Augur, also referred to as Maris, Fathom of Night, is a late-game boss found deep within the Augur Expedition. The encounter veers away from typical Soulsborne designs and leans fully into MMO-style mechanics. Floating high above the arena, Maris controls the flow of the fight with oppressive battlefield summons, environmental zoning, and a sleep-based wipe mechanic that demands team precision and loadout preparation.
Unlike most Nightlords, this isn’t a fight you can brute force your way through. Augur tests how well your party can manage stagger windows, sustain pressure, and react to non-standard kill mechanics. This fight also only has one phase unlike every other boss battle in Soulsborne games. Augur unleashes multiple attacks at various points during the battle.
Preparation and Weakness Exploits
The key to surviving this encounter lies in your preparation. Maris is especially vulnerable to lightning-based damage. Lightning spells, greases, or lightning-enhanced weapons are necessary to meet critical damage thresholds throughout the fight. Sacred Seal ranged setups and classes like Ironeye and Recluse can exploit this elemental weakness efficiently from mid to long ranges.
Battlefield Flow and Summon Control
The boss constantly spawns floating jellyfish-like summons that track players and detonate on contact. While they deal moderate damage individually, their real threat is in forcing movement and splitting team focus. Crucially, clearing these minions charges a passive stagger mechanic against Maris, causing homing light projectiles to descend on the boss after a threshold is met. This momentary stagger is your opening to land heavy hits or reposition safely. Environmental hazards extend to the ground as well, where spectral tentacles emerge to punish static players.
The Sleep AOE Mechanic
The defining moment of the fight begins once Maris sets out a huge AOE sleep. It will curl inward and begin a slow, pulsing charge animation while drawing in ambient light. There is a visible delay, but the AOE covers the entire arena, and if you're not resisting or countering, you will fall asleep in place and likely die to follow-up projectiles or tentacle spikes.
Breaking Maris out of the charge requires either a sustained burst of lightning damage or a well-timed Ultimate Art. Ironeye and Wylder are particularly well-suited for this, with ultimates that hit hard and fast enough to interrupt the charge if deployed early. If you do not have those options, equipping high sleep resistance relics will buy time by slowing the buildup bar. This short window can be the difference between a clean phase skip and a full-team collapse.
Maris also has a second AOE sleep attack — the Sleep Nukes. When Maris’ health is around 50%, it begins summoning teardrop bombs — glowing, egg-like projectiles that descend slowly and detonate with massive damage and rapid Sleep buildup. These bombs are easy to overlook amid the chaos, but if left alone, a single detonation can knock your entire team into Sleep and deal a huge chunk of damage. The safest strategy is to destroy them midair. Even light bow shots or spells will trigger an early detonation and save your team.
If your team lacks ranged options, the only alternative is to reposition and sprint out of their impact radius immediately. Their splash zone is deceptively wide. Additionally, popping the bombs before they land triggers a minor stagger in Maris, opening a brief damage window.
Fight Rhythm
Augur is not a boss that can be handled with high DPS rotations or tight parry chains, but rather managing the battlefield, controlling stagger tempo, and using resources wisely. Ranged builds dominate here because Augur is floating the vast majority of the time. On the other hand, melee characters shine when Augur comes down or for ripostes when the boss is staggered.
Final Thoughts
Augur is one of Elden Ring: Nightreign’s most technical boss fights. With the right lightning-infused loadout, sleep resistance relics, and attention to battlefield mechanics, the oversized jellyfish can be dismantled piece by piece.
