Elden Ring: Nightreign offers eight total classes, or Nightfarers, each built around unique abilities and distinct combat philosophies. However, when you first boot up the game, only six are available to choose from: Wylder, Recluse, Executor, Guardian, Ironeye, and Raider. Two others — the Duchess and the Revenant — remain locked, but both can be unlocked relatively early in the game if you know where to look.
How to Unlock the Duchess
Unlocking the Duchess begins with your first major boss encounter: Gladius, Beast of Night.
To access the Duchess, you don’t necessarily have to defeat Gladius — simply attempting the boss fight is enough to trigger the event that matters. If you manage to defeat him, you’ll automatically receive the Old Pocketwatch as a reward. If you fall in battle, there’s still a chance you’ll receive the item for your efforts, so don't be discouraged by failure and keep trying to beat him.
Once you have the Old Pocketwatch and are at the Roundtable Hold, find the Priestess — the hooded woman in white who narrates the prologue.
Once you speak to her, you can give her the Pocketwatch. She’ll recognize the item and trigger a cutscene where she reveals her true identity as the Duchess.
After this scene, she becomes a playable class for all future runs. Her style is elegant, fast, and evasive, making her ideal for players who favor precise movement and sharp timing over brute strength.
How to Unlock the Revenant
The Revenant requires a bit more effort to unlock, but the process only becomes available after you’ve unlocked the Duchess. Once she’s available, head to the Small Jar Bazaar in the western wing of the Roundtable Hold. Here you’ll find a relic called the Besmirched Frame, available for purchase at 1,500 Murk.
After buying it, a phantom will appear near a painting in the east wing of the Hold. This apparition resembles the Revenant herself, cloaked in swirling black mist and watching from just beyond the veil.
Interacting with the phantom gives you the option to touch her, which immediately transports you to a unique boss encounter against the Night Idol. This battle is deceptively brutal because she’s not alone. She summons three powerful ash allies to aid her: a Pumpkin Head, a Giant Skeleton, and a Swordsman, making it a four-on-one ambush. The fight can easily spiral out of control if you try to engage all four enemies head-on.
There are two reliable ways to survive this encounter. One is to play as Ironeye and pick off the summons from a safe distance before turning your attention to the Idol herself. The second option is more aggressive: use Wylder and focus entirely on the Revenant with grappling hook attacks, ignoring the other enemies entirely.
Once the Revenant is defeated, she becomes permanently unlocked as a playable class, bringing a completely different playstyle built around necromancy, spirit manipulation, and sustained battlefield pressure. She excels at mid-range combat and shines in extended fights thanks to her summons and unique damage-over-time effects.
Both the Duchess and Revenant bring powerful new tools to your arsenal and offer playstyles different from the six starter classes. If you want access to everything Nightreign has to offer, unlocking them should be a priority, and now you know exactly how to do it.