Last updated: 6 August 2026

Elden Ring Nightreign Forsaken Hollows Bosses Dreglord & Balancers

The Forsaken Hollows, Elden Ring Nightreign's first paid DLC, launched December 4, 2025 and added two brand-new Nightlords on top of the base game's eight — see our Nightlord boss guide for those. This guide covers both DLC bosses: Weapon-Bequeathed Harmonia (fought via the Balancers expedition) and Traitorous Straghess, the Dreglord, which transforms into Pure Impulse Straghess in its second phase. It also covers how to unlock the DLC content in the first place, since that trips up a lot of players who just bought the expansion.

01How to Unlock the Forsaken Hollows Bosses

Owning the $15 Forsaken Hollows DLC is only the first step — the new bosses are gated behind base-game progress and a short unlock chain:

1. Defeat Gladius, Beast of Night (the Tricephalos expedition) in the base game — beating it before the DLC launched still counts, no need to refight it.
2. Return to Roundtable Hold and speak with the Iron Menial, who passes on a message from the Small Jar Merchant near the Small Jar Bazaar.
3. Talk to the Small Jar Merchant and interact with the door they gesture toward. This triggers a scripted, unwinnable mock fight against the Dreglord — you're meant to lose it.
4. Return to Roundtable Hold afterward. A chapel room is now open with two NPCs, Scholar and Undertaker — speak to both to unlock them as playable Nightfarers.
5. Unlocking the Balancers expedition itself takes one more base-game Nightlord kill on top of Tricephalos (any other Nightlord counts as the second). With both Nightfarers unlocked and two base-game Nightlords beaten, step into the chapel to trigger the Great Hollows event and make the Balancers expedition selectable.
6. Clear the Balancers expedition to defeat Weapon-Bequeathed Harmonia — beating it unlocks the Dreglord expedition, which ends in the Traitorous Straghess / Pure Impulse Straghess fight.

A December 17, 2025 patch also folded both DLC bosses into Deep of Night mode, alongside a refreshed version of Heolstor, the Nightlord with expanded abilities — but that content only appears in a Deep of Night run if every player in the party owns the DLC.

02Weapon-Bequeathed Harmonia — Balancers Expedition

Harmonia is fought as a group of seven valkyrie-like enemies in white armor acting as a single Nightlord encounter, spread across three escalating phases rather than one continuous health bar shift.

• Weakness: Strike-type physical damage (maces, hammers, flails) and Sleep buildup both land noticeably better here than other damage types — a Strength-scaling weapon only helps if it's also a Strike weapon, since Slash and Standard damage are resisted, not favored.
• Resistance: Broadly resistant across the board — Slash, Fire, and Lightning all deal reduced damage, Holy is resisted heavily, and Death Blight and Madness don't apply at all.
• Recommended level: Around 14 going in.
• Key challenge: With seven enemies active across the fight, target prioritization matters more than raw DPS — focusing one valkyrie down at a time is more consistent than spreading damage.
• Preparation: Bring a Strike-type weapon if you have one, and pack Sleep-inducing items or skills if your Nightfarer has access to them. A teammate running Scholar's debuff kit helps manage the number of simultaneous attackers.

Beating Harmonia awards The Will of the Balancers, a relic that boosts melee and skill attack power and restores FP continuously — worth equipping before you move on to the Dreglord fight.

03Traitorous Straghess (Dreglord) — Phase One

The Dreglord itself is described in-game as a corpse fiend — a tangled mound of bodies, bone, and scrap fused together. It's a two-phase fight, with the first phase named Traitorous Straghess.

• Weakness: Slash and Thrust physical damage, plus Fire and Holy elemental damage, all land better than other options — though the gap is smaller than on most base-game Nightlords, so don't over-commit your build to a single element.
• Resistance: Lightning damage is reduced, and Death Blight doesn't apply.
• Recommended level: 15 or higher before attempting the expedition.
• Melee pattern: Single or double staff swings telegraphed by the boss leaning its body before the swing — wait for the lean, then dodge the strike itself rather than the wind-up.
• Rot balls: Straghess throws balls of Scarlet Rot at the ground early in the fight, later aiming them directly at players. Ranged characters can shoot these down before they land.
• Rot mounds: The boss plants explosive Rot mounds that detonate after a delay — mark the location and move away rather than fighting near it.
• Adds: Regular enemies spawn out of Rot pools periodically. Ignoring them and staying on the boss is generally faster than clearing them.
• Strategy: Stay behind the boss to avoid most frontal attacks, and have one player draw aggro with ranged attacks while the rest punish openings with heavy charged attacks — those are efficient at breaking the boss's poise for a critical hit.

04Pure Impulse Straghess — Phase Two

Once Traitorous Straghess's first health bar is emptied, it transforms into Pure Impulse Straghess — noticeably faster and far more willing to leave the ground.

• Jump attacks: Frequent jumping strikes, particularly dangerous when the boss is carrying a Rot ball into the jump — expect a Rot explosion on landing.
• Charges: Fast running charges along the edges of the arena. These have a long tell and a straight line — sidestep rather than rolling backward.
• Tower dives: The boss summons pillar-like structures and dives between them, typically landing two consecutive high-damage hits — do not stand near the structures while this is active.
• Modified combo: The melee combo from phase one now has Rot projectiles mixed into it, finishing with a jumping Rot ball attack.
• Big Rot mound: An enlarged version of the phase-one Rot mound attack that needs a later, more deliberate dodge timing than the phase-one version.
• Openings: Stay close to the boss immediately after a jump attack lands — that's the most reliable punish window. Avoid attacking during the tower-jumping sequence itself.

Scarlet Rot resistance is the single most important preparation for phase two — bring Preserving Boluses or a Flask of Wondrous Physick with the Scarlet Rot Cure tear, and go in with at least three flask charges saved rather than spent on phase one.

05Rewards

Clearing the Dreglord expedition for the first time awards The Night of Dregs, a relic that increases attack power based on your current status ailment buildup, applies Scarlet Rot on the hits you take, and recovers HP while you're near an active Rot effect. It pairs naturally with a Bleed- or Rot-focused build for later Everdark Sovereign runs.