Elden Ring Nerijus boss fight: how to beat Bloody Finger Nerijus
How to survive the invasion from Bloody Finger Nerijus
Looking to survive your encounter with Bloody Finger Nerijus in Elden Ring? Occasionally, Elden Ring likes to throw NPC invaders into your world to challenge you. Because Elden Ring isn't challenging enough as it is, of course. The earliest such invader you're likely to come across is a warrior known as Bloody Finger Nerijus, who accosts you during your stroll up the river in Limgrave.
Nerijus is a dangerous foe for an unprepared player, but thankfully if you hold out long enough, you'll be aided by an NPC ally of your own - and the rewards for defeating Nerijus are well worth the effort. Read on for our walkthrough on the Nerijus boss fight in Elden Ring.
Elden Ring Bloody Finger Nerijus boss fight walkthrough
As you explore the starting area of Limgrave in Elden Ring, you may at some point find yourself underneath the highway bridge connecting East and West Liurnia. If you continue to travel a short distance north, you'll find two things. First: you'll find Murkwater Cave on your left - and this is an important cave to complete before fighting Margit, the Fell Omen at Stormveil Castle. But before you can explore it, your world will be invaded by a nasty miniboss known as Bloody Finger Nerijus.
Nerijus is a challenging foe to beat during the early stages of Elden Ring, which is when you're most likely to encounter him. But with the right tactics (and the right ally), you can make the fight a whole lot easier. Watch through how I beat Nerijus below, and then read on for our top tips on defeating this invader.
Bloody Finger Nerijus boss fight video walkthrough:
How to beat Bloody Finger Nerijus: top tips for success
Here are our top tips for succeeding in your fight against the invader Bloody Finger Nerijus:
- Make Nerijus work in order to catch you
- Let Yura do the hard work for you
- Prepare for a ranged attack at any moment
- Keep your health topped up
- Make use of Reduvia after beating him!
1. Make Nerijus work in order to catch you
As you run down the river towards the entrance to Murkwater Cave, Nerijus will spawn at the far end of the makeshift river arena, and start running towards you. Unless you're confident in your abilities, you should delay his arrival as much as possible by running back towards where you came from, nearer the bridge. It's best if you clear out the skeletons by the bridge, but if you don't want to do that, just go back as far as you can without attracting their attention.
Why should you delay the point where Nerijus catches you? Because a short way into the fight, an NPC ally will come to your aid. His name is Bloody Finger Hunter Yura, and he is likely to be your best chance of survival. He'll appear from the bridge side and run towards you, so the less time you spend fighting Nerijus without him, the better.
2. Let Yura do the hard work for you
Nerijus is a difficult foe to best one-on-one thanks to his dangerous bleed-inflicting attacks, which can cause you to bleed even through your blocks. Thankfully, once Yura arrives, you'll find that he is a powerful combatant. He can dish out decent damage to Yura, and - even more importantly - he can tank many of Nerijus's attacks with an ease that you cannot hope to match early on in Elden Ring.
You'll notice in the above video that I was playing very cautiously, going in for strikes on Nerijus after I saw him being staggered by Yura's attacks. This is how I'd recommend you deal with him if you're having trouble. Let Yura do the hard work for you.
3. Prepare for a ranged attack at any moment
The source of Nerijus's power is his dagger, Reduvia. Not only is this blade proficient at dealing bleed damage, but it also allows Nerijus to send forth airborne blood attacks that deal significant damage.
These attacks come quickly and without much warning; and even worse, Nerijus will often unexpectedly switch targets between Yura and yourself, so even if it looks like Nerijus is preoccupied, you should always be prepared for one of those ranged attacks at any moment.
4. Keep your health topped up
Once your bleed meter is filled, you'll take a significant amount of damage, proportionate to your maximum health. If you don't keep your health topped up throughout the fight, then you're likely to die the moment the bleed meter fills up. Nerijus is a fairly aggressive attacker, and loves to dodge-roll to close the distance between you; your best bet is to wait until he is well and truly preoccupied with Yura before healing up. But make sure you do take that opportunity to heal when possible, or you may regret it.
5. Make use of Reduvia after beating him!
Okay, this one isn't really a tip for defeating Nerijus so much as a bit of advice for the rest of the game. But it's pertinent here, because once you do defeat Nerijus, he'll drop Reduvia, his special dagger. This dagger is one of the best weapons in Elden Ring that we've found early on, as it allows you to fire off those same ranged attacks as Nerijus used. And you can spam those attacks much more freely than Nerijus!
That wraps up this walkthrough of the tricky fight against the invader Nerijus in Elden Ring. While you're here, why not also check out our guides on where to find Golden Seeds and Sacred Tears to improve your healing capabilities? You can also check out our guide on the best armour to find early on in Elden Ring.