, consider dropping your shield and doubling down on stance-breaking and damage-dealing instead; let the Guardian take most of the hits.

When choosing passive effects via equipment or consumables, prioritize anything that boosts health recovery, reduces incoming damage, or otherwise increases survivability. Melee characters in Nightreign face massive AoE sweeps—often covering 270° or 360°—that can catch you off guard. 

Equipment or consumables that increase maximum HP, enhance stamina, or grant healing on kill/critical strike are invaluable. Staying alive is more beneficial to your team than dealing slightly more damage—if you constantly die, your team’s overall DPS (damage per second) drops significantly.

Final Thoughts

Wylder is one of Nightreign’s most versatile classes. Because you start with solid strength and dexterity, you can experiment with many melee weapons, and each run can feel unique based on the gear and relics you discover. 

Unlike classes with fixed builds, Wylder’s potential evolves continually as you pick up new weapons, relics, and consumables. To familiarize yourself with unfamiliar weapons or skill animations, visit the Sparring Grounds or consult an online wiki—sometimes, a gun that felt mediocre in Elden Ring has surprising utility in Nightreign.

Ultimately, success as Wylder hinges on knowing when to tank, when to break an enemy’s stance for you and your team, and when to apply status effects. Tailor your build to your party’s composition: if someone else plays the tank role, focus on offense; if you are the main tank, invest in HP and stamina. 

By leveling early, mastering your skills, and choosing relics to match each encounter, you will find Wylder excels in both solo runs and multiplayer sessions.

Also, check our Elden Ring Nightreign Review and other guides below:

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