Elden Ring Nightreign‘s first DLC, The Forsaken Hollows, is out later this week. Ahead of its release, publisher Bandai Namco spilled the beans on which of the roguelike multiplayer game’s field bosses have killed players the most. Anyone who has played for any length of time probably expected Bell Bearing Hunter to be crowned the most deadly, but that honor has actually gone to the Royal Carian Knight. Quiet frankly, I don’t believe it.
The newly released info graphic lists the “8 most deadly field bosses.” Field bosses are the major enemies that exist at various points on the map during the day. Strong ones give players better loot and more levels. Also an early grave. Here’s the ranking according to Bandai Namco:
- Royal Carian Knight
- Draconic Tree Sentinel
- Erdtree Avatar
- Bell Bearing Hunter
- Pot-Troll
- Black Blade Kindered
- Death Rite Bird
- Ulcerated Tree Spirit
The top two aren’t completely out of left field. Both horseback bosses have tons of mobility, are brutal up close, and will wreck you with long-ranged magic attacks, especially if you’re trying to escape. Most of the times I’ve died to one of them, I wasn’t even trying to fight them, just climb up a cliff. Erdtree Avatar is a little more surprising to me. He’s brutal if you’re not ready to fight him, but pretty predictable and easy to avoid once you’ve got decent levels and equipment. So is Death Rite Bird at number seven. I always avoid the Bird at all costs.
Speaking of avoiding bosses, that brings us to Bell Bearing Hunter. The unsuspecting field boss walks softly but carries a big sword. Many a Nightreign player has encountered him, though “oh yeah, I got this,” and then after landing their first attack and nearly being one-shotted in response, immediately realized “oh no, I actually don’t got this at all.” He’s become a meme in the community for being the one boss everyone knows to avoid. You can tell you’re playing with a new player if you encounter Bell Bearing and they don’t immediately keep running.
So what’s he doing at number four? There are two possibilities here. 1.) He’s not actually the hardest, and despite his legendary status on the Nightreign subreddit and Discord, players have a way harder time with the Royal Carian Knight and Draconic Tree Sentinel. Or 2.) Bell Bearing has killed fewer players because they never bother fighting him to begin with. It all comes down to whether Bandai Namco is measuring total body count or averaging those proportional to the actual number of encounters. Carian Knight might have killed more players, while Bell Bearing actually has a higher win-rate against them.
I’ve asked Bandai Namco for clarification. The mythmaking around Nightreign‘s most legendary boss is at stake. All I know for sure is that when The Forsaken Hollows goes live on December 4, I’m running past both Carian Knight and Bell Bearing.
