2025 will go down in history as one of the best years for videogames. But among all the stellar releases, one game caught my attention because of how utterly weird it is as a concept. That game is Elden Ring Nightreign, a spinoff to the 2022 award winning Elden Ring. Nightreign combines roguelike elements with a cooperative focus, peppered with Battle Royale elements. If that sounds weird, I don’t blame you. What’s even more weird is how well all these elements work in a Souls environment.
At first, I was not convinced by this game. It felt like it was trying too hard to bank on the success of Elden Ring, while adding trends from other games. Especially in a series where immersion comes from world building, Nightreign looked like it focused on gameplay alone. I couldn’t have been more wrong though; while the gameplay in Nightreign is indeed Elden Ring cranked up to 11, it also has a compelling cast of characters and its own lore, so detailed and intriguing that it got me more invested than the Elden Ring itself.
Despite its title, Elden Ring Nightreign is not a DLC to the main game. It has its own setting and lore, on the isolated island of Limvelt, a land that seems to be trapped in an eternal night. You can pick one of the 8 preset playable Nightfarers (10 if you own the DLC) and your task is to survive the approaching night and defeat all eight Nightlords that plague the land.
Before even starting a run, it’s important to understand how these characters work. Unlike Elden Ring, where you can create your own character and customize it to your liking, the characters in Nightreign are pre-defined from the start. Those who love to use large weapons that do big damage will enjoy playing as the box art protagonist Wylder, the burly Raider, the tanky birdman Guardian or the weird and mysterious Undertaker (DLC). The fast-wielding dexterity users will appreciate the Sekiro-esque Executor, the archer Ironeye (which ironically is the only instance where FromSoftware made bows viable), or the super fast assassin-like Duchess. The magic users will fall in love with the Recluse and her “infinite mana” skills.
And then, there’s two unique characters that I find hard to categorize. The Revenant is a necromancer who is also proficient with miracles, using her summons to keep enemies at bay while she uses all sorts of lightning- or faith-based spells. Finally, The Scholar (DLC) is a unique party-focused character. His entire toolkit is focused around using items, buffing allies and debuffing enemies.
Despite not being able to really modify character stats significantly, with this kind of variation, you will not get bored too soon.
The first thing that impressed me, even before starting the actual runs, is how surprisingly well the characters are written. Starting from Wylder’s perspective, every character is stuck in a sort of limbo island, called Shrouded Roundtable Hold. They can only escape by defeating the Nightlord that plagues the lands of Limvelt, but every character has their own personal mission and goal. You unlock each character’s story via Remembrance missions and it’s honestly refreshing to see their story and background straight out unlocked and explained, instead of having to piece it together from random clues from equipment or items. Wylder’s search for his sister, Guardian losing his wings or the weird Executioner having a thing for painting, all these stories are surprisingly well written and got me more invested than I expected.
Also, every single character is incredibly likeable. The Duchess is sassy, the Guardian is stoic and knightly, the Raider is one bundle of joy and rage, the Recluse is a mysterious lady with a dark past. And a nice design 😀
Once you finally decide to start a match, you have the option between playing co-op in a three player party, as a two player duo, or all by yourself. The game is clearly devised around co-operative gameplay, where you and two other players, randoms or friends, tackle the evershifting map of Limvelt and try your best to knock down the dreaded Nightlords. However, for those who prefer a challenge or are confident with their Souls gameplay, they can play the entire game solo. The game adjusts the damage, health and resistances of enemies and bosses to the number of players, so any way of tackling the game is viable.
Speaking of game modes, there is a crucial detail that newer players must consider: if you never played a FromSoftware Souls game before, this game will feel incredibly rough during the first few hours. The gameplay is exactly like Elden Ring, with a few modifiers (like double jumping and sprinting), except now you are locked into specific classes. So, if you never touched this type of game before, it’s heavily recommended that you play in coop instead of solo.
Moreover, since you can’t create your custom characters, and each character comes with their unique set of skills, you must know exactly what their strengths and weaknesses are and equip them accordingly. For instance, The Recluse has an S-scaling in Intelligence and Faith, and a D-scaling in Strength or Dexterity. Equipping her with a battle axe would be a very bad decision; you need to feed her staves and talismans that unlock magic attacks. Likewise, the Raider is a mindless brute that loves to hit with a hammer and giving him a bow will end your journey early.
This might put off quite a few people honestly, but I appreciate the idea. Plus, considering the classes, there definitely is a playstyle available for everyone. Even for torch only users, I think Wylder wields them the best.
However, even if you find a piece of equipment that your character can’t use, it’s still a good idea to grab it from the ground. Unlike in other Souls games, in Nightreign every piece of equipment has a specific status effect – more damage, more health, negate damage, mana recovery. And so, even if for example your Raider cannot use seals, if a particular seal has a critical damage boost, it’s still better to keep that seal in your inventory.
Unfortunately, RNG sometimes simply refuses to cooperate with you. This is one of the few gripes that I have with Nightreign: no matter how much you try, in some instances the game refuses to give you any decent equipment. I’ve had numerous instances where I was forced to upgrade my base weapon and finish the run with it, just because every drop I got was worthless. The game does try to give you class-specific weapons in solo or gives a wide pool of weaponry in co-op, up for trade, but at times Nightreign decides that you do not deserve any good drops for that specific run.
Your first goal when starting a run is to check the map and plan your route accordingly. There are several points of interest that are always generated on the map, each filled with treasures: Ruins, forts, towers with magic spells, churches with extra healing flasks, even a well defended castle in the middle. Each of these locations has several enemies and a boss, with a specific status effect that is also indicated on the map. Defeating the boss yields runes to level up and one of three possible item choices – two weapons or a character buff.
Besides these location bosses, you can also encounter field bosses, who roam Limvelt and are usually easy pickings for runes and weapons. Finally, from day two onward, you will encounter legendary bosses, marked by a red skull on the map. These are incredibly tough, such as the dreaded Death Rite Bird or the Draconic Tree Sentinel, so you need to be extra prepared for them. Fortunately, they yield the most substantial number of runes and weapons or bonuses, so the fights are definitely worth it.
After some time exploring, a blue ring appears on your map and starts to shrink. This signals that the day is coming to an end, and that you must go to the safe zone. If you have ever seen games like Fortnite, you will recognize this mechanic: this blue circle delimits the safe zone in which you can operate, and sitting outside this circle will drain your life nonstop. Although I am personally not a fan of this mechanic, it also is an indispensable feature of Elden Ring Nightreign: the blue ring gives a sense of urgency, forcing you to get better and learn the map with each run, so you are prepared in time for the encounter with the Night Bosses.
The Night Bosses are the “checkpoints” of the run. Each run lasts for three days, and at the end of each of the first two days, you fight a Night Boss. These bosses will test your build and your knowledge of the game, and their difficulty depends on the day they’ve spawn.
Unlike the field bosses, there are familiar faces from the Dark Souls trilogy among the Night Bosses. You still can encounter Tree Sentinels, the Commanders, Crucible Knights and more, but you could also have the pleasure of fighting the Gaping Dragon from Dark Souls, Duke’s Dear Freja from Dark Souls 2 or even the fabled Nameless King from Dark Souls 3! These bosses are slightly altered to fit the gameplay of Nightreign and I was overjoyed when I did encounter them. Especially the Nameless King, he still managed to kick my ass after all this time.
At the end of the third day you will face the true bosses of Nightreign, the Nightlords. These are bosses unique to this game and each of them is an absolute spectacle. They hit fast, they hit incredibly hard, and they serve as the ultimate test in Nightreign.
There’s eight different base game Nightlords and two added with DLC. While they might look like an impossible challenge at first, each of them has a particular weakness, which is shown before starting your run. These weaknesses are crucial and severely increase your chances of winning the battles. For instance, Gladius the three headed dog is incredibly weak to Holy damage; not only does he take extra damage from holy weapons, he can also be staggered and even stance broken faster than usual. Moreover, several enemies have various auras or phase transitions, which can be broken only by exploiting their weaknesses.
I believe FromSoftware outdid themselves with these bosses. Out of all of them, Libra is probably the most unique; a gimmick boss that offers you a buff before the beginning of the fight. Most of the buffs offered, however, are traps… and might turn into a massive debuff. For example, you might be able to heal more from your flask, but each time you heal you lose one level. I was simply delighted to be surprised by these gimmicks even after all this time.
These bosses also come with their Everdark version, an online only, stronger version of the Nightlord. These Everdark bosses are cycled on a weekly basis.
Defeating each boss rewards you with color-coded relics which can be equipped to boost your stats and give you new abilities – like talismans in Elden Ring – as well as a currency called murk. Murk is used to purchase more relics and chalices that act as “relic slots”. You can also purchase costume, which every Fashion Souls players will love and appreciate. The developers were kind enough to even add costumes from previous Souls games that will unlock once you defeat the final Nightlord. Unlocking costumes via in-game progression really seems to be a lost art in videogames…
In terms of earning the Platinum Trophy for Nightreign, the list is straightforward. You must unlock all characters and defeat all Nightlords, as well as defeat at least one Nightlord with each character. The difficulty however varies depending on the mode you’re playing.
By far the easiest way to achieve all trophies is in a 3-player party with two other coordinated friends that know what they’re doing. The game becomes trivial as soon as the one player that knows the game best acts as a designated leader and pinpoints where the places of interest are.
The intermediate difficulty is attempting the game solo. It is the way I personally played the entirety of Nightreign and in my humble opinion, it’s also the most satisfying way to play the game. There’s a certain charm to managing to kneel every Souls game without any outside assistance, and Nightreign is no exception.
And then there’s playing co-op mode with randoms… you can match up with random players and honestly the game turns into a nightmare most of the time. If you are lucky enough to find other players that know how to play the game, then great, but most of the time you will have to deal with players that have no clue what they’re doing, keep dying repeatedly, or ignore the fact that they are level 1 and decide to storm the Castle – the hardest dungeon in the game. The game really punishes mistakes, and random co-op is the game mode where Nightreign might seem like a bit too much.
Make no mistake, Elden Ring Nightreign is not a perfect game. A full run takes between 40 and 50 minutes with no option to pause, which will prove to be an impediment to many. Its “Battle Royale” vibe might not be everyone’s cup of tea, and the fact that it has “Elden Ring” in its title might be misleading, considering that lore-wise, Nightreign has little in common with the main game.
However, if you can get past these small hurdles, you might end up enjoying Elden Ring Nightreign. Whether you prefer playing solo or with friends, this game can deliver tens of hours of pure fun. If you are a fan of FromSoftware’s latest work, make sure to give it a try!
