Know Your Gear: Where to Find the Sword of Night in Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree and How to Use It
Another excellent Katana makes it to Elden Ring. Our build lets you make the most of the Sword of Night's fantastic weapon art to tear through your enemies in Shadow of the Erdtree.
Katanas have always been incredible weapons in FromSoftware games with their quick move sets and creative special attacks. Shadow of the Erdtree takes things up a notch, with the DLC adding a couple of solid options for Dexterity-focused builds to a roster of Katanas in Elden Ring.
The Sword of Night is among the best-hidden weapons in the game, requiring that you forego a powerful Spirit Summon to get it. However, choosing to wield this weapon lets you unleash flurries of quick strikes that your enemies will find very hard to deal with in the heat of battle. All it takes is a bit of getting used to.
Harnessing the Shadows in the Land of Shadow
You can pick up the Sword of Night at the very end of Count Ymir’s questline, which sees you dive into the origins of the Two Fingers and take on Metyr, Mother of Fingers, in an epic showdown. The fight essentially ends Ymir’s ambitions to bring his own version of the Two Fingers to life, angering him and his bodyguard, Swordhand of Night Jolan.
After defeating Ymir and Jolan in successive battles, you have the option of giving Jolan the Iris of Grace or the Iris of Occultation. While giving her the former unlocks her Spirit Ashes to use in battle, the latter is what you must give her to get your hands on this exquisite weapon. The Witching Hour Slash weapon art more than makes up for it, though!
Know Your Gear: Where to Find the Sword of Night in Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree and How to Use It
Our Sword of Night build capitalizes on its weapon art to grant you huge damage buffs while in combat, in addition to capitalizing on Bleed damage to take out huge chunks out of your enemies’ health bars. Its native Bleed build-up works very well in this regard, allowing you to equip Talismans that grant you bonus damage every time you trigger it in combat.
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Beginning with your Stats, you will need high Vigor (60) and Endurance (30) in order to be able to trade some damage while having enough Stamina to use the Witching Hour Slash multiple times before backing away to recharge. Dexterity (80) and Arcane (60) are also important, and you can invest a few points into Faith or Intelligence depending on the spells you want to use, ensuring that you have enough Strength (11) to wield the weapon properly.
For your Talismans, the Rotten Winged Sword Insignia/Millicent’s Prosthesis makes you deal more damage with successive attacks, granting you a buff to your damage every time you use the Sword of Night’s weapon art. The Lord of Blood’s Exultation does the same thing every time you trigger Bleed on an enemy, a given considering your high Arcane stat.
Next, the Shard of Alexander grants a flat boost to the damage output from your weapon art. Your fourth Talisman could be the Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman for some defense or the Crusade Insignia for bonus damage on every kill. You could also choose the Two-Headed Turtle Talisman to give your Stamina regeneration a boost in case you find yourself falling short while in combat.
Crystal Tears that boost either Dexterity or Arcane work well with this build, but you could also choose ones that fit your playstyle while you get comfortable using this weapon. The same applies to your choice of armor, with the only caveat being that you get your Poise as close to 51 as you possibly can while maintaining a Medium Equip Load in order to be able to dodge better.
Using this weapon correctly requires that you time your input for its Weapon Art well, as the Witching Hour Slash needs to be charged up in order to unleash the deadliest form of its attacks. This means that you should press and hold down your input as you approach your opponent, watching out for the flash on your blade, which precludes the attack.
While you cannot control when the attack launches, a little bit of skillful timing should let you hit your opponent with it, triggering all of the above buffs from your Talismans with ease. Follow it up with basic attacks to keep the pressure on, or dodge away based on the situation. You could always use the attack without fully charging it up, although the slashes that you get from it deal less damage.
Having high Poise from your armor ensures that you do not get knocked out of the animation before your attacks launch, and the Armor of Night that you can pick up from Bonny Gaol is a great choice if fashion is important to you. It is the same armor that Jolan wears and is accessible by taking the jarlift near the boss room all the way to the top. You can also pick up her shield nearby to complete the set, although there are better options out there.
You are now ready to unleash barrages of attacks on your enemies in Shadow of the Erdtree with your new build. If the Star-Lined Sword, another Katana in the game, is more appealing to you, we have a similar build that you can try out. For anything you may need in Elden Ring or Shadow of the Erdtree, we have detailed guides to help you on your way.
