How to Play Executor – Elden Ring: Nightreign

Sekiro? In your Elden Ring? It’s more common than you think, at least when you’re playing Executor. That’s right, Executor is the katana-wielding, dedicated DEX-weapon user, whose skillset allows him to deflect blows, inflict status ailments, and turn into a giant boss-like wolf. One of the more complex characters to play, he is also one of the most rewarding, and can easily turn an Expedition into a success with high-skill plays.

But playing Executor is more than just developing the skills through practice, there is also a lot of hidden mechanics and detailed information that you need to learn in order to be effective. That’s why this guide is going to go into detail on Executor’s core gameplay features, and explain how to use them in order to cripple your opponents without letting them strike you once.

This guide is meant to expand upon the basic combat mechanics that we already touched upon in out Combat Overview.

Skill Playstyle

• Use Katanas with elemental affinities to inflict status ailments that chop away at enemy heallth bars.
• Deflect the deadliest attacks using your Suncatcher sword to power it up.
• Transform into a giant Beast with your ultimate to tank damage and deal tremendous stagger.

Passive Ability: Tenacity

Effect: Receive boost after recovering from status ailments.
Approach: Intentionally trigger status effects for a moderate attack and stamina boost.

Realistically, Executor’s passive is one of the weakest in the games, being not only hard to rely upon, but also granting a fairly minor effect (and accepting a status ailment in exchange). As such, we do not recommend that most players worry about it as they are getting started with Executor. To begin, just know that there will be certain bosses, like Sanguine Noble, Miranda Blossom, and Libra, the Equilibrious Beast, where you might want to let a status effect go off in exchange for the boost.

As you get more skilled at Executor, you can make better use of Tenacity: by using a weapon that has Seppuku (and can therefor inflict bleed on yourself) or using the “Night of the Demon” Relic that drops from Libra, the Equilibrious Beast (which allows you to inflict Madness on yourself by using the Crossed Legs gesture), you can intentionally activate this bonus when you want to and when you are in situations where you can heal the damage. Even with this in mind, though, it is still a finicky and difficult-to-use passive.

Primary Skill: Suncatcher

Effect: Draw a cursed sword that can deflect enemy attacks.
Approach: Deflect hard-hitting enemy attacks in order to use your stagger-heavy special attack.

Suncatcher is Executor’s primary feature, and one that you will need to master if you want to be an effective Executor. If you’ve played FromSoft’s previous game, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, then you’ll be familiar with it’s deflection mechanic; otherwise, it will take some getting used to.

Here’s how it works: with Suncatcher drawn, tapping block right as an enemy attack would hit you will deflect it, mitigating all damage and powering up the sword. After 5 such deflections, Suncatcher will be empowered, letting you use your Skill in order to quickly slash the opponent for massive damage and lots of stagger.

This makes Executor’s Character Skill one of the best in the game, but it requires high skill and precision in order to use correctly. While the window to deflect most attacks is somewhat generous, the enemies and bosses throughout Limveld are not designed like the parry-first foes in Sekiro, and so there are a number of attack patterns that are difficult to time.

In general, it is easiest to deflect enemies that use weapons and have animations with strong telegraphs, including knights, Elder Lions, Fulghor, Champion of Nightglow, and other similar foes. However, against inhuman and some gargantuan enemies, or enemies that make use of lots of status ailments, the Suncatcher is much weaker.

Ultimate: Aspects of the Crucible: Beast

Effect: Assume the form of the primordial beast.
Approach: Recover health, stagger enemies, revive allies, and live to fight another day.

Executor’s Ultimate allows him to transform into a giant, primordial, wolf-like beast. And, while this is both fun and can be exceptionally useful, it (like Suncatcher) requires careful timing and more skill than you might expect.

Against weaker bosses — those that are roughly human-sized — the primordial beast can pummel opponents down, stunlocking them and keeping them fully under control for the duration of most fights. However, opponents that are not so easily staggered, Aspects of the Crucible: Beast becomes much more situational.

So, where facing off against opponents around the size of Bell Bearing Hunter or larger, you will need to be strategic. Because the transformation fully heals you, it is best to transform into the beast when you’ve already taken significant damage, as it will also function like a free full heal. Once transformed, you will probably want to focus on one of three things, in priority order:

• Resurrecting Teammates: using your increased movement speed and hardiness will let you use your ult to get most teammate up.
• Staggering Enemies: If you know you’ve already inflicted a lot of stance pressure onto your primary foe, you can keep wailing on the boss even if they don’t flinch, with the hope of stance-breaking them.
• Staying Alive: Because a lot of bosses will be able to continue attacking you in your beast form, you should keep an eye out on your health. If you end up taking heavy hits, it is a good time to use your increased movement speed to run in the opposite direction.

Weapon Strategy

• Katanas with elemental ailments, especially Bleed and Frostbite .
• Effects that increase HP, damage negation, or stamina recovery on successive hits.
• Dual-wielding Katanas with different affinities can make insane builds.

For all his complexity, Executor’s weapon preferences are thankfully simple: he wants to be holding two katanas, and wants each of them to be doing something different to the unfortunate enemy in front of him. With his high Arcane scaling, he would also prefer if those weapons inflicted status effects, as he will proc them more often than any other character.

In keeping with that, it is best to do your best to find two katanas (meaning looking for Dormant Powers that grant Armaments) that each deal a different status effect. The best of these are, in order, Bleed , Frostbite , , Scarlet Rot, and Poison , the first three of which deal damage based on an enemy’s total HP, making them all great at tackling the tanky Night Lords.

If you cannot find two weapons that each deal different status effects, or would prefer to focus on damage and stagger instead of those effects, then you can also look for a second katana that deals elemental damage that the Night Lord is weak to, like Holy for Gladius or Fire for Gnoster. Especially since all katanas inflict some bleed, this can allow that secondary katana to still “double-dip” in effects.

Outside of katanas, it is tough to justify picking up any other weapons to actually use, since Executor has one of the most singularly dedicated animation sets in the game, but looking for weapons with passive that activate after successive hits can help fill out your slots.

Gameplay: Deflect and Affect

Despite the high skill required to use Executor’s Character Skill, his playstyle is fairly straightforward: he is going to be at his best when he is staring down a single enemy, deflecting attacks in chains and inflicting status effects between chains. While he can take on groups, especially if he can split them off, he won’t do so any better than other Nightfarers, and so it is best to try to make sure to try to focus on one opponent at a time.

When you are engaged with that one opponent who you can read well, you should be flexible. When the boss is about to attack, switch to your Suncatcher mode. While this will reduce your mobility, forcing you to deflect, you should be able to focus through most flurries to charge it up. If the Suncatcher is “powered up” by the end of a combo, you can use it to get a nice, stagger-heavy slash across your opponent. If it is not, simply switch back to your normal weapons in order to attack enough to inflict status ailments.

Against bosses that you feel less confident against, like particularly large enemies or ones with difficult movesets, there is no shame in just using your regular weapons. It is important not to force yourself to use Suncatcher unless you think you can deflect well. It can be tempting to pull out the special sword for every encounter, but it is simply not the best way to deal with every enemy.

Lastly, you should be smart about how you use your ultimate. Against small enemies and bosses, it is almost always an “instant win” button, but against any opponent that can’t be staggered, you should time your uses of your Ultimate in order to keep your health high, rescue teammates, or hit-and-run for staggers.

So long as you stick to this layout, though, you should be able to slice your opponents down to size in no time.