How to Unlock Duchess and Revenant in Elden Ring Nightreign: Exact Expedition Conditions

Duchess and Revenant are the only two Nightfarers in Elden Ring Nightreign that don’t appear at the character selection shrine from the start. Most players discover this by accident — they finish their first expedition, look for two new roster slots, and find them missing. Both characters sit behind a specific unlock chain, and the second one (Revenant) won’t budge until you’ve completed the first. This guide covers the exact expedition conditions for both, how much Murk you need and how to earn it efficiently, and a step-by-step walkthrough of the Night Idol boss fight that actually stands between you and Revenant.

For a full breakdown of every Nightfarer’s abilities and stat scaling, see our Elden Ring Nightreign Character Guide.

Quick Start: 6 Steps to Both Unlocks

Select the Tricephalos expedition from the expedition table at Roundtable Hold.
Survive all three days and defeat Gladius, Beast of Night on Night 3 to receive the Old Pocketwatch.
Give the Old Pocketwatch to the Priestess (white-cloaked NPC near the round table) — a cutscene unlocks Duchess.
Earn 1,500 Murk from expeditions (typically 1 full Nightlord clear or 2–3 partial runs).
Buy the Besmirched Frame from the Small Jar Bazaar in Roundtable Hold, then reload. An exclamation mark appears on your map in the east wing.
Interact with the ghost phantom, defeat the Night Idol and her summons, and Revenant joins your roster.

Gladius Beast of Night Tricephalos expedition boss in Elden Ring Nightreign — Defeating Gladius on the Tricephalos expedition drops the Old Pocketwatch needed to unlock Duchess.

How to Unlock Duchess

Step 1: Run the Tricephalos Expedition

Tricephalos is the mandatory starting expedition — it unlocks six additional expeditions on completion and is the only source of the Old Pocketwatch key item. Select it from the expedition table, then clear the three-day cycle to reach the Night 3 boss encounter: Gladius, Beast of Night.

Gladius is a three-headed wolf with a chain-sword mounted on its back. Two damage types give you a significant advantage here:

Holy is its primary weakness. Holy weapons and incantations stance-break Gladius faster and reduce how frequently it splits into separate wolves.
Sleep is a secondary vulnerability. A sleeping Gladius cannot attack during the window, buying time for a burst phase.

At roughly 75% health, Gladius splits into three wolves that share a single HP pool. When this happens, resist the urge to spread damage across all three. Pick the wolf carrying the chain-sword and focus everything on it — damage to any wolf reduces the shared total, and splitting your DPS slows the phase down considerably. Once enough damage lands, the three wolves merge back into Gladius for the final push.

Step 2: Collect the Old Pocketwatch

The Old Pocketwatch drops as part of your expedition reward screen after defeating Gladius. According to the Fextralife wiki, it should be a guaranteed item on your first Gladius victory [1][10]. If you join a co-op group and another player defeats Gladius, you also receive the Pocketwatch in your expedition rewards — you don’t need to land the killing blow yourself [9].

One thing most guides skip: the Old Pocketwatch is also a Green Relic. It provides Dexterity +3 and restores FP on successive attacks, making it a solid early-expedition slot for Duchess herself. Critically, giving it to the Priestess does not remove it from your Relic inventory — it remains available at the Relic Rites Altar after the cutscene [8]. Don’t bin it before checking.

Step 3: Give It to the Priestess

Back at Roundtable Hold, find the Priestess — a white-cloaked NPC standing near the central round expedition table. She resembles the Firekeeper from Dark Souls 3, which is the easiest visual identifier [9]. Hand over the Old Pocketwatch and a short cutscene plays. Duchess is now available at the shrine next to the expedition table and can be selected before any future run.

For a detailed breakdown of Duchess’s abilities — including how to time Restage windows and optimal Finale usage — see our Elden Ring Nightreign Duchess Guide.

How to Unlock Revenant

The Dependency Gate

Revenant’s unlock chain does not begin until Duchess is available. The Small Jar Bazaar in Roundtable Hold will not display the Besmirched Frame for purchase until after the Priestess cutscene completes. There is no workaround — unlock Duchess first.

Step 1: Earn 1,500 Murk

Murk is Nightreign’s expedition currency, earned from every run whether you complete it or wipe early. According to community farming guides, approximate Murk yields by performance tier are [7]:

Run Outcome	Approximate Murk Earned	Runs to 1,500 Murk
Day 1 wipe	400–500	3–4 runs
2–3 nights, some bosses cleared	~1,000	2 runs
Full Nightlord clear	2,000–3,000+	1 run

These are community estimates rather than hard-coded values — actual Murk scales with enemies defeated and bosses cleared per expedition [7]. The key advantage: Murk is death-proof. Wiping mid-expedition does not forfeit earned currency, which makes partial runs a reliable income source even when struggling with the current difficulty.

If you’re a few hundred short of 1,500, sell duplicate Relics at the Relic Rites Altar. Rare Relics yield meaningfully more per sale than Commons. Don’t sell Relics you’re actively using — only duplicates.

Step 2: Buy the Besmirched Frame

Head to the Small Jar Bazaar in Roundtable Hold (west section of the hub area) and purchase the Besmirched Frame for 1,500 Murk [6]. This is a Blue relic with the effect “Taking attacks improves attack power, Faith +3” — it’s useful for Faith-scaling characters (particularly Revenant and Recluse) but its main function here is triggering the unlock sequence.

Step 3: Find the Ghost

After purchasing the Besmirched Frame, reload Roundtable Hold (fast travel away and return, or return from an expedition). An exclamation mark appears on your map in the east wing of Roundtable Hold. Walk there and you’ll spot a ghostly female figure staring at a painting on the wall. Interact with her to begin the Night Idol encounter.

Night Idol boss fight arena in Elden Ring Nightreign Revenant unlock — The Night Idol fight locks you to Level 6. Use the stone pillars to block Sebastian’s beam and isolate Helen first.

The Night Idol Fight: Step-by-Step

The Night Idol encounter is a 1-versus-4 gank fight set in an instanced arena modelled on the Fell Omen’s area. It comes with two unusual rules that most unlock guides don’t explain:

Level 6 lockdown: Regardless of your current Nightfarer progression, you enter this fight at Level 6 with starter-tier equipment. Relics from your expedition loadout do not carry in [5].
No respawn: If you die, the fight ends and resets. Interact with the ghost again to retry. Wylder’s Sixth Sense passive (cheat death once) does trigger, but it does not save the run if you die afterward [5].

The Four Enemies

Enemy	Threat	Kill Priority	Notes
Helen	High	First	Agile rapier user with low HP; deals heavy close-range damage and fires a crossbow at range
Night Idol (Revenant)	Moderate	Chip throughout	Claw flurries, Discus of Light (avoid outbound and return), Lightning Strike, holy disc volleys
Frederick	Low	Separate, then ignore	Pumpkin Head with a maul; slow and heavily telegraphed; strafe to counter
Sebastian	Minimal	Avoid via pillars	Stationary skeleton turret; beam attack is completely blocked by the arena’s stone pillars [4]

Helen is the immediate priority because she’s the only summon fast enough to punish a recovery dodge. She has low HP, so two or three focused attacks are usually enough. Once Helen is down, the room becomes significantly more manageable.

The Night Idol herself fights throughout — don’t tunnel vision on summons. Deal chip damage to her between dodge windows and focus attack opportunities. The fight ends when the Night Idol dies; the three summons are optional kills [4].

Best Characters for This Fight

Because you enter at Level 6 with starter gear, character passives and skills matter more than raw stats:

Ironeye — Best overall pick [6]. Ranged playstyle lets you kite summons and deal consistent damage to the Night Idol from safety.
Guardian — Best for survivability. Wings of Salvation jump creates distance; Steel Guard absorbs pressure from Frederick when he closes in.
Executor — Strong burst window via Cursed Sword. Good for players who want to land focused damage on the Night Idol between defensive phases.
Recluse — Soulblood Song can generate FP quickly from the multiple targets in the room, sustaining spells through the fight.
Wylder — Sixth Sense gives one cheat-death safety net, but this doesn’t reset the encounter if you die after it triggers [5]. Treat it as a buffer, not a plan.

Strategy Sequence

Enter the arena and immediately move to the nearest stone pillar — this blocks Sebastian’s beam permanently [5].
Helen will rush you first. Bait one attack with a dodge, then burst her down before she resets her aggro.
Circle-strafe Frederick away from the Night Idol. He’s slow enough that you can simply outrun him while dealing damage to your real target.
Deal chip damage to the Night Idol between Frederick’s slow swing windows. Her claw combo ends with a recovery pause — use it.
When the Night Idol throws Discus of Light, the discs travel outbound and then return along the same path. Dodge once going out, position for the return arc [4].
Repeat until the Night Idol’s HP hits zero. The encounter ends immediately.

Efficient Murk Routing by Player Type

The fastest path to 1,500 Murk depends on how you play expeditions:

Player Type	Recommended Approach	Expected Runs to 1,500 Murk
New player / struggling	Prioritise survival over aggression; even Day 1–2 clears earn Murk. Sell Common duplicate Relics between runs.	3–5 runs
Casual (moderate clears)	Two full Tricephalos clears unlock Duchess and build your Murk simultaneously. Revenant typically available after the third expedition.	2–3 runs
Hardcore (full clears)	One full Nightlord clear earns 2,000–3,000+ Murk — more than enough in a single run.	1 run
Completionist	Unlock Duchess first, then Revenant before branching into other expeditions. The unlock chain is linear — no shortcuts.	2–3 runs total

One routing note: you do not need to run Tricephalos specifically to earn Murk for Revenant’s unlock. Any expedition contributes to your total. Once Duchess is unlocked, run whichever expedition you’re most comfortable with to hit 1,500 Murk.

For a broader look at how expeditions feed into overall character progression and Nightlord ordering, see our Elden Ring Nightreign Progression Guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I unlock Revenant before Duchess?
No. The Besmirched Frame does not appear in the Small Jar Bazaar until after Duchess’s unlock cutscene completes. There is no bypass.

Is the Old Pocketwatch guaranteed on my first Gladius kill?
According to the Fextralife wiki, it should be a guaranteed item when you defeat Gladius [10]. If you join a co-op session where another player defeats Gladius, the Pocketwatch also appears in your expedition rewards [9]. You don’t need to solo the boss or land the final hit.

What if I lose the Night Idol fight?
Nothing is lost. Return to Roundtable Hold, go back to the east wing, and interact with the ghost again to retry. You keep all Murk earned during the session.

Does the Besmirched Frame relic work on characters other than Revenant?
Yes — Faith +3 and the “taking attacks boosts attack power” effect work on any Nightfarer. It’s situationally useful for Recluse (Faith B scaling) and Guardian, though most character-optimised loadouts will have better options by the time you can afford it.

Will I lose the Old Pocketwatch relic after giving it to the Priestess?
No. Handing the Pocketwatch to the Priestess triggers the unlock cutscene but leaves the item at the Relic Rites Altar. You can continue equipping it as a Relic after Duchess is unlocked [8].

For complete ability walkthroughs and build recommendations for both characters, see our Elden Ring Nightreign Revenant Guide and Duchess Guide.

Sources

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.