An Elden Ring Nightreign dataminer dove into the numbers to prove that reaching max level isn't as strong as it seems

As if Elden Ring character stats weren't confusing enough, FromSoftware further obfuscated their purpose in Elden Ring Nightreign. Each Nightfarer has letter ratings instead of numbers to denote their relative proficiency with each stat, but the real values are hidden. You just have to trust they're going up a meaningful amount each time you level up.

Dataminer and YouTuber Zullie the Witch went under the hood to figure out how stats actually work in Nightreign and found that, while they're similar to Elden Ring, there are a few caveats that might make you rethink your approach to each run.

For starters, leveling up past 12 doesn't do a whole lot. Nightreign caps out at 15, but the last three levels only raise your stats by one to two points, which means you might want to spend your runes on buff items instead.

She also found that each stat isn't graded on the same scale. An S in intellect equals about 50, but an S in strength is almost 70 (50 would be an A). The mind stat, which determines how big your mana bar is, grows the slowest as you level up. That might explain why the spellcasters have to hoard items to replenish their FP. And arcane simply doesn't change no matter what level you are, making Executor the best character for applying status effects in the game.

Zullie gives other tips in the video, like what kind of stats you should look to bring on your relics. There's nothing in there that seems exploitable or broken, but having the actual numbers helps contextualize how each character grows in power over the course of a run.

The other day my group was given a bonus that increased our attack power based on the amount of runes we had. When we got to the final boss, we all opted to save our runes and not level up past 10. As a result, my dagger on the Duchess hit for almost 300 damage per swing, and I barely felt like I was missing five levels of bonus health. Thanks to Zullie, now I know why it wasn't a bad choice. It also proves that there's really no reason to stall out a run just to farm runes until you're max level. Don't make your fellow Nightfarers wait for you to jump into the goop for three points of vigor.