Elden Ring Nightreign – The Forsaken Hollows: Builds, The Great Hollow, And How To Prepare

What The Forsaken Hollows Adds To Nightreign

The Forsaken Hollows is built as a late-game style expansion for Elden Ring: Nightreign, aimed squarely at players who have already grasped the three-day expedition loop and have at least a few Nightlord kills under their belt. It adds a new subterranean region beneath Limveld called the Great Hollow, folds that space into the shifting map logic of Nightreign’s Shifting Earth system, and introduces two new Nightfarers that meaningfully expand buildcrafting: the Scholar and the Undertaker.

In practice, this DLC is less about raw content volume and more about layering additional pressures and decision points on your three-day run. The new classes push hybrid playstyles that reward precise execution, while the Great Hollow’s miasma and vertical layout punish sloppy routing.

Below is a breakdown of how the two new Nightfarers actually play, how the Shifting Earth Great Hollow event reshapes your runs, and what returning players should do right now to get their Nightreign characters ready.

New Nightfarers: Scholar And Undertaker

The Scholar and Undertaker are not “easy mode” picks. Both are tuned around high skill expression and reward players who already understand how momentum, risk, and time budgeting work in Nightreign.

Scholar: Arcane Control And Information Advantage

On paper, the Scholar is an Arcane-focused caster who “gains advantages by observing and reading the battlefield.” In runs, that translates into a kit built around information, conditional damage, and status ramp.

The statline leans heavily into Arcane with decent Mind and minimums in Strength and Dexterity. The Scholar’s starting gear encourages a mid-range position, where you can see most of the arena and exploit enemy patterns.

The Scholar’s biggest strength is its interaction with enemy knowledge. Its unique passives and starting tools generally reward you for tagging and studying enemies before fully committing. For example, basic encounters become opportunities to “scan” elite types that you’ll see again in later nights, letting you carry knowledge and damage bonuses forward. Against bosses in the Great Hollow, this advantage is critical because the miasma encourages quick kills, and the Scholar is built to turn pattern recognition into higher burst.

In terms of spell selection, the Scholar leans into debuffs, conditional procs, and elemental coverage rather than sheer raw damage. It is ideal if you enjoy staggering bosses through layered statuses, then unloading high-risk, high-reward nukes when openings appear. In co-op, the Scholar becomes a natural shot-caller: you are best used slightly behind the front line, calling out telegraphs and setting up windows for melee allies with slow windup strikes.

Recommended Scholar Build Direction

For a first DLC-focused Scholar, prioritize Arcane and Mind, with just enough Vigor to survive one mistake in Great Hollow miasma zones. The goal is to be able to cast often while still tanking chip damage from residual environmental hazards.

On the weapon side, a fast scaling staff or catalyst that rewards Arcane investment pairs best with the Scholar’s toolkit. You want to avoid slow cast times unless you are deeply comfortable with boss move sets and environmental timings. Status-centric or conditional sorceries are especially powerful in the Great Hollow, where the combination of tight spaces and miasma zones keeps enemies locked into specific paths and patterns.

In three-player co-op, focus your Scholar around setup rather than finishing blows. Builds that emphasize stagger contribution, vulnerability windows, and crowd control give your allies time to dive in and out without being shredded by the new bosses’ extended combos.

Undertaker: Strength/Faith Pressure And Execution Windows

The Undertaker is an abbess whose entire identity is sending enemies to the afterlife. Mechanically, that description hides a flexible Strength/Faith hybrid who excels at creating and then capitalizing on execution thresholds.

The stat spread leans into Strength and Faith with enough Vigor to frontline and enough Endurance to swing heavier weapons. The baseline toolkit generally revolves around crushing heavy hits, sanctified or occult damage, and abilities that reward finishing blows.

Unlike the Scholar, the Undertaker’s strengths are immediately clear: she wants to be at melee range, trading risk for burst. Her Faith scaling lets her layer buff and smite style effects over high-poise melee pressure. In the Great Hollow, this is extremely valuable, since many enemies are bulky and resistant to attrition approaches. The Undertaker shines by knocking them into low health quickly and then triggering powerful on-kill or low-HP bonuses.

In co-op, the Undertaker fills the classic anchor role. She can draw aggro, tank key hits, and create stable windows in which the party can reposition in the narrow bridges and platforms of the Great Hollow. Her execution-centric skills also make her ideal for clearing out elite packs that would otherwise consume too much time late in the three-day cycle.

Recommended Undertaker Build Direction

A DLC-ready Undertaker should pump Strength and Faith first, making sure Vigor is high enough that you do not die in one combo to late-game Limveld or Great Hollow elites. Endurance is your third priority to keep swing stamina and equip load flexible, since you will want heavier armor in miasma zones.

Weapon wise, look for Strength-scaling greatswords, hammers, or halberds that also pick up Faith scaling through infusions or unique passives. The sweet spot is a moveset that can hit multiple enemies in tight spaces without completely overcommitting. Pair that with a set of quick Faith incantations that bolster damage, cleanse or mitigate miasma-style chip, and secure execution thresholds.

In three-player parties, you should build the Undertaker to initiate and finish. Fast, buffed opening swings create stagger and break shields, followed by massive execution hits as soon as foes dip under key HP lines. This plays perfectly into Nightreign’s time-limited structure, where overkilling an enemy that is already staggered is fine, but protracted fights are disastrous.

The Great Hollow And Shifting Earth: How The Event Feels In-Game

The Great Hollow is not a simple new region neatly bolted onto the side of Limveld. It is a cavernous, multi-layered void beneath the existing map, thick with crystals that bleed a cursed, life-draining miasma. FromSoftware folds this new space into Nightreign’s Shifting Earth system, which already works by subtly rearranging landmarks and routes between runs.

In Forsaken Hollows runs, Shifting Earth can open or close access points to the Great Hollow, move crystal growths that spew miasma into different chokepoints, and realign certain sacred towers and temples that dot its interior. The practical result is that you rarely run the exact same Great Hollow layout twice, especially across full three-day expeditions.

How Access To The Great Hollow Changes Your Run

Instead of being an optional side zone, the Great Hollow becomes a risk-reward routing question from the moment you spawn into a new expedition. Early access often means grabbing powerful loot and shortcuts that make the Nightlord showdown trivial. Late access usually turns the Hollow into a gauntlet that tests whether your build and resource management can handle extended exposure to environmental pressure.

Shifting Earth events can spawn new sinkhole entrances or collapse familiar tunnels, forcing you to make hard choices. Do you burn daylight hours rerouting through a newly opened temple to chase a rumored relic for your Scholar’s Arcane scaling, or do you stay topside and aim for a safer, more linear route to your usual late-game camp? Every minute in the Hollow means miasma attrition, increased ambush potential on narrow platforms, and the constant risk of falling into lower strata full of elites and one of the DLC’s new bosses.

The life-draining miasma is the defining environmental mechanic. It rarely one-shots you, but it is effectively a constant tax on players who linger. Treat any time spent inside these zones as an investment: if your route through the Great Hollow does not produce tangible power spikes for your build, you are simply paying health to sightsee.

Encounter Dynamics In The Great Hollow

Combat inside the Hollow feels different from the open fields and rolling hills of Limveld. Verticality and cramped arenas cut off some kiting options. Crystals and sacred towers create cover, but also obscure lines of sight for ranged builds. Enemies tend to be positioned to leverage cliffs and narrow causeways, so bad spacing can send you tumbling into more dangerous floors.

For Scholars, the Hollow amplifies both your strengths and your weaknesses. You get dense enemy packs whose patterns you can read and exploit, but tight corners reduce your margin for error with long cast times. For Undertakers, the Hollow is almost a playground. Tight quarters and short sightlines let heavy attackers close gaps quickly, but you must respect enemy knockback and grab attacks, which are often tuned to punish careless aggressors near ledges.

The two new bosses teased for Limveld and the Hollow make heavy use of this vertical and environmental design. Expect arenas where standing still is punished not only by boss patterns but also by miasma pulses and collapsing platforms. Builds that can reposition while attacking or maintain steady DPS under constant movement demands have a clear edge.

Preparing Your Nightreign Characters For The DLC

Because Forsaken Hollows content is clearly pitched toward players comfortable with Nightreign’s core loop, returning players should treat the DLC’s launch as an opportunity to tune their roster. The expansion is not the place to figure out basic resource flows, nighttime aggression patterns, or how the three-day structure works.

What To Do Before You Step Into The Great Hollow

First, finish at least one full three-day expedition and a Nightlord kill on your current main. The DLC assumes you can already budget time between scouting, farming, and boss attempts. If you are rusty, do a warmup run without any DLC active so that movement, dodge timings, and route planning come back into muscle memory.

Second, tidy your build foundations. That means getting your Vigor, Mind, and Endurance (or their equivalents) to thresholds that let you survive multi-hit combos from Limveld elites. If you have been skimping on durability to rush damage scaling, the Hollow will punish you hard once miasma ticks start compounding with chip from stray hits.

Third, stock up on miasma mitigation and consumables. Any talismans, armor pieces, or consumables that blunt ambient chip damage or toxin-like effects become disproportionately valuable in the Hollow. Even if you plan to run the Undertaker with heavy armor and high faith-based mitigation, you will still appreciate spare items that lower passive health drain.

Finally, reacquaint yourself with Shifting Earth behaviors in base-game areas. Pay attention to how landmarks move between runs, where shortcuts appear, and how enemy patrols change. The more intuitively you understand this system, the easier it will be to read what a given run’s layout is telling you about Great Hollow access.

Choosing Between Scholar And Undertaker As A Returning Player

If you are coming back after a break and want to launch straight into Forsaken Hollows, choose your new Nightfarer based on how much mechanical rust you expect.

Pick Scholar if you are confident in your dodge timings and pattern recognition, and you enjoy reactive, knowledge-based play. The class pays you back for studying bosses and route variants, but it is fragile if you misjudge spacing inside miasma fields.

Pick Undertaker if you prefer a sturdier frontline role that can soak some mistakes. The class still demands good spacing and stamina management, yet its statline and toolkit are forgiving enough that you can re-learn fights while still contributing massive damage.

Either way, try to bring at least one non-DLC Nightfarer into early Forsaken Hollows runs. Familiar kits let you focus on learning the Great Hollow’s geography and Shifting Earth variants before you layer the novelty of a brand new class on top.

Early Expedition Priorities In Forsaken Hollows Runs

Once you are ready and start a Forsaken Hollows-enabled expedition, your first daytime cycle should be focused on scouting and information. Identify where Great Hollow entrances have spawned, check whether key Limveld routes you relied on in older runs are intact, and quickly test environmental hazards at Hollow thresholds so you know how aggressively the miasma ticks in this seed.

For Scholars, early priorities include securing a catalyst or staff that properly scales with your Arcane investment and grabbing any talismans or relics that reward status application or chain hits. The sooner your damage profile favors layered procs and burst windows, the safer your later miasma zone pushes will feel.

For Undertakers, prioritize a main weapon that hits your preferred moveset breakpoints. If a specific halberd sweep or great hammer slam is core to how you manage crowds, do not wait until late in the expedition to secure it. Pair that weapon with armor that balances poise and mobility, since slow rolls near ledges are an easy way to lose entire runs.

Across both classes, learn where in the Great Hollow you can safely retreat and reset. Because Shifting Earth realigns paths, safe zones move between expeditions, but your overall mentality should stay consistent: every push into the Hollow must have a clear objective, whether that is a specific relic, a boss attempt, or a shortcut. Wandering aimlessly inside miasma clouds is how aggressive builds die.

Final Thoughts

The Forsaken Hollows does not overhaul Elden Ring: Nightreign so much as sharpen it. By adding the Scholar and Undertaker, FromSoftware doubles down on high-skill build identities that reward planning and risk management. By reshaping Limveld’s foundations with the Great Hollow and its Shifting Earth hooks, it raises the ceiling on route creativity while punishing unfocused play.

If you come in with at least one stable Nightfarer, a solid grasp of the three-day loop, and a plan to handle constant environmental pressure, Forsaken Hollows looks set to be the kind of expansion that makes conquering the Nightlord feel new again.