One of the new features for Elden Ring: Nightreign is gaining Dormant Powers during your runs: a reward pick that can include weapons, amulets, passive effects, runes, and consumables. These will be a great help in making sure you can survive the Night bosses and get through all three days! In this guide, we will go over just what the Dormant Powers are and how you obtain them.
What are Dormant Powers?
Simply put, Dormant Powers are rewards that come up when you defeat more difficult enemies during your Expeditions to Limveld. These can be either a new piece of gear, consumables, or a passive effect. You can even occasionally get a huge amount of Runes instead!
There are a wide variety of passives you can acquire this way, with the effects ranging from simply increasing your max HP, to giving you a chance to instantly kill enemies with your attacks. Which Dormant Powers you will want will largely depend on which Nightfarer you choose, and how you are trying to build them. (However, make note that the only way to get passive effects that don’t come from an item is from the Dormant Powers.)
Note that, unlike Relics, Dormant Powers only apply to a single run and do not persist once you return back to the Roundtable Hold (your central hub between Expeditions).
How to Get Dormant Powers
Obtaining the Dormant Powers is simple — when you defeat a boss (a Night boss, an open world boss, a miniboss, or a boss group), you will get a Dormant Power reward that will have you pick from 2 or 3 options.
You’ll know you’re fighting a boss when they have a large health bar across the bottom of the screen, and you will see the text “Enemy Defeated” or “Great Enemy Defeated” when you beat them. There are also times when you will run into a stronger group of enemies than normal, and they will have a collective group name (such as Beastly Brigade) with a shared health bar on the bottom as well. As mentioned above, these will also drop Dormant Powers.
Once you defeat this enemy, you will get to choose one of 2-3 random rewards (weaker bosses will only offer 2 choices). These rewards are randomized in every run, meaning you will have to adapt your build around what choices are available to you.
Tips
Sometimes it might be better to choose passive effects over gear from your Dormant Power choices, as equipment can be found through other means (such as treasure chests and Merchants). Gear items also come with their own passive effects that persist as long as you have the item in its inventory slot but, obviously, the advantage here is that you don’t have to worry about losing passives that aren’t tied to an item.
It’s also worth noting that Night Bosses will give better Dormant Powers than the others. These can be build-defining and shape the entire rest of your run. Take an extra second studying the options you get after those battles.
If you want to try farming for Dormant Powers, the best way to go about it would be to search through Castles and other defined areas that may be guarded by a boss or a miniboss. You can occasionally find particularly tough bosses, Great Enemies, that will drop the same quality Dormant Powers as the Night Bosses.
