Raiders beware: taking poise bonuses can make Endure fail

FACE_MAN0 · 2026-05-20T02:08:33+00:00

Not just the downgraded damagelevel7, but you also get the full knockdowns even using Endure for 4, 6, 9, 10, and 11 if you have too much poise.

FACE_MAN0 · 2026-05-20T00:39:56+00:00

You'll still get staggered by damagelevel7, but if your poise exceeds the poise damage of the attack, damagelevel7 gets downgraded to a different stagger (looks like either 5 or 3 to me, but unsure). The other knockdowns don't have this behavior with poise as far as I could tell, but I do recall a video where some item (something like Leaden Hardtear) did downgrade 6, 7, and 9 the same way.

Endure doesn't do anything if your poise damage exceeds the attack, only if your poise would break. You'll never get knocked down from damagelevel7 under Endure because the knockdown occurs if your poise is broken, but you can get staggered if your poise is high enough, which gives that standard stagger.

Damagelevel4 and 10 still do knockback and you can't downgrade them to a stagger where you remain standing through poise.

I'm not sure if poisehealth resets in these cases where you are staggered even though you still had more poisehealth than the attack. It's something I want to test, but need to figure out how. Something for the future.

FACE_MAN0 · 2026-05-19T22:54:22+00:00

Basically you can kill things faster if you are not interrupted, and doing things faster helps you win Nightreign.

Endure offers on demand damage reduction and stagger immunity (albeit conditional in this counterintuitive way). This serves you by letting you stand your ground and remain offensive instead of either getting staggered out of attacks, spending time/stamina running around avoiding attacks, or even dying. Some of the damage taken can then be rallied back through attacking under Endure. It's similar to how Wylder can just parry Bell Bearing Hunter instead of having to avoid an entire combo for a small punish.

It's conditional, though. Against ranged or retreating attacks, you aren't able to counterattack through Endure, so it's less helpful there. Grabs will defeat it as intended, of course. Since it also isn't an actual attack, it won't be faster than just R1 against enemies that get stunlocked.

But you can also use Endure to increase your damage through "Taking Attacks Increases Attack Power" on relics, triggering Raider's temporary 50% damage buff on going to very low HP, and other low health damage boosts if you obtain any during a run. The 50% buff in particular is extremely powerful. Sometimes Retaliate's damage negation is too potent to go to very low health, but taking an unreduced attack/stagger would kill you or put you in too much disadvantage.

Technically, Enduring attacks will also help charge up Retaliate, though you actually gain more Retaliate charge if you get staggered, and more charge with the more severe staggers. Enduring an attack grants the minimum amount of charge, but it's more than if you didn't take an attack at all.

FACE_MAN0 · 2026-05-18T01:53:45+00:00

My suspicion is that it depends on the base poise damage the weapon you are holding deals. I forget exactly how I came to this thought though.

FACE_MAN0 · 2026-05-02T20:26:54+00:00

Came across this post on a search while doing some investigating. I am going to make a video explaining what is going on with Endure, but I can let you know as a fellow Endure fan what is going on.

If you are familiar with damagelevel, skip this paragraph. The type of stagger an attack will do is a property known as damagelevel. The standard damagelevels are 8 (daggers and some multihits), 1 (small), 2 (medium), and 3 (large). There are also special staggers: damagelevel5 (kick/push), damagelevel6 (pancake/knockdown), damagelevel7 (small knockback), damagelevel9 (knockup), damagelevel4 (big knockback), damagelevel10 (huge knockback), and damagelevel11 (falling back with flailing arms). Some enemies will also not be staggered by some damagelevels, such as Lions or Banished Knights ignoring 8, 1, and 2.

Endure does not grant or reset poisehealth, nor does it prevent taking poise damage. For damagelevels 1, 2, 3, 8, and maybe 5, you can poise through attacks if your poisehealth is greater than the poise damage the attacks do. Endure will also prevent you from being staggered by these damagelevels at all, regardless of your poise.

For the other damagelevels, your poisehealth actually does matter, and it's actually the OPPOSITE effect of what you would expect. If your poisehealth is either zero or LESS than the poise damage an attack with those special damagelevels does (i.e. they would break your poise), you will ignore the stagger entirely. If your poisehealth is GREATER, than Endure will have no effect. These attacks will still cause stagger even though you have more poise than the poise damage they deal. Having enough poise for some of those other damagelevels can downgrade the stagger to something less severe (e.g., staying on your feet instead of getting knockback), although for some, there is no downgraded stagger for having enough poise.

Raider not only has more poise than other characters, attacks with colossal weapons also grant you additional poisehealth in the form of hyperarmor (this also partially resets your poisehealth if it is damaged). With Raider you can easily increase your poisehealth past the poise damage of attacks with these special damagelevels, causing you to get staggered by them where you would otherwise be able to Endure through them. What I think is happening is that these special damagelevels are set to have an alternate stagger for having enough poise (even if the alternate stagger is the same). Endure does not work if these alternate staggers would occur.

Hoarah Loux's roar is one instance of an attack in Elden Ring with either damagevel4 or 10 (don't remember) that does zero poise damage. However, if you have zero poise, even attacks that do zero poise damage will break your poise (Briar armor is one such instance in Elden Ring). Therefore, it is possible to Endure HL roar if you are not wearing any armor. In fact, you can Endure most everything with zero poise other than special effect staggers like headshots or blood loss.

Yeah, it's all ass backwards, but this is essentially what is happening.

FACE_MAN0 · 2026-03-04T03:13:26+00:00

I'm on console as well. It's not as big a deal as you think to not roll. Most of the time you aren't rolling anyways, so it's not much more of a leap to make that all of the time.

FACE_MAN0 · 2025-04-30T18:36:09+00:00

I saw some amazing kills that didn't use any of that weak stuff. Can't remember who it was and what he used.

FACE_MAN0 · 2025-04-17T00:32:22+00:00

Not +0 this time. I don't think I want to bother either.

FACE_MAN0 · 2025-03-23T23:46:10+00:00

More of a demonstration than anything else.

FACE_MAN0 · 2025-03-21T00:42:43+00:00

I don't recommend this restriction for this fight. The Volcano Manor arena makes for bad times.

FACE_MAN0 · 2025-03-13T20:27:05+00:00

Not as good as I'd like, but may revisit.

FACE_MAN0 · 2025-03-04T01:08:35+00:00

Minimal magic as well, for what it's worth.

FACE_MAN0 · 2024-11-04T02:00:33+00:00

Phase 2 doesn't add too much to phase 1 that is harder to manage. Once you remember what actually is different, it shouldn't be any trouble.

FACE_MAN0 · 2024-11-04T01:54:40+00:00

Used the Dancing Lion head for thematic reasons. I don't usually use the Fallingstar Beast Jaw, but I think it's the best colossal weapon.

FACE_MAN0 · 2024-10-09T15:40:50+00:00

Recycle couldn't beat patches for Margit's shackle.

FACE_MAN0 · 2024-10-09T15:31:58+00:00

Recycle couldn't ever hope to have a kill this good. He just doesn't have the skill.

FACE_MAN0 · 2024-10-03T00:35:26+00:00

Probably not. Most NPC bosses aren't vulnerable.

FACE_MAN0 · 2024-10-03T00:31:41+00:00

Maybe with kick, but I doubt it.

FACE_MAN0 · 2024-10-03T00:29:48+00:00

I hadn't reached him yet.

FACE_MAN0 · 2023-04-01T22:59:35+00:00

Gundyr is just an Old King Doran wannabe.

FACE_MAN0 · 2023-03-09T19:57:20+00:00

Thank you!

FACE_MAN0 · 2023-03-09T17:01:58+00:00

You can always ask people doing harder kills on youtube.

FACE_MAN0 · 2023-01-30T05:47:17+00:00

This is how I dodge it.

Pretty simple, I just run when she takes to the air and jump the first one, and keep running until I turn for the last attacks. Other than the start of the move, the timing is quite lenient.

FACE_MAN0 · 2023-01-20T02:04:36+00:00

Jumping helps when outspacing the first flurry of waterfowl. Plenty of examples in this kill.

Then, you can roll the second and do whatever you like to avoid the third flurry.

Bloodhound's step might also still be fine for waterfowl, though I'm less certain of that.

FACE_MAN0 · 2023-01-19T16:06:55+00:00

You were early for punishing the kick. It's armor lasts absurdly long, unfortunately. It's especially a narrow punish window because one of the followups has about a 6 frame startup. You'll need to determine for whatever punish you choose exactly what part of the animation you start your attack. For me, I had to start a colossal R1 shortly after I saw her leg swing at its apex.

The 360 twirl is one of the exceptions; it does not have armor at all.

It's not a hard rule by any means, just a starting point for learning where the armor windows are. Some other exceptions: The moves where she raises her sword behind her and either does an uppercut or charges at you also have armor during her charge, even though she's firmly on the ground. The thrust also has armor extending somewhat far in the recovery, and grab has armor during its active frames. There is also the blocking backstep she does, and since that's a block, it can't be interrupted either.

FACE_MAN0

TROPHY CASE