So far, the Everdark Sovereign Nightlords in Nightreign have been quite the mixed bag. Gaping Jaws has undoubtedly been the most impressive of the fights so far, providing both a great challenge and dazzling spectacle. Darkdrift Knight, on the other hand, was a test of patience and strength, while most recently, the Everdark Sentient Pest provides a fight that’s fun to be a part of, but not particularly hard.
That’s good news for those of you reading this guide. If you’re not quite sure how to handle the Everdark Sovereign Sentient Pest, they’re fortunately a breeze to take down once you know exactly what to do. On that note, here’s how to beat the Everdark Sovereign Sentient Pest in Nightreign.
How to beat Everdark Sovereign Sentient Pest in Nightreign
The Everdark Sovereign version of Sentient Pest (also known as Gnoster, Wisdom of Night) is a bit of a pain in Nightreign. You’ve this huge, tanky scorpion and this flying Poison-inflicting moth, meaning you want both strong melee and ranged characters. Then the pair merge together and begin conjuring magic laser beams across the arena that are almost guaranteed to down players… It’s all a very pretty nightmare.
That said, Sentient Pest’s new, enhanced fight doesn’t actually feel as challenging as you might’ve expected, especially if you’re well prepared. The fight, as per usual, starts with the second phase, and with a fiery weapon to hand, you can reach the third phase relatively quickly and not worry about those magic laser beams.
To challenge this boss, open your Expeditions menu via the Roundtable and select the purple version of Sentient Pest from the very bottom of the Target list (shown above).
If they are not available for you, this means you must defeat the original version of the Sentient Pest first before their Everdark version becomes available.
Here are some things to note before setting off on this Expedition:
- The fight begins with the Sentient Pest’s second phase, so both Gnoster and his scorpion counterpart, Faurtis Stoneshield, will be attached to one another. They’ll also dish out magical pillars/beams that will stagger you, and you want to avoid these as best as you can.
- Sentient Pest remains weak to Fire, and I’d argue they’re more susceptible to Fire Damage during this fight than their original fight, so be sure to bring along a Fire weapon where you can.
- Gnoster (the moth) is resistant to Magic, Lightning, Holy, Madness, Poison, and Sleep. Faurtis (the scorpion) is resistant to Slash, Standard, Magic, Lightning, Holy, and Madness. As a result, you ideally want to bring along weapons that deal Pierce, Strike, Fire, Frostbite, Scarlet Rot, or Bleed Damage.
- Raider and Ironeye are great for this boss. Raider is very tanky and hard-hitting, and with a fiery Colossal Weapon or in my instance, a Mace, he can deplete Faurtir’s HP with ease. Ironeye is great to have for fighting Gnoster, who often flies around the arena, and I highly recommend bringing at least one ranged player into this fight. Melee players – especially Raiders – should easily be able to poise-break the moth and attack it whenever it is near the ground.
- Pick up and consume any Neutralising Boluses in Limveld. Gnoster dishes out Poison damage at times, and having Poison Resistance will help you negate this massively so you can keep fighting.
- Look for passive effects and traits that provide Physical Damage Negation and Magic Damage Negation, as this is the damage type that the Sentient Pest primarily deals.
- Aim for Level 13 or above and upgrade your weapons. Everdark fights are tougher than your average fight, therefore you should be tougher too. Purple-rarity weapons and being Level 13 or higher are one thing that make this fight breezy.
As we’ve just mentioned, the fight begins with Sentient Pest’s second phase, so their moves during the first portion of the fight shouldn’t be surprising to you. If you need any help with that at all, take a look at our Sentient Pest boss guide for their original fight.
This particular fight also features two separate health bars. So, the Sentient Pest won’t transition at half-HP like prior Everdark Sovereign fights against Gaping Jaws and Darkdrift Knight. Instead, the Everdark Sentient Pest’s third phase begins once its initial health bar is completely depleted.
Once the third phase begins, there’ll be a short pause here before Animus, Ascendant Light – a red, spectral butterfly-like creature – appears. This creature revives both Faurtis Stoneshield and Gnoster to approximately 25% of their HP before generally avoiding you and your team, but don’t panic: Faurtis and Gnoster will use their first phase moves here. Nothing new or scary!
Now, what you need to do here is pick an enemy and fight them together. Faurtis Stoneshield (the scorpion) is more troubling, so I recommend all of your team fighting him first. Once you deplete his HP, Animus will fly over and begin sacrificing his HP to take over Faurtis’ corpse; this is your opportunity to attack Animus.
Once Animus then completely possesses Faurtis, you want to fight Faurtis again and quickly. He’ll glow red this time, and alongside his usual attacks, he’ll stop on either side of his body, unleashing red shockwaves through the ground that you want to roll away from. He’s also capable of unleashing a roar before charging around the arena, leaving red shockwaves in his path.
If you don’t kill Faurtis quick enough, Animus will make your life significantly harder by reappearing to fight you himself, and this time, he’ll conjure those awful laser beams from Sentient Pest’s second phase that we all hate. Not only that, but they’ll be bigger and all the more brutal. You want to avoid this where possible.
Once Faurtis has been felled (again!), Animus will reappear. I recommend running over to Gnoster and quickly felling them next, and just like Faurtis, Animus will fly over and sacrifice some of its HP to possess the magical moth. While Animus does that, make sure to use this window of opportunity to attack it.
Once Gnoster has been possessed, you then want to focus on killing it as quickly as possible, as doing so will likely end the fight. If you don’t kill it quickly, Animus can reappear and begin attacking you itself. Gnoster’s new moves are primarily enhanced versions of his current moveset: expect more projectiles, more grab attacks, more clouds of poison, and more magic rain. These are still easily avoided by dodging, however.
Killing Gnoster now will likely end the fight, provided Animus has taken enough damage. If not, you will need to attack Animus to end the fight – which shouldn’t take much – or once again, attack whichever creature it next possesses. Sooner or later, the boss will be felled from the damage you do, or the damage it does to itself by possessing both Gnoster and Faurtis.
Upon successfully beating the Everdark Sovereign Sentient Pest, you’ll be rewarded with 25 Sovereign Sigils to spend on outfits, Shifting Earth events, or new Relics, including the new Dark Night of the Wise Relic which is great for Revenant and Duchess fans.
Oh, and if you want to watch someone defeat Everdark Sovereign Sentient Pest without getting hit once, YouTuber ONGBAL has done it again in record time, killing the thing solo and hitless in just 4 minutes. Enjoy!
ONGBAL also takes a very different approach to this fight when playing solo. You’ll notice that during Sentient Pest’s third phase, rather than fighting Gnoster or Faurtis, he kites them until there’s an opportunity to attack Animus. He only attacks Animus during this portion of the fight, and well, once Animus’ HP is depleted, the fight is over. This is an alternative way to go about the fight, and is probably the way you want to go about this fight if taking on the Everdark Sovereign Sentient Pest solo.
For more on Elden Ring Nightreign, take a look at our guide to all randomly occurring map events, all the different ways in which you can unlock Mage Towers, and our tips and tricks for successful runs.