Bandai Namco finally spilled the beans on Elden Ring Nightreign's player statistics back in December, celebrating the launch of The Forsaken Hollows DLC, and the numbers are a real head-scratcher. In a move that surprised absolutely no one who's been paying attention, the community has collectively decided that the Bell Bearing Hunter—the memetically terrifying field boss—isn't even in the top three deadliest encounters. Instead, the podium is occupied by the Erdtree Avatar, Draconic Tree Sentinel, and Royal Carian Knight in ascending order of body count. Cue the record scratch. 🤔
Now, before you start sharpening your pitchforks, consider this: maybe the Bell Bearing Hunter's reputation precedes him so thoroughly that players simply stopped picking a fight. As the old saying goes, discretion is the better part of valor—or in this case, skipping the boss entirely. Our own crew has a strict "nine times out of ten, we nope out" policy when that guy shows up. So his low ranking might just be a testament to his infamy rather than his difficulty. The Erdtree Avatar, on the other hand, is a slow, predictable punching bag in the base game, but in Nightreign, it's been hitting the gym. It's surprisingly tanky, hits like a freight train, and is best saved for late in a run. Underestimating it is a one-way ticket to the respawn screen.
Draconic Tree Sentinel, meanwhile, remains the same sniper-fireball-throwing cretin we all know and loathe. One-hit kills from across the arena? Yes, please. And Royal Carian Knight—Loretta to her friends—taking the top spot is a genuine eyebrow-raiser. She's tough, sure, but number one? The castle-defending Pot Trolls at number five deserve a special shout-out: we hate you guys, sincerely. 🍯
The top two emotes are a delightful slice of community culture: the "I'm just gonna take five" Spread Out sits at number two, while the "T-pose for dominance" Golden Order Totality claims the most-used crown. Honestly, nothing says "we just crushed a run" like aggressively T-posing at the final boss's corpse. It's the universal sign of victory, and we're here for it.
And then there's the big number: 1.2 billion revives. That's a lot of "you died" screens. Bamco also revealed the most popular skins for each Nightfarer, which we can use as a rough proxy for overall popularity. Assuming no weird skin-related skews, here's the power ranking:
| Nightfarer | Skin Popularity (millions) | Skin Name |
|---|---|---|
| Wylder | 18 | Abysswalker |
| Ironeye | 17.3 | Sellsword |
| Recluse | 11.2 | Darkness |
| Duchess | 10.3 | Darkness |
| Raider | 9.6 | Remembrance |
| Executor | 8.7 | Darkness |
| Revenant | 8.6 | Darkness |
| Guardian | 4.1 | Dawn |
Poor Guardian. The avian halberdier sits at the bottom of the pile, and it's hard to see its fortunes improving. Maybe it's the beak? Or the fact that its moveset feels like it was designed by someone who hates birds. Either way, we'll pour one out for the Guardian—just kidding, we'll never play it either. 😅
The Forsaken Hollows brought two new Nightfarers, and they absolutely whip ass. The Scholar is a bizarre support/damage hybrid that's surprisingly fun, but the Undertaker is the real star: mobile, powerful, aggressive, and sporting an ultimate ability that we pray never gets nerfed. If you haven't tried the Undertaker yet, what are you waiting for? Go channel your inner gravedigger and start wrecking face.
So there you have it: Nightreign's community has spoken, and apparently, we're all a bunch of T-posing, Bell Bearing Hunter-skipping, Erdtree Avatar-hating maniacs. And honestly? We wouldn't have it any other way.