Nightreign - Recluse Guide - Skills, Equipment, Scalings, Relics & More

Here's a quick look at Relic Effects that work well with Recluse:

• Bone-Like Stone
• Night of the Fathom
• Attack power permanently increased for each evergaol prisoner defeated
• Stonesword Key in possession at start of expedition
• Increase rune acquisition for self and allies

Passive: Elemental Defense

"Discover affinity residues that can be collected to replenish FP."

Any target that recently took elemental damage, such as Magic, Fire, Lightning or Holy from any source, Recluse included, can be used to collect elemental residue. The type of this residue depends on the last instance of damage dealt to an enemy. Collecting these elemental residues will replenish Recluse's FP, allowing her to constantly barrage enemies with sorceries and incantations.

Each collected residue is stored, and can later be used to fuel Recluse's character skill - Magic Cocktail. Depending on the combination of the residues, the skill will have different effects - from damaging projectiles, to healing areas.

Character Skill: Magic Cocktail

"Collect the affinity residues of targets to fire an affinity-exploiting magic cocktail."

Recluse's character skill makes her an incredibly versatile spellcaster with high skill ceiling. Each use of Magick Cocktail allows Recluse to cast one of 14 different spells, depending on the elemental residues stored by using her passive ability. These spells vary in their effects, damage and supportive capabilities. Some spells provide AoE damage, others allow Recluse to heal herself and allies, or temporarily nullify the FP cost of spells for a short period of time.

In our article on the Magic Cocktail, you can find in-depth information on specific effects of different Magic Cocktails and their combinations.

Ultimate: Soulblood Song

"Unleash forbidden blood chant to brand nearby foes with blood sigils."

Soulblood Song marks nearby enemies with blood sigils for approximately 10 seconds. Attacking marked enemies restores HP and FP of Recluse and her allies, making it an invaluable supportive skill in any scenario, offering much needed survivability and additional fuel for using Ashes of War or casting more spells.

During the cast, Recluse gains invincibility frames (i-frames), which is also useful, in case you need that last-second dodge.

In this table, you can find all possible effects and primary elemental residues combinations that are required to trigger them, by using Recluse's Magic Cocktali character skill:

Important note: keep in mind, that some effects can be made out of more than one combination of elemental residues. You can find out more about the particular combinations in our dedicated Magic Cocktail guide.

Starting Equipment

Recluse starts each run in Limveld with Recluse's Staff, which is eqipped with Glintstone Pebble and Glintstone Arc spells. In Elden Ring: Nightreign, each catalyst comes with 2 random spells attached to it, so it is advisable to seek better spells.

However, for early game, these two spells provide Recluse with both solid single-target damge (Glintstone Pebble), and AoE (Glintstone Arc), allowing her to deal with just about any situation, while giving her immediate access to one of fourteen effects from her Magic Cocktail character skill.

Recluse doesn't start with any weapon that can be utilized for melee damage, so be sure to equip something just for the backup damage, in case you run out of FP in the middle of the fight.

Relics

As any other class, Recluse gains access to 3 relic slots - GREEN, GREEN, and RED. Different relics can be slotted in these sockets in Roundtable Hold, after you obtain them. This will allow Recluse to receive powerful passive bonuses, which will make future runs in Limveld noticeably easier.

Note that the relic sockets for your Nightfarer can be changed by purchasing certain items from a Merchant.

In Elden Ring: Nightreign, you can spend your runes at the Site of Grace to level up your character. Leveling up increases Hit Points, Focus Points (Mana), and Stamina. While not explicitly shown in the game, it also increases hidden attributes, such as Strength, Dexterity, Faith, or Intelligence.

Attributes

Recluse, in particula,r has high scaling in Intelligence, Faith, and Mind, giving her high FP pool, and ability to utilize catalysts and spells to their fullest potential.

Credit to Zullie the Witch for finding!

Hit Points, Focus Points and Stamina Growth

Out of all Nightfarers, Recluse has among the lowest HP pool, but highest amount of Focus Points, allowing her to barrage enemies with variety of spells, while being severely punished for taking hits. Below, you can find a table showcasing Recluse's HP, FP and Stamina growth per level.

As with every other character in Elden Ring: Nightreign, Recluse comes with her own strengths and weaknesses.

Her particular strengths are:

• Once you’ve mastered Recluse, her damage potential is debatably unmatched.
• Recluse is the best character to utilize catalysts in Nightreign, due to her high FP pool and mana sustain from her passive ability, and her Intelligence growth with each level. This will allow you to continuously barrage your enemies with spells from afar.
• Recluse is highly versatile class because of her character skill, allowing her to deal damage and support allies.
• With good positioning, she can stay afar, dealing damage from safe distance.

Her particular weaknesses are:

• Recluse is arguably the hardest character in Nightreign to both pick up and to master, due to the timing required to collect the correct elemental residues, as well as knowledge required to use the correct spells when the situation calls for it.
• She is very heavily focused on using Glintstone Staves and sorceries, making her much less effective with weapons. However, it is possible to build her into a melee character with correct spells, such as Carian Slicer.
• Recluse is a character with the lowest defenses and HP pool in the game, making it extremely punishing to get hit, and much more harder to fight in melee range.

As it was mentioned before, Recluse is heavily focused around being a spell caster. This makes her an extremely potent characters when it comes to casting spells and providing ranged DPS, but week in melee combat using weapons.

The best Recluse builds are centered around supporting her core strengths. It is mandatory to have either Glintstone Staff or Sacred Seal equipped at all times, preferrably both to get access to the variety of spells, since each of them comes with 2 random spells. Both sorceries and damaging incantations are great options to create elemental residues to use in her Magic Cocktail.

If you need a backup weapon, it is recommended to find and keep something with Magic or Frost infusion. If you're lucky to find either Dark Moon Greatsword or Moonveil, that could be a great backup for damage, since they provide ranged damage options that scale with Intelligence.

Your primary choice of catalysts will depend not only on their spell scaling, but also on the spells found on them.

For weapon passives, anything that increases Recluse's spell casting abilities goes. Passive such as Improved Sorceries (+11%), Improved Charged Sorceries (15%), Reduced Spell & Incantation FP Cost (+15%) are excellent in complimenting her playstyle.

For dormant powers, you want the same - powers to increase your spellcasting potency. Noteable examples are:

• Increased Maximum FP
• Increased Sorcery & Incantation Duration
• Reduced FP Consumption

In Nightreign, Remembrance Quests unlock lore-based tasks for each Nightfarer, allowing you to unlock class-exclusive rewards like skins, Relics, and Relic color configurations.

Below, you'll find the Recluse's quest rewards:

How to Get All Recluse Remembrance Quest Rewards

Chapter 2

Chapter 4

• How to get Vestige of Night

Chapter 6

• How to get Bone-Like Stone

Chapter 7