How to Use Recluse’s Magic Cocktail Spells – Elden Ring: Nightreign

Recluse’s Magic Cocktail skill is without a doubt the most complicated Nightfarer ability in the game. This single skill grants you access to a total of 14 new spells you can combine and use on the fly. This guide will set you on the path of a master of mixology and help you better understand how to use Magic Cocktail and the spells it lets you cast.

How Magic Cocktail Works

Whenever your enemies or allies are damaged with elemental damage (Fire, Magic, Lightning, Holy), Recluse can use her active skill (Y+RB or its other control scheme equivalent) to absorb this so-called affinity residue. Thanks to her passive ability, this restores some of her FP. It also fills one of the orbs on her Character Skill gauge.

When you collect three affinity residues, pressing Y+RB will instead cast a spell. This spell is determined by the elements of the residues you’ve collected. Magic Cocktail spells don’t cost any FP and can and should be freely cast whenever you have them ready.

When a target has an affinity residue, you’ll see two curved lines on their model. These lines tell you the element of the residue. The lines surround the lock-on indicator on the target, but you don’t actually need to be locked on to absorb a residue. Just being reasonably close is enough. Combining residues of different elements creates new Magic Cocktail spells. You don’t need to worry about the order of residues, just their elements.

• Blue Residue – Magic
• Orange Residue – Holy
• Yellow Residue – Lightning
• Red Residue – Fire

Magic Cocktail Spells

There’s a total of 14 Magic Cocktail spells. You’ll find them all listed below along with their official in-game descriptions.

Icon	Name	Combination(s)	Effect
	Pure Magic		Enwreathe an enemy in magic that deals damage for some time, encircling and attacking the target.
	Pure Fire		Throw a whirlwind of flame. Flame spreads across a small area upon contact, and burns for some time.
	Pure Lightning		Enwreathe oneself in lightning, bolstering dodging actions.
	Pure Holy		Enwreathe oneself in holy light, bolstering poise and increasing damage negation.
	Magic/Fire		Launch a wraith flame that pursues enemies.
	Magic/Lightning		Execute broad forward slash with magic blade. Hold to move with sword drawn.
	Magic/Holy		Cover nearby area with a magic veil, fully conserving FP for self and allies for some time.
	Fire/Lightning		Become fireball and barrel forward, raining lightning on nearby foes.
	Fire/Holy		Raise a torch to increase your allies’ maximum HP and lower the maximum HP of your enemies. It also reduces status ailment gauges for your allies
	Lightning/Holy		Weave a layer of lightning that parries enemy attacks for a short time.
	Magic/Fire/Lightning		Conjure frontwards exploding gravity orb. Gravity orb pulls enemies inward, expands, and explodes, inflicting heavy damage.
	Magic/Fire/Holy		Spew a mixed affinity breath that inflicts damage upon enemies, and restores HP and FP of allies with contact.
	Fire/Lightning/Holy		Create lightning rod and thrust forward into terrain. White lightning strikes rod after a short delay.
	Magic/Lightning/Holy		Create cold storm with area of effect and retreat inside ice block, gaining invulnerability.

Pure Magic

The most basic Cocktail spell you’ll be able to cast at the very start of an expedition. Deals minor damage multiple times, interrupting smaller enemies. Its multiple Magic damage applications make it a good a mana battery. Simply collect the residues it leaves behind to restore a lot of FP.

Pure Fire

A simple area of effect spell. Deals Fire damage and leaves behind a burning surface that deals continuous damage to all enemies caught inside it.

Pure Lightning

This spell’s description undersells how good it makes you at dodging. If you have access to it, try to always be under its effects during tough fights. It will greatly increase your survivability.

Pure Holy

While it may be tempting to increase your survivability through this spell, at the end of the day, Recluse is still a fragile character. You really don’t want to be tanking damage with her. The poise increase, however, can help you get some of your longer-casting spells out without interruptions.

Magic/Fire

A spell very similar to Pure Magic in how it works. Only instead of Magic, it deals Fire damage. It’s also great at restoring your FP, while filling you up on Fire residues.

Magic/Lightning

This spell’s description suggests a melee magic blade attack. In reality, it sends out this blade really far. It has more range than most of your regular spells. This makes it a great dual-element damage option.

Magic/Holy

This Cocktail creates an area around you inside which spells and weapon arts don’t consume FP. It doesn’t last too long, but you can still get some use out of it if you have access to spells like Comet Azur.

Fire/Lightning

With how some of the enemies in Nightreign like to zip around their arenas, you can never have too much mobility. This Cocktail spell gives you another way to get around – as a fiery projectile that strikes everything around it with lightning.

Fire/Holy

A situational spell that can save your entire expedition if used at the right moment. Its key benefit is lowering your team’s status ailment bars. When fighting against tough enemies that apply things like Sleep or Death, this Cocktail will be very valuable.

Lightning/Holy

A questionable spell that can be very cool when you use it right. It can defend you from an enemy onslaught and briefly turn you into a parry master. But since a much better way to deal with attacks is to just not be there, and you actually need to spend some time casting this Cocktail, it’s not the best way to utilize your residues.

Magic/Fire/Lightning

This is a great way to deal with a strong enemy surrounded by smaller minions. The gravity effect will pull the small enemies in, while delivering a strong punch to the big boss.

Magic/Fire/Holy

A fire breath Cocktail that expands forward in a wide cone. It deals respectable damage to enemies in medium range, while restoring HP and FP for your allies caught in its area. Basically, a spell that does everything all at once.

Fire/Lightning/Holy

Cover an area with lightning stakes, then strike all enemies inside. This is a great area effect spell, provided you can keep the enemies inside while it activates.

Magic/Lightning/Holy

The damage portion of this spell isn’t too impressive for a triple-element Cocktail. It does, however, encase you in a block of ice, making you completely invulnerable for its duration. Considering how many heavy-hitting and hard to avoid attacks some enemies have, this is a great way to save yourself when you get caught off-guard.