Ironeye, the Assassin of the Fellowship, is a deadly archer that excels in ranged combat, giving this Nightfarer a much different core engagement style than the other characters in Elden Ring Nightreign. He may not be the highest damage dealer, but Ironeye brings a lot to the party composition on multiple fronts. If you’re interested in maining Ironeye, we’ll show you how to best utilize the ranger’s unique talents.
Ironeye brings great utility and support to the team. This is where he is strongest, since he likely won’t be sitting at the top of the DPS list compared to other straightforward damage dealers. But that doesn’t make him any less valuable. Here’s how to make the most of this ranged playstyle in FromSoftware‘s latest.
How to Best Use Ironeye in Nightreign
Elite Status
Ironeye can help greatly with applying status effects. Remember, arrows are in infinite supply in this Souls game, meaning you can keep pinging away at enemies with no concern for ammo in your inventory. This also means that you can use consumables to apply an effect to your bow to give those infinite arrows a desired status effect. Or you can simply seek out a new bow with an ailment already tied to it.
Bringing the right weapon to the Nightlord fight heavily comes down to leveraging their weakness against them. Ironeye works well in this regard, building up the status effect from a (relatively) safe distance while the rest of the team serves up the big hits. And they’ll be ready to capitalize on the moments those statuses break bosses out of high damage phases.
Heavenly Arrow
Nightreign has an interesting resurrection mechanic that sees players attacking their downed party members to get them back on their feet. This can be a difficult feat to pull off in some scenarios when an aggressive boss is making it difficult to strike your friend enough times. Fortunately, Ironeye can manage this from a distance.
Lock onto the downed friend and you can send arrow after arrow their way until they’re back in the fight. If a party member is downed during an aggressive boss fight, they can be rezzed in a single shot with Ironeye’s Ultimate Art. It penetrates enemies and environments, meaning you can position to hit multiple allies and/or the boss while still managing the revival.
X Marks the Spot
Using Ironeye’s Marking ability regularly is key to maximizing damage for you and the team. Marking sends Ironeye into a dagger wielding slide that leaves a weak spot on the enemy. You don’t have to aim for the “X”; any attack anywhere receives the damage boost. But it’s more than a small percentage damage increase. Doing enough damage before essentially “breaks” the mark and deals a solid chunk of damage. o get that extra damage and make sure everyone coordinates attacks to get the extra burst damage to proc.
Marking is also a great mobility maneuver. Use it to dash straight through a large foe or even reposition off of them. You can change direction mid-attack once you’ve made contact. Strike the boss and bounce back to safety.
Infinite Discovery
Ironeye has a strong passive ability called Eagle Eye that boosts item discovery for the entire group. This translates to more and better item drops. Anything that helps improve the chances against the RNG gods is welcome. The best part is this passive stacks with other sources of boosted item discovery, from boss rewards for example.
If you have a fairly green team that has yet to accumulate a healthy library of Relics to make the start of each run a bit easier, the increased item discovery can be a solid asset to push those drops in your favor. And don’t worry about getting too far from your teammates; the shared passive doesn’t have a distance limit. Players can all go seek out gear at different locations and still benefit from Eagle Eye.
Bow and Blade
Keep in mind that Ironeye has A scaling in Dex, allowing him to effectively wield far more than bows. While bows are easily the best fit to his playstyle, there’s no harm in adding variety to the arsenal—especially if those weapons possess passive that improve Ironeye’s survivability, like HP restoration on attacks. The A-scaling Dex opens up daggers, katanas, twinblades and more to be used with deadly efficiency.
This can be particularly useful you stumble upon a Dex weapon with the Nightlord’s weakness and have thus far been unable to secure a bow with that ailment. This ensures that Ironeye will be ready to fully contribute come day three by utilizing the weakness with a blade before returning to a ranged position.