Elden Ring Nightreign's Equilibrious Beast, Libra, overwhelms with speed and ferocity, weaving multiple attack patterns together and building madness with almost every hit. Unlike some Night Lord bosses, Libra has methods of controlling most of the battle arena, even if its attention is locked to one character. Mobility and well-timed uses of ultimate abilities are key to winning this fight.
Our Elden Ring Nightreign Equilibrious Beast boss guide breaks down Libra's attacks and weaknesses, with some recommendations for the best team combinations to tackle the fight with.
Should you make a deal with the Scale-Bearing Merchant?
When you enter Libra's arena, it'll actually be a rare peaceful encounter. Instead of outright attacking you, you can speak to it, where you'll be offered a series of random trades, but each one comes with a catch.
Whether you should make a deal with Libra depends on the offer. Some have negative effects that make the fight more challenging than it needs to be, such as giving Libra greater damage resistance or reviving the boss after defeat. Others are less problematic.
If you attack Libra before speaking or refuse to make a deal, there's no negative effect as far as we can tell. The battle just proceeds as usual.
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Here are two great deals as an example:
- One deal weakens you greatly for approximately 1 full minute, before returning all your stats to you and THEN also buffing you significantly.
- Another deal offers to raise your resistances immensely, at the cost of some stamina. The stamina cost in question is totally insignificant.
Most of the time, I recommend refusing a deal altogether. While some can be great boosts, the drawbacks are large and not easily avoided. If you're a very skilled player and can avoid taking damage, then sure, getting bonus levels or tweaking your stats is a good choice, but otherwise it's a death sentence.
Libra attacks and counters
Libra has just a handful of attacks and no noticeable second phase, unlike some Night Lords. The only difference as you deplete this boss' health is that Libra starts using certain attacks more frequently, such as the clouds of madness, or makes them faster and more powerful, like with their madness sigils.
Libra is incredibly oppressive at all ranges. Throughout the fight, Libra also periodically creates crystals that reduce your madness buildup. Be sure to pick these up to avoid going mad, as you'll take damage and enrage the boss.
Here's a breakdown of Libra's attacks and how to counter them:
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- Staff smash
Libra performs a three-hit staff combo--two horizontal strikes, followed by a powerful overhead slam. The overhead attack has a slightly longer delay. Libra may use variations of this pattern, with multiple horizontal strikes before using the overhead smash
Dodge toward Libra to evade all three and give yourself a little extra time to land a hit, if you're on the offensive
- Rotating madness sigil
Libra summons a single sigil that fires a beam of madness-infused energy. This sigil rotates around the boss in a circle.
Dodge sideways in the direction that it's approaching from--if it's coming from your right, for example, dodge through it to the right.
- Rain of madness
Libra builds a circle of deep orange clouds above itself. The clouds rain down madness after a few seconds.
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Libra also uses a weaker version of this attack with three bursts of madness rain in a smaller range.
Retreat away from Libra so you aren't under the clouds or rain.
- Madness sigils
Libra summons large sigils that appear under you and, after a few seconds, explode with madness-infused energy. During frenzy phases and later in the battle, Libra will summon more of these at a faster pace, often while using other attacks.
Dodge out of the sigil as soon as it appears.
- Building madness
Libra remains still while the air turns orange and your madness meter gradually builds. Once Libra finishes chanting, your madness meter maxes out, and you take extensive damage.
Interrupt Libra with an ultimate art. If that's not possible or if it fails to stagger them, focus on collecting the little orange diamonds scattered around. These cleanse a small amount of madness and let you survive the final burst.
- Frenzied shield
Libra creates a sphere of energy around itself. If uninterrupted, Libra completes the shield, causes a small explosion, and takes less damage while the shield lasts. If you break it, Libra enters a frenzied state with double attack speed.
If you've got a good grasp on Libra's patterns already, it's often worth just dealing with the shield's increased damage resistance instead of having to put up with a relentless barrage of attacks. If you feel up to it, though, shatter the shield with an ultimate art, such as the Ironeye's or Wylder's. Extended uses of dragon breath Incantations can also break the shield, though the Recluse is usually the only one with an FP pool large enough to pull it off.
- Shotgun
Libra's main attack is a golden glyph that shoots out projectiles like a shotgun while it rotates. To avoid it, dodge through it in the opposite direction it's rotating so you're not caught out again as it spins. There's a slight delay between Libra creating the glyph and it beginning to fire, so you've got time to react and reposition.
- Rain
Another of Libra's common attacks is a madness shower. Keep an eye on the sky so you can see when this attack is being used, and then run away to avoid the impacts.
- Geyser
Libra can create large golden glyphs on the ground that erupt a moment later, requiring you to move outside of the geyser to avoid damage. Avoiding one is simple enough, but be careful, as Libra often creates several runes back to back, so don't stop moving until it's safe.
- Meditation
Libra's signature move sees it meditate inside a shield. The shield absorbs nearly all damage, and if it completes the mediation, it gets a temporary defence buff, which you want to avoid at all costs. To counter this move, you have to either use Wylder or Ironeye's ultimates to break the shield, or destroy the various sigils that spawn around Libra. These sigils can be broken by walking into them or attacking them, but some can spawn in the air, so using a ranged weapon like a bow is best. If you successfully interrupt Libra's meditation, it will enter a frenzy.
- Frenzy
Dealing enough madness damage to the boss, interrupting Libra's meditation, or even being afflicted with madness yourself, causes it to enter a frenzy. In this enraged state, Libra gains a temporary damage buff and attacks in melee range.
- Fog
Libra occasionally pounds the ground and creates a thick fog that quickly builds up your madness, but also creates a lot of the crystals you can use to reduce your madness. Collect enough crystals to survive and wait out the attack, or you can interrupt the boss using charged attacks from heavy weapons.
The "strat" is supposed to be to break all the vertical yellow sigils whenever he tries to meditate, which will cancel his power up and he will remain in standard mode for another minute. The important thing here is that you can knock him out of his powering up meditation by performing any staggering ultimate, without bothering with the yellow sigils.
His first two power ups are not like the third power up and on, in so that the sigils he creates that you can break to knock him out of meditation are actually manageable.
- He only creates 4-5 sigils the first time around and they're all on the ground.
- On his second meditation, he creates a few more, like 7 or 8 and some of them are in the air.
This means that you should not be wasting your ultimate during his first meditation. A single player should be able to break every sigil by themselves. YOU CAN DASH THROUGH THE SIGILS ON THE GROUND, do not stop to swing at them with melee.
The third meditation and onwards spawns a ridiculous amount of sigils and you need an extreme amount of co-ordination between your team mates to clear them all out, so this is when you must start using your ultimates to cancel Libra out of meditation. If you are on comms, be sure to plan ahead what order you do your ultimates. BE ALERT
If you're playing in solo queue and suspect your team mates won't stagger Libra out of his ult, try not to use your ultimate for his first two power up attempts. Use your dash to sprint through all the sigils on the ground to cancel out his first power up and do the same with his second power up, but don't forget to shoot the sigils that are in the air. Save your ultimate art for his third power up attempt.
Stay close to Libra. While Libra's arsenal is almost entirely made up of large AoE attacks, the safest place to be is at close to medium range, where it's easier to kite around the boss.
Libra weaknesses
The boss-selection menu tells you that Libra deals madness damage and is also weak to madness damage. While we never saw evidence that Libra suffers from the madness affliction like other enemies do--where they suffer extra damage after a period of buildup--it's true that the boss takes extra damage from madness weapons and spells.
Despite this beast dealing madness damage, it's actually weak to it as well. In fact, dealing madness damage can temporarily make Libra enter a frenzy where it'll attack with a staff, rather than its terrifying AoE spells. Plus, Libra creates madness-repelling crystals that help keep both the madness buildup from its attacks or any of your spells under control.
Unfortunately, madness gear is among the rarest to find in Limveld. Nevertheless, cross your fingers and use the map overlay to find locations that reward madness affinity gear, or you can visit merchant locations since they sell at least one item with the boss' weakness.
If you want to deal extra damage bring Holy or Fire. For procs, bring Poison or Scarlet Rot, Bleed and Frost procs take double the time cause he has more resistance to those.
If so, or if the weapons you get from a madness camp don't suit your build, Libra is also prone to frostbite and blood loss. Ice weapons and spells, katanas, daggers with bleed effects, or, if you're lucky, a bow with the bloodloss effect, are all suitable choices.
By Day 2, if you don't have any weapons that take your fancy, spend time getting Smithing Stone 2 in Limveld's mines. That way, you can upgrade whatever weapons you are using and dish out plenty of damage, even if you can't exploit Libra's weaknesses.
Level up and get flask upgrades. Like most bosses, you'll want to be at least level ten before fighting Libra. With how oppressive this boss can be, I'd even suggest aiming for level 12 or more if you can, just to speed things up. Earn as many runes as you can and take out expedition bosses along the way for passive upgrades. You should also pick up as many flask charges as you can by visiting all the churches.
Best team combinations for Libra
Even more so than most Nightlords, your team composition is vital in beating Libra, at least in any kind of efficient manner. This is largely due to a move that allows it to buff its defences if you fail to interrupt it properly.
Here's who I recommend for Libra:
- Ironeye: His ultimate can also completely interrupt Libra's meditation, so you don't need to break runes. If that's on cooldown, then ranged weapons in general are perfect for destroying the necessary sigils (explained below), even those that spawn in the air. He can also mark enemies so they take increased damage from the entire team, and it's not hard to see why that's handy.
- Wylder: He's an easy-to-gear character with great damage and stagger potential, especially from his ultimate, which can interrupt Libra's mediation, bypassing the need to break sigils. Plus, his unique relics can also add fire damage to his skills, which helps negate the reliance on RNG drops.
- Duchess: Her Restage skill not only repeats recent damage against targets (including the affinity boost), but can also reapply status ailments.
- Recluse: By using madness incantations and fire spells, alongside her Magic Cocktail, Recluse can dish out incredible pain. Plus, her ultimate also gives your team healing and FP restoration.
Libra moves quickly, but often targets just single teammate or uses close-range attacks. You want at least one ranged character who can maintain pressure while the beast is targeting a teammate or while you're out of their attack range. The other necessary component for this fight is an ultimate art that damages enemies--so, the Wylder, Ironeye, Guardian, or Raider. At several points during the fight, Libra will start to generate a shell that, if left unbroken, increases the boss's resistance to all attacks for several minutes. The Executor's ultimate is useful, but often not powerful enough to break the shell before it forms.
Here are some effective team compositions:
- Three Ironeye
- Two Ironeye, one Raider, Duchess, or Wylder
- One Ironeye, one Recluse, one Wylder or Raider
Ironeye is the best choice, since they're less reliant on lucky item drops and can still dish out quite a lot of damage just by upgrading their standard bow. One hit from their ultimate is also enough to shatter Libra's shell before it forms. The Recluse is also useful--doubly so if you manage to nab a madness-related spell or Incantation--though their reliance on item drops for stronger Magic Cocktail spells means you might get stuck with just Glintstone Pebble for the fight.
An ally with an offensive ultimate art can shatter Libra's shield before it finishes charging.
Good luck, Tarnished!
How To MASTER Libra - In Depth Boss Guide & Moveset Analysis
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