Elden Ring Nightreign Crater event explained

Here’s everything you need to know about Nightreign’s Shifting Earth: The Crater event and its secrets in Nightreign.

Image credit:Bandai Namco/VG247

Update: We have updated this Crater guide with more information to help you out, and have added additional links to the rest of our Nightreign guides.

Nightreign is home to a few different Shifting Earth events which drastically change a portion of Limveld’s map, and these events are not to be ignored either, given that they’re home to some secret rewards – and risks – that can make or break your run. The first Shifting Earth event you will encounter is The Crater .

The Crater transforms the north of Limveld into a huge volcanic area that you can descend down into, and if you make it to the bottom in time and don’t let the Night’s Tide catch up with you, you’ll be soaring away from The Crater with a very good reward… Without further ado, here’s how The Crater works in Elden Ring Nightreign .

Nightreign’s The Crater event explained

The Crater is one of multiple Shifting Earth events in Nightreign that completely transform a portion of Limveld. These areas should not be neglected either, as they can often provide you with exceptional buffs or gear that will help make an easier time of whatever Nightlord you’re coming up against.

Those who defeat Tricephalos (Gladius, Beast of Night) for the first time will immediately encounter The Crater event during their next couple of runs, but before continuing, it is worth noting a few things if you’re matchmaking with other people or friends.

First things first, if a Shifting Earth event – such as The Crater – is currently active, you will see this on the right-hand side of your screen when going to matchmake. You can also sleep in the Hold if you wish to skip the event and return to a ‘normal’ Limveld.

On top of that, to actually spawn into Limveld and have The Crater event active, everyone in your party must have unlocked it . Whoever has the event active should ideally host the lobby too if you want to go and experience it!

Last, but not least, you can retrigger Shifting Earth events after they have disappeared if you wish to revisit them. To do this, however, you’ll need to take part in enhanced fights against the Nightlords - known as Everdark Sovereign fights - and successfully beat them to earn Sovereign Sigils.

There is only one Everdark Sovereign boss available per week, and you must have beaten the original version of that Nightlord to be able to challenge them. If you do defeat them, the Sovereign Sigils that you earn can be spent at the Collector Signboard in the Hold to retrigger Shifting Earth events, purchase new Relics , skins , and more.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about what you should actually be doing inside of The Crater.

What to do in The Crater in Nightreign

The Crater is a huge volcanic pit that’s home to a very special altar at the bottom in Nightreign. This altar allows you to turn one of your weapons into a Legendary Armament , and will also remove the level requirement for the weapon.

Legendary Armaments are quite rare in Nightreign, as you’d expect, so being able to guarantee one – and turn any weapon into one – using The Crater can be great for boosting the attack power of your team.

The Crater is a huge volcanic area on your map. |Image credit:Bandai Namco/VG247

That said, you don’t want to go into The Crater underprepared. If you want to hit the area, I recommend saving it for Day 2 and dedicating all of Day 2 to it . If you have some time left over, great! You can fly out and visit some nearby ruins until the Night’s Tide closes in. What you definitely do not want, however, is to wind up stuck in The Crater with the Night’s Tide closing in on you.

You’ll want to climb down (or if you’re feeling chaotic, jump down) the pillars and rocks deeper into The Crater . More specifically, you can run down some fallen pillars that are near the church inside of The Crater. After enough climbing down, there’ll be a boss - The Fire Prelates - for you to defeat at the mid-way point.

After defeating The Fire Prelates, the yellow fog door behind them disappears, and you can continue deeper into The Crater. There’ll be a bunch of Fire Chariots and Hands here that I recommend ignoring – given time is of the essence – but if you’re speeding through things, by all means take them down for the Runes.

At the very bottom of The Crater, there’ll be a fancy altar that you can’t miss, but of course, this is an Elden Ring game… As you approach the altar, a Magma Wyrm boss will spawn.

Once the boss is down, you can interact with the altar (shown below), to transform one of your weapons into a Legendary Armament and remove its level requirement.

Make sure to interact with this altar and upgrade your weapon to a Legendary Armament before leaving. |Image credit:Bandai Namco/VG247

If you then U-turn from the altar, there’ll be a Spectral Hawk to interact with just up ahead and on your right that will slowly but surely fly you out of The Crater and back onto Limveld’s mainland.

For more on Nightreign, take a look at how the Rotted Woods event works , how the Mountaintops event works , and all boss weaknesses to help you with those troubling Nightlord fights.

Elden Ring: Nightreign

PS5 , Xbox Series X/S , PC

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