How to beat Everdark Caligo in Elden Ring Nightreign

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In Elden Ring, squaring off against Everdark Caligo in Nightreign can be an unexpectedly challenging encounter for those who’ve tangled with the original Fissure in the Fog boss. Much like its kin, the ice dragon Caligo, possesses a knack for soaring throughout the battlefield, turning the fight into something of a cat-and-mouse pursuit. To make matters worse, you’re constantly on the defense against the relentless onslaught of frostbite, as the beast summons icy shards and hurls projectiles that freeze you solid.

Luckily, I don’t believe battling Caligo is overly challenging if you plan your expedition wisely, by gathering resistances and a potent flaming weapon or an added fire affinity that exploits her weakness. Here, I will outline the optimal strategy to defeat Everdark Caligo, the attacks to be aware of, and the reward you’ll receive upon success.

How to beat Everdark Caligo in Elden Ring Nightreign

Instead of Everdark Caligo not having a large gimmick compared to Everdark Augur, it’s important to note that she primarily focuses on summoning larger quantities of frost and increasing the potency of her attacks. Upon entering the arena, you’ll encounter the typical Phase Two version of Caligo. However, when her health drops to approximately 75%, she fortifies herself with icy armor, enhancing her resistance to damage.

You have the ability to shatter this armor into specific areas of her body (head, torso, tail seem to be included), causing substantial harm and resulting in a complete stun if you manage to do so on all parts. However, beyond basic damage and breaking the armor, there doesn’t appear to be any hidden technique for shattering each part that I can discern.

Despite Caligo’s head being her vulnerable spot, even with armor, she’s already quite tough as a boss. So, changing the fight drastically isn’t likely. To defeat Everdark Caligo effectively, unlike Everdark Augur, it’s recommended to utilize your expedition time wisely by gathering frost resistance, fire weapons, and pure damage to counter her high durability.

The highest point in the Shifting Earth: Mountaintop event, as described, offers your weapons a frost resistance and protection against dragons. To maximize this benefit, ensure you:

1. Slay the bosses that provide these advantages.
2. Perform actions that trigger or enhance the effects.

  • Defeat the Flying Dragon boss fighting the Snow Troll in the centre of the mountain area and select “Attacks possess anti-dragon effect” from its rewards.
  • Defeat either the two Snow Trolls in the east (close to where the night two boss is), or the Demi-Human Swordsman in the north, and select the Improved frost resistance” option from the rewards.
  • Grab the blue crystal in the north of the mountain to get the “Favor of the Mountaintop” buff and complete the event. This halves frostbite damage and buildup, making it by far the most important.

If you haven’t already activated the mountaintop event, here’s a simple way to do it:

1. Utilize the Collector Signboard at no cost other than one Sovereign Sigil. This activation will last for three game sessions.
2. Ideally, you should complete this event on the second day of the game. However, depending on your squad’s speed, you might want to adjust this timing.
3. I performed this action during the second phase of the second day and found it provided ample time, though we had two Wylders in our party for extra assistance.

In summary, doing this undoubtedly represents the most effective approach for combatting Caligo. It significantly reduces the harm caused by frostbite and slows down the accumulation of frost resulting from attacks.

Everdark Sovereign Caligo tips

Besides the above, Everdark Caligo has some mean attacks to watch out for. These are:

  • Enhanced icy meteors: While first phase Everdark Caligo still does the same icy meteor attack, as she flies around hailing you with them, she now has a new variant in the second phase. She’ll summon icicles that hover around her and fire these at you like missiles, dealing big frost damage. While the strat is still rolling incessantly, these projectiles are a lot bigger, so it’s easier to try and dodge each one more individually.
  • Nuke crystal smash: Caligo puts her wings together, firing a beam that creates an ice crystal, before exploding it with the same beam. This creates an expanding wall of frost similar to Everdark Augur’s wave or Everdark Gaping Jaw’s storm (though much smaller), so simply keep away from it.
  • Breath attacks: So many breath attacks. As anyone who’s fought a FromSoft dragon will know, positioning is 90% of not getting blasted, but in-particular, watch out for when Caligo breathes straight down, especially if you’re distractedly smacking away at her legs or body. Some of Caligo’s breath attacks are now coupled with charges or swipes, too, similar to Oceiros in Dark Souls 3, so you’ll want to be wary of not getting one-two hit by those.
  • Crystal tail slam: Caligo breathes ice in a circle, creating a bunch of crystals, and then slams her tail down after a short delay to explode them all. This one might catch you out if you’re not aware of the follow-up, but it’s quite distinctive since it’s the only time she spins and uses a breath attack at the same time.
  • Ice armour charge: This is the attack that begins the second phase, as Everdark Caligo charges up and creates her frosty armour. As far as I can tell, you can actually stagger her out of this with something like Wylder’s ult, but your best bet is running away. After she finishes charging, she’ll create a big frost AoE that lingers and does a lot of buildup.

In contrast to the last battle against Everdark Augur, there are definitely many additional preparations you could make when facing Caligo.

  1. Use the Collector Signboard to activate and run the Mountaintop event

Previously stated, the occurrence known as Shifting Earth: Mountaintop significantly benefits Caligo. Once you’ve vanquished a Dark Sovereign, you can utilize a Sovereign Sigil at the Signboard Collector to trigger this event, which enhances your journey towards battling the upcoming boss. The reason this event is advantageous for Caligo is that it lessens frostbite and infuses your attacks with an anti-dragon boost.

To alleviate frostbite, vanquish the two Snow Trolls patrolling on the eastern part of the mountain. Subsequently, overcome the Flying Dragon situated centrally on the mountain to obtain the anti-dragon effect. Additionally, you can acquire the Mountaintop Favor buff by finishing the event and interacting with the ice crystal at the summit. This buff diminishes frostbite damage, reduces frost accumulation, and increases your attack power when frostbite triggers nearby.

  1. Bring or acquire fire

Since Everdark Caligo is an ice dragon, he’s vulnerable to fire. Fire is easily accessible through your relic setup or found naturally. Most players should have the Night of the Beast relic, unless you haven’t defeated Tricephalos yet. By upgrading this weapon with a few smithing stones, it becomes effective against Everdark Caligo. You can also enhance it further with relics that boost Fire Attack if desired. However, having fire or fire infusion through skills is the most important aspect.

  1. Build frostbite resistance

To clarify, it’s important to stress: if possible, equip gear with resistance to frostbite. Accumulating frost and sustaining frostbite damage will gradually deplete your health during this phase. The mountain peak event offers the most frost resistance, but you can also seek additional sources such as boss rewards, talismans, or by consuming Thawfrost Boluses found in frost-ridden ruins.

  1. You don’t have to bring Wylder, but…

In simpler terms, Wylder is already an excellent character for causing damage, but when he has special unique add-ons on certain items, he becomes exceptional at dealing massive fire damage. This is demonstrated through a fire damage over time effect after using his art, as well as a fiery follow-up to his grappling move. If you don’t have these specific add-ons, there’s no need to worry; you can purchase the Grand Drizzly Scene from the Collector Signboard shop. This addition gives Wylder’s ultimate move the fire damage over time effect, and it also changes his weapon skill to Flaming Strike, while increasing Fire Attack Power by 2.

It’s noteworthy that when Wylder uses his grappling hook, it not only deals fire damage but also infuses his greatsword with fire for extra effectiveness. If you equip him with an ability that allows additional skill usage, he can maintain this effect 100% of the time. Additionally, Wylder’s grapple skill is particularly useful for dodging Caligo’s breath attacks.

Everdark Caligo reward

In the typical fashion, you’ll earn approximately twenty Sovereign Sigils upon defeating Everdark Caligo, and also gain access to a unique artifact, the Dark Night of the Miasma, which is available for purchase as an additional reward.

This offers:
1. Twenty Sovereign Sigils upon defeating Everdark Caligo.
2. Access to the Dark Night of the Miasma, a special relic for purchase.

  • Frostbite in vicinity conceals self
  • Starting armament inflicts frost
  • Improved physical damage negation

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2025-08-07 14:58