Nullaeus Solo Guide: How to Beat Torment's Rise and Earn
Why Nullaeus Matters
Nullaeus is the Season 1 Nemesis Delve boss, the prestige solo encounter for Midnight. The fight lives in Torment's Rise in Voidstorm, and beating him solo on the highest tier earns the only Season-1-exclusive mount in the game: the Arcanovoid Construct. The mount disappears when Season 2 launches, so this is a hard-deadlined chase.
Beyond the mount, the encounter also pays out a cosmetic helm (Nullaeus Domaneye), a title, and bragging rights. The "Let Me Solo Him" achievement is a meme reference to the Elden Ring community's most famous solo player; the WoW version is exactly that brutal.
Unlock Requirements
Two difficulty tiers exist. Both require a clean clear of a lower-tier delve as a prerequisite:
- Tier 8 (entry): Clear a Tier 7 standard delve with at least one life remaining
- Tier 11 (solo achievement): Clear a Tier 10 standard delve with at least one life remaining
The Boss Kit
Nullaeus uses three baseline abilities throughout the fight, plus phase-specific intermission mechanics. The baseline abilities cycle in a predictable order — learn the order, learn the fight.
Ability rotation: Devouring Essence → Emptiness of the Void → Imploding Strike, repeating until intermission. Memorize the order, line up your interrupt for Emptiness, dispel Devouring Essence on yourself, defensive for Imploding Strike. That's the baseline loop.
Phase 1 — 100% to 75%
Standard rotation. Use this phase to dial in your interrupt timing. If you can't interrupt every Emptiness of the Void cast on Tier 8, the fight is going to escalate beyond your ability to manage by Phase 3.
When the boss hits 75%, he opens a Dread Portal triggering Intermission 1.
Intermission 1 — 75%
Two Razorshell Ravagers spawn. They have a gap-closer and stacking bleed. Drop them inside a 30-second window or you'll be juggling them through the next phase.
Simultaneously, Nullaeus gains Null Zone — void zones cover thirds of the arena, dealing damage on contact. The arena shrinks. From this point on, you fight in roughly 2/3 of the original space.
Strategy: burn Ravagers immediately with whatever burst CDs you have available. Tank them away from the active Null Zone tiles. Once both adds are dead, return to standard ability management.
Phase 2 — 75% to 50%
Same baseline rotation, but now you're working in compressed arena space. Movement matters more. If you push burst CDs early to clear the Ravagers fast, plan your damage cycle to land them again before Intermission 2.
Intermission 2 — 50%
Seven Razorshell Ravagers spawn (yes, seven — the wave that breaks most pugs). They share a stacking DoT. Spread aggressively, use AoE if you have it, kite if you don't.
Nullaeus also gains Gravity Well — a floating orb that pulls nearby players, with heavy shadow damage clustered toward the center. Maintain distance opposite the well's position. This is the phase where positional awareness becomes survival.
Phase 3 — 50% to 25%
Standard rotation continues with both the Null Zones and the Gravity Well still active in the arena. The space gets significantly tighter. If you've been sloppy with positioning so far, this is the wall.
Intermission 3 — 25%
A single Enslaved Voidcaster spawns. It casts an interruptible shadow bolt and a dodgeable shadow crash. The single-add intermission is mechanically the easiest, but it comes paired with Umbral Rage on Nullaeus — a stacking 10% damage increase that functions as a soft enrage.
Critical phase decision: burn cooldowns aggressively. The longer you fight from this point, the worse the Rage stacks get.
Execute Phase — 25% to 0%
Final stretch. Damage taken is escalating. All your remaining offensive cooldowns should be active. The intermission adds you didn't kill efficiently in earlier phases will compound here.
Tier 11 specifically can spawn intermission adds simultaneously with the boss during this phase, which is what makes the solo achievement so demanding.
Valeera Companion Setup
Valeera is the Midnight delve companion (replacing Brann Bronzebeard). For Nullaeus specifically:
- If your character is a Tank or Melee DPS spec: set Valeera to Healer mode. She'll dispel Devouring Essence off you and provide sustain through Imploding Strike windows.
- If your character is a Healer spec: set Valeera to DPS mode. You'll need her interrupt coverage on Emptiness of the Void.
- If your character is a Ranged DPS spec: decide based on whether your spec has its own interrupt. Hunters and Mages can self-interrupt; rotate Valeera to whichever role fills the gap your spec doesn't.
Recommended Curios
The community-standard combat/utility pairing is Porcelain Blade Tip (combat — crit chance) plus Overflowing Voidspire (utility — synergizes with the void damage profile of the fight). Other curios work; this combo is the safest baseline.
Solo Strategy Specifics
Going solo on Tier 11 changes the fight from "execute the mechanics" to "execute the mechanics while juggling everything Nullaeus throws at you with no second chances."
The keys to solo success:
- Interrupt every single Emptiness of the Void. Not most. Every one. Set a WeakAura that flashes large and red when his cast starts.
- Pre-defensive every Imploding Strike. Stagger your defensive cooldowns so you have one ready every ~30 seconds.
- Burn through Intermission 2's seven adds in under 25 seconds. This is where most attempts die. Dump every CD when they spawn.
- Save offensive burst for the 25% phase. The Umbral Rage soft-enrage is what kills you; the faster you clear the final 25%, the less compounding damage you take.
- Position around the persistent Null Zones and Gravity Well. Treat the arena as 2/3 size from Intermission 1 and quarters by Intermission 2.
The Achievements
When To Attempt
The realistic timeline for going for the solo:
- Weeks 1-3 of Season 1: Get to ilvl 255+ via Heroic dungeons and standard delves. Clear Tier 7 and Tier 8 reliably.
- Weeks 4-6: Push to Tier 10 standard delves, get comfortable, get your gear above 270.
- Weeks 7+: Start Tier 11 attempts. Most successful solo runs come from players at 280+ ilvl with practiced Valeera curios.
Related Reading
- New Systems Guide — Delves, Valeera, and the broader system context
- Mount Guide — including the Arcanovoid Construct and other Season 1 prestige mounts
- Spec Tier List — pick a spec strong for solo content
