As night falls in the Lands Between, things get even more hostile for your lowly Tarnished. In addition to the normal enemies you’ll find patrolling each area in daylight, night brings with it a suite of new field bosses, some of which are far more fearsome than anything you’ll face in the waking hours. Included in this category are the Night’s Cavalry, a group of mysterious mounted knights that patrol key roads and bridges on the map. Read on to find out how to beat the Night’s Cavalry in Elden Ring.
These are all optional encounters, meaning you can finish the game without ever facing one, but doing so will give you access to some excellent gear, as well as additional Ashes of War.
Note: For more information, check out our Elden Ring guides and features hub.
Elden Ring boss guide – How to beat Night’s Cavalry
The Night’s Cavalry appear in a number of locations, with at least one in nearly all of the major map areas you’ll travel through. While the weapons they wield vary, their movesets and attack patterns — with two exceptions — do not, meaning you can apply the same strategy to every encounter with them. This guide will teach you how to do just that.
Night’s Cavalry boss fight: Phase 1 – Mounted
Each Night’s Cavalry begins on a horse, meaning that the first phase of any fight with them will be against a mounted foe. They all use the following moveset:
- Side swing – Night’s Cavalry will swing its chosen weapon to one side of its horse.
- Jump attack – Night’s Cavalry leaps into the air and swings its weapon to the right.
- Rearing swing – The horse rears up on its hind legs, followed by a swing to the right from the Night’s Cavalry.
- Frontal slam – The Night’s Cavalry attacks the area in front of it with its weapon.
- Hoof slam – The horse slams its front hooves down.
- Horse bash – The horse rams its body to the right.
- Glaive grind – The Night’s Cavalry runs its glaive along the ground to the right as it moves. (Glaive version only)
- Flail fury – The Night’s Cavalry spins its flail to the right a few times as it moves. (Flail version only)
Though it sounds counterintuitive, the best way to take on the Night’s Cavalry is on foot. While riding Torrent, your ability to quickly dodge and react to attacks is reduced, and the Night’s Cavalry move and attack fast. They have a lot of attacks at their disposal, but the majority of them affect the right side of their horse. So that’s the side you should stick to during the fight. A solid strategy to use is to stay close, wait for an attack wind-up to begin, and dodge to the right of the horse when it comes. This should keep you safe from the majority of their attacks.
Once you’ve successfully dodged an attack, get a couple of hits in on the horse round the back, then position yourself to dodge the next one. The Night’s Cavalry are relentless, so you can’t afford to get too greedy with your attacks. It’s best to stick to melee weapons here, as ranged options can be too slow and inaccurate to deal with the swiftly-moving Cavalry. But if you want to use magic, try something in the lightning and Holy varieties.
The Night’s Cavalry and their horses have separate health bars, with the horse taking more damage from your attacks than the rider. This means that, in most cases, you’ll defeat the horse first, causing the Night’s Cavalry itself to fall to the ground in a vulnerable position, thus beginning the next phase. It’s worth noting that you can also cause the Cavalry to dismount immediately if you manage to parry one of its attacks, which is a great option for those with the reaction times to pull it off.
Screenshot via PC Invasion
Night’s Cavalry boss fight: Phase 2 – On foot
Once you’ve unhorsed the Night’s Cavalry, the next phase of the fight begins. Naturally, the Cavalry switch up their moveset here, using the following:
- Standard swing – A basic attack with their weapon in a set direction.
- Double spin – The Cavalry swing their weapon round their head twice.
- Frontal slam – A slam attack with their weapon directly in front of the Cavalry.
- Horse summon – A stomp attack, followed by resummoning their horse to ride again.
When this phase begins, the Night’s Cavalry will lie vulnerable on the ground for a period before getting up. This is a prime opportunity for you to land a powerful critical attack, reducing their health by a lot before the phase really begins. Once it does, this phase is a fairly standard melee duel, where the same tactics you use against general enemies should work just as effectively.
Keep your guard up and stay locked on to the Cavalry here, circling round and dodging when needed. Try to punish with a hit or two after each successful dodge, but make sure there’s an opening, as you can’t afford to trade hits: the Cavalry hit much harder than you do. You can parry all of the attacks in this phase, so those with the skill to do so can end it fairly quickly. This phase shouldn’t give you too much trouble, as most of the difficulty of the Night’s Cavalry is tied up in the mounted phase.
Your reward for beating Night’s Cavalry in Elden Ring
In addition to Runes, the reward you receive for defeating Night’s Cavalry varies depending on which specific Cavalry you defeat, in which region. Here is a full list of the available rewards:
- Limgrave – Ash of War: Repeating Thrust
- Weeping Peninsula – Ash of War: Barricade Shield, Nightrider Flail
- Liurnia South – Ash of War: Ice Spear
- Liurnia North – Ash of War: Giant Hunt, Nightrider Glaive
- Caelid – Ash of War: Poison Moth Flight
- Altus Plateau – Ash of War: Shared Order
- Forbidden Lands – Ash of War: Phantom Slash
- Greyoll’s Dragonbarrow – Ash of War: Bloodhound’s Step
- Consecrated Snowfield – Night’s Cavalry Armour Set, Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone
That’s how you beat the Night’s Cavalry in Elden Ring. The game is available via Steam. For more information, check out our guides and features hub.
