How to Unlock Every Revenant Summon in Elden Ring Nightreign — Necromancy Proc Rates by Enemy Type

Verified on Elden Ring Nightreign version 1.06 (June 2026). Mechanics may change with future patches.

The Revenant is the most mechanically layered Nightfarer in Elden Ring Nightreign. She runs three systems simultaneously: Necromancy phantoms raised from the battlefield, summoned family members via her character skill, and an ultimate that can turn a squad wipe into a recovery. Done right, she floods the arena with allies before the Nightlord even spawns.

The problem is that most guides stop at “Necromancy sometimes raises phantoms.” They don’t explain when it actually fires, which enemies it works on, why your phantom count varies so wildly between runs, or which of her three family summons to call for each encounter type. This guide covers all of it — including community-tested proc rate estimates and a decision table for all three summons. If you’re brand new to Nightreign, start with the Elden Ring Nightreign Beginner’s Guide before diving into character specifics.

Quick Start Checklist

New to Revenant? Do these five things before worrying about builds:

1. Unlock Duchess first. You cannot access Revenant without her. Run the Tricephalos expedition until the Old Pocketwatch drops as a relic reward, then show it to the Priestess in Roundtable Hold.
2. Buy the Besmirched Frame for 1,500 Murk from the Small Jar Bazaar (back room of Roundtable Hold). This unlocks the unlock fight.
3. Defeat Revenant in the tutorial ruins. She arrives with three phantoms — separate the adds before committing to damage on her. Ranged incantations make this manageable.
4. Win one expedition to unlock her Chapter 1 Remembrance. Completing it rewards the Small Makeup Brush relic, the single biggest early upgrade to her Summon Spirit.
5. Equip Faith-scaling weapons immediately. Revenant starts with 51 Faith and S-tier scaling — a Sacred Seal, Coded Sword, or Halo Scythe outperforms anything off-Faith from day one.

For a full breakdown of every Nightfarer and which suits your playstyle, see the Elden Ring Nightreign character guide.

How to Unlock Revenant

Revenant sits behind a two-step prerequisite chain. You need Duchess unlocked before the Besmirched Frame even appears in stock. [5]

Step 1 — Unlock Duchess. Complete the Tricephalos expedition until the Old Pocketwatch drops as a relic reward. Return to Roundtable Hold and find the Priestess where Fia stood in the base game. Select “Show her the old pocketwatch” to trigger a cutscene. Duchess unlocks immediately on the character select screen.

Step 2 — Purchase the Besmirched Frame. The Small Jar Bazaar occupies a back room of Roundtable Hold. After Duchess is available, the Besmirched Frame appears in its stock for 1,500 Murk. Buying it adds a new exclamation mark to your map.

Step 3 — Find the Phantom NPC. Head to the southeast hallway and turn sharply left. A ghostly figure stands staring at a painting. Interact with it to teleport to the tutorial combat area.

Step 4 — Defeat Revenant. The fight takes place at the crumbling ruins where you fought the Fell Omen tutorial boss. Revenant arrives with three phantom summons and uses her Character Skill actively. Take the adds down before pushing her — each phantom she summons during the fight behaves identically to her family members in actual play, so treat them as priority targets. Defeating her unlocks Revenant as a playable Nightfarer immediately. [5]

Necromancy Passive: Proc Rates and Enemy Types

Necromancy is described officially as Revenant “raising enemy ghosts to fight as allies.” [4] What the tooltip skips is the trigger logic, proc conditions, and which enemies are actually eligible.

The trigger requirement. The killing blow must come from Revenant or one of her summoned family members. If a co-op teammate finishes the enemy — even if Revenant dealt the majority of its health — Necromancy does not activate. In co-op, communicate early: you need last hits to feed your phantom pool. [2]

Community-tested proc rates. From Software does not publish a percentage for Necromancy. Community testing across multiple runs (limited sample size — treat these as practical heuristics, not confirmed values) suggests the following breakdown:

Which enemies can be raised. Necromancy works on most regular enemies, strong enemies, and some minor bosses. Confirmed compatible enemy types include Banished Knights, Demi-Human Chiefs, and Pumpkin Heads. Dense camps with multiple of these enemy types are where Revenant builds her strongest phantom advantage. [1]

Which enemies cannot be raised. All Nightlord-tier bosses are immune. Boss summons that appear mid-encounter also appear immune based on observed behavior, though this has not been officially confirmed by patch notes. [2]

Phantom behavior. Raised phantoms last approximately one minute, follow Revenant, and only target enemies she attacks. They will not peel off to protect a teammate unless you switch your own target. Multiple phantoms can coexist with no hard cap, so high-density camps with fast kill rates produce the best phantom stacking. [1]

Practical implication for solo. In solo runs, every kill is yours — which is Necromancy’s best condition. Use terrain and ranged incantations (Lightning Spear, Blackflame) to control kill timing and land consistent finishing blows. In Depths of Night specifically, three exclusive relic effects tagged [Deep][Revenant] amplify Necromancy further, including increased max FP on ability activation. [1]

Summon Spirit: Choosing Helen, Frederick, or Sebastian

Revenant’s Character Skill calls one of three family members into combat. Unlike Necromancy phantoms, family summons persist until defeated and regenerate health off-field once eliminated. Only one can be active at a time. [1][4]

Helen is the default for daytime exploration. Her dodge-capable footwork extends her uptime in forts where enemies attack from multiple angles simultaneously. Use her for days one and two unless you know the camp layout will isolate her. [7]

Frederick solves crowd volume problems. His pumpkin-head frame draws aggro reliably, and his overhead hammer swings hit wide AoE patterns. The best switch to Frederick is when entering a densely packed camp on day two or during Nightlord phases that spawn waves of minions — each minion Frederick helps kill also becomes a Necromancy proc opportunity. [7]

Sebastian never moves. His only weakness is positional inflexibility, but his damage ceiling is the highest of the three. Position him at a chokepoint near the Nightlord’s expected movement path before activating Immortal March — his Ultimate Art produces a black stream of damage capable of flinching even the largest boss models. Sebastian is the default pick for all Nightlord encounters. [7]

Respawn management. When a summon is defeated, it regenerates health off-field immediately. You can resummon once it reaches 50% HP — check the HUD indicator before pressing the skill button. Calling a summon at low HP means less sustained pressure than waiting for full recovery.

Summon selection decision tree:

• Day 1 fort or open camp → Helen
• Dense mob room or Nightlord add wave → Frederick
• Nightlord fight → Sebastian
• You’re repositioning frequently → Helen or Frederick
• Immortal March ready and boss is stationary → Sebastian

Immortal March: Timing Your Ultimate

Immortal March makes Revenant and all nearby allies temporarily invulnerable and revives downed teammates in range. [4] Necromancy phantoms are not protected — they continue taking damage during the effect.

Two reliable windows to activate it:

1. Revive clutch. A teammate drops during a Nightlord fight. Activate when you’re close enough to catch them in the revive radius. The invulnerability window gives the revived player time to reorient before taking further damage.
2. Sebastian damage phase. Position Sebastian at the boss’s feet, then activate Immortal March and trigger Sebastian’s Ultimate Art simultaneously. The combination of invulnerability and Sebastian’s black stream damage creates a sustained, safe window for burst damage at melee range.

Once you complete Chapter 7 of the Remembrance Quest and unlock the Old Portrait relic, Immortal March upgrades to a full revive with AoE damage burst at the cost of Revenant’s own HP. This is strictly better in most cases — avoid it only in solo runs where the HP cost would drop you below a survivable threshold.

Remembrance Quest: Three Chapters, Three Relics

Revenant’s Remembrance Quest spans three chapters and each one unlocks a concrete build improvement. [6]

Chapter 1 — Blade of Night Fragment

Prerequisites: Unlock Revenant as a Nightfarer, then win any expedition. Open the Journal to trigger the quest.

Steps: Speak with Duchess, then speak twice to the Guardian in the west study room of Roundtable Hold. He asks you to retrieve something from a Nightlord. Defeat Tricephalos or Darkdrift Knight on any expedition to collect the Blade of Night Fragment. Return it to the Guardian.

Reward: Small Makeup Brush — buffs Revenant’s Summon Spirit on activation and increases rune income for the entire party.

Priority: Equip this immediately. It’s her strongest early relic and directly improves her core loop.

Chapter 5 — Corrosion Memory

Prerequisites: Chapter 1 complete.

Steps: Speak with Duchess again, who sends you to the Recluse. Sit on the bench with the Recluse to enter a memory sequence. Reach the room with the doll on the chair to trigger the Corrosion boss fight. Enemies approach and detonate — summon your family member and evade until openings appear.

Reward: Revenant’s Chalice — an alternative vessel with a different relic slot configuration for players wanting to experiment with builds.

Chapter 7 — Contaminant Boss

Prerequisites: Win another expedition by defeating any Nightlord.

Steps: Speak with the Recluse. She sends you to the same room from Chapter 5. Defeat the Contaminant boss there.

Rewards: Old Portrait relic + Remembrance cosmetic (apply at the mirror in Roundtable Hold).

Unlock stage vs. summon quality:

There is no direct stat upgrade to the family summons themselves through the quest chain — the improvements are relic-based, not level-based. For a full breakdown of the Nightlord fights you need to complete Chapters 1 and 7, see the Elden Ring Nightreign Nightlord guide.

Best Build Fundamentals

Revenant’s build priorities are straightforward because her stat distribution does most of the work. Faith at 51 base with S scaling is her primary offensive stat. Everything else supports it. [1]

Weapons to prioritize:

• Revenant’s Cursed Claws (starter) — Physical and Magic damage, solid Faith scaling; hold onto these through the early game
• Coded Sword / Cipher Pata — Holy damage, S Faith scaling; particularly effective against the undead-type enemies common in Nightreign camps
• Halo Scythe — Faith scaling with a ranged skill attack; best for players who want to maintain distance while controlling kill timing for Necromancy procs

Relic priority (base vessel: Blue/Blue/Yellow):

• Blue slots: FP recovery passives (Old Pocketwatch effect restores FP on successive melee hits) and incantation damage boosts
• Yellow slot: HP or defense bonus to offset the 200 base HP starting pool

The FP loop. Revenant has no native FP recovery skill. The community workaround: cast ranged incantations until FP runs low, then close distance and land successive melee hits to trigger the Old Pocketwatch FP restore, then return to ranged casting. Build your kit around sustaining this cycle rather than committing to pure ranged burst or pure melee. [3]

Stat priorities:

1. Faith — scales incantations and Cursed Claws simultaneously
2. Mind — more FP = more casts between melee recovery windows
3. Vigor — 200 starting HP is punishing; any boost to Vigor meaningfully extends your survivability

For more detailed relic combinations and build paths across all Nightfarers, the Elden Ring Nightreign best builds guide covers the full landscape. For co-op play, Revenant pairs exceptionally with frontline characters who secure territory for her backline casting.

Player Type Quick Reference

FAQ

Does Necromancy work in Depths of Night?

Yes, and it’s stronger there than in standard expeditions. Three exclusive relic effects tagged [Deep][Revenant] specifically amplify Necromancy mechanics inside Depths of Night, including increased max FP on ability activation. Standard trigger rules still apply — you need the killing blow. [1]

Can Necromancy phantoms and family summons be on the field at the same time?

Yes. The family member summons (Helen, Frederick, Sebastian) and Necromancy phantoms run as entirely separate systems. You can have Frederick active while multiple Necromancy phantoms circle the arena — all AI allies target whatever enemy Revenant currently attacks. Neither system interferes with the other. [1][2]

Is Revenant viable for solo runs?

Viable, but demanding. Her 200 base HP punishes positioning mistakes that other Nightfarers survive more easily. The upside of solo: every kill feeds your Necromancy proc rate rather than splitting with teammates. The community consensus is that Sebastian positioned at chokepoints and used with terrain management (elevation, doorways, corridors that bottleneck enemy movement) makes solo Nightlord attempts workable. She’s a co-op-first design, though — teams that communicate about kill priority unlock significantly more of her kit than solo play allows. [Community observation, not officially confirmed.]

Sources

• Revenant — Nightreign Wiki (Fextralife)
• Necromancy — Nightreign Wiki (Fextralife)
• Revenant — Bandai Namco Europe (Official)
• How to Unlock Duchess & Revenant — Dexerto
• Revenant Remembrance Quest Guide — Game Rant
• Nightreign Revenant Guide: How to Play & Master — Fextralife
• Revenant Character Guide — Maxroll.gg

Michael R.

I've been playing video games for over 20 years, spanning everything from early PC titles to modern open-world games. I started Switchblade Gaming to publish the kind of accurate, well-researched guides I always wanted to find — built on primary sources, tested in-game, and kept up to date after patches. I currently focus on Minecraft and Pokémon GO.