Shifting Earth Bosses – Elden Ring: Nightreign

Some of the most challenging regions in Elden Ring: Nightreign are the Shifting Earth events, where a quadrant of the map will change radically into a different kind of region. These areas have some of the best loot in the game, but also some of the most powerful enemies — especially at the end of the Shifting Earth Event.

Thankfully, we have this guide, which will let you know all the Bosses that you can encounter in each of the 4 Shifting Earth events, as well as how hard they are and what you’ll be awarded for defeating them.

What Are Shifting Earth Bosses in Elden Ring: Nightreign

Shifting Earth bosses are, as their title implies, bosses that show up in Nightreign’s Shifting Earth Events. There are four possible Shifting Earth Events (The Crater, Mountaintop, The Rotted Woods, and Noklateo, The Shrouded City), each of which drastically alter a quadrant of the map and which give a very strong Power upon completion (which is different for every type of Shifting Earth Event).

Unlike other Bosses, Shifting Earth bosses are static, meaning that any given Shifting Earth event will have the same bosses in the same places, giving the same rewards. This makes learning them much simpler than most of the game, which is good because of how difficult several of these fights are.

Three of the Shifting Earth Events (all except the Rotted Woods) have a final boss that is usually very difficult (with one of them, the Mountaintop Ice Dragon, being the toughest non-Night-Lord enemy in the game). Of those, both the Crater and Noklateo’s final bosses must be defeated in order to get access to the Shifting Earth Power, while the Mountaintop final boss can (and often should) be avoided.

All Shifting Earth Bosses in Elden Ring: Nightreign

The Crater

The crater features 5 bosses. The Fallingstar Beast, Demi-Human Queen, and Valiant Gargoyle patrol its edge, the Fire Prelates block a fog gate that must be openned to progress into the Crater, and the Magma Wyrm guards the Legendary Smithing Table at the very bottom of the crater.

Boss Name	Runes	Dormant Powers	Effort
Demi-Human Queen	15000	2x Blue+ Armaments, 1x Blue+ Upgrade	Easy
Fallingstar Beast	50000	2x Purple+ Armaments, 1x Purple+ Upgrade	Hard
Fire Prelates	23600 14000 + (4800 x 2)	2x Blue+ Armaments, 1x Blue+ Upgrade	Medium
Magma Wyrm	45000	2x Purple+ Armaments, 1x Purple+ Upgrade, Access to the Legendary Smithing Table: Upgrades one armament to Gold quality.	Hard
Valiant Gargoyle	45000	2x Purple+ Armaments, 1x Purple+ Upgrade	Hard

Mountaintop

The Mountaintop has 3 static bosses — the Demi-Human Swordmaster, the Flying Dragon, and the Snowfield Trolls — that can be defeated for Runes and Dormant Powers, but don’t need to be in order to progress. The Mountaintop Ice Dragon can also be avoided, but it will descend upon Nightfarers in several locations, inflicting Frostbite around the arena as they climb the mountain. While the Ice Dragon does not need to be defeated to get to the Mountaintop’s Power, it does need to be actively avoided.

Boss Name	Runes	Dormant Powers	Effort
Demi-Human Swordmaster	18000	2x Blue+ Armaments, 1x Blue+ Upgrade	Medium
Flying Dragon	18000	2x Blue+ Armaments, 1x Blue+ Upgrade	Medium
Mountaintop Ice Dragon	104500	1x Gold and 1x Purple+ Armament, 1x Purple+ Upgrade	Very Hard*
Snowfield Trolls	18000 9000 x 2	2x Blue+ Armaments, 1x Blue+ Upgrade	Medium

The Rotted Woods

The Rotted woods has 6 static Tier-2 Field Bosses that are always in the same locations. None of these bosses need to be dealt with in order to access the Rotted Woods’ Power, though they can be for a great amount of Runes and strong Dormant Powers. There is also a weak Lordsworn Captain boss in the Rotted Fort deep in the Woods, who stands next to the tower that houses the map that reveals the location of the Power.

Boss Name	Runes	Dormant Powers	Effort
Ancestor Spirit	30000	2x Purple+ Armaments, 1x Purple+ Upgrade	Medium
Bell Bearing Hunter	30000	2x Purple+ Armaments, 1x Purple+ Upgrade	Medium
Black Blade Kindred	45000	2x Purple+ Armaments, 1x Purple+ Upgrade	Hard
Erdtree Avatar	30000	2x Purple+ Armaments, 1x Purple+ Upgrade	Medium
Lordsworn Captain	3600	2x Blue+ Armaments	Trivial
Royal Carian Knight	45000	2x Purple+ Armaments, 1x Purple+ Upgrade	Hard
Ulcerated Tree Spirit	30000	2x Purple+ Armaments, 1x Purple+ Upgrade	Medium

Noklateo, The Shrouded City

Noklateo features several bosses dotted around its cityscape, but the boss in the Cathedral at the end of the city will always be the Naturalborn of the Void. Defeating this boss is required in order to gain the Favor of Noklateo power.