Over the course of the last week, my friends and I have been playing the new DLC for Elden Ring Nightreign, The Forsaken Hollows, extensively.

The $15 expansion for FromSoftware's bold, experimental roguelike twist on its acclaimed Game of the Year-winning 2022 ARPG features two new Nightlord bosses, an entirely new map to play on, and a pair of new character classes to play — both of which we've been testing.

Heavy-hitting builds with giant weapons have always been my favorite in the studio's "Soulsborne" games, so I naturally gravitated towards Undertaker — a relatively straightforward Strength/Faith mace wielder with a special Trance ability that buffs her stats and movement speed, a powerful DPS ult that works across huge distances, and the unique ability to use a weaker version of her ultimate when someone else on your team uses their own.

Scholar, the other new Nightfarer character, is far more complex and far less forgiving.

For one, he has middling stats in everything other than Arcane. Then there's Analyze, a skill that requires him to awkwardly stare at enemies on the battlefield for several seconds before buffing himself with extra stamina or debuffing foes with reduced damage. He also has a worse dodge with fewer invincibility frames than most other characters.

His Communion ult is pretty strong, as it threads all nearby enemies together, making them share damage and heal you and your allies when hit. Overall, though, his unremarkable raw damage, mediocre health and stamina, below-average dodge, and tricky character skill definitely put me off of him at first, and for a time, I thought he was quite underpowered.

But then I saw this:

And this:

And, uh, this:

No, your eyes do not deceive you: that's Scholar dealing thousands of damage — up to roughly 8,000 damage — with individual throwing pots, which made me realize just how powerful his passive skill, Bagcraft, is.

This mechanic levels up different classes of consumables as you use them throughout each Expedition, boosting their power significantly at Level 2 and adding a special new effect at Level 3 (this handy community-made cheat sheet shows the effect of each level on every consumable).

Consumables are generally pretty worthless on other Nightfarers, or at the very least, not worth building into. With Bagcraft, however, Scholar is effectively the closest thing Elden Ring Nightreign has to a full-blown artificer, and you can lean into that in some incredibly powerful ways with your Relic loadout.

For example, you can transform Fire Pots into deadly boss-melting grenades with Relics that improve throwing pot damage, fire damage, attribute damage, and attacks made while full HP (their ranged nature means you don't have to be in melee range of the boss).

The crazy 8,000-damage nukes seen above are only possible with the right advanced upgrades and Depth Relics of the Deep of Night hard mode, but even in normal Expeditions, the right Relics make your throwing pots rip sizable chunks off boss HP bars

And since merchants sell them for a measly 600 runes a pop, you can load up your inventory full of them extremely cheaply (they also sell a 5,000-rune pouch that gives you an extra item slot).

Another potent strategy is to use any Relic with "Items confer effect to all nearby allies," an effect that allows Scholar to share the buffs from his enhanced consumables with his teammates.

Level 3 Boiled Crab, Exalted Flesh, and Pickled Turtle Neck items give huge boosts to physical defenses, physical attack, and stamina regeneration, respectively, and the ability to pass those out to allies periodically during big boss fights is S-tier utility.

My approach to playing Scholar changed completely as I learned to take advantage of Bagcraft, and while it is unfortunate that maximizing its potential requires a fair amount of Relic investment, doing so made him feel way more enjoyable — and potent — to play as.

But as I've invested more playtime into the character, I've also come to appreciate the value of his other strengths, those being the Analyze skill's effects and his high Arcane stat.

Debuffing a boss when the Analyze circle on it is filled halfway is a quick way to reduce its damage, but if you're able to find the time to allow it to fill completely (being closer to your enemy fills it faster, but is riskier), you'll also reduce their defenses for the next hit they take. Coordinate with a friend so that the next hit is a charged heavy attack or a serious damage ult, and you'll do huge DPS.

Alternatively, you can also buff yourself with a full circle, which briefly covers you in a shield that makes you immune to damage and interrupts nearby enemies, knocking trash mobs down entirely and staggering (not stance-breaking) bosses out of their current move.

This doesn't work against big phase-change moves that Night and Nightlord bosses do, but against pretty much everything else, it's effectively a "parry" that makes them much easier to contend with.

As for Scholar's S-rank in Arcane, this makes him very adept at building up status effect procs with Bleed, Poison, Scarlet Rot, Frostbite, and Sleep. Getting your hands on a weapon that inflicts these ailments (especially thrusting swords since he has an exclusive moveset for them) is a great way to work around his low melee damage.

Scholar is Nightreign's most versatile Nightfarer

Ultimately, I've come to realize that Scholar is easily Nightreign's most versatile Nightfarer, and while he has some clearly defined, significant weaknesses like underwhelming stats and a poor dodge, his strengths far outweigh them in the right hands.

Flowing between souped-up consumable buffs, timely Analyze debuffs, and attack chains to build up status effects in moment-to-moment gameplay is a challenge, but it's a thrilling one — and one that brings unmatched utility to your squad.

So if you're like me and have a poor first impression of Scholar, stick with him for a while. Once you figure him out, you'll see just how powerful he truly is, and you'll become Scholarpilled as I have.

FAQ

Ever since PlayStation publisher Sony began porting its first-party exclusives like God of War and Marvel's Spider-Man to the Windows PC platform Steam several years ago, one game that just about everyone's been begging for is Bloodborne — FromSoftware's 2015 cosmic horror Soulslike for PS4 that ended up becoming quite popular.

Indeed, many consider Bloodborne to be one of FromSoftware's best action RPGs. Sadly, though, there's been no word of an upcoming PC release of the title whatsoever, and it hasn't even gotten a performance update for the PS5, either. Because of that, many worry that the beloved IP will never get the port, technical uplift, and/or remaster that it very much deserves.

That may very well end up being the case, but while Bloodborne might never come to PC, you can at least play something quite close thanks to the efforts of a team of modders working on FromSoftware's Game of the Year-winning 2022 Soulslike Elden Ring.

Led by community member corvianNoctis, the team has created Graceborne — a huge overhaul for Elden Ring that aims to give the expansive open-world title a colossal Bloodborne makeover. You can download the project from Nexus Mods here; everything you need to know about installation is covered in the description.

According to its creators, Graceborne is still in its early stages of development; even what's available to play now, however, is quite extensive (as this new trailer, watchable above, shows). The mod revamps several aspects of the Elden Ring experience and transforms them into something reminiscent of what you'd get from playing Bloodborne.

For example, the mod adds several new "trick" weapons with dual modes you can swap between that function just like Bloodborne's did, with several of them taken directly from the game and others sporting a wholly original design.

Mechanically, Elden Ring has also been reworked to play like Bloodborne, complete with the addition of firearms you use to parry, the rally mechanic that heals damage taken when you dish it out shortly after being hit, quickstep dodges when you're locked onto a target, the removal of equip load/encumbrance, and more.

Graceborne significantly changes Elden Ring aesthetically as well, adding tons of new armor sets and redesigning many mobs and bosses (including those from the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC) with a dark Gothic style that looks straight out of Bloodborne itself.

Notably, the mod features some of the darker, edgier outfits from the Dark Souls games too, such as Darkwraith gear and the Armor of Thorns infamously worn by Kirk, Knight of Thorns. And to really sell the dark and sinister vibe, it's permanently nighttime in the open world.

Graceborne has actually been out since June 2024, though it's been getting continual updates that have gradually helped to truly Bloodborne-ify Elden Ring to the degree that it does now. The latest patch, the a0.2 update, just came out this past weekend and has brought additional trick weapons, an entirely custom UI, and Bloodborne sound effects to the experience.

I haven't played it myself yet, but everything about this mod looks absolutely fantastic, and I'm definitely going to install it and give it a go the next time I'm craving some Soulsborne action. If you do as well, make sure you carefully read and follow the installation instructions on Graceborne's webpage.

Of course, you'll need the PC version of Elden Ring itself to play it, which is $59.99 normally; you'll also need the $39.99 Shadow of the Erdtree expansion to be able to experience everything the mod has to offer. If you haven't played the game and its DLC yet, I definitely recommend doing so normally before using a huge overhaul like this.

Luckily, Elden Ring's Steam variant is on sale for some cool discounts right now, with the base game going for $52.79 at Loaded at the moment, and the $79.99 Shadow of the Erdtree Edition with both the base game and the DLC selling for $75.89 at Loaded.

One of the best new action RPGs of 2025 across Xbox, PlayStation, and PC was Elden Ring Nightreign — FromSoftware's bold and experimental twist on its 2022 Game of the Year-winning Soulslike that transformed it into a co-op roguelike spinoff. Since launch, it's gotten several substantial updates, including one that added rotating Everdark Sovereign versions of Nightlord bosses and another that introduced a hard mode for the already-challenging title.

We've known a full DLC is coming since release, also — and now, thanks to a new announcement, we finally know what it's called, much of the content included in it, and when exactly you can ride your spectral hawk and return to Limveld to play through it yourself.

The expansion is called The Forsaken Hollows, and is scheduled to launch across all of Elden Ring Nightreign's platforms on December 4, 2025; that's under one month away, at the time of writing. This (along with everything else I'm about to discuss below) was revealed in a new gameplay reveal trailer you can watch here or with the embed below.

Broadly speaking, The Forsaken Hollows will give players access to two new playable Nightfarer classes, two new main bosses to challenge in Expeditions, and several new environments to explore accessed through Nightreign's Shifting Earth map randomization feature. There's "more," too, and some of it can be spotted in the trailer — along with greater details about the aforementioned main features.

For one, an Ironeye player battles a Fire Knight in it and a Guardian player fights the Divine Beast Dancing Lion boss also, which confirms that enemies and bosses from Elden Ring's critically acclaimed Shadow of the Erdtree expansion are coming to Nightreign with this DLC. These will serve to add greater variety to the game's random encounters, which I'd argue it needs quite a bit.

The trailer also shows none other than Artorias the Abysswalker himself, who longtime FromSoftware fans will recognize as the main character of and one of the major boss fights in the Artorias of the Abyss DLC for the original 2011 Dark Souls. He's joined the ranks of Nightreign's other returning Dark Souls bosses and will likely be encountered as a Night boss in a similar manner, though I do hope they've buffed his health and made him faster to account for the speedier nature of the Nightfarers compared to the Chosen Undead.

Speaking of Nightfarers, we got a close look at both of the new ones as well. One of them is a woman that can cover herself in some sort of buff before appearing to slam into a target, and has a mace as her signature weapon. The other is a robed man that wields a rapier and a magical grimoire capable of suspending foes in midair, immobilizing them.

Finally, we also got to briefly see both of the DLC's new major bosses, which sound like they'll be called Dreglords instead of Nightlords. The first is a legion of armored women clad in white plate and equipped with what look to be Holy damage-infused polearms, while the second looks like a gigantic beast surrounded by bones and rubble that seemingly utilizes Scarlet Rot. Hope you find some Preserving Boluses on the Expedition leading up to that one!

Notably, the trailer's description provides a simple overview of the narrative context of these new enemies, suggesting they're some sort of undead born of the remains from Expeditions against the Nightlords.

"In our war against the Night, every battle left a scar," it reads. "These wounds were given will. A foul life, born of cast-away souls. Steel your resolve, Nightfarers. This hunt must be seen to its end."

All in all, everything coming in The Forsaken Hollows looks fantastic, and I can't wait to jump back into Nightreign with my friends to play the new Nightfarers and challenge all the new enemies and bosses. The expansion is available to purchase for $15 across Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC (Steam), PS5, and PS4 (it may appear as the DLC or the Deluxe Edition Upgrade).

If you bought the $55 Deluxe Edition of Elden Ring Nightreign, though, you'll get access to its content the moment it releases. Note that this edition is on sale right now, with the Xbox version $44.89 at Loaded and the PC one $48.99 at Loaded; if you're a new Nightreign player, taking advantage of these deals is the most affordable way to get the full suite of content from both the base game and the expansion.

Out of all of The Elder Scrolls RPGs, the one I've racked up the most playtime in is Skyrim — largely thanks to hours and hours spent overhauling the game with custom mod setups or extensive modpacks. However, the one that truly owns my heart is Morrowind, Bethesda's third entry in the series that came out for Xbox and Windows PC in 2002.

Named after the bizarre, almost extra-terrestrial region of Tamriel it takes place in, Morrowind is beloved by many for its alien-esque atmosphere, extremely rich lore, and gameplay mechanics that promote plenty of buildcrafting experimentation. In many ways, I'd argue it's a far more interesting, far braver type of game than Oblivion and Skyrim, especially with its lack of hand-holding that ultimately makes it incredibly rewarding to learn, engage with, and progress through.

One big problem with Morrowind, though, is that it really shows its age — and not just visually, either. The long-outdated 2002 graphics and stiff, janky character and enemy animations are one thing, but the game also uses a dice roll-based system for its real-time combat that feels awful. Infuriatingly, you can whiff your attacks and spells over and over with unlucky rolls, even if you're aiming directly at a foe.

Mods for Morrowind itself can be used to mitigate how dated the RPG feels (on PC, anyway), but now there's one for it in the works that's directly porting the entire experience into an entirely different game. That game is Elden Ring; yes, you read that right. Morrowind is coming to Elden Ring thanks to the efforts of the prolific modder InfernoPlus, best known for Cursed Halo.

His recent "I ported Morrowind to Elden Ring" video goes over the project in-depth, but essentially, that's precisely what this ambitious project entails — transforming the third Elder Scrolls title into a Soulslike built on the engine of Elden Ring, complete with the world spaces, quests, and dialogue exchanges from the original game.

Surprisingly, InfernoPlus says roughly half of the project is already complete or close to it, including the whole of Morrowind's map and its interiors, lighting, weather, and atmosphere, and most NPC placements and dialogues. In his own words, "the world is there, but it's completely devoid of actual gameplay."

Provided there's enough interest in this Morrowind-to-Elden Ring conversion from the community, InfernoPlus plans to continue toiling away building this mod (you can support him on his Patreon, if desired). However, he's noted that there are three big things he needs help with in order to see it through to completion.

The first is a solution to the "c0 limit," which is effectively a restriction in Elden Ring's engine that limits how many characters there can be with a Tarnished-style model (the player, NPCs) at once. Due to how large Morrowind cities like Vivec City and Balmora are, this limit is hit, preventing many NPCs from spawning correctly.

There's also the lack of options to generate navmeshes right now, which are invisible meshes on the ground that AI entities use to determine pathing as they move around. It sounds like both of these issues will require assistance from a wizard with lots of experience messing around in FromSoftware's "Dantelion" game engine.

Lastly, InfernoPlus is also looking to 3D artists for help, as he wants to create higher-quality versions of Morrowind's weapons and armor to include in the project. Additionally, he's also hoping to "Morrowindify" Elden Ring's enemies with reskins and use them for the game's encounters, bringing up the idea of reskinning the endgame Hoarah Loux boss as Dagoth Ur. He is a god, after all — how can you kill a god? Shame on you, sweet Nerevar.

An "Elden Scrolls Dev" Discord server has been set up that you can join if you think you can help with this mod; InfernoPlus is confident that the aforementioned problems can be fixed as long as he gets some outside assistance.

That's reassuring, especially since many people are extremely passionate about both Morrowind and Elden Ring. I have no doubt the people with the skills he needs are out there and will catch wind of this project sooner or later.

As far as the mod's legality goes, InfernoPlus asserts it doesn't violate any copyright since it will require owning and installing legitimate copies of both Morrowind and Elden Ring to work. It's the same requirement that keeps the popular Tale of Two Wastelands mod that lets you play Fallout 3 within Fallout: New Vegas legal.

As I said before, I'm a colossal fan of Morrowind, and Elden Ring also happens to be one of my favorite games of all time, too. Because of that, I'm incredibly interested in seeing how this mod develops, and the second it (hopefully) releases, I'll be installing it ASAP. The wait for The Elder Scrolls 6 is a long one, but having a well-made Soulsy remake of Morrowind to play while it's in the oven would be awesome.

You can get the $59.99 Elden Ring on PC for as little as $35.09 at Loaded (formerly CDKeys) right now. Morrowind, meanwhile, is typically $14.99, though it's just $7.49 at GOG; note that it's unclear if you'll be able to own the games on different platforms and get the mod to work when it comes out, so you may want to wait for Morrowind to go on sale on Steam (or Loaded).

Ahead of the upcoming DLC expansion for Elden Ring Nightreign — FromSoftware's popular roguelike spinoff of the Game of the Year-winning 2022 action RPG — the studio has released several patches for it that fix troublesome bugs, tweak balancing, implement quality-of-life changes, and add new content in the form of rotating Everdark Sovereign bosses.

Now, exactly two months after its May 30 launch, the game is getting another major update with Patch 1.02 next week on July 31. And while it does seem to be a fairly small release overall, it is adding a feature that fans have been clamoring for since the day Nightreign came out.

That feature is a "Two Player Mode" duos option for multiplayer parties and matchmaking, which currently only supports full three-player squads.

That limitation has been a source of frustration for many, as there are lots of players who have one friend to play with but not two. But with this mode added, that will no longer be a problem.

Notably, FromSoftware promised that a duos mode would come in early June, with its arrival planned for "a later date." This had many concerned it wouldn't be available for a long time, though it's ultimately come pretty quickly.

You can watch the trailer for it below.

While there's been an unofficial solution available since launch with the Seamless Co-op mod, it's only usable on the Steam version of Elden Ring Nightreign on Windows PC, leaving players on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, and PS4 without an option.

For that reason — and also because this really isn't the kind of thing that should have to be added through modding, anyway — it's great to see an official duos mode coming next week.

Similarly to how playing Nightreign solo lowers boss HP and boosts your rune (experience) acquisition for faster leveling, two-player runs will also have scaling to compensate for the lack of a third team member. Naturally, bosses won't be quite as squishy as they are when playing alone, but they certainly won't be as tanky as they are in trios, either.

Aside from the long-awaited duos mode, Patch 1.02 is also bringing "quality-of-life UI improvements," including one addition I've been begging the developers to add for weeks: the ability to filter the gameplay-altering Relics you earn by completing Expeditions and can equip between runs.

The images in the social media post embedded above show that the filtering options will be incredibly granular, allowing you to search for Relics you've unlocked by color, size, and gameplay affects, with damage type sub-categories for the latter letting you narrow things down even further.

You also have the option of looking through Nightfarer-specific Relics that give special bonuses to that character only.

Elden Ring Nightreign currently has none of these options, making digging through hundreds of Relics to find the ones you actually want to use for buildcrafting a massive chore.

And while spending hours selling the ones you don't need alleviates that issue while netting you enough Murk to buy a skin or two, that process in and of itself is very boring and tedious.

With that in mind, the arrival of powerful filtering options like these is a huge relief, and they will undoubtedly save players tons of time over the course of Elden Ring Nightreign's lifespan. And together with the new two-player mode, they'll likely make Patch 1.02 feel like the best post-launch update for the spinoff yet.

Elden Ring Nightreign has proven to be a colossal success for FromSoftware thus far, with the game passing 2 million players on its first day, selling 1.4 million copies on PS5 and 2.7 million on Steam since then (and 5 million in total), and also standing tall as the best-selling game on Xbox in June.

Note that while it normally costs $39.99 to purchase, you can actually get it for just $35.99 at CDKeys thanks to a sweet deal.

Following the release of a patch for Elden Ring Nightreign earlier this month that made the solo play experience considerably easier than it was at launch, developer FromSoftware teased that "enhanced fights against existing Nightlords" were also coming this month (and also confirmed support for Duo Expeditions is coming later). Now, two weeks later, those "enhanced fights" have arrived in a surprise update — and they're not to be underestimated.

Late Wednesday evening, the studio added the fights — dubbed "Everdark Sovereigns" — with the first being a more difficult version of the "Gaping Jaw" Adel, Baron of Night boss. Everdark Sovereign variants of "Sentient Pest" Gnoster, Wisdom of Night and "Darkdrift Knight" Fulghor, Champion of Nightglow were implemented as well; publisher Bandai Namco says tougher versions of every other Nightlord fight (except for the final boss) will come "at a later date."

Notably, these special bouts are on a weekly rotation schedule, which means you can only challenge a specific Everdark Sovereign boss if it's available the week you're playing. The harder Adel fight is around from now until June 25, 5:59 PM PT / 8:59 PM ET, and if you're able to beat it, you'll earn a special currency called Sovereign Sigils you can exchange for rare Relic upgrades and other unlocks. Every Everdark Sovereign kill gives these, with a bonus amount awarded when you defeat each Everdark Sovereign for the first time.

Those looking to brave encounters with the Everdark Sovereigns should be prepared to have their skills in FromSoftware's new co-op roguelike spinoff pushed to the breaking point. Compared to the regular versions of the Nightlord battles, these ones "are extremely challenging and pose an even greater threat to the Nightfarers with new moves and increased power."

For example, the current Adel, Baron of Night Everdark Sovereign immediately starts the fight in Phase 2 of the original encounter, and eventually begins a "Phase 3" of sorts in which it uses some chaotic teleporting moves and can even generate a colossal storm of electricity you have to leap into the eye of with Spiritsprings that appear in the arena. The boss' attacks also deal more damage than they do in the original fight, and it likely has more health and higher status resistances as well.

Note that to challenge Everdark Sovereigns, you'll have to be connected to FromSoftware's online servers. That means no Everdark Sovereigns for folks playing offline solo, though given their rotating, limited-time nature, this is understandable.

A taste of what's to come with Nightreign?

Ultimately, it's great to see Elden Ring Nightreign getting new content so soon after launch, even if Everdark Sovereigns don't seem like they'll be that different from their normal counterparts (Adel, at least, is still by and large the same encounter). I wish we had harder versions of all seven Nightlords, also, but hopefully it doesn't take long for the remaining four to be released.

It will be interesting to see where FromSoftware goes from here with Nightreign and future updates. We know a full DLC for the spinoff is eventually coming that will add new character classes and bosses, but I expect we'll get more iterative releases like this one that build on what's already in the game, too. Perhaps other variants of the Nightlords that shake things up in other ways will come, or we'll get additional Shifting Earth modifiers for the Limveld map itself.

Elden Ring Nightreign is a bold new experimental spinoff from FromSoftware that spices up the original game's Soulsborne combat with a roguelike, co-op driven twist. Though it has sizable issues like only having one map or underwhelming enemy variety, it's nevertheless going to be one of this year's best Xbox games and best PC games for Souls fans craving action. It's $39.99, but you can get it for as low as $35.99 at CDKeys.

As we learned last month, the live-action Elden Ring movie is real and is being produced by the filmmaking company A24, with Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Annihilation, Warfare) serving as its director. And now, it's come out that he's not only played FromSoftware's critically acclaimed Game of the Year-winning action RPG, but is a passionate fan of the title.

Speaking with IGN about Elden Ring briefly during an interview about the imminent 28 Years Later film he helped write and produce, Garland revealed he's in the middle of his seventh playthrough of the game. He also says that the Starscourge Radahn boss is an easy fight, and that Malenia, Blade of Miquella is "the tough one." Nobody tell him about the last boss in Shadow of the Erdtree.

"Ooh, Radahn's really easy. I thought Radahn was quite easy because as long as you sort of activated the people who can assist you in that fight, they get on with fighting him, and they take off whatever it is, half his energy, and you finish him off," he commented. "It's all about activating those little summon signs dotted around. No, it's Malenia who's the tough one."

"I'm now on my seventh playthrough of that game," Garland continued. "I've leveled up, I've got lots of juice, and a cool sword, and stuff like that, and I just throw myself at them again, and again, and again, and again."

That strategy, Garland says, is something he learned from Dark Souls — FromSoftware's trilogy of action RPGs that popularized the studio's difficult, stamina-driven "Soulsborne" gameplay style first introduced with Demon's Souls in 2009.

"That was the technique I learned with Dark Souls," he went on to explain. “It's not that you get better, it's more like monkeys and typewriters. You just keep doing it, and eventually, one day, they're dead.”

Speaking as a longtime Soulsborne veteran, I can't say I agree; paying careful attention to boss attacks and mastering fights over the course of several attempts is key to what makes FromSoftware's games work, and I firmly believe you'll "get better" with each try — consciously aware of the improvement or not.

But, I get it. I understand that feeling of repeatedly bashing your head against a progress-blocking wall presented by a difficult boss until you eventually bust it down in glorious victory, and every other FromSoftware fan can relate, too. And a director having a relatable perspective on the game they're adapting is, frankly, a breath of fresh air.

In the last several years, it feels like it's become increasingly common to hear that the leads behind projects like this one have — intentionally or otherwise — never seen or engaged with the source material. To say that doesn't inspire confidence is an understatement, especially when it comes to video games where the interactive experience and how it makes you feel is at the heart of what makes them special.

Garland's seven playthroughs with Elden Ring are quite reassuring with that context in mind. And while a pessimistic side of me did wonder if he was coached to give a response like this — he notably didn't use a single piece of actual Elden Ring terminology in these responses — I realized he actually spoke about his love of Dark Souls five years ago before Elden Ring existed.

Ironically, at the time, he said "I can't imagine how you'd do a Dark Souls film or TV adaptation," and here in 2025, I can't, either. How the Elden Ring movie is even going to work is still a complete mystery, but given Garland's glowing filmography and passion for FromSoftware's games, I'm choosing to be optimistic about it.

And hey, if it's bad? Elden Ring and its new co-op roguelike spinoff Elden Ring Nightreign aren't going anywhere. In fact, the former is just $39.39 at CDKeys right now, with the latter coming in at $35.99 at CDKeys.

Over the course of the past several years, more and more of the video games we play have become increasingly connected — depending on a constant link to a steady internet connection in order for it to function. It's an understandable limitation for strictly online multiplayer titles, but aside from those, always-online DRM is a grating barrier to deal with for many.

For one, some sort of offline single-player option is important for game preservation; after all, a game's servers aren't going to remain online forever, and when they're eventually shut down, having such a mode means you can still enjoy the game you own. Without it, that title will never be playable again.

But offline play is also important for people who don't have constant and reliable internet access — an issue that's easy for me to forget about as someone who lives in a large US city in the Pacific Northwest with a good provider, but one that many around the world have to deal with as a result of socioeconomic factors, living in remote locations, or poor infrastructure.

I can't even remember the last time I had an internet outage before yesterday afternoon, when an abrupt blackout in my area left me without a connection for most of the day. Considering I had some outstanding Xbox Games Showcase news to write up, it was pretty frustrating; sure, a break from work is certainly nice, but not being able to finish a timely article isn't (thankfully, a colleague covered for me).

Left unable to work, I figured I may as well play something to kill time — a decision that had me combing through my Steam library, wondering what I had installed that didn't need a connection. That brought me to the recently released Elden Ring Nightreign, FromSoftware's ambitious roguelike spinoff of the fan-favorite 2022 ARPG.

While it was designed with three-player co-op in mind, Nightreign (like all of FromSoftware's other games) offers a single-player option and is fully playable offline as it saves your progress locally and syncs it to the cloud whenever you're next connected to the internet. And thanks to a recent update that made improvements to the solo experience, zooming around Limveld and challenging Nightlord bosses on your own is a ton of fun.

Grinding out several runs in Nightreign made the hours fly by, and once my provider did eventually restore internet to my area, I couldn't help but be thankful for developers like FromSoftware that still make a point of including offline play functionality. It's a feature I may not even think about again or need for months or longer, but it's there for me in the rare cases I do — and for others, it's something that's utilized daily.

For that reason, it's a shame that always-online DRM has come increasingly common in many games, especially ones that have a single-player structure or option and could feasibly work just fine offline. I do understand the need for combating piracy, but frankly, this type of DRM has never seemed particularly effective at stopping it. And in the end, it's players that end up losing, with players faced with unreliable or infrequent connectivity problems losing the most.

So, thank you, FromSoftware and Elden Ring Nightreign, Warhorse Studios and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, and others. Even if support for offline play isn't always as common as I'd like it to be, I'm glad there are still developers and games out there that have it ready when it's needed.

Elden Ring Nightreign is a bold new experimental spinoff from FromSoftware that spices up the original game's Soulsborne combat with a roguelike, co-op driven twist. Though it has sizable issues like only having one map or underwhelming enemy variety, it's nevertheless going to be one of this year's best Xbox games and best PC games for Souls fans craving action. It's $39.99, but you can get it for $33.99 at Newegg with the promo code SUMET982.

Boss fights have always been at the heart of FromSoftware's "Soulsborne" action RPGs, and Elden Ring Nightreign — the studio's experimental new co-op roguelike spinoff of the beloved 2022 title — is full to bursting with them. In fact, the game's entire gameplay loop involves running around and battling minibosses to get stronger with levels and randomized loot drops, then fighting major bosses from Elden Ring or past Dark Souls games before eventually challenging one of Nightreign's new Nightlords.

There are eight of these bespoke encounters in total, each one giving players a distinct challenge to overcome through perseverance and patient mastery of their movesets and mechanics. And having now beaten all the Nightlord battles on most of Elden Ring Nightreign's character classes, I thought it would be fun to rank them based on how much I enjoy the fights.

Below, I did just that — breaking down what I liked about each Nightlord battle's mechanics and atmosphere, what I didn't, and what I loved. Without further ado, here are my rankings for all eight of Elden Ring Nightreign's Nightlord boss fights.

Spoilers for every Elden Ring Nightreign Nightlord boss, including the final boss, are ahead. If you don't want the fights spoiled, stop here!

8. Augur / Maris, Fathom of Night

Despite being in last place on my list, I don't necessarily dislike the Augur / Maris, Fathom of Night encounter. In fact, I find most of its melee-range attacks where it attempts to corkscrew through the air at you fun to dodge, and the fact you can destroy the exploding jellyfish and teardrop-shaped nukes it drops on you with ranged weapons or magic adds some fun opportunities for counterplay that don't simply involve running away.

The ultimate problem with Maris, however, is that it spends way too much time flying around — effectively making melee-focused classes like Wylder, Guardian, Raider, and Executor feel like they can never get a hit in as they endlessly chase the big cosmic slug around the arena. Indeed, without an Ironeye or a Recluse, this battle takes ages and ends up becoming pretty boring after the charm of the fight's visual spectacle wears off.

I'm also not the biggest fan of the move where Maris flies off and falls to the ground asleep, subsequently rapidly building up your Sleep meter and damaging you quite a bit if the status effect procs. You're supposed to wallop it with some big hits to stun it out of its slumber, but due to all the running you'll have to do just to catch up to the boss, you usually don't have time to do so before sleep takes you.

7. Tricephalos / Gladius, Beast of Night

The fight with Tricephalos / Gladius, Beast of Night is effectively Elden Ring Nightreign's tutorial Nightlord encounter, but that doesn't mean this Cerberus-inspired wolf is a pushover. It may be the easiest of the eight overall, but it can still take you down quickly if you get careless.

Gladius' moves are clearly telegraphed, with the boss using a combination of biting melee attacks with its heads up close and sweeping sword slashes with its chain sword from afar. It can mix things up with the occasional fire breath, too, and in Phase 2, Gladius periodically splits into three forms that encourage each member of your team to duel one so no one player gets overwhelmed.

I have zero major complaints with the battle; the only reason it's ranked this low is because its moveset is far less diverse or interesting than most of the other Nightlord bosses. With that said, it's still a strong fight, and a great introduction to Elden Ring Nightreign.

6. Sentient Pest / Gnoster, Wisdom of Night

One of Elden Ring Nightreign's more unique encounters is Sentient Pest / Gnoster, Wisdom of Night. In it, two huge bugs — a grounded scorpion and a flying moth — share an HP bar, with the former attempting to barrel into and smash you up close while the latter assails you with magic projectiles, clouds of Poison, and the occasional grab attack attempt.

Naturally, with melee fighters better suited to the scorpion and ranged ones ideal for the moth, players will usually split up to deal with each — though getting poisoned by the moth will sprout a parasite on you that will continuously apply Poison until a teammate hits it off, forcing the team back together and leading to complicated situations where you'll have to dodge both creatures' attacks.

This design approach is creative and makes Gnoster stand out from most other fights in which all three players end up hitting the same target, though in Phase 2, the moth starts riding on the scorpion's back and the two start performing some intense attack combos with both magic and melee strikes. At this point, it starts to feel more like a traditional encounter; this gives it a neat feeling where you and your allies come together as they do for one final stage of battle.

5. Darkdrift Knight / Fulghor, Champion of Nightglow

Undoubtedly, the Darkdrift Knight — also called Fulghor, Champion of Nightglow — is one of the harder Nightlords to defeat, as this armored juggernaut of a centaur is very aggressive, hits like a truck, and is fully capable of running you over like one, too. In Phase 1, he tends to send waves of destructive wind at you with his lance, smash the ground to create area-of-effect quakes, charge players like a raging bull, and slam down his weapon to call up spears and geysers of Holy energy from the earth.

Fulghor's attacks are as varied as they are deadly, but they're also excellently telegraphed and many of them can be avoided by jumping over them — rewarding players that do so an opportunity to counter-attack with jump attacks. Players will be similarly rewarded by bringing along a weapon or spell that does Lightning, as on top of taking more damage from it, Fulghor will also be stunned out of his spear-calling attack if you hit him with it while he's charging the move up.

In Phase 2, the boss grows a slimy and twitchy hand of purple energy, using it for a few new combos in which he uses it to try and smack players or slams the ground with it. These add further variety to the encounter, though the hand's animations are a bit erratic. All in all, though, Fulghor is a great boss.

4. Gaping Jaw / Adel, Baron of Night

From a mechanical standpoint, Adel, Baron of Night — the massive, vaguely draconic beast at the end of the Gaping Jaw Expedition — is less varied than many other Nightlords, as it primarily attacks with combos in which it tries to clamp its gargantuan maw around you. It can also grab you with its jaws, charge into you, and slam its head down to create a heavy area-of-effect shockwave. Phase 2 adds lightning aftershocks to many of these moves, but ultimately, Adel's moveset doesn't change too much.

With that said, I still can't help but rank Adel above Fulghor, as the spectacle of the fight with the beast pushes it ahead of the Champion of Nightglow for me. Dodging its gigantic chomps and slams feels incredible, and in Phase 2, its grandiose use of vibrant purple lightning makes the encounter that much more epic. On top of that, I'd say Adel's moves are flawlessly telegraphed, while Fulghor's Phase 2 hand can seem a little unpredictable at times.

It's also worth noting that the Baron of Night has some nifty mechanics you can take advantage of. For one, any teammate who gets grabbed can be saved from heavy damage (and potential death) by striking Adel's head with heavy attacks, hard-hitting weaponskills, or powerful spells; this allows you to help an ally if they failed to avoid the move, which feels awesome given Nightreign's co-op focus.

Also, poisoning Adel in Phase 1 will cause it to vomit the contents of its stomach, expelling the Poison status but rewarding you with multiple seconds to freely and safely hit his legs and tail (the vomit can damage and poison you). Distinct interactions with status effects like this are cool, and I wish more of FromSoftware's bosses had them.

3. Fissure in the Fog / Caligo, Miasma of Night

Generally, FromSoftware's dragon boss battles are either awesome or terrible, so I wasn't sure what to expect when I fought Caligo, Miasma of Night for the first time. Thankfully, the Fissure in the Fog encounter turned out to be quite an amazing one, and in my mind, Caligo is hands down one of the developer's best-ever dragons.

With a diverse assortment of claw, ice breath, and tail swipe attacks along with special ones that challenge you to locate Caligo's position in a blanket of fog and either run away (black wind) or get close (the sound of ice cracking; you're rewarded with a big damage opportunity with this one if you can reach Caligo quickly), this ice dragon is one of the most engaging to fight in Soulsborne history. Some fun additional mechanical complexity comes from the ice crystals formed wherever Caligo breathes frost that build up Frostbite when stepped on, driving you to pay attention as you move into position to get your hits in.

Phase 2, though, is where things really take off — literally. It begins with Caligo soaring into the air and dive bombing players with hails of gigantic ice crystals, all while its majestic, grand orchestral boss theme swells with unbridled, jaw-dropping intensity. Then, it weaves new frost attacks into its Phase 1 moveset and becomes more aggressive.

Caligo can be a bit frustrating to fight in Phase 2 at times, but on the whole, all of its moves are perfectly readable and whatever minor annoyances there are are worth dealing with in order to bask in the encounter's incredible atmosphere.

2. Night Aspect / Heolstor the Nightlord

The final boss fights in FromSoftware's games tend to also be some of the best, and that holds true in Elden Ring Nightreign. Indeed, Heolstor the Nightlord is one of the co-op roguelike's most exhilarating encounters, and in a game full of battles against huge monsters, I find it fitting that its final fight is one against a sword-wielding knight that's barely any bigger than you are.

From start to finish, the bout with Heolstor is a beautiful dance, with the Primordial Nightlord performing varied, tricky combos with both a magic greatsword and a smaller blade. He's very similar to Dark Souls 3's Slave Knight Gael or the Elden Ring DLC's Rellana, Twin Moon Knight in that his attack flurries are highly aggressive and feature a blend of quick and delayed strikes, but are also superbly animated with clear counter-attack windows you can take advantage of if you're aggressive yourself.

Heolstor's Phase 2 is also an amazing spectacle; when it starts Heolstor will fly into the air and cut the sky itself open with his sword before imbuing it with a random element and crashing back down to earth, creating a massive explosion that sends out exploding shockwaves shortly after. All of his attacks for the remainder of the fight will then create linear shockwaves of that element in the directions he slashes in, forcing you to carefully pay closer attention to positioning.

All in all, it's simply a perfect fight, and one I've greatly enjoyed throwing myself at again and again with all of Nightreign's different character classes after beating it for the first time on Wylder. And yet, for me, it's still ultimately the runner-up boss to...

1. Equilibrious Beast / Libra, Creature of Night

As much as I love Heolstor and think he's a tremendous final boss, there's one Nightlord in Nightreign I enjoy battling even more: Libra, Creature of Night. Recently, I wrote about how he's the weirdest boss in the game, and I stand by that; not only does he make a monkey's paw-style deal with you before the fight even begins, but the crazy high Madness buildup from his various magic attacks can be countered by picking up crystals those very same attacks spawn on the ground.

Libra's also a very unique boss due to the importance it places on positioning. Because he'll quickly turn the arena into a bullet hell of Madness projectiles if you stay back and run away, it's better to instead stay close to him and try to bait him into using more punishable melee strikes instead.

You can also goad him into an enraged melee frenzy by hitting him with Madness magic yourself or by destroying all nearby runes that appear when he tries to meditate for a defense buff. This series of wild swings and explosive slams is incredibly deadly, but bold players that patiently dodge these strikes will be rewarded with big windows for counter-attacking.

Like the other top-tier Nightreign bosses, Libra has expertly telegraphed moves and an amazing musical theme, too. Ultimately, though, it's his weirder elements — the accord he offers, the fact his attacks leave behind healing crystals, his weakness to the same Madness he uses against you — that make him my favorite boss in the game. He's basically the FromSoftware boss fight version of the Greek god Dionysus, complete with trickster mechanics and a fresh spin on Elden Ring's Madness concept. More wild stuff like this, please.

Elden Ring Nightreign is a bold new experimental spinoff from FromSoftware that spices up the original game's Soulsborne combat with a roguelike, co-op driven twist. Though it has sizable issues like only having one map or underwhelming enemy variety, it's nevertheless going to be one of this year's best Xbox games and best PC games for Souls fans craving action. It's $39.99, but you can get it for $33.99 at Newegg with the promo code XVSAVE.

Of the eight different "Nightfarer" character classes you can play as in FromSoftware's recently launched experimental roguelike Elden Ring Nightreign, the Executor — a high-risk, high-reward katana-wielding warrior — stands out as the most mechanically interesting fighter of the bunch.

With the ability to pull out a cursed sword that forces you to walk slowly but can be used to deflect any attack with well-timed parries (think Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice), skilled players can use the character to tank a boss' deadliest moves while teammates get in tons of damage for free. Notably, each deflection also builds up stagger damage for frequent stance breaks, and enough parries will light up the sword with holy energy you can unleash at will with a heavy counter-attack slash.

It's an extremely handy mechanic that can be extremely clutch in the right hands — but ironically, the best build for Executor barely makes any use of it at all. Instead, it's all about transforming his basic starting katana into a boss-melting monster of a weapon capable of rapidly proccing not one, not two, but three status effects. And the wildest part? You don't need to rely on random drops you get from killing minibosses in your runs whatsoever, as it simply requires the use of two Relics.

These Relics are the Night of the Wise and the Night of Miasma, the former coming from defeating the Sentient Pest (Gnoster, Wisdom of Night) and the latter obtained from slaying the Fissure in the Fog (Caligo, Miasma of Night). That means you will need to kill these Nightlords to bring this build online; note that both are weak to Fire damage, so take advantage of that by using Fire-related Relics and hunting down Fire weapons in the runs leading up to these bosses.

Night of the Wise gives your starting katana the Poison affinity that stacks on top of its inherent Bleed capabilities, while Night of Miasma adds the Chilling Mist Ash of War to it — a skill that creates a cloud of frost and temporarily buffs the sword with Frostbite. Both Relics also give you a damage boost when their respective statuses proc in combat. What you put into the third Relic slot is up to you, but anything that boosts katana damage or the Arcane stat that dictates how quickly a character can build up status effects is ideal.

When you consider that Bleed chunks down a percentage of a target's health, Frostbite does the same to a lesser extent while also making enemies weaker to further damage, and Poison adds a damage-over-time effect, it's easy to see why this combo would be solid on any Nightfarer. It's particularly lethal with Executor, however, because he has an extremely high S ranking in Arcane.

With that key trait, he can often apply all three conditions a ridiculous number of times throughout boss battles — melting even the Nightlord big-bads into puddles of sizzling status effect goo. I've been using this setup every time I play Executor for a few days now, and unless FromSoftware nerfs it at some point, I can't imagine I'll ever switch off for any reason other than a desire for variety.

The only problem to solve in order to maximize this build's potential is that you'll have to upgrade your starting sword during your run, but that's very simple to do. Merchants that sell a basic Smithing Stone to get it to +1 are found next to or within tons of enemy fort and camp points of interest, while purple ones that can bring it to +2 are easily taken from minibosses like trolls, knights, and pumpkin head baddies within mineshafts (look for a tunnel icon on your map for entrances).

That's it. That's the build. You can add another Bleed-capable katana to your offhand if you find one to power stance it with yours if you want, and any upgrades or talismans you can find that improve stamina, defenses, or your attacks will be great, but really, an upgraded starting weapon with these Relics is all you need.

It's so absurdly effective that the Elden Ring YouTuber Youwy used it to destroy the Darkdrift Knight at Level 1 solo, and it'll hard carry in three-player co-op, too. And while it's certainly ironic that it's more optimal not to use your cursed sword ability to deflect attacks while using this setup, it's still there as an option in the event you'd rather parry something instead of dodge it.

Elden Ring Nightreign is a bold new experimental spinoff from FromSoftware that spices up the original game's Soulsborne combat with a roguelike, co-op driven twist. Though it has sizable issues like only having one map or underwhelming enemy variety, it's nevertheless going to be one of this year's best Xbox games and best PC games for Souls fans craving action. It's $39.99, but you can get it for $33.99 at Newegg with the promo code XVSAVE (PC) or EPET226 (Xbox).

Following the full launch of FromSoftware's ambitious new co-op roguelike offshoot Elden Ring Nightreign last week, Digital Foundry — a team of widely respected tech analysts for video games and gaming hardware that routinely reviews new games — has now completed its analysis of the spinoff's performance on its console platforms, including Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5 Pro, PS5, and PS4. You can read the article on Eurogamer or watch the video version on its YouTube channel (also embedded below).

While there's plenty of positive things to say about Nightreign's gameplay (read my review for my thoughts on it), Digital Foundry's Thomas Morgan notes that from a technical perspective, the new game is overall quite disappointing and is afflicted with several of the same issues that impact the mainline Elden Ring experience from 2022. It's also worth noting that Nightreign doesn't have the option for ray-traced shadows and ambient occlusion that eventually came to the original title.

As Morgan explains in the analysis, both the Xbox Series X and PS5 fail to ever reach 60 FPS in Elden Ring Nightreign's quality mode with fixed 4K visuals, with both systems only managing a range of 35-50 FPS with severe drops into the 20s at the start of runs when you're dropping into Limveld. The PS5 Pro fares better with a 40-60 FPS gamut, while the lower-end Xbox Series S gets 30-40 FPS in its 1440p quality mode.

Therefore, it's recommended to use the performance mode that can scale the resolution from 4K down to 1440p on Xbox Series X, PS5 Pro, and PS5, and from 1440p to 1080p on Xbox Series S to maximize framerate. Still, a consistent 60 FPS is missing here too, with Xbox Series X and PS5 performance ranging from 40 to 60 FPS, PS5 Pro managing 50-60 FPS, and Series S getting 40-60 FPS like its more powerful counterparts.

Since Xbox systems have a larger 40-60Hz window for variable refresh rate (VRR; this syncs your display refresh rate to your FPS, reducing screen tearing) to kick in than PlayStation ones do (48-60Hz), Digital Foundry says "it's a much smoother, less visibly juddering experience as a result" on Microsoft's systems. However, none of these results across all the consoles are good.

Oh, and in case you're wondering about last-gen consoles, the PS4 reportedly only achieves a meager 20-30 FPS — and that's with the game running at 900p with considerably lower shadow quality and grass density compared to current-gen. If you're going to play Nightreign, you'd best do so on a newer console.

Another thing to note is that while Xbox has a small edge in terms of framerate, PS5 Pro users will enjoy slightly better image quality in performance mode, as the more advanced system doesn't tend to scale its resolution down as far as the Xbox Series X or PS5 does. With that said, Elden Ring Nightreign doesn't have any Pro-specific enhancements or optimizations whatsoever, which will likely irk Pro users.

The review doesn't go over the experience on PC, but having now put over 60 hours into it on Steam myself, I can say that it's run well — though I am playing on a high-end RTX 4070 Ti SUPER rig. For me, I had no issue maintaining 60 FPS on the Maximum settings preset, and only encountered a few small stutters during my review period. After the full launch, though, there have been some noticeable small framerate dips. Notably, some folks using 40 and 50-series RTX GPUs have run into major FPS issues that FromSoftware is investigating; as tends to be the case with PC gaming, your mileage may vary.

All in all, it's unfortunate that Elden Ring Nightreign has many of the same performance problems on consoles that its parent game does, and I hope the developers improve both titles with future updates. As always, though, I'm glad that the gaming community has Digital Foundry experts to conduct thorough tests like this one. Give its Patreon a look and support the group if you feel so inclined.

Elden Ring Nightreign is a bold new experimental spinoff from FromSoftware that spices up the original game's Soulsborne combat with a roguelike, co-op driven twist. Though it has sizable issues like only having one map or underwhelming enemy variety, it's nevertheless going to be one of this year's best Xbox games and best PC games for Souls fans craving action. It's $39.99, but you can get it for $33.99 at Newegg with the promo code XVSAVE (PC) or EPET226 (Xbox).

A few days after developer FromSoftware and publisher Bandai Namco announced that Elden Ring Nightreign — the newly released co-op focused roguelike spinoff of the award-winning 2022 ARPG — hit 2 million players on launch day, it's now been revealed that that number has risen up to 3.5 million. Notably, though, some major additions for the game were confirmed to be in development as well.

In a follow-up post to their celebration of Nightreign's performance thus far, the developers announced that Duos Expeditions — the option to play Nightreign with two people only, in other words — are officially coming at some point down the line. On top of that, it was also said that "enhanced" boss battles are on the way, and that further additions will be released gradually over time, too.

"In addition to the DLC releasing later this year, new additions will be gradually implemented, including enhanced fights against existing Nightlords starting this month, as well as Duo Expeditions at a later date," wrote FromSoftware. "Thank you for your support."

It's not entirely clear what the developer means by "enhanced." If I had to guess, though, I'd say these special versions of the Nightlord fights will include some particularly challenging new moves to dodge and larger boss health bars — something akin to the "Inner" battles from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice's boss gauntlet, if you've played it. You'll be able to give them a shot at some point this month.

These will give those who've mastered the Nightlord encounters as they are some fresh challenge, and it's likely that they'll yield good rewards like lots of the Murk currency used for skins and high-quality Relic drops if you can overcome them.

Support for duo Expeditions, meanwhile, are something that players have been consistently vocal about, to the point where Elden Ring Nightreign's seamless co-op mod was released in a "rushed alpha state" to meet the demand for duos. FromSoftware previously said that it "kind of overlooked and neglected the duos aspect" and that it's something it was "looking at and considering for post-launch support," so I'm glad the studio decided to bring it to Nightreign in the end.

As for the 2025 DLC that's been mentioned, we know that it's scheduled to release by the fourth quarter of the year and that it will include "additional Nightfarers and bosses." I'm also hoping that it'll have a few new maps to play on; the fact Limveld is the only one in the game can make runs feel quite repetitive, and as I wrote in my Elden Ring Nightreign review, it's the game's biggest flaw.

This is great ... but what about crossplay?

Overall, it's great to see Nightreign getting new content and a highly requested feature, and it's a pleasant surprise that the enhanced Nightlord boss battles in particular are coming out so soon after the game's May 30 release. It's disappointing, however, that there's been no mention of crossplay or cross-platform play — a feature that would let Nightfarers across Xbox, Windows PC, and PlayStation systems all play together.

Crossplay has become something of a staple feature in co-op games, as it enables play with friends on other platforms and ensures matchmaking times generally remain healthy and short even long into their life cycles. FromSoftware's action RPGs have never had it, but given Nightreign's emphasis on co-op as a core part of the experience, I was hoping it might come to the game at some point.

Perhaps it still will, and the developer just isn't ready to commit to its implementation yet. On the other hand, it's also entirely possible that there's a technical factor of some sort preventing crossplay, or that the studio simply doesn't want to add cross-platform play due to concerns about cheaters on PC — a rare sight in FromSoftware games, admittedly — ruining the experience. Ultimately, I'll remain hopeful, but I'm not expecting good news.

Elden Ring Nightreign is a bold new experimental spinoff from FromSoftware that spices up the original game's Soulsborne combat with a roguelike, co-op driven twist. Though it has sizable issues like only having one map or underwhelming enemy variety, it's nevertheless going to be one of this year's best Xbox games and best PC games for Souls fans craving action. It's $39.99, but you can get it for $33.99 at Newegg with the promo code XVSAVE (PC) or EPET226 (Xbox).

Nearly all of the bespoke Nightlord boss fights in Elden Ring Nightreign are colossal monstrous beasts of some kind, so upon completing the special Night Aspect Expedition you unlock after beating four of them in FromSoftware's new co-op roguelike, you may be surprised to find that the final boss and ultimate bringer of the Night plague isn't some leviathan.

Instead, it's an armored humanoid warrior that's barely any larger than you are — but like other Soulsborne bosses such as Slave Knight Gael and Sword Saint Isshin before him, Heolstor the Nightlord proves that size isn't everything. Indeed, Heolstor is, without question, one of Nightreign's toughest and most brutal bosses, as he has an aggressive moveset with tons of tricky melee combos and incredibly high damage-per-hit.

Still, his arsenal of sweeps and slices is well-telegraphed and readable, and ultimately, there's nothing in the fight that can't be mastered with patience and practice. To help speed up that process and ultimately get you the W over the final boss, I've put together a detailed guide below that goes over his weaknesses, moveset, and everything else you need to know.

Heolstor the Nightlord weakness and best classes

• Heolstor has a major weakness to Holy damage, so if possible, try to spec into it with your upgrades, find a good weapon that deals it, or use Holy Grease. Phase 2 in particular tends to wear down your healing resources, so anything you can do to help whittle his HP down faster and end the battle as soon as possible is good.
• Every character class is good against Heolstor, but Executor is the best — if you're good at parrying. Pretty much every move in the boss' arsenal can be reliably deflected with Executor's Cursed Sword, and the Holy attack it gets after parrying several hits does huge damage to Heolstor each time it's used.
• Heolstor's Magic damage attacks are his biggest threats, though in Phase 2 he can end up using nearly any other element or status ailment as well. Build up resistances to Magic damage if possible on the run leading up to him, and also try to get mitigation against other damage types and status effects as well.

Boss guide: How to beat Heolstor the Nightlord

• At the start of the fight, you'll face The Shape of Night, a weaker form of Heolstor with simple sword slash melee attacks. While its moves are pretty easy to roll through and give you large punish windows after they end, take care not to get careless and take too much damage; you don't want to have to waste healing flasks on this early stage of the battle.
  • Killing The Shape of Night will cause it to spread darkness all over the arena before it transforms itself into Heolstor the Nightlord, kicking off the real fight.
• One of Heolstor's signature moves is a two-hit combo in which he imbues his greatsword with magic, thrusts forward to stab you, and then lifts it high into the air before stabbing it into the ground and creating a huge explosion. The stab is best avoided by rolling forward and through it, while the follow-up blast should be dodged by sprinting a short distance away from Heolstor before it lands. Once it does, run back in and land a few hits of your own.
• Another deadly move sees Heolstor charge up his greatsword in the same way, then swing it to send arcs of magic at you twice before delaying a leaping thrust at you. The boss tends to use this move on players that are a good distance away, so keep your eye on him so he doesn't surprise you with it. Dodge through each of the magic arcs, then delay the final roll you'll need to do for the thrust. Note that the thrust will close the gap between the two of you, regardless of how far away you are.
• Another common combo with three hits involves Heolstor slashing at you horizontally and then vertically with his smaller sword, then heavily delaying a sweeping slash with both blades. Roll through the first two hits, then patiently wait for the delayed sweep before dodging it as well. If you have a decently fast-attacking weapon, you can get a hit or two in during the delay. Otherwise, attack him after the combo is over.
• Heolstor may also do two quick horizontal attacks with his smaller sword, then follow it up with a heavy thrust from the weapon. Like his other moves, roll forward through the strikes and get your damage in after the combo ends.
• Heolstor also has a basic attack where he'll perform a single leaping slash at anyone at medium distance. This attack is easy to avoid and retaliate against after; just don't panic roll when you see him jump, and instead make sure you do it when he's landing on and swinging at you.
• Rarely, Heolstor will also cover the entire arena in darkness before spawning and raining down explosive magic bolts that track to players and combust after a few seconds. This attack, despite how scary it looks, is actually quite easy to avoid getting hit by. Either Surge Sprint to the side to make all the bolts miss, or dodge roll spam away from them.

Heolstor the Nightlord Phase 2

Once you and your allies get Heolstor down to about 50-60% health or so, he'll kick off Phase 2 of the fight with a special new attack. Here's how to deal with everything in Phase 2 so you can emerge from this climactic battle victorious.

• Heolstor begins Phase 2 by floating into the air and slashing open a tear in the sky itself before charging up a huge slam that sends an explosive quake out from the impact in several directions. Steer clear of Heolstor as this is happening, and note that if you're not standing on one of the visible lines of shifted earth that appear on the ground after the slam, you won't be threatened. If you are, delay a sideways roll for just a moment so your invincibility frames activate just as the ground you're on explodes.
  • The color of the tear in the skybox indicates an element or ailment that Heolstor has now buffed himself with. Orange is Fire, yellow is Madness, light blue is Sleep, dark blue is Frostbite, green is Poison, and purple is Lightning. Take note of this if you have spells or consumables that counteract these damage types or effects.
  • Note that Heolstor can use this phase transition attack periodically throughout Phase 2, and each time he does, he'll swap to a different damage type. Remember to pay attention to the color.
• Most of Heolstor's attacks in Phase 2 are identical, but his melee combos now inflict the damage type or ailment he chose with the previously described move. Depending on your resistances, this might mean you'll take more or less damage from them than you did in Phase 1.
• Another important thing to note is that his melee attacks will now create delayed linear shockwaves in the direction he swings or thrusts his swords, and these, too, deal damage that matches the type he chose. Make sure to perform an extra slightly delayed roll when dodging his melee combos if you end up standing on or near one of these shockwaves after avoiding the sword attacks themselves.
• Heolstor's one new Phase 2 attack sees him perform a huge wind-up with his smaller sword before doing two heavy slashes with it followed by a delayed pair of quick ones, and then a final one before raises into the air and performs an explosive slam similar to the phase transition move. Carefully time rolls through the melee hits, and then either try to stay close to where the impact is coming and roll the slam as it happens if you're brave or Sprint Surge away if you'd prefer to be safer. Bravery (and successful dodge timing) is rewarded with a huge counter-attack window as Heolstor recovers.

While Heolstor's moveset is perhaps less mechanically complicated than attacks used by many other Nightlords, the fact he uses lots of different melee combos as well as combinations of fast and delayed strikes means that he's still quite tricky. His incredibly high damage also makes mistakes incredibly punishing, but as long as you and your allies avoid most of his moves and bravely persist, you'll eventually overcome the challenge and cleanse the Lands Between of Night for good.

Elden Ring Nightreign is a bold new experimental spinoff from FromSoftware that spices up the original game's Soulsborne combat with a roguelike, co-op driven twist. Though it has sizable issues like only having one map or underwhelming enemy variety, it's nevertheless going to be one of this year's best Xbox games and best PC games for Souls fans craving action. It's $39.99, but you can get it for $33.99 at Newegg with the promo code XVSAVE (Xbox) or EPES3Z23 (PC).

Soulsborne developer FromSoftware has created eight new "Nightlord" bosses for its recently released co-op roguelike spinoff Elden Ring Nightreign, and having slain all eight of them before writing my review earlier this week, I can honestly say that I think the entire lineup is stacked with some of the studio's best ever bosses. Out of all of them, though, there's one that sticks out the most to me: Libra, Creature of Night, a demonic goat-headed monster you'll encounter at the end of the Equilibrious Beast Expedition.

When you first get to his arena, you'll find him waiting for you in a hooded, human form. Naturally, thinking our bombastic battle was about to begin, I shot him with an arrow in my first encounter with him — but to my surprise, he just growled at me about why that was "unwise," making me realize you can talk to him.

When you do, a golden scale icon representing trade appears over his head, and he offers you several monkey's paw-style bargains that range from trading three levels for a legendary weapon to giving both you and him a major damage buff for the duration of the fight. My favorite of these is an accord in which you get several extra levels, but lose a level each time you drink a healing flask. You do have the option of not making a deal, but where's the fun in that?

Once every player makes their choice, "the time is ripe," and the fight with Libra begins. Immediately, he transforms into his monstrous form and begins to assail your party with several magical attacks that build up Madness — the status that deals a chunk of damage and makes you clutch your head in despair for several seconds if it procs, leaving you wide open to further assault.

These are easy to see coming since they originate from bright gold glyphs on the ground and air, but Libra is capable of spawning these so fast and so quickly that he tends to rapidly turn the entire arena into his own personal bullet hell unless you stay aggressive and up close. This prompts him to swing at you with his giant staff with attacks that are far easier to punish.

Even if you do so, though, you're bound to deal with a ton of Madness buildup sooner or later — especially when he performs a particularly nasty move where he falls to his knees and slams the ground repeatedly, creating a Madness-inducing miasma that blankets the field. But during any Madness-based attack, his magic spreads little golden crystals on the ground as it's cast...and if you pick them up, they recover a small chunks of your HP and your Madness meter.

I don't think there's ever been a mechanic like that in a Soulsborne boss fight before, and it's a perfect fit for the Dionysus-inspired trickster interpretation of Madness that Libra exemplifies as opposed to the desire to simply see the entire world burn that characterized Elden Ring's. It's also incredibly rewarding to take advantage of, as are all of the special mechanics present in the Nightlord battles.

Another thing that makes Libra particularly unique is the fact that his strongest asset is also his Achilles' heel, as he's weak to Madness damage himself. He can even be enraged if you hit him with it enough, locking him into a frenzied combination of melee strikes; this gives him an attack buff, but manage to avoid his empowered combo and you'll be rewarded with a massive counter-attack window.

Sources of Madness damage are rare to find in your runs, but you have a decent chance of getting something able to dish it out at points of interest marked with a Madness icon. Libra is also weak to Fire and Holy, too, so that's something to keep in mind.

Even if nobody on your squad has access to Madness, you can still provoke Libra into this infuriated state a few times during the battle. Every so often, he'll start meditating within a magic shield as multiple golden glyphs appear around him, and given enough time, he'll complete his ritual and buff his defenses. By either destroying all the glyphs (a bow is best for this) or doing enough heavy damage to the shield to break it, however, you'll interrupt his ritual and frenzy him.

Both thematically and mechanically, Libra is undeniably one of FromSoftware's weirdest, wildest, and most creative bosses — and as much as I love all seven of the other Nightlord bouts, this one might actually be my favorite of Nightreign's roster. I've had an absolute blast kicking his butt and subsequently getting my butt kicked by him so far, and I can't wait to do it again and again with my friends now that they've picked up the game.

Elden Ring Nightreign is a bold new experimental spinoff from FromSoftware that spices up the original game's Soulsborne combat with a roguelike, co-op driven twist. Though it has sizable issues like only having one map or underwhelming enemy variety, it's nevertheless going to be one of this year's best Xbox games and best PC games for Souls fans craving action. It's $39.99, but you can get it for $33.99 at Newegg with the promo code XVSAVE (Xbox) or EPES3Z23 (PC).

FromSoftware's new co-op roguelike offshoot Elden Ring Nightreign was designed at its core to be a three-player multiplayer experience, though it also supports playing solo if you'd like to with lower enemy and boss scaling (solo play will have some other accommodations as well after next week's Patch 1.02 update). One thing that game doesn't have, however, is a duos mode that lets you adventure in Limveld with one other Nightfarer.

Such an option would be greatly beneficial to folks who only have one other friend to play with, or only have one friend online at any given time. And the good news is that it might come to the game one day; director Junya Ishizaki said in an interview that FromSoftware "kind of overlooked and neglected the duos aspect" and that it's something that it's "looking at and considering for post-launch support."

I'm hopeful we'll eventually see duos support come to Nightreign officially one day, but if you're on the PC version, a mod has already been released that unlocks that functionality: Seamless Co-op (Nightreign), a project from the popular Soulsborne modder Yui — the creator of Elden Ring Seamless Co-op, the Blue Sentinel anti-cheat mod for Dark Souls 3, and most recently, seamless co-op releases for the Dark Souls games.

Like Yui's other seamless co-op mods, this one works by disconnecting you from FromSoftware's matchmaking servers entirely and then allowing you to connect to your friends with a peer-to-peer connection instead. This, along with the fact the mod creates a different save file for you to use with it and automatically switches to it when you launch it, means there's no risk of being banned by the developer's anti-cheat systems that comb your game for mod files.

The mod's page on Nexus Mods (linked above) explains installation and usage clearly, but the TL;DR is that you drag the project's files into your Elden Ring Nightreign game folder, edit the nrsc_settings.ini file to select how many players you want in your party, and then launch the game with the nrsc_launcher.exe executable. This is the only way to boot it up with the mod active; launching through Steam or with the regular .exe will start Nightreign with its regular connection to FromSoftware's servers and your vanilla save file.

Once you're in the Roundtable Hold in the modded version of the game, all you then have to do is invite your friend (or friends, if you're playing with two others) through Steam in the matchmaking menu like you would normally. From there, you can jump right into a run.

There's little reason to use Nightreign's seamless co-op with three players unless you and your friends want to mess around with mods, but the big draw here is the duos functionality; the lack of it in the vanilla experience led to the mod being released in "a rushed alpha state."

That means you'll likely run into some bugs, and indeed, the mod page's forum has many users reporting issues like connection troubles or a curious glitch that makes every instance of in-game text display a [string not found] error. Overall, though, the mod does work, and I'm sure Yui will iron out its kinks with time and future releases.

Notably, Yui says "this mod will be expanded on in the future," which makes me think Nightreign's seamless co-op will eventually support options for altering gameplay variables or parties of up to four players or more. For now, though, take advantage of their hard work and enjoy playing Nightreign in a duo if you've got a buddy you want to partner with.

Elden Ring Nightreign is a bold new experimental spinoff from FromSoftware that spices up the original game's Soulsborne combat with a roguelike, co-op driven twist. Though it has sizable issues like only having one map or underwhelming enemy variety, it's nevertheless going to be one of this year's best Xbox games and best PC games for Souls fans craving action. It's $39.99, but you can get it for $33.99 at Newegg with the promo code XVSAVE (Xbox) or EPES3Z23 (PC).

It wouldn't be a new FromSoftware game without a grandiose new dragon boss, and Elden Ring Nightreign certainly doesn't disappoint with Caligo, Miasma of Night — also known as the Fissure in the Fog. Out of all the Nightlords you'll face while trying to cleanse Limveld of the plague of Night, Caligo is perhaps the fight with the most impressive spectacle of all.

It's also undoubtedly one of Nightreign's harder bosses, with a Phase 2 that's particularly difficult due to the dragon getting very aggressive and making use of frequent frost attacks that deal high damage and build up Frostbite, too. The good news, though, is that Caligo has two major damage type weaknesses, as well as a relatively simple Phase 1.

The fight against the fearsome, frosty beast gets easier once you know the ins and outs of its moveset and how to exploit its weaknesses, both of which are things I go over extensively in the guide below. Give it a read, and you'll have slain Caligo in no time.

Caligo, Miasma of Night weakness and best classes

• Being an ice dragon, Caligo has a weakness to Fire damage, and is also susceptible to Bleed as well. In the run leading up to the fight, try and get your hands on a good Fire or Bleed weapon if you can and any buffs you can get for those damage types.
• Caligo will also take extra damage from any weapon coated in Dragonwound Grease, or if you managed to get the anti-dragon power from the Mountain Shifting Earth modifier. Keep an eye out for Dragonwound Grease on your Expedition, or alternatively make sure to defeat the ice dragon in the mountainous region during your run if it has the Mountain variant of Limveld.
• Every Nightfarer class other than Guardian is strong here, as all you really need is a good dodge roll. Due to the Frostbite buildup of many of Caligo's attacks across both phases, Guardians will still take lots of damage even if they use his reinforced block since statuses build through guards. Guardian also has a bad dodge with less invincibility frames.
• Caligo deals a mix of Physical and Magic damage, with the Magic damage of its frost attacks building up Frostbite. Try to build resistances to these damage types with the upgrades and items you find if you can, and also consider opting for buffs that reduce the danger of status ailments or Frostbite specifically as well.

Boss guide: How to beat Caligo, Miasma of Night

• Due to how large Caligo is, it's not recommended to go beneath it for long since it will make the telegraphs of its attacks harder to see. Instead, stay just in front of his head, or a bit farther back if you're using a ranged character.
• In Phase 1, Caligo will primarily attack by trying to slash and cut you with its claws. You can avoid these moves by dodge rolling backwards or to the side and then hitting his head in retaliation for good damage.
• Caligo may also pull its head back before breathing frost magic directly at you. This is best avoided by Surge Sprinting to the side, or past its head and under its neck if you're close. The latter gives you several seconds to hit the dragon's neck until this attack ends.
• A similar move sees Caligo squat and pull its wings back, making them glow blue before using them to blast a wide stream of frost at you. Due to the width of the area-of-effect, this isn't really a move you can punish, so just Surge Sprint to the side and wait for it to end before going back in.
  • Both of the aforementioned moves and most frost magic used in the rest of the fight will leave behind clusters of ice crystals you should avoid touching. The crystals are effectively mines; they don't deal damage directly, but rapidly build up Frostbite and can make it much easier for Caligo to inflict it on you.
• Every once in a while, Caligo will shroud the entire arena in a thick haze and then one of two things will happen:
  • If you see a black wind converging on a location: Run extremely far away from where the wind is being pulled to with Surge Sprint. After several seconds, Caligo will send out a colossal wave of ice in all directions from that spot, and the only way to avoid damage is to pretty much be on the other side of the arena. Dodge roll forward through the incoming frost just to be safe, too.
  • If you hear the sound of crackling ice: Run towards the sound as fast as you can. Eventually, you'll reach where Caligo is preparing a spell to drop shards of ice from the sky onto every part of the arena other than the one it's in; reaching the dragon completely saves you from this attack, and depending on how fast you do, you can get multiple seconds of free damage, also.

Caligo, Miasma of Night Phase 2

At about 50% health, Caligo will roar and then take off into the air, signaling the start of Phase 2. This immediately leads to a follow-up attack I'll explain below, and also sees Caligo start to use new moves while becoming much more aggressive. Here's what you need to know:

• After flying high into the air, Caligo will dive bomb you twice — using its wings to send large ice crystals flying at you each time — before landing and sending one final volley of crystals at you. Roll forward multiple times through these each time they fly in, and try to keep yourself lined up with Caligo's head as best you can as you do; since the crystals spawn from its wings, many of them will miss if you do this.
  • This attack can occur multiple times throughout Phase 2, so stay on your toes. If the dragon flies high and begins circling, it's a telltale sign that the move is being used again.
• Caligo may now also briefly fly up before breathing frost down at someone as it tries to crash down onto them. Roll forward a couple times to avoid both the magic and Caligo's slam, then retaliate with hits on its neck.
• The boss has also gained a faster breath attack in Phase 2, during which it breathes frost in front of it left-to-right. Surge Sprint past the head and under Caligo's neck from its right side if you're close, or away if you're at a distance. If you're not able to avoid the frost entirely by running, roll through it.
• Another new move sees Caligo imbue its tail with frost, holding it up for a few moments before slamming it in a vertical arc and sending a shockwave towards you. Roll to the side just as the slam happens to avoid damage.
• Phase 2's deadliest attack has Caligo stand up tall and breathe frost all around it, dealing heavy damage and creating glowing ice bombs that explode when the dragon slams its tail at you. Roll through the frost breath, then make sure you're not close to any of the ice bombs when you roll to the side to dodge the tail smash.
• If you're beneath it, Caligo may drop its knees down and start generating a cyclone of frost energy that builds up Frostbite rapidly; after several seconds, it will "detonate" and deal extreme damage. The moment you notice this starting to happen, dodge roll out from beneath Caligo multiple times, then sprint a good distance so you aren't caught in the lethal blizzard that's about to ensue.

Ultimately, Phase 2 is the real killer, as it's difficult to find good windows to attack yourself amid Caligo's aggressive frost attacks and frequent repositioning. Patience and biding your time until a good one opens is crucial here, so don't get too greedy or risky and focus on your survival over doing lots of damage quickly. Eventually, the dragon will fall.

Elden Ring Nightreign is a bold new experimental spinoff from FromSoftware that spices up the original game's Soulsborne combat with a roguelike, co-op driven twist. Though it has sizable issues like only having one map or underwhelming enemy variety, it's nevertheless going to be one of this year's best Xbox games and best PC games for Souls fans craving action. It's $39.99, but you can get it for $33.99 at Newegg with the promo code XVSAVE (Xbox) or EPES3Z23 (PC).

Though FromSoftware's "Soulsborne" action RPGs like the Dark Souls games, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring have always offered co-op summoning as an option for players, the studio's offerings have by and large been single-player experiences that you progress through on your own. For the first time, though, that's changed with Elden Ring Nightreign — a new roguelike spinoff of the 2022 title in which multiplayer is a core component of the game.

Indeed, Nightreign is built from the ground up to be a co-op experience, with its dynamic map and its eight major "Nightlord" boss fights designed to be explored and challenged in groups of three. However, FromSoftware isn't blind to the fact that some players either don't have friends to play with, don't want to matchmake with randoms, want to be able to play while their internet is down, or would simply prefer to cleanse the Night from the Lands Between on their own. So, alongside the standard three-player option for Expeditions, there's a single-player mode, too.

But should you actually play Elden Ring Nightreign solo? It's a question on the minds of many fans, especially since FromSoftware never marketed the single-player experience and most reviews naturally focused on the game as it's played in co-op.

Having done several solo runs myself, now, I'd say that for now, I'd avoid jumping in by yourself. Soon, though, the solo experience may be considerably more enjoyable.

For the unaware, a TL;DR explanation of the way Nightreign works is that instead of carefully exploring the world and slowly building up your character in exactly the way you want, you're instead given eight "Nightfarer" classes to pick from each match that have stat spreads and unique abilities conducive to specific playstyles (tanky Strength brawler, backline sorcery caster, and so on).

You're then tasked with quickly bouncing from location to location in a remixed version of Elden Ring's Limgrave map, defeating minibosses, earning randomized drops of gear and upgrades, and leveling up with accrued runes (experience) — all while a battle royale-style circle periodically creeps inwards and funnels you to an arena where you fight a major boss as night falls. This process happens twice before you're then transported to a final battle with a Nightlord boss.

Co-op plays a big role in the experience, as having two other players with you lets you clear out points of interest and take down bosses much faster. Teammates can also (comically) revive allies by hitting them, and most Nightfarer abilities synergize together in a variety of ways, too.

Nightreign scales down enemy and boss health in solo play, but at the moment, that's the only change made to balance the single-player experience. And even with that tweak, it's far more difficult to defeat minibosses and raze enemy camps on the map alone than it is with a squad. With nobody to revive you, going down once is also a guaranteed end to your 45-minute run in major boss fights as well.

For those reasons, playing Nightreign solo is honestly kind of terrible — at least right now. Something important to note, though, is that FromSoftware recently announced that improvements to the solo experience are coming next week, with the studio planning to implement two key changes in the Patch 1.02 update.

The first is a huge boon for solo play: one free self-revival in each of the major night bosses in an Expedition, including the ones you fight at the end of each in-game "day" and the Nightlord battle itself. This should make playing alone far more forgiving, as you'll be allowed to die once in each of these fights without your entire run slipping through your fingers.

Secondly, the amount of runes solo players get from slain enemies and bosses is also increasing, which should make it easier to level up enough for the tough battles at the tail end of your Expeditions.

I was hoping to see more time allotted for the exploration phase and a healing flask charge increase, too, but regardless, these are major changes that should make the solo experience a lot better than it is now. So while I'd stick to playing multiplayer at the moment, definitely give some one-man runs a shot after Patch 1.02 is out.

Elden Ring Nightreign is a bold new experimental spinoff from FromSoftware that spices up the original game's Soulsborne combat with a roguelike, co-op driven twist. Though it has sizable issues like only having one map or underwhelming enemy variety, it's nevertheless going to be one of this year's best Xbox games and best PC games for Souls fans craving action. It's $39.99, but you can get it for $33.99 at Newegg with the promo code XVSAVE (Xbox) or EPES3Z23 (PC).

FromSoftware's curious co-op roguelike spinoff Elden Ring Nightreign is finally here, and perhaps unsurprisingly, it's off to a more decidedly rocky start than most of the storied developer's games tend to be at launch. Critic reviews were generally positive (though less so than is typical of FromSoftware), but even as over 2 million play in its first 24 hours, the initial fan reception to the title has been quite mixed.

Common complaints about the game include some disappointing map and enemy variety (something I discussed at length in my review), the lack of a two-player duos option (you can only play solo or in a trio), and the absence of crossplay. Another big one is Nightreign's solo play balancing — but while it's up in the air if the former issues will be addressed, FromSoftware has confirmed it's planning to improve the solo experience in a new update patch next week.

"Nightfarers, thank you for playing Elden Ring Nightreign. Next week, Patch 1.02 will be released, and will include several bug fixes as well as improvements for solo expeditions," a post from the studio reads. "Further details will be provided next week."

Specifically, the developers are planning to give you one automatic revival if you go down during any of an Expedition's Night boss battles, which includes the ones you fight at the end of Day 1 and Day 2, as well as the final Nightlord boss at the conclusion of your runs. Additionally, solo players will also gain more runes (experience) from slain enemies and bosses than players in a co-op team.

Both of these sound like great changes for solo players, with the former ensuring you won't lose your entire run if you go down once and the latter helping to compensate for the fact that one player can't blitz through a map as quickly as a full squad can. Together with the solo scaling in the game currently that reduces enemy and boss HP, this will hopefully make vanquishing the Night alone feel a lot more enjoyable.

With that said, though, I'm not sure these tweaks alone will be enough. One I and many others were hoping to see was an increase to the time you have to comb through the map before Night falls, for example, because even with solo scaling, individual points of interest take a lot longer to clear out by yourself than they do with allies.

I also think solo players should get more healing flasks; the cap in co-op is seven with upgrades from churches, but given that the mainline Elden Ring experience let you have up to 14, you should be able to at least have 10. I don't find that unreasonable at all.

Ultimately, the community will have to give the updated solo experience some playtesting once Patch 1.02 comes out next week, and we'll see where things need to go from there. Personally, I'm expecting it to still feel too rushed and difficult to make serious progress in, but I could be wrong.

The good news? FromSoftware was pretty receptive to player feedback in Elden Ring and made tons of changes to it in the months following its release; the same can't necessarily be said about previous titles like the Dark Souls trilogy, notably. So, if solo play in Nightreign still doesn't feel like it's where it needs to be, players can likely look forward to further adjustments.

Elden Ring Nightreign is a bold new experimental spinoff from FromSoftware that spices up the original game's Soulsborne combat with a roguelike, co-op driven twist. Though it has sizable issues like only having one map or underwhelming enemy variety, it's nevertheless going to be one of this year's best Xbox games and best PC games for Souls fans craving action. It's $39.99, but you can get it for $33.99 at Newegg with the promo code XVSAVE (Xbox) or EPES3Z23 (PC).

FromSoftware and Bandai Namco's new co-op game Elden Ring Nightreign already crossed over 2 million players.

The official Elden Ring X (Twitter) account shared the news on Friday, revealing that the game reached this milestone less than a full day after it launched.

While these are players, it's worth noting that Elden Ring Nightreign is not currently included in any gaming subscription services like Xbox Game Pass, meaning this should be extraordinarily close to the actual number of copies sold.

I'm not sure if the last-minute Evanescence-backed trailer for Elden Ring Nightreign played a part, but based on the comments, it certainly didn't hurt.

Elden Ring Nightreign also already achieved 300,000 concurrent players on Steam, but players have been divisive, with many complaints echoing what critics have been saying about the game since the embargo lifted.

Common pain points include the lack of options for solo players, as well as a complete lack of crossplay, a feature that's now considered standard for most multiplayer or co-op games.

In our review of Elden Ring Nightreign, my colleague Brendan Lowry wrote that ""It's truly a wild and audacious release from the studio, but having played through the game throughout the last week and a half, I'm happy to say that it's proven to be a ton of fun, and an idea I'm glad FromSoftware ended up exploring."

Elden Ring Nightreign is now available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC (via Steam), PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4.

FromSoftware's latest new game is the bold co-op roguelike offshoot Elden Ring Nightreign, and it's much different than the typical Soulsborne action RPG experience that fans of the studio's titles have come to expect. While all the hallmarks of Soulsian combat is here — stamina-based combat, a strong emphasis on dodging, many combinations of magic and melee attacks — the way progression works is entirely different.

Instead of slowly and steadily upgrading your character while carefully making your way through various regions and levels, Nightreign is instead played at a far faster pace, with its structure driving players to quickly sprint from one spot on the map to the next, acquiring random loot and upgrades and slaying minibosses as they go. Simultaneously, they have to ensure they're not caught outside of an encroaching circle that eventually corrals them into intense major boss fights at the end of each in-game "day."

That speedy roguelike design takes a while to get used to, especially if you've been playing FromSoftware games for a long time and are used to how they're typically structured. It certainly did for me, and in the process of learning how to play Nightreign, I made several big mistakes that you should avoid making yourself. Here's what they are, and how fixing them ultimately made me a better player.

Splitting up from teammates

If there's one thing you should take away from this article, it's that more than anything else, it's crucial to stick with your teammates throughout your run. This seems like an obvious tip since this is, y'know, a co-op game — but trust me. There will be times where the points of interest you want to go deal with are different than the ones your allies are pinging for whatever reason; I often felt the urge to split off from the others to go after camps that had a chance to reward me with weapons that dealt a specific damage type, for example.

I'm here to tell you that you shouldn't do that, and should stay with your squad even if you disagree with the route they're planning through Limveld. If you go down and there's nobody nearby, that means nobody will be there to revive you, and you'll die and lose both a level and all the runes (experience points) you were carrying.

The latter can be recovered by running near your death location, thankfully, but the former is a significant setback — especially in the late game when levels are expensive and you probably won't be able to level as highly as you could have if you didn't lose a level.

Even if you think there's very little chance of you dying on your solo detour, it's still a risk I don't recommend taking. Besides, beefier minibosses like Bell-Bearing Hunters take quite a while to defeat on your own, and that's time that would mostly likely be better spent defeating multiple other ones with your team.

Wasting time on trash mobs

It's tempting to fight every enemy there is within hostile camps and structures, especially with Elden Ring combat being as fun as it is. Ultimately, though, this simply isn't worth doing for most of the time spent in your Expeditions. Killing basic mobs is a great way to earn a few levels right away at the start of a run, but after that? You should be focusing almost entirely on the minibosses within points of interest.

Running past enemies instead of fighting them has always been a comically effective way to progress through FromSoftware's Soulsborne action RPGs, and as it turns out, it's also the best way to make the most of your time before the circle of Night closes in at the end of each of your two farming days. Past Level 5 or so, you should be skipping everything in camps and forts and sprinting right to their minibosses to kill them, get an upgrade or a new weapon, and then move on.

This sounds like a risky tactic, but it's actually not at all most of the time since you'll generally lose the aggro of most enemies quickly if you Surge Sprint past them. Kill mobs that do chase you down and interfere with your fight against a miniboss if you have to, but ignore them otherwise.

Not prioritizing flask upgrades

Aside from hunting down minibosses for upgrades and weapons or leveling up with all the runes you've collected, another important way to get stronger in Elden Ring Nightreign is upgrading your healing flask. Doing so will give you an extra use of it on top of the three that you get by default; you get one for beating the major boss at the end of Day 2, but you can actually get three more for a total of seven — one from each of the church structures located around Limveld.

These are marked on your map with yellow building icons (if they're greyed out, you've already gotten the upgrade there), and the altar within them gives you an extra flask charge when interacted with. I didn't prioritize chasing these down at first and instead focused more on boss kills, but having a deep reserve of healing flasks is incredibly valuable when fighting the Nightlord boss at the end of your runs. Definitely make sure you visit as many of these churches as you can.

Challenging field bosses on Day 1

While the start of Day 2 marks the locations of major "Great Enemy" bosses located between points of interest in the field, these bosses actually spawn in these locations at the start of Day 1 and can be stumbled across at any point in your Expedition. As tempting as it may be to fight them early for a huge amount of runes and a powerful upgrade, though, this is something I strongly recommend not doing.

These bosses are balanced around being Level 7-8 or higher on Day 2, and thus are extremely dangerous to fight when you're far weaker than that on Day 1. Not only will you deal terrible damage and thus take forever to kill them, but their attacks are also likely to one-shot you since you'll have very low stats. Remember where you ran into them and come back on Day 2 when you're better prepared.

Ignoring clues from forts

At the top of enemy forts, just past the platforms at the top where you tend to encounter their minibosses, is a room that has a map on a desk you can interact with. Doing so will reveal the location of several unmarked points of interest nearby the fort, including locations where you can often find lots of consumable items and — even more importantly — the whereabouts of Teardrop Scarabs. I forgot these maps even existed for a long time, but have since made sure I activate them whenever I'm at a point of interest with one.

These skittish dung beetles are the only source of talismans — charms that give potent and unique buffs to many different aspects of your character — in Limveld, and while you can find them on your own by listening for the distinctive high-pitched jingling sound they make, being able to see exactly where they are on your map is a boon. You can have two at once, and by hunting down several of the beetles, you'll give yourself a good chance of getting two that work with the build you're cooking up.

Do be aware, however, that these Teardrop Scarabs will despawn themselves by vanishing into the air if you alert them, but don't hit and kill them for multiple seconds. Make sure you aggressively chase them down so this doesn't happen.

Not playing to your character's strengths

This is another one that seems obvious, but is definitely one that veteran Soulsborne players should keep in mind nevertheless. Compared to your average Elden Ring Tarnished, most of Elden Ring Nightreign's classes have some unique quirks and specializations that you need to take into account and play into while battle bosses and roaming around Limveld.

The Guardian, for example, has a special reinforced guard that gives his greatshield enough stability to ward off even the heaviest-hitting boss attacks, but the tradeoff is that he has a worse dodge than other characters that gives him less invincibility frames. Therefore, while every Soulsborne instinct in your body may tell you to dodge a big move, you'll actually be far better off blocking it if you're using him.

Another good example is the Executor, who thrives off of deflecting attacks to quickly stagger his adversaries. Again, your initial reaction to most incoming damage will likely be to roll through it, you should actually try and deflect it in many cases.

It took me a while to retrain my brain a bit with Nightfarers like these, and as a result, I found them frustrating and awkward to play for a while. Once I got used to playing into their special capabilities, however, I began to see much more success.

Being too reserved with your Ultimate Art

Finally, my closing recommendation for Nightreign players is to get comfortable with using your Ultimate Art ability often. Due to how impactful they can be, it's natural to try and hold them for an extended period of time as you wait for "the perfect moment." And in fairness, there is value to doing this with some of them; Guardian's Wings of Salvation and Revenant's Immortal March, for example, are arguably worth saving until you need them because they have the extremely valuable ability to revive downed allies guaranteed.

But with most of them, you'll actually be far better off using them soon after charging them, which is something it took me quite a while to realize. Ultimate Arts charge passively over time and also when you do damage, so as long as you're consistently landing hits in the fray, they'll come back faster than you might think. Therefore, you should generally use them more freely so that you're contributing as much HP and stamina damage to boss encounters as possible.

Elden Ring Nightreign is a bold new experimental spinoff from FromSoftware that spices up the original game's Soulsborne combat with a roguelike, co-op driven twist. Though it has sizable issues like only having one map or underwhelming enemy variety, it's nevertheless going to be one of this year's best Xbox games and best PC games for Souls fans craving action. It's $39.99, but you can get it for $33.99 at Newegg with the promo code XVSAVE.

FromSoftware's ambitious new co-op roguelike spin on Elden Ring, Elden Ring Nightreign, is out now on Windows PC and Steam, with its release on consoles just hours away. Its day one patch notes warn you might run into some framerate drops with high-end graphics cards, but for me — having played Nightreign thoroughly throughout the last two weeks for my review — it's run buttery smooth without any framerate issues whatsoever.

Sure, I'll admit I don't love that the new offshoot is locked to 60 FPS like Elden Ring itself was, and while I didn't experience any frame drops, I did run into some stutters here and there. By and large, though, it's been a great experience — certainly a better one than I had with the mainline 2022 game when it launched.

Except...there's one problem. Have a look at the image below, and see if you can figure out what it is:

If you didn't immediately realize what my beef here is when you saw the vertical black bars on either side of the image, me complaining about it in the caption probably tipped you off to the fact that I'm talking about ultrawide support. Or, to be more accurate, Elden Ring Nightreign's vexing lack of it.

Native compatibility with ultrawide aspect ratios and resolutions is something that's missing from nearly every FromSoftware game on PC, including all the Dark Souls titles, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Elden Ring. The fact it was supported in 2023's Armored Core 6 was a lovely surprise that gave me hope we'd see it come to Elden Ring Nightreign when it was announced last year, but nope — we're back to the usual disappointment in 2025, and I'm tired of it.

I realize that the vast majority of PC gamers aren't in the ultrawide gang, but plenty of us are — and I can't think of a good reason for FromSoftware to continually put this restriction on players. The only thing that even comes to mind is that maybe the developer thinks it gives players an advantage or something, but a little extra peripheral vision would barely even help in third-person action RPGs like these.

Your next thought might be that it's a limitation of the studio's engine or something, but again, Armored Core 6 has ultrawide support and was built on Elden Ring's engine like Nightreign was. Plus, modders came out with ultrawide mods for Elden Ring days after its release (frustratingly, you can't use them online without getting banned since they make detectable changes to the game files), so there's clearly not a huge technical issue here.

The only conclusion I'm left to draw is that FromSoftware simply doesn't consider this a feature worth adding to its Soulsborne RPGs, and that's beyond irritating since all I want to do is look at their gorgeously crafted worlds on a wider screen. It's annoying that we're back here yet again after Armored Core 6 got my hopes up, but who knows — maybe ultrawide support will come in a future patch. I wouldn't bet on it, though.

Elden Ring Nightreign is a bold new experimental spinoff from FromSoftware that spices up the original game's Soulsborne combat with a roguelike, co-op driven twist. Though it has sizable issues like only having one map or underwhelming enemy variety, it's nevertheless going to be one of this year's best Xbox games and best PC games for Souls fans craving action. It's $39.99, but you can get it for $33.99 at Newegg with the promo code XVSAVE.

There are many Nightlords to challenge in FromSoftware's newly released co-op roguelike Elden Ring Nightreign, but before you can hunt them, you'll first need to target and defeat the game's first major boss: Gladius, Beast of Night. This three-headed, Cerberus-like wolf may be positioned somewhat as a tutorial boss as you learn how to play the experimental Elden Ring offshoot in the Tricephalos Expedition, but make no mistake: it's not an easy battle, and treating it like one will inevitably lead to your quick demise.

With that said, Gladius is still arguably simpler to take down than the Nightlords it's gatekeeping, and once you and your allies understand each of its moves, how to avoid them, and when it's best to go on the offensive yourself, the fight becomes a lot easier. Taking advantage of the boss' damage type weakness and using Nightfarers optimal for the battle helps, too (though you can be successful with any character).

For a full overview of all of that information as well as some additional tips and tricks, give the thorough and detailed guide for the fight below a close read.

Gladius, Beast of Night weakness and best classes

• Gladius is weak to Holy damage, so try and put together a build with it during the run leading up to your fight with it. Look for enemy camps marked with a Holy icon (golden yellow line with magic particles) and defeat the miniboss at them for a decent chance at a quality Holy weapon.
• The best Nightfarer characters to use against Gladius are melee-centric fighters like Wylder, Guardian, Raider, and Executor. While ranged Nightfarers such as Ironeye and Recluse will still work, the nature of Gladius' ranged attacks will make it difficult to do damage consistently.
• This is definitely a fight to avoid doing a solo run for, as Gladius' second phase involves multiple targets. Being alone will make that phase extremely difficult as a result, as they'll all attack you at once.
• Gladius deals Physical and Fire damage with its moveset, most of which is involves Physical attacks. Try to build resistances to these damage types with the upgrades you find if you can, and consider blocking with a greatshield if you find one if you're struggling to dodge the boss' Physical moves.

Boss guide: How to beat Gladius, Beast of Night

• In Phase 1 of the fight with Gladius, most of its attacks are bites and headbutts from its trio of heads. Roll forward and past these, then stick to his sides and legs. Doing so will give you time to get a few hits in, and will also force the boss to turn to target you again.
• At a distance, Gladius tends to swing its chained sword through the air in three horizontal sweeps, the first close to its body and the last two expanding outwards. Roll through the sweeps or jump over them. Note that if you're close to Gladius, you only have to avoid the first sweep; the second and third will miss you entirely, giving you multiple seconds to get free damage in.
• Alternatively, Gladius can also target one player with its sword by swinging it into the air vertically and then bringing it down onto someone from above. This is a heavier hitting strike, but also easier to see coming. Dodge in any direction away from the sword slam to avoid damage, and try to close the distance and get hits in if you're not the one the boss is looking at.
• From afar, Gladius may also quickly rear its head back before breathing a large blast of fire at you. Rolling forward through the flames is simple enough, but the telegraph for the fire breath is short, so be ready to dodge fast. Do keep in mind, though, that you'll need to delay your roll a bit if you're far away and the fire has to travel to you for a moment.
• Gladius' deadliest Phase 1 attack is a grab in which it winds up by opening its jaws and becomes surrounded in a purple aura. Dodge this bite like any other; while well-telegraphed, this move does very severe damage and might kill you outright if you're on a low HP Nightfarer, so dodging it is absolutely crucial.

Gladius, Beast of Night Phase 2

Phase 2 of the fight with Gladius begins fairly early compared to most other multiphase Soulsborne bosses, as it starts when his health is about 70% or so. It kicks off with Gladius turning himself into three fireballs you have to roll through if they fly towards you; each of these projectiles then turns into an individual one-headed version of Gladius. Here's how to deal with this new maneuver and finish the fight.

• Each one-headed Gladius has the same attacks as its combined form, but only the one with the sword on its back can do the aforementioned sword moves. Keep that in mind during this stage of the battle.
• Each player on your team should try and draw the aggro of one of the wolves, ensuring nobody gets overwhelmed by multiple. If several wolves do target you, avoid attacking entirely and focus on careful dodging until your allies come to support you.
• The wolves tend to rotate between passive and aggressive behaviors, but when the one with the sword roars, all three will gain red eyes and attack. As a collective team, it's important that everyone gets ready to dodge follow-up bites when this happens.
  • Successfully doing so and then landing a few retaliatory hits deals extra stagger damage, potentially leading to a stance break and an opportunity for a critical hit.
• Eventually, the wolves will coalesce back into Gladius' combined form, at which point he'll be able to use two additional moves:
  • Firstly, after his usual sword attacks, Gladius will add a new one in which he leaps into the air, lifts the sword high, and then slams it down in an explosion. Dodge through the explosion or sprint behind Gladius as he's in the air to avoid the threat entirely.
  • Gladius may also draw its fiery sword before slamming it into the ground, then ripping it out to send a wave of fire at you. Avoid this by rolling forward through the blaze in the same way you dodge his fire breaths.
• Gladius will fight you in his combined form for 45 seconds or so before splitting into three wolves again. Knowing that, you'll start to get a feel for when he's going to perform the split and can better prepare.

Do your best to stick close to Gladius throughout the fight and punish it after dodging its moves if you're a melee character, or get what damage you can in if using a ranged Nightfarer while carefully avoiding its sword slashes and fire breaths. Eventually, the mighty Beast of Night will fall, and you'll have slain your first of many Nightlords to come.

Elden Ring Nightreign is a bold new experimental spinoff from FromSoftware that spices up the original game's Soulsborne combat with a roguelike, co-op driven twist. Though it has sizable issues like only having one map or underwhelming enemy variety, it's nevertheless going to be one of this year's best Xbox games and best PC games for Souls fans craving action. It's $39.99, but you can get it for $33.99 at Newegg with the promo code XVSAVE.

After slaying Gladius, Beast of Night, one of the very next Nightlords you're likely to come across in FromSoftware's new co-op roguelike spinoff Elden Ring Nightreign is Adel, Baron of Night. The Gaping Jaw Expedition you hunt it in is the first of the six additional missions you unlock after beating Gladius, though it's not easier than the other ones you can embark upon by any means.

In fact, I'd say Adel is actually one of Nightreign's harder Nightlord bosses, even if its overall moveset is on the simpler side. It hits very hard and is very mobile compared to some of your other targets in your quest to dispel the Night, but luckily, also has some very pronounced weaknesses and is very punishable once you know how to avoid its most lethal attacks.

In the guide below, you'll find a complete review of Adel's damage type weaknesses, attack moveset, and more. All of that information should help you significantly if you're stuck on this boss, so read on and read closely if you are.

Adel, Baron of Night weakness and best classes

• Adel has weaknesses to several status effects, with the most prominent being a major susceptibility to Poison and Scarlet Rot. Here's how each affects it:
  • Poison & Scarlet Rot: Causes Adel to lay down and vomit; the vomit deals high damage and Poison buildup, but dissipates quickly and gives you several seconds to freely hit the boss before it gets back up. You can avoid the vomit entirely if you stay away from its head, giving you a few more moments of damage opportunity.
  • Sleep: Stuns the boss for a few moments, making it easy to damage; less effective than Poison, but still very useful.
  • Frostbite: Extremely easy to inflict, resulting in a chunk of extra damage as well as a defense debuff that will raise your team's damage output for a while.
• A mix of melee and ranged Nightfarers is best, with Executor and Ironeye particularly good due to their high Arcane and status effect buildup. Both of these characters can apply the aforementioned statuses to Adel very quickly if their armaments inflict them. Wylder in particular is another good choice, as his grappling hook helps him keep up with Adel's high mobility.
• Adel primarily deals Physical damage as well as Lightning damage in Phase 2, and has a grab attack that inflicts severe Bleed. Try and build into resistances for these damage types and ailments with the upgrades you find during your run to Adel if you can.

Boss guide: How to beat Adel, Baron of Night

• In Phase 1, Adel tends to attack players by trying to bite them with its massive jaws; these chomps are telegraphed by big stretches of its mouth. Roll forward and through the bite (or bites if it performs a combo), then counter-attack by hitting its jaws, neck, or legs. Don't roll backwards in the direction Adel is moving in, as you'll likely still get clipped by its attack hitboxes when coming out of your dodges.
• If you see Adel stretching its jaws from medium range, it's about to perform a leaping bite at you. Dodge through this in the same way you'd avoid its regular chomps, and punish with a few strikes of your own.
• Adel may also open its mouth very wide and charge at you, potentially knocking you down. Once again, roll through this, but roll one or two more times as during this move his entire hitbox can damage you. Chase after him once his charge ends.
• A deadly grab variation of Adel's bite sees it lift its head into the air and gather blue lightning in its jaws, then lower it to the ground and pull back before surging forward with a chomp. This is avoided in the same way all the other aforementioned attacks are, but dodging it is crucial; if the grab lands, Adel will heavily damage you for multiple seconds and inflict Bleed buildup, and the Bleed is likely to kill you unless you have Bleed resistance.
  • Notably, teammates can save you from the grab if they hit Adel's head with a heavy strike. Heavy jump attacks, powerful spells, and shots from large ranged weapons like Greatbows or Mighty Shot hits from normal bows are the best for this. Ironeye's Single Shot and Wylder's Onslaught Stake Ultimate Arts also accomplish this easily.
• Adel might also roar twice before charging at you two times, then ending the combo with a grab similar to the previously mentioned one. The roars do no damage but do stagger you so you can't try to stagger it out of this move; dodge through the charges and grab attempt as they come.
• The one non-bite or charge attack Adel does in Phase 1 sees it lift its head high into the air before slamming it down, creating a large circular shockwave. You can roll through the quake if you'd like, though you also have the option of jumping over it; the latter allows you to perform a jump attack on the boss as you land.

Adel, Baron of Night Phase 2

At about 50% health, Adel will begin stamping its feet and generating a huge field of purple energy around itself; when it stretches its jaws wide and then clamps them shut, this field will erupt with purple lightning and call down multiple lightning strikes around the arena, signaling the start of Phase 2. Avoid the phase transition by Surge Sprinting away from the boss and rolling away from lightning strikes that come down near you.

• Immediately after the Phase 2 transition described above, Adel will soar into the air before crashing down onto a player and sending out huge delayed lightning blasts; the lightning strikes after the shifted earth on the ground glows bright purple. Dodge roll the initial slam and then either roll through the delayed lightning blast or jump over it. Jumping is generally the safer option, but both methods work.
  • Note that Adel can perform the phase transition attack and this follow-up one periodically throughout Phase 2. Watch for the growing field of purple energy that serves as its telegraph.
• Several of Adel's bites and his head slam attack gain some area-of-effect purple lightning in Phase 2, making them more powerful. Keep this in mind, and make sure you avoid these attacks properly.
• Adel also adds a second grab attempt to his grab attack from Phase 1 in this phase, telegraphed by him spinning around before going for another chomp. This is another thing to remember as the fight goes on; wait for and avoid the second attempt before punishing the move with your own offense.

As long as you roll through Adel's aggressive chomp and charge attacks while applying consistent pressure with your damage, you'll eventually emerge from this bout victorious. If you're having trouble, I can't stress enough how useful status effect-focused builds are, though ultimately you can only use one if you're lucky enough to find Poison, Sleep, or Frostbite-applying gear while zipping around Limveld. Status effects are far from required, however, and ironically, my first kill on Adel was in an Expedition in which nobody was applying any.

Elden Ring Nightreign is a bold new experimental spinoff from FromSoftware that spices up the original game's Soulsborne combat with a roguelike, co-op driven twist. Though it has sizable issues like only having one map or underwhelming enemy variety, it's nevertheless going to be one of this year's best Xbox games and best PC games for Souls fans craving action. It's $39.99, but you can get it for $33.99 at Newegg with the promo code XVSAVE.

FromSoftware's new co-op roguelike spinoff Elden Ring Nightreign has eight different playable "Nightfarer" characters in total, with each one representing a distinct action RPG playstyle. Folks that enjoy the fantasy of playing as a nimble and stealthy rogue should look no further than the Duchess.

However, unlike the Elden Ring Nightreign network test in which she was playable right away, the Duchess is actually one of two characters you have to unlock in the full game — the other being the Revenant. Thankfully, though, getting the Duchess is one of the first things you'll and up doing as you progress through Nightreign. For an overview of what you have to do to unlock her, read on.

How to unlock the Duchess in Elden Ring Nightreign

Getting access to the Duchess as a playable character is something you'll likely do within your first several hours of playing Elden Ring Nightreign. To unlock the Duchess, you first have to defeat Gladius, Beast of Night at the end of the Tricephalos Expedition. When you do, you'll get the "Old Pocket-watch" item; back at the Roundtable Hold, give this item to the Priestess and a cutscene will play in which she reveals she's the Duchess — thus, unlocking the Duchess to play as.

With more evasive dodges, the ability to string together two dodges in a row, speedier attacks, and naturally high Dexterity and Intelligence, the Duchess is an agile assassin that's particularly effective with both small and fast weapons as well as sorcery magic (if you can find a dagger with Magic damage, you're in for a particularly good time).

Her Restage skill also lets her force an enemy to take all the damage they recently took again a second time, and is extremely valuable if used just after critical hits or major Ultimate Art attacks from teammates. Meanwhile, the Finale Ultimate Art is a team-wide invisibility spell that can buy your squad critical time to buff, heal, revive an ally, or set up backstabs and big attack combos.

Some things to keep in mind, however, are that she has very low HP as well as Strength. This means she won't be a good fit for you if you want to play as a Nightfarer that can take a few hits or effectively fight with larger weapons; if that's the playstyle you'd prefer, I recommend Wylder, Guardian, or Raider.

Elden Ring Nightreign is a bold new experimental spinoff from FromSoftware that spices up the original game's Soulsborne combat with a roguelike, co-op driven twist. Though it has sizable issues like only having one map or underwhelming enemy variety, it's nevertheless going to be one of this year's best Xbox games and best PC games for Souls fans craving action. It's $39.99, but you can get it for $33.99 at Newegg with the promo code XVSAVE.

With the ability to change the armor you're wearing replaced with fixed defensive stats for each "Nightfarer" character in FromSoftware's new co-op roguelike project Elden Ring Nightreign, visual customization instead comes in the form of skins. These work like they do in most other games with distinct playable characters by changing your visual appearance, but not anything related to gameplay.

Like a few other things in the game, though, using skins and changing your garb isn't an option you have at the start of your adventure. Instead, you'll need to unlock it by making progress in your quest to vanquish the Night. For a quick overview of what you have to do specifically, refer to the below guide.

How to unlock character skins in Elden Ring Nightreign

Before you can get character skins in Elden Ring Nightreign, you'll first need to defeat at least two Nightlords; this will be Gladius, Beast of Night and any one of the six other Nightlords that beating it will make available to hunt, such as Adel, Baron of Night. Once two Nightlords are dead, a mirror will appear in the room across from the entrance to the east wing of the Roundtable Hold. Notably, this mirror is where you can purchase skins and change garb.

At first, every Nightfarer will only have access to a Dawn and a Darkness skin you can purchase with Murk, the currency earned from completing Expeditions. The former requires 15,000 Murk, while the latter is far more expensive at 35,000.

By eventually defeating Elden Ring Nightreign's final boss, however, you'll unlock the option to purchase skins inspired by previous FromSoftware games like Dark Souls for the Nightfarers. I won't spoil the game's final boss in this guide, but do note that to reach the final boss, you'll need to kill two more Nightlords, and four in total. Once again, you have the option to choose which ones you defeat, so keep that in mind.

You can also get an additional skin for each Nightfarer by completing their individual Remembrance questlines. To start these, you'll first need to complete several Expeditions with a character to unlock all their entries in the Journal in the Roundtable Hold's east wing, then select the Enter Remembrance button on their final page. Objectives in these storylines vary, but generally require you to defeat minibosses or find items in either Expeditions or solo instances.

Elden Ring Nightreign is a bold new experimental spinoff from FromSoftware that spices up the original game's Soulsborne combat with a roguelike, co-op driven twist. Though it has sizable issues like only having one map or underwhelming enemy variety, it's nevertheless going to be one of this year's best Xbox games and best PC games for Souls fans craving action. It's $39.99, but you can get it for $33.99 at Newegg with the promo code XVSAVE.

Of all the different playable "Nightfarer" characters in FromSoftware's experimentative co-op roguelike offshoot Elden Ring Nightreign, the Revenant — the soul of a woman in the body of a doll — is arguably the most interesting from a gameplay standpoint. Compared to the others, she's more of a supportive character than a direct fighter, as she can summon Spirit Ashes to attack and distract enemies and has a stat spread ideal for Faith and/or Arcane-based incantations.

Like the Duchess, she's not one of the Nightfarers you can play as from the get-go. Unlike the Duchess, however, the process of unlocking her is fairly well-hidden, and I wouldn't be surprised if many players don't end up figuring it out on their own without looking at a guide like this one. Luckily, it's straightforward once you do know what to do, so follow the steps below.

How to unlock the Revenant in Elden Ring Nightreign

Note that to get the Revenant, you'll first need to unlock the Duchess, which you've essentially already done if you've slain Gladius, Beast of Night. That's because the item that triggers the Revenant's appearance won't exist until you have Duchess as a playable character.

Once you've done that, head to the Small Jar Bazaar in the west wing of the Roundtable Hold and purchase the Besmirched Frame Relic from the merchant for 1,500 Murk. After doing this, you'll come across the Revenant's spirit near the entrance to the Roundtable Hold's east wing; interact with her. Afterwards, you'll be transported to the tutorial area, and you'll have to defeat the Revenant and her three spirit allies. Doing so unlocks her as a Nightfarer.

Similar to the Recluse, the Revenant is a backline caster with low health and middling stamina, along with stats ill-suited to melee combat of any kind. Her strength lies in her high Faith and (to a lesser extent) Arcane, which allow her to effectively cast various healing, fire, lightning, and especially Dragon Communion incantations from sacred seals you pick up on your runs.

The Revenant can passively create ghosts that fight with her and her allies for a few seconds after slaying foes, and her Summon Spirit skill lets her summon a longer lasting spirit that fights alongside the team and draws aggro. Then there's her Immortal March Ultimate Art that revives downed teammates and gives everyone in your squad — including her summon, if it's on the field — a period of complete damage immunity.

Elden Ring Nightreign is a bold new experimental spinoff from FromSoftware that spices up the original game's Soulsborne combat with a roguelike, co-op driven twist. Though it has sizable issues like only having one map or underwhelming enemy variety, it's nevertheless going to be one of this year's best Xbox games and best PC games for Souls fans craving action. It's $39.99, but you can get it for $33.99 at Newegg with the promo code XVSAVE.

FromSoftware and Bandai Namco's new co-op game Elden Ring Nightreign is almost here, and to celebrate, there's a new trailer for the game. Unlike other trailers, this one isn't focused on a gameplay overview or particular character.

Instead, this trailer for Elden Ring Nightreign is basically an official AMV (anime music video) using the iconic "Bring Me to Life" track from the band Evanescence. Just watch it:

I don't know who at Bandai Namco or FromSoftware figured this was a great idea, but they were absolutely correct. Someone was inevitably going to make some fan variant of this concept once the game launched, so why not cut to the chase and just put it out officially right now?

Watching this instantly transports me back to the mid-2000s, when seeing battle sequences from video games set to melodramatic music was the best thing my little wannabe-emo mind could comprehend. Just amazing.

Between this and providing a new song for the Netflix Devil May Cry animated series, Evanescence is having a great 2025, and I'm all for it.

Elden Ring Nightreign is a co-op game, and while it uses enemies, bosses, and gameplay established in FromSoftware's 2022 epic, it's quite a different experience, with players teaming up to fight across a shrinking map in individual sessions.

Outlets have praised the gameplay loop and art direction, though the lack of any crossplay or single-player viability has drawn a fair bit of criticism.

In our review of Elden Ring Nightreign, my colleague Brendan Lowry writes that "It's truly a wild and audacious release from the studio, but having played through the game throughout the last week and a half, I'm happy to say that it's proven to be a ton of fun, and an idea I'm glad FromSoftware ended up exploring."

Elden Ring Nightreign is slated to launch on May 30, 2025 across Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4.

Sadly, Elden Ring Nightreign has no crossplay support

Whereas Elden Ring and FromSoftware's other previous "Soulsborne" action RPGs have largely been single-player experiences with cooperative summoning and PvP offered as options, Elden Ring Nightreign — a new spinoff that reimagines the acclaimed 2022 title as a fast-paced roguelike — is entirely designed around three-player co-op multiplayer.

That alone has many fans interested in the title, as cooperative play in the studio's mainline games has some annoying restrictions like invisible walls separating areas that force you to send your buddy home and then resummon them in the new zone. And as I wrote in my Elden Ring Nightreign review, its co-op element is one of the game's strongest aspects (other reviewers feel the same way).

Because of that, lots of people are wondering if Elden Ring Nightreign will have crossplay, or the ability to matchmake and connect with players using a platform other than yours. This feature — also commonly referred to as cross-platform play — is a huge boon in co-op games like this; not only does it let you play with your friends across Xbox, Windows PC, and PlayStation, but it helps keep queue times low and the overall player population feeling healthy in the long-term as well.

Tragically, though, Elden Ring Nightreign doesn't support crossplay or cross-platform play between different platforms. The only cross-platform support the co-op roguelike supports is cross-generational, meaning that Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One players and PS5 and PS4 players can matchmake and team up. Users across Xbox, Windows PC, and PlayStation, however cannot.

Could crossplay come in a future update?

It's a huge bummer that crossplay support isn't in Elden Ring Nightreign, but is it something that could come to the action RPG in the future? Ultimately, the chances of that happening are rather unlikely, as FromSoftware traditionally doesn't add many new features or functionalities to their games after launch.

With that said, there are reasons to be hopeful. For one, we know Nightreign is getting at least one major content update later this year with a DLC that's going to add new Nightfarers and bosses, so it's possible the developers will bring crossplay to the game then too if the demand for it is strong enough.

It's also worth noting that Elden Ring's multiplayer functionality got improved over time, with FromSoftware eventually allowing you to send your summon sign to every Summoning Pool you found in its open world (originally, you could only send it to the one closest to you).

Taking these two facts into consideration, I'd ultimately say that while you shouldn't expect crossplay to come to Nightreign, there's a decent chance that it could if the game's community pushes for it. Here's hoping it does.

The year's unrelenting cadence continues with the arrival of FromSoftware's Elden Ring Nightreign, a decidedly-curious spin on the studio's established gameplay formula. The reviews for Elden Ring Nightreign are pouring in, with outlets giving thoughts and impressions on this new title.

Nightreign is a co-op game, putting players into teams of three across matches that can last over a half-hour, tasking teams with taking out enemies and bosses pulled not just from Elden Ring but across the Dark Souls franchise as well.

At the time I'm writing this, it has a 78 on Metacritic from 64 reviews, with a 79 on Opencritic from 81 reviews. That's a positive score, though it's certainly not the unanimous praise that FromSoftware titles often garner. Below, you'll find some highlights from across a few different reviews:

• GamingTrend (85/100): "So is Nightreign worth checking out for someone unaccustomed to roguelikes but who is a fan of Elden Ring? Yes, I believe so. The more I played, the more invested I became, and my initial worries quickly took a backseat to the incredible experience FromSoftware has created. Go in with an open mind, a few friends, and prepared to die, often."
• Game Informer (80/100): "Nightreign is at its best when I’m at my best, which means From Software’s take on the roguelite genre needs to meet me halfway, leaving its frustrating misgivings at the roundtable hold. When the matchmaking works, when the map randomness gives my trio a fighting chance, and when the storm doesn’t punishingly throw an unfair wrench into the expedition, I’m excited to rise to the challenge. The reward for my efforts is the mastery, knowledge, and adrenaline I spent dozens of hours building in Elden Ring, condensed into a single run. And every success is as visceral and glorious as the last."
• IGN (70/100): "Let’s get the most important caveat out of the way first: If you are hoping to tackle Nightreign entirely solo, and are anything less than a hardcore Elden Ring player that actively seeks out ways to make that already difficult game even more challenging, Nightreign isn’t for you. Yes, there is technically a single-player option, but it is so poorly balanced that I would be shocked if it isn’t patched and adjusted within the first month of release. And this is coming from someone who lives and breathes these types of games."
• RPG Site (70/100): "During my time with Elden Ring Nightreign, I was waiting for something to jump out and amaze me like the original game and Erdtree had, but that sensation never came. Nightreign delivers glimpses of what I love about the previous games, but the jump to this new format just never quite landed as well as I had hoped. When I played with my friends or when I finally tackled that Nightlord I had been stuck on, it hit with that same exhilarating sense of accomplishment that I love, but so much else left me wanting."
• The Guardian (60/100): "FromSoftware’s experiment in upending its established gameplay formula is admirable, and taking down gargantuan foes alongside friends really adds to the joy you feel at finally besting what at first felt like an insurmountable task. It’s just a shame that the game’s skewed pacing and overreliance on Elden Ring’s pool of assets so greatly mars the experience."

A different beast, but one that may resonate with Elden Lords

Overall, most critics seem to appreciate how the Elden Ring gameplay formula works in a game focused around co-op. Common pain points are the lack of variety and the lack of crossplay, as well as the fact that Nightreign is borderline impossible to play solo.

My colleague Brendan Lowry is mostly positive in his 4-star review of Elden Ring Nightreign, writing that "Indeed, it's a genius new way to experience the Elden Ring combat and sandbox that fans know and love — though there's one major flaw holding it back from reaching its full potential."

Elden Ring Nightreign is slated to lauch on May 30, 2025 across Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4.

Storied action RPG developer FromSoftware has traditionally stuck to making games with more linear and straightforward level designs, with nonlinearity explored through things like Metroidvania-style connecting passages or forks in the road of progression that create branching paths. Its beloved award-winning 2022 title Elden Ring, however, traded that style for a full-fledged open-world approach — a huge departure from the norm for the studio, but one that paid off, with Elden Ring quickly rising to become the most popular and successful ARPG in FromSoftware's gameography.

• Elden Ring Nightreign (Xbox, PC) at Newegg for $33.99 with promo code XVSAVE

Three years later, the developer is using its new property to get even more experimentative with Elden Ring Nightreign. The bold new spinoff radically remixes the "Soulsborne" gameplay formula into a co-op multiplayer roguelike, complete with distinct characters with unique skills, new and returning bosses from past FromSoftware experiences, random gear drops, and a mechanic borrowed from — of all things — the battle royale genre.

It's truly a wild and audacious release from the studio, but having played through the game throughout the last week and a half, I'm happy to say that it's proven to be a ton of fun, and an idea I'm glad FromSoftware ended up exploring. Indeed, it's a genius new way to experience the Elden Ring combat and sandbox that fans know and love — though there's one major flaw holding it back from reaching its full potential.

This review was conducted with the Windows PC version of Elden Ring Nightreign, and made possible thanks to a Steam review code provided by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The company did not see the contents of this review before publication.

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What is Elden Ring Nightreign?

• Elden Ring Nightreign is a co-op roguelike spinoff of Elden Ring.
• The game was developed by Elden Ring's FromSoftware.
• Three players team up to hunt minibosses for upgrades and levels, then fight a main boss.

If you've been following Elden Ring Nightreign for a while, watched all of its trailers, or tried it out back in February during the network test, you probably understand its concepts and how it works already. If not, though, give this section a read before getting deeper into the review for a quick overview.

Elden Ring Nightreign is a roguelike spinoff of the mainline Elden Ring experience set in a universe parallel to it, meaning that while many of the same enemies, locations, and concepts (like the Frenzied Flame) exist in it, they have no connection to the original game and Nightreign itself isn't a prequel or sequel. Instead, it tells the story of eight brave Nightfarer warriors that have come to the Lands Between with one goal: to slay the fearsome Nightlords and vanquish the plague of Night that's befallen the realm.

Compared to the usual FromSoftware faire that's primarily played alone unless you summon, Nightreign strongly emphasizes three-player co-op in squads that are either matchmade or formed with friends. Attempts to reach and kill each Nightlord occur during 30-45 minute "Expeditions" in which you blitz through a map with shrinking playable space, defeating enemies and minibosses to get random item drops and upgrades while accruing runes (experience) you can use to level up. Then, at the end of your run, you and your allies challenge the Nightlord with the builds you've put together.

Notably, several of Elden Ring's mechanics have been completely retooled to facilitate fast-paced co-op gameplay; wearable armor, equip load, weapon stat requirements, and fall damage has all been removed, and instead of choosing the stats you improve when leveling, predetermined upgrade paths based on the Nightfarer you're playing as handle that for you. Nightfarers themselves also have unique skills and ultimate abilities that prove to be extremely valuable when used at opportune times, with all of them able to perform a faster Surge Sprint and jump up vertical surfaces (look for white paint on ledges) to quickly traverse the map.

Whether your run is successful or not, you'll earn special randomly rolled Relics you can use to give your character interesting traits in future missions (like, say, a damage boost that activates when you take damage). This is a form of permanent progression that helps you get stronger over time, and allows you to make some foundational buildcrafting decisions so you're not at the complete mercy of RNG during Expeditions. You'll also earn the Murk currency as well, which is used to purchase new combinations of Relic slots as well as character skins back at the Roundtable Hold.

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Elden Ring Nightreign review: Gameplay and combat

• Elden Ring Nightreign's combat is largely the same as Elden Ring's with some notable additions.
• Nightfarer character abilities are unique, distinct, and effective, and the game's boss fights are stellar.
• However, there's only one map to play on, and overall environmental and enemy variety is lackluster.

Combat is a core pillar of every FromSoftware game — they're action RPGs, after all — but the focus on it is amplified significantly in Elden Ring Nightreign, with other elements like exploration and story delivery taking a backseat to the carnage. Whereas Elden Ring encourages you to meticulously comb through its map and carefully investigate every location you find, Nightreign wants you to zip from one enemy-filled fort to the next as quickly as possible. Defeating the minibosses within will result in either random weapon drops taken from the original game's gargantuan sandbox or special buffs that can range from simple improvements to things like stamina regeneration speed to weirder upgrades like one that creates fields of raining magic stars whenever you're walking slowly.

To that end, every major point of interest is marked on your map the second your boots hit the ground, and aside from briefly running over to church structures to get more healing flasks or Sites of Grace to refill them and mash the level up button, you should constantly be pinging them on the map, sprinting to them, and leaping into the fray with your allies. The gameplay pace feels a bit rushed and I wish it was just a touch slower, but I got used to it after my first day playing.

With various Elden Ring enemy types encounterable across runs and FromSoftware's excellent stamina-based combat mechanics present, battles in Nightreign are as engaging as any you'd expect from the legendary developer. The absence of stat requirements for weapons, though, results in some extra flavor; it's possible to play around with wacky armament combos you'd never be able to use effectively in regular Elden Ring without steep overleveling, such as power stancing two greatswords that deal different types of elemental damage (and thus, traditionally, would require differing stats).

The unique abilities of each Nightfarer also bring flair to the experience, with most enabling powerful co-op synergies. The Ironeye archer, for example, can slash foes with a dagger to mark them and make them take increased damage from everyone on the team, while the Ultimate Art of the armored bird-man Guardian sees him fly into the air before swooping down — instantly reviving downed teammates (you do this normally by hitting them) and creating a stamina-fueled shield that blocks all damage. Perhaps the most mechanically interesting character of the lot is the Executor, a high-risk, high-reward Nightfarer with a cursed sword capable of deflecting attacks Sekiro-style to stance break foes and a beastly transformation Ultimate Art that's extremely powerful in boss fights.

The process of scavenging the map and leveling up continues until night falls, with a battle royale-style circle encroaching twice throughout the day to funnel you to an arena where you'll square off against a major boss. Defeating that boss will kick off a second "day" where you do it all over again — this time with the locations of extra field minibosses revealed on your map — and fight another big boss; defeat it, and you'll then get your chance to challenge the Nightlord itself.

Bosses from Elden Ring as well as the Dark Souls games can be encountered at the end of each day; the former have been spiced up with cool moves to keep veteran players on their toes, and it's a ton of fun to fight the likes of Dark Souls 2's Smelter Demon or Dark Souls 3's Dancer of the Boreal Valley with Elden Ring's bells and whistles.

The real highlight of Nightreign's boss fights, though, are the ones against the Nightlords. There are eight of these bespoke battles in total, and all eight of them are absolutely fantastic. Not only are their full movesets very fairly telegraphed and learnable with time and effort, but they also have some creative mechanics that facilitate interesting co-op interactions or reward players greatly for mastering them. They exemplify the very best of FromSoftware's "tough, but fair" design ethos.

For example, one Nightlord can infect you with a poisonous parasite that steadily grows and can't be removed without a few smacks from an ally, and another rewards you with a ton of time to do free damage if you listen closely to directional audio to figure out where they are in a thick haze. It's also worth noting that the designs of each of these bosses are quite distinct and varied, so moving from one to the next in your runs is never monotonous.

Tragically, though, I can't say the same for the map you'll be playing through in each run. Every single Expedition takes place on the exact same map — a heavily tweaked version of Elden Ring's Limgrave called Limveld — and none of the structures in it ever get a layout change. Further, enemy camp types are sorely lacking in variety. If you go to a fort marked with a sorcery magic icon, it can only ever have a Crystillian or a pair of Battlemages as its boss. If you go to a camp that has a holy damage icon, it can only ever have Albinaurics or Oracle Envoys as its boss. And so on and so forth.

To its credit, the game tries to jazz things up with a "Shifting Earth" mechanic that can transform a chunk of your next run's map into a volcanic crater, a snowy mountaintop, a Scarlet Rot forest, or a walled city — each containing some exclusive boss fights and a special reward. It also has some world events, such as surprise invasions by hostile reflections of Nightfarers or mid-mission raids where you can choose to fight a weaker variant of a Nightlord to earn a useful power.

But while this is all appreciated, but it's not enough. There are only four Shifting Earth variations and they only affect a small part of Limveld itself, and even with the variety they bring, you can only run into a castle the exact same way and fight the exact same boss within so many times before it gets pretty dull. I really, really wish that FromSoftware would have included remixed versions of other Elden Ring maps like Caelid, Liurnia of the Lakes, or the Altus Plateau, too, or that a wider variety of structures and foes were used at the very least.

This is one of my only issues with Nightreign, but it's a huge one, and the tedium of clearing out identical points of interest on an identical map again and again and again like this is the sole reason it's not going to completely take over my life like new FromSoftware titles usually do. Despite how much I've enjoyed my time with the game, I'm not going to grind it long-term like I probably would otherwise with this repetitiveness curtailing its replayability.

I didn't touch on it much, but the aforementioned Relic system that gives you some permanent progression over the course of your playtime also feels fairly underwhelming. The upgrades they provide are very minor overall, and while I've been able to come up with a few decent combinations, I expected to have them to feel more impactful than they have been for me after dozens of hours of play.

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Elden Ring Nightreign review: Story (no spoilers)

• The plot of Elden Ring Nightreign is very simple compared to other FromSoftware titles.
• Narrative depth comes from side stories of Nightfarers that you unlock as you play as them.
• Remembrance quests are short but sweet with varied objectives, fun cutscenes, and good writing.

On the whole, Elden Ring Nightreign is light on lore and story, and there's very little to the plot beyond "kill the Nightlords so the curse of Night is lifted." Instead, most of the game's narrative substance lies with its playable Nightfarers, as each one has a backstory that unfolds as you use them in gameplay.

Each time you complete a run with a character, you'll unlock a new entry for them in the journal item you can interact with back at the Roundtable Hold. These pages are well written and do a good job of conveying who the Nightfarers are, what motivates them, and why they ultimately came to the Lands Between — and once you've unlocked three or four entries for a character, you'll gain a Remembrance quest for them.

Each of these has cutscenes, along with objectives to accomplish in solo instances or in Expeditions such as hunting down a Remembrance-exclusive miniboss or searching for a specific item in a marked location. Doing this will allow you to progress the character's questline, revealing more about them and eventually bringing an end to their story.

Nothing here is as deep as, say, the heaping mountains of character-driven lore you can dig up from Elden Ring or Dark Souls, but the side stories of the Nightfarers are enjoyable and engaging nevertheless — something only bolstered by the great voice acting I've come to expect from FromSoftware characters. I'm glad they're in the game, even if they're only a small part of it in the end.

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Elden Ring Nightreign review: Visuals and audio

• Visually, Elden Ring Nightreign is identical to the original 2022 game (and that means it looks great).
• The score, however, has many entirely new themes along with a few from Elden Ring.
• The new tracks are mostly for the Nightlord boss fights, and all of them are excellent.

While Elden Ring Nightreign is coming out three years after Elden Ring's 2022 release, it's virtually identical to the original ARPG in terms of graphical quality — and if you ask me, that's absolutely fine. Elden Ring is far from having the best visual fidelity out there, but it (and most FromSoftware games in general) significantly makes up for that with its beautiful mythology-inspired fantasy art direction that's rich with colorful vibrance, yet tinged with a darker gloominess. All of that carries over to Nightreign, and it's just as pleasing to the eyes now as it was then.

What isn't the same is the soundtrack, which borrows a few themes from Elden Ring, but largely features a new score comprised of tracks for each of the Nightlord bosses. Like the encounters with the Nightlords themselves, these themes are grandiose, striking, and diverse, with orchestral performances that rise to match the crescendos of battle. All of them are great, with a few instantly becoming some of my favorite Soulsborne tracks.

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Elden Ring Nightreign review: Performance

• In my experience, Elden Ring Nightreign ran near-perfectly on my high-end gaming PC.
• Its requirements are almost the exact same as Elden Ring's, so if you can play the 2022 game, Nightreign should run fine for you.
• I did encounter some stutters in my playtime, but these were both short and rare.

Performance-wise, Elden Ring Nightreign ran excellently for me; at Maximum settings at 2560x1440p resolution (technically, I play on ultrawide, but FromSoftware still doesn't support it, so there are black bars) on my Intel i5-12600K, NVIDIA RTX 4070 Ti SUPER, and 32GB DDR4 RAM rig, I had zero problems maintaining a rock-solid framerate of 60 FPS (that's what Nightreign, like Elden Ring before it, caps at). Admittedly, that hardware is far more powerful than what the Elden Ring Nightreign PC specs and requirements recommend, but given that those requirements are almost the exact same as Elden Ring's, you shouldn't have any trouble playing the new offshoot if you can run the 2022 game well.

The only stability issue I came across was the occasional short stutter, but these were ultimately few and far between and thankfully never happened at particularly bad times (such as in the middle of a heavy-hitting boss attack). As always, though, your mileage may vary depending on your system specs; I also can't speak to the experience on console, as I only had access to the PC build for this review.

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Elden Ring Nightreign review: Conclusion

✅You should buy this if ...

• You like the sound of Elden Ring with a roguelike twist.

Even with the aforementioned lack of more maps and more enemy variety, Elden Ring Nightreign's roguelike spin on the Soulsborne gameplay formula has been a ton of fun to experience. If you think it sounds fun, you should definitely play.

❌You should not buy this if ...

• You'd prefer a more traditional Soulslike RPG.

Elden Ring Nightreign is an ambitious side project from FromSoftware, and while I would argue that it's a good game, it's one that won't appeal to everyone. It's very different compared to the studio's usual releases, and if that's what you're looking for, you won't find it here.

Elden Ring Nightreign is an even bigger experiment for FromSoftware than Elden Ring itself was, and overall, it was a worthwhile one. Speaking as a colossal fan of the studio's action RPGs and especially Elden Ring, I've had a blast playing through this creative co-op roguelike remix of it that distills it down to its core combat mechanics while allowing us to play with them in unique ways and giving us incredible new and returning boss fights to master.

Despite this, though, I can't help but feel disappointed that Nightreign's full potential hasn't been met — the game hamstrung by key problems like the availability of only one map or poor enemy and miniboss variety within several of its locations. Perhaps these are things that will improve with updates over time, but at launch? It's holding Nightreign back from true greatness, and that's a bummer.

With that said, it's absolutely still worth playing if you're a big Soulsborne fan, or simply enjoy action RPGs in general. The Nightlord battles alone are worth the price of admission, and I'm looking forward to overcoming them with my friends.

Elden Ring Nightreign releases on May 30, 2025 on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, PS5, and PS4 for $39.99.

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Intel released an update for its "Game On" driver for Arc desktop and laptop graphics hardware to version 32.0.101.6795 over Memorial Day Weekend — available to download directly from Intel.com.

The patch notes are slim, but by no means insignificant, and come in two parts: First, launch day for Elden Ring Nightreign is fast approaching for PC players on May 29, and Intel is providing official support for FromSoftware's co-op player-versus-environment parallel universe spinoff with this update.

Alongside Elden Ring, Intel Arc users will be ready for the recently previewed multiplayer survival game Dune: Awakening, which launches on June 10, and F1 25 even earlier on May 30 for high-speed sim racing fans.

Second, there's a little treat for fans of the multiplayer open-world action RPG Monster Hunter Wilds, which has gradually received patches from its developers to address performance issues and now has the same treatment at a hardware level.

According to Intel, running Monster Hunter Wilds at 1080p on an Intel Arc B-Series "Battlemage" graphics card with this updated driver will increase your average frames-per-second (FPS) by around 9%, or by 6% if you play at 1440p. So, that's only an extra ~5 FPS if you're already hitting 60 FPS, but it's better than nothing for a demanding PC game and a good reason to upgrade.

Are you tempted to switch to Intel Arc yet?

Intel's continued (if expected) efforts to support the latest and greatest PC games are appreciated, but the performance bumps for titles that already struggle to run on modest hardware are particularly encouraging.

Sure, there's a reason that Intel Arc graphics primarily advertise to the 1080p and 1440p bracket, given their penchant for mid-range hardware like the B580 and B570 "Battlemage" cards and my last-gen favorite, the plucky A750 from its "Alchemist" range.

Nevertheless, it lends more credibility to handhelds using modern Arc mobile graphics, like the highly praised (if hard to find) MSI Claw 8+ AI, when Intel's driver team puts extra effort into improving framerates on its affordable hardware with new driver releases.

I've seen firsthand how Intel Arc graphics have improved since the launch of its first discrete A-Series graphics, and I'm eager to see the trend continue, particularly if NVIDIA and AMD are determined to release cards with only 8GB of VRAM.

All I'm really craving is for more high-profile OEMs to adopt Arc mobile graphics in new PC gaming handhelds, and for Intel to expand its B-Series cards into the high-end with some more powerful models. We'll see.

Patch notes

Gaming Highlights

Intel Game On Driver support on Intel Arc B-series, A-series Graphics GPUs and Intel Core Ultra with built-in Intel Arc GPUs for:

• Dune: Awakening
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• F1 25

Game performance improvements on Intel Arc B-series Graphics GPUs versus Intel 32.0.101.6793 software driver for:

• Monster Hunter Wilds (DX12)
  • Up to 9% average FPS uplift at 1080p
  • Up to 6% average FPS uplift at 1440p

FromSoftware and Bandai Namco's Elden Ring Nightreign returns players to the world of colossal bosses and fiercesome foes. This time, however, players are expected to team up in co-op using somewhat prebuilt characters, fighting across an ever-shrinking map.

In order to ensure you're ready to hop in immediately, I've gathered all the details on Elden Ring Nightreign's PC requirements. Take a look at all the details below to determine if you need to upgrade something in your computer, or maybe even start a new build.

Elden Ring Nightreign — PC requirements and specs

The PC requirements for Elden Ring Nightreign are fairly similar to the requirements for Elden Ring and its 2024 expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree.

Because of that, these requirements are well below the needed specifications for many other modern games, and it's extraordinarily unlikely that you won't have the PC hardware necessary for running Nightreign well, so long as you bought or built your computer sometime in the last 6 or 7 years.

Minimum requirements

The minimum requirements should allow you to play Elden Ring Nightreign with decent visual quality, though you'll want to turn a few settings down in order to keep the framerate smooth.

• CPU: Intel Core i5-10600 or AMD Ryzen 5 5500
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB or AMD Radeon RX 580 4GB
• OS: Windows 10 64-bit or Windows 11 64-bit
• RAM: 12GB
• STORAGE: 30GB

Recommended requirements

Meeting the recommended requirements means you'll be able to have more settings turned all the way up, ensuring a visually pleasing experience in co-op.

• CPU: Intel Core i5-11500 or AMD Ryzen 5 5600
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 8GB or AMD Radeon RX VEGA 56 8GB
• OS: Windows 11 64-bit
• RAM: 16GB
• STORAGE: 30GB

Elden Ring — How to check your PC specs

Maybe it's been a while, and you don't exactly remember what hardware you have installed in your computer. Don't worry, it's easy to check. Just follow these instructions:

• Type dxdiag in the Windows taskbar. 
• Select dxdiag for the diagnostic tool, and grab your information. 
• The system tab will show you memory details for your Windows PC. 
• The display tab has the details on your graphics capabilities. 

How to upgrade your PC for Elden Ring Nightreign

Bluntly, it is extremely unlikely that your gaming computer doesn't meet the minimum requirements for playing Elden Ring Nightreign. If that is somehow the case, it's very likely that you need to buy or build a completely new machine, especially if the CPU is what's out of date.

I've linked some guides below that will guide you through the process of upgrading various aspects of your computer, or alternatively (and ideally, in this situation) building a completely new gaming rig.

• Recommendations: Best pre-built gaming PCs | Best gaming laptops
• Memory: How to upgrade and install RAM in a laptop | How to upgrade and install RAM in a desktop
• Storage: Best SSD for PC | How to upgrade laptop HDD to SSD | Tips to free up space on Windows 11
• CPU: Best CPU for your PC | How to install an Intel CPU in your PC
• GPU: Best graphics cards | How to install a new graphics card
• Overall tips: How to build your PC the right way

Does Elden Ring Nightreign run on gaming handhelds?

Even if it's still the minority, many players now enjoy being able to play their PC games with a dedicated handheld device such as Valve's Steam Deck or the ASUS ROG Ally.

Having a gaming handheld means you can't upgrade most of your hardware, which limits the newer games that are possible to play. In exchange, you get greatly increased portability, allowing you to keep playing a game even if you're flying off somewhere on a work trip or vacation.

Elden Ring Nightreign is slated to launch on May 30, 2025 on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC (via Steam), PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4.

FromSoftware's extremely popular 2022 "Soulsborne" action RPG Elden Ring was quite a departure from the developer's design norms, as instead of featuring relatively straightforward levels with elements of nonlinearity like the Dark Souls games, it took place in one colossal open world with well over 100 hours of varied content to discover, enjoy, and overcome. The studio's exploratory new approach ended up leading to massive success — and now, three years later, it's trying something even more experimental with the new spinoff Elden Ring Nightreign.

Indeed, set in a universe parallel to the events of the original game with a roguelike structure and a strong emphasis on co-op play, Nightreign is quite radically different than FromSoftware's previous titles. However, that bold new direction is precisely what has so many fans interested in and curious about the experience, and tons of potential champions of the Night are wondering when they can check it out themselves.

Thankfully, FromSoftware and publisher Bandai Namco have shared official release date details about Elden Ring Nightreign ahead of its imminent launch, including exact launch times for every time zone, preload date information, and how big its download size is. For a full overview of all of that information, read on.

What is Elden Ring Nightreign?

Elden Ring Nightreign is a co-op PvE-only spinoff of Elden Ring that takes place in a parallel universe. Like the original game, it's centered around FromSoftware's tough-but-fair, stamina-based Soulsborne combat with dodging, blocking, and both melee and magic attacks, as well as intense, spectacle driven boss fights. But while Nightreign shares Elden Ring's core action mechanics and its colossal weapon and magic sandbox, the structure of the game is entirely different.

Despite its open-world foundation, Elden Ring was still ultimately a traditional Soulsborne RPG with slow-and-steady progression, an ocean of options for carefully planned buildcrafting, and a world you could approach at your own pace.

Nightreign, though, is a radical departure from FromSoftware's usual faire. Taking place in "Limveld" — a reworked version of Elden Ring's Limgrave region — it tasks you and two other co-op allies with quickly blitzing through the map, clearing out camps of enemies and minibosses for random upgrades and weapon drops while also leveling up with the runes (experience) earned. The race to get as strong as you can is against an encroaching battle royale-style circle that funnels you into a climactic boss fight; this entire process happens twice before you face off against a "Nightlord" final boss.

Instead of a customizable Tarnished character, Nightreign puts you in control of one of eight Nightfarers — each one having some unique abilities that encourage co-op teamwork as well as predetermined stat upgrades from levels. In other words, instead of carefully choosing your own stats, you just have to pick a character that aligns with a playstyle you enjoy and then do your best to get good weapons and upgrades that suit their strengths (or cover their weaknesses) on each of your runs. In this way, it's essentially an Elden Ring roguelike.

At launch, Elden Ring Nightreign will be available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, PS5, and PS4. It has an MSRP of $39.99, but notably, you can get it on both Xbox and PC for just $33.99 at Newegg by using the promo code "XVSAVE" (no quotes) at checkout. The $54.99 Deluxe Edition is also on sale for $50.29 at CDKeys, too.

Elden Ring Nightreign release date and launch times

Ahead of the game's launch, Bandai Namco and FromSoftware have revealed that Elden Ring Nightreign is scheduled to release on May 30, 2025 — just before the weekend that caps this month off. However, because of both time zone differences and other unknown reasons, players in certain regions and/or using certain platforms will actually get to start playing on May 29.

Another thing to keep in mind is that there are separate launch times for the console and PC versions of the game, though both of them will unlock on either May 29 or May 30 worldwide. Both the graphic above and the tables below show all of these launch times for every time zone, so make sure to refer to them so you know exactly when you can start playing Nightreign.

Elden Ring Nightreign console launch times

Here's when you'll be able to play Elden Ring Nightreign if you're planning to jump in on an Xbox or PlayStation console.

Elden Ring Nightreign PC launch times

Here's when you'll be able to play Elden Ring Nightreign if you're playing on a Windows PC through Steam.

Elden Ring Nightreign launch countdown

With the launch of Elden Ring Nightreign now just days away, many excited fans are counting down the hours until they'll be able to jump in and play FromSoftware's adventurous new roguelike spinoff. If you're one of them, you can refer to the countdown clock below to do so (note that it's set to count down to midnight on May 30 in the US Pacific Time time zone due to the lack of one global release time).

When can you preload Elden Ring Nightreign?

One of the best features of modern gaming that's become quite prevalent in recent years is preloading, or the ability to download and install a game before it unlocks and is available to play. Preloading ensures you can start playing as soon as possible and don't have to wait for a download to finish once a game is out; it's great for everyone, but is especially helpful if you have a slow internet connection.

Some good news for fans is that Elden Ring Nightreign will support preloading on all platforms 48 hours before its launch times, so you'll have a full two days to get the roguelike ARPG installed before it's out on your platform and in your region. To figure out when that is for you, refer to the aforementioned launch times and count back two days.

Elden Ring Nightreign download size: How big is it?

These days, it's not uncommon for new big-name titles to be close to or over the 100GB mark — a fact that's often made it difficult to keep a healthy amount of storage open for new games. Elden Ring, though, was an exception to that trend with its incredibly reasonable 60GB install size, and Elden Ring Nightreign is even smaller at just ~21GB on consoles and 30GB on Steam.

That's an incredibly small amount of required storage, and one that many gamers will no doubt be happy to see. Still, if you need to make room for the game, consider uninstalling titles you haven't played in a long time or deleting large files you no longer need, like videos, if you're on a PC. On both console and PC, you also have the option of upgrading storage with one of the best SSDs available.

Elden Ring Nightreign is slated to release on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC via Steam, PS5, and PS4 on May 30 later this week. It has the potential to be one of the best Xbox games and best PC games of 2025, especially for folks who enjoy the idea of a FromSoftware ARPG distilled down to non-stop action with its core combat mechanics.

Just under a year after FromSoftware president Hidetaka Miyazaki said there was interest at the studio in making an adaptation of Elden Ring with "a very strong partner" and the game's worldbuilding writer George R. R. Martin played coy about whether or not one was in the works, publisher Bandai Namco has officially confirmed that a movie based on the critically acclaimed action RPG is on the way — and that it has a director, as well.

The news came on Thursday evening, with Variety reporting that the movie will be live-action and that the publisher is making it in conjunction with the film production company A24.

It was also revealed that it's being both written and directed by Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Civil War, Warfare) and produced by Peter Rice, Andrew Macdonald, Allon Reich, Martin Gerardis and Vince Gerardis. George R. R. Martin will contribute to the project as well (we're never getting The Winds of Winter).

Shortly after, Bandai Namco took to social media to validate the news, formerly announcing the movie's existence and development with a statement on X (Twitter).

"We’re thrilled to announce that Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc. and A24 are teaming up with writer and director Alex Garland to bring FromSoftware Inc.’s world-renowned video game Elden Ring to life as a live-action film," the company wrote. "We’re truly excited to bring the world of Elden Ring to fans in a new form, outside the game. Stay tuned. The path ahead is only beginning."

I've been a fan of Alex Garland's work for a long time; he wrote the screenplay for 28 Days Later — a film myself and many others consider to be one of the best pieces of zombie media ever made — and directed excellent sci-fi films like Ex Machina and Annihilation, too. 2024's Civil War was also a sobering examination of war journalism and the breakdown of society in armed conflicts, and his latest film Warfare with Ray Mendoza has been highly praised for its highly realistic depiction of the moment-to-moment terrors of combat.

And yet, despite the fact that I almost always enjoy Garland's work and love Elden Ring, my initial reaction to this news was confusion instead of excitement. With its nonlinear, esoteric approach to storytelling, lack of plentiful dialogue, and multiple endings, FromSoftware's latest traditional Soulsborne RPG — like all the ones that came before it — simply doesn't seem like it would be a good fit for the big screen.

Given that players uncover and progress through lots of small side stories as they unravel the main plot, an animated episodic TV show seems like it'd be a far better fit for Elden Ring; the League of Legends show Arcane has proven how wildly successful that kind of adaptation can be, and animation would really help capture the magic-filled spectacle of Elden Ring's action, too.

Of course, I'm absolutely still going to watch it when it comes out, and I'll keep my fingers crossed that it'll be good. Even so, I can't help but feel like a film simply can't capture Elden Ring's magic. The joy of making exciting discoveries as you explore a gargantuan map, the process of experimenting with different builds as you level, thrill of finally taking down that boss — all of that is entirely dependent on the interactivity that the best video games in the medium thrive on.

But hey, you know what? Far be it from me to deter Garland and A24 from trying. And in the meantime? Pick up Elden Ring and experience it for yourself if you haven't already. Right now, the $60 title is as low as $34.79 at CDKeys on Xbox thanks to an awesome deal, with the PC version also on sale for $40.19 at CDKeys. There's also Elden Ring Nightreign, a co-op roguelike spinoff, coming on May 30.

The builds you're able to put together on the fly while hacking and slashing your way through Elden Ring Nightreign — FromSoftware's experimental co-op roguelike spinoff of Elden Ring — runs will largely be determined by the randomized weapon and upgrade drops you'll find as you explore and defeat minibosses. With that said, you can improve your baseline effectiveness with specific playstyles by choosing the right playable Nightfarer class for you.

At launch, there are eight Nightfarer characters in total, and each one boasts unique strengths, weaknesses, and special abilities that provide valuable benefits to both them and their co-op allies. To help you determine which Nightfarer best suits your preferences, I've listed everything you need to know about them in the sections below, while also putting together a tier list of what I feel are the best classes based on my extensive playtime with the game.

Something to quickly note before I do so, though: Elden Ring Nightreign doesn't have stat requirements for weapons like Elden Ring and other FromSoftware Souls-style games do, so that's not a consideration you need to worry about. No matter who you're playing as, you can use anything and everything you find throughout a match. Predetermined stat upgrade paths when leveling do mean that some characters are better with certain weapon types than others, however.

Every Elden Ring Nightreign class, ranked

Now that I've played through the entirety of Elden Ring Nightreign for my review of the game and have put quite a bit of playtime into all eight of its classes, I've put together a tier list that ranks the characters. Note that I strongly believe all of them are effective in the quest to lift the plague of Night from the Lands Between, even if I ultimately do think some are better than others.

Overall, the Ironeye, Executor, and Raider are all at the top of my list since they have some of the highest damage potential in the game, even if they're a bit riskier to play compared to the other Nightfarers. Wylder, Guardian, and Duchess are more stable picks comparatively with lower total damage output, with Recluse and Revenant at the bottom since they're both very tricky to use and sometimes hard to get consistent value with.

Again, I want to stress that none of the Nightfarer characters are bad, and that all of them are viable against all the enemies and bosses you'll encounter in Nightreign. Ultimately, you should play as the one you think you'll enjoy the most — and if you're not sure what makes each of them unique and distinct, you'll want to read each of the sections below.

Elden Ring Nightreign classes: Wylder

• Passive Ability: Sixth Sense — Cheat death a single time. This ability can only be used once until restored through revival from death or passing through a Site of Grace.
• Skill: Claw Shot — Launch grappling claw to rope foes in or move swiftly by retracting. Whether targets can be roped in or not depends on enemy physique. Effective at breaking guard. Hold to aim.
• Ultimate Art: Onslaught Stake — Powerful single attack that launches an iron stake with a great explosion. Recoil causes one to reel back, but preserves a portion of Ultimate Art gauge. Hold to boost impact and remain standing.

Wylder — the knight with a winged helmet that's more or less become Elden Ring Nightreign's poster boy in its key art — is the game's quintessential jack-of-all-trades character. He has a good mix of health, stamina, damage reduction from his armor, and physical damage output, though he's ill-suited for magic use. At the start of each run, he spawns with a small shield and a greatsword.

His Claw Shot Skill is exceptionally useful for quick bursts of mobility, especially if you need to quickly zip past a few enemies or get out of the damaging zone that slowly restricts playable space in the map as nighttime draws closer. However, you can also use it to either pull enemies to you or pull yourself to them, depending on how large they are. The ability to cheat death once with his Sixth Sense passive also makes him one of the more forgiving Nightfarers to start playing with.

Onslaught Stake, meanwhile, is one of the best Ultimate Arts for raw damage. When used, Wylder takes a moment to charge up the stake on his wrist before driving it forward, dealing huge damage with a large explosion and building up quite a bit of stagger on his target if it's a boss. It's essentially the "Rubiconian Handshake" pile bunker from Armored Core 6 in the hands of an Elden Ring character, and it's awesome. Just make sure you account for its short range.

Elden Ring Nightreign classes: Guardian

• Passive Ability: Steel Guard — Plant feet and brace with shield for a more powerful guard. Greatly improves guard boost, but prevents running while holding up shield.
• Skill: Whirlwind — Beat wing to whip up a churning cyclone. Enemies caught in cyclone are drawn toward center. Sweeps away lightweight projectiles. Hold to enlarge range.
• Ultimate Art: Wings of Salvation — Leap up and dive back down to raise protective area. Can move briefly while in air, and diving attack is perfect for rescues. Hold to shield nearby allies from damage.

Guardian immediately stood out to many fans as one of the most interesting Nightfarers since he's a giant eagle man in heavy plate armor, and as it turns out, he's widely considered to one of the better ones, too. Though his damage isn't as impactful as the output of other classes, he has very high damage resistance, health, and stamina. He starts every run with a greatshield and a halberd.

Put simply, he's Nightreign's tank, complete with the Steel Guard passive that lets you toggle an extreme boost to his blocking capabilities in exchange for reduced mobility and a Whirlwind ability that disrupts foes with a cyclone of wind that will either stagger them or send them flying. Using the former is ideal for block counter builds and a great way to soak up hits while you have a boss' attention while your allies go all out offensively, and the latter comes in handy when you need to crowd control a large group of smaller and weaker foes.

His Ultimate Art Wings of Salvation is also indisputably S-tier. When performed, Guardian soars high into the air before crashing back down to earth, creating a huge shockwave that then becomes a shield for allies as long as his stamina holds. The shockwave does good damage and heavily staggers enemies and bosses, and will also instantly revive any downed teammates in its radius; the shield is then useful to hold up so that allies can safely recover and attack your target without fear of being hit (at least until it goes down).

Elden Ring Nightreign classes: Duchess

• Passive Ability: Magnificent Pose — Attack and dodge optimally, dodging repeatedly when necessary. Reduces stamina reduction from attacks and evasive actions. Allows up to two consecutive evasive actions.
• Skill: Restage — Stage reprisal of recent occurances to damage nearby foes. Damage to phantoms affects original. This skill can be used at any time.
• Ultimate Art: Finale — Obscure self and surrounding allies to hide from foes. Enemies lose track of the caster, wandering aimlessly or becoming prone to leaving themselves vulnerable.

If Guardian is the typical tank-style character, than Duchess (here's how to unlock her) is the rogue — fast, nimble, and capable of high burst damage. In fact, she's even faster than other Nightfarers and can quickly dodge twice in a row with her Magnificent Pose passive. The tradeoff, though, is that she has very low health and poise, so dodging instead of blocking is crucial. Her starting weapon is a short sword.

The Duchess has one of the most powerful offensive Skills in all of Nightreign with Restage; when used, it forces the enemy she's targeting to take all the damage they took in the last few seconds again. This includes damage dealt by teammates, so using it right after your team gets a bunch of big hits in or uses their Ultimate Arts will net you incredible value. All of that double damage applies stance break, as well, so smart usage of Restage can often stagger bosses and help you keep up the offense even more.

The Finale Ultimate Art is a bit on the underwhelming side since it simply turns you and your allies invisible and doesn't have direct combat applications, though while exploring the overworld, that guaranteed stealth does let you set up powerful backstab crits and ambushes. In boss fights, though, its main use is to give everyone a safe opportunity to heal, rebuff themselves with consumables or Ashes of War, or revive downed teammates.

Elden Ring Nightreign classes: Recluse

• Passive Ability: Elemental Defense — Discover affinity residues that can be collected to replenish FP. Affinity attacks create affinity residues. Residues appear for allies, as well, which can also be collected.
• Skill: Magic Cocktail — Collect the affinity residues of targets to fire an affinity-exploiting magic cocktail. Affinity residues accumulate. Collect three to wield a magic spell. Complex affinity combinations create more powerful spells.
• Ultimate Art: Soulblood Song — Unleash forbidden chant to brand nearby foes with blood sigils. Brand foes with short-lived blood sigils that increase damage taken and restore the HP and FP of caster.

The official descriptions for the Recluse's capabilities are a bit confusing, so I'll simplify how she works here. As Nightreign's resident mage class, she starts off with a staff and can cast magic; hitting foes with her magic will then apply an elemental affinity residue to them, which the Recluse can then collect to regain FP (mana). Once you have three of these residues, you can then use them to activate the Magic Cocktail Skill and launch an especially powerful spell at foes. The effects of that spell are determined by the elements of collected residues; as you might expect, fire spells create fire residues to collect, lightning magic creates lightning ones, and so on.

The Recluse's ranged damage is both high and long-lasting since she can regain most of the FP she uses and make use of multiple Magic Cocktail spells over the course of a boss fight. However, as is often the case with magic-focused characters, her health and defenses are very poor. Because of this, she — like Revenant, who I'll go over later — is one of the harder Nightfarers to learn.

Notably, her Soulblood Song Ultimate Art is one of the strongest supportive abilities in the game. When used, it brands nearby enemies or bosses with sigils that increase the damage they take while also regenerating HP and FP for everyone that hits them. It's particularly strong in boss battles, especially when your squad is out of Crimson Tears flasks and can't heal otherwise.

Elden Ring Nightreign classes: Ironeye

• Passive Ability: Eagle Eye — A keenly observant eye discovers more items to obtain from foes. The effect of this ability also applies to allies.
• Skill: Marking — Cut foe with  dagger, creating temporary weak point. Inflict damage on temporary weak point to destroy it and stagger foes. Damaging weak point extends its duration.
• Ultimate Art: Single Shot — Fire a powerful arrow that surpasses sound and ignores any defense. Arrow pierces all types of enemies, terrains, and structures. Hold to draw bow and aim before firing.

Archery has never been particularly good in FromSoftware's Soulslike games, and while it was more viable than ever before in Elden Ring, it was still far from a top-tier choice. For that reason, I was very surprised to learn that Ironeye is one of the best Nightfarers in Elden Ring Nightreign. Unsurprisingly, the archer starts off with a bow, and is all-but-guaranteed to get better ones as runs progress.

The Marking skill lets Ironeye slash at a target with a dagger to create a weak spot on their body that can be targeted by everyone in your squad; doing so will rapidly build up stagger, making this a great way to set up critical hits or a team-wide attack flurry. The Single Shot Ultimate Art, meanwhile, lets you fire an extremely heavy-hitting arrow that pierces through "all types of enemies, terrains, and structures." This is best saved for when you're able to line up multiple baddies at once, or when there's a good moment to slam a boss with a high-damage attack. It's also exceptionally good at saving downed allies and deals a ton of stagger damage.

Lastly, there's the Eagle Eye passive, which is quite unique in that it makes both you and your allies find extra loot when defeating enemies. If you want as many item drops as possible to try and perfect a build you have in mind, it sounds like Ironeye will be your ideal Nightfarer.

Overall, the ability to rapidly fire arrow after arrow after arrow from range leads to Ironeye getting some of the highest consistent DPS of any character, though he's not great at dishing damage out in bursts. He also has low HP, but that's a weakness mitigated by the fact he can play from the backline while melee-centric teammates hold a boss' attention.

Elden Ring Nightreign classes: Raider

• Passive Ability: Fighter's Resolve — Taking damage boosts Retaliate potency, cannot be knocked down while using it. Remain standing with a sliver of HP even after taking heavy damage.
• Skill: Retaliate — Assume an attack stance and pummel vigorously. A defensive posture which reduces incoming damage. An enhanced skill which causes even larger enemies to recoil.
• Ultimate Art: Totem Stella — Drive gravekeeper's wedge into earth to summon a giant tombstone. Tombstone radiates protective aura, boosting strength of nearby allies and blocking arrows. Can also be climbed. 

The Raider is Elden Ring Nightreign's barbarian-style character, and will be a perfect fit for you if you enjoy pure Strength-focused builds in Elden Ring and other Soulslikes that rely on poise, hyper armor, and high defenses. He starts each run off with a large two-handed axe, and while he's a bit risky since he demands taking hits in order to be truly effective, he's also built to take those hits and then hit back with some of the highest burst damage in the game.

At the core of his kit is the Retaliate Skill — an uninterruptable move in which the Raider plants his feet and reduces incoming damage while charging up a devastating blow that does very high damage and causes a significant amount of stance break. Notably, his Fighter's Resolve passive boosts its power when you get hit, encouraging you to initiate Retaliate just before an enemy is about to strike so you can maximize its power. It also saves you from death if you're hit by an attack that would have killed you while in Retaliate.

His Totem Stella Ultimate Art is one of the most unique ones in the game. It creates a massive tombstone that shoots up from underground, damaging any foes it touches and buffing both you and your allies with improved attack power. You can also take cover behind it or climb on top of it, using it as high ground to shoot arrows, cast magic, or initiate plunging attacks from.

Elden Ring Nightreign classes: Executor

• Passive Ability: Tenacity — Receive boost after recovering from status ailments. Effect boosts attack and stamina recovery speed.
• Skill: Cursed Sword — Draw a cursed sword that can deflect enemy attacks. Repeated deflections reveal blade, enabling powerful attacks with the living sword. Cannot run while at ready with enchanted blade.
• Ultimate Art: Aspects of the Crucible: Beast — Assume the form of the primordial beast. Use unique attacks in beast form that drain the Ultimate Art gauge. Activate again to quickly end transformation.

Nightreign's quintessential high-risk, high-reward character is the Executor, an armored samurai with a Sekiro-inspired deflect parry as a core mechanic. By using the Cursed Sword skill, you'll temporarily replace your weapon with the Executor's unique katana that powers up each time you manage to deflect an attack; this is done by timing blocks at the perfect time. Not only do deflections eventually light the sword with Holy energy and let you then perform heavy slashes with it, but they also rapidly stagger anything you're fighting — including bosses.

With sky-high Dexterity, the Executor excels at dishing out incredible damage to his targets with Katanas and other Dexterity-based weapons like Curved Swords. His Arcane is very high, too, so he can build up status effects like Poison or Bleed extremely quickly.

The Tenacity passive doesn't come into play much since getting afflicted by status effects isn't too much of an issue in Nightreign, but the same can't be said of the Aspects of the Crucible: Beast Ultimate Art. It transforms you into a large four-legged beast that can claw and roar, dealing very high health and stagger damage. Notably, you can't dodge in this form, but activating it does give you a full heal and reduces incoming damage quite a bit.

With terrible magic stats and very little FP, the Executor forces you to use his risky deflection mechanic and frequent melee strikes if you want good value out of him. Get good at mastering enemy movesets so you can consistently deflect attacks, however, and you'll easily lead your squad in terms of total damage done.

Elden Ring Nightreign classes: Revenant

• Passive Ability: Necromancy — Raise enemy ghosts to fight as allies. Ghosts are summoned to fight, but are fleeting and dissipate after some time.
• Skill: Summon Spirit — Play lyre to summon fallen family to battle. Choose to summon Helen the agile page, Frederick the burly cook, or Sebastian the doting butler.
• Ultimate Art: Immortal March — Release vengeful ire to make self and nearby allies immortal. Revives near-death allies, and transforms family into immortal warriors.

Like the Duchess, the Revenant is a character you have to unlock, and also happens to be what is arguably Elden Ring Nightreign's most interesting Nightfarer of all. Compared to every other character in the roster, she's less of a direct fighter and more of a supportive class. Her Summon Spirit skill lets her summon one of three Spirit Ash-like allies, including a nimble page fighter with both melee and ranged attacks, a burly pumpkin head warrior that excels at tanking, or a massive skeleton that staggers foes effectively.

Her Necromancy passive, meanwhile, briefly raises nearly slain foes as ghosts to fight for her and her allies for a few moments, while her Immortal March Ultimate Art makes herself, her summons, and other Nightfarers immune to damage for a brief period. It also raises them if they're downed, giving Immortal March some big clutch potential.

The Revenant herself has extremely low HP and not much stamina, but very high Faith, FP, and Arcane — a stat spread that makes her ideal for using sacred seals to cast supportive and offensive Faith-based incantations as well as the unique Dragon Communion spells that scale best with both Faith and Arcane.

Overall, she's very difficult to play because she requires a lot of space and time to maximize her value and has a very unforgiving health pool, but in the right hands and in a team of good players that can keep aggro off of her, Revenant can make a huge impact.

Elden Ring Nightreign is a bold new experimental spinoff from FromSoftware that spices up the original game's Soulsborne combat with a roguelike, co-op driven twist. Though it has sizable issues like only having one map or underwhelming enemy variety, it's nevertheless going to be one of this year's best Xbox games and best PC games for Souls fans craving action. It's $39.99, but you can get it for $33.99 at Newegg with the promo code XVSAVE.

The marketing for FromSoftware and Bandai Namco's new Elden Ring co-op spinoff Elden Ring Nightreign has been relatively quiet overall, with very little about the game said or advertised since its announcement at The Game Awards last year and the Network Test that was held in February. Now that May has arrived, however, the Soulsian roguelike is just a month away from release — and to give fans a detailed look at what they can expect from the experience, the developers have released a new overview trailer that runs through each of its major elements.

I'll go over the contents of the 10-minute trailer here, of course, but I recommend watching it yourself either with this link or through the embed below. It starts by explaining the core of the Elden Ring Nightreign gameplay loop, which is exploring a version of Elden Ring's Limgrave called Limveld with two other players and rapidly defeating enemies to collect powerful weapons, unlock stat buff upgrades, and accrue runes to level up at Sites of Grace.

The catch, though, is that as time goes on and night falls, a circular wall of flame constantly encroaches, slowly constricting your available space battle-royale style and eventually forcing you to challenge a difficult boss to continue. On top of that, Limveld is also said to be very dynamic, with many different enemy spawns, miniboss encounters, "unpredictable events," and map variations (volcanic craters and Scarlet Rot forests, for example) possible. Make it through this cycle twice, and you'll be able to challenge a major Nightlord boss on the third day and either claim victory or suffer defeat.

The overview then zeroes in on several of the Elden Ring Nightreign playable character classes, dubbed "Nightfarers." When the game launches on May 30, there will be eight — four of which (Wylder, Guardian, Duchess, and Recluse) were in the Network Test and have been known for a while now. However, this trailer introduced a few more; one of them is Ironeye, an archer with a Marking skill that "greatly disrupts" an enemy's poise and creates "openings to exploit" and a special deadly piercing shot.

The other is Raider, a Viking raider-style character with tons of poise, a heavy-hitting Retaliate counter-attack skill, and a nifty Totem Stella ultimate art that creates a massive gravestone. The gravestone damages enemies it collides with when spawning, buffs teammates near it, and can even be used as cover by standing behind or on top of it.

There was also a bronze-armored Nightfarer called the Executor seen — previous trailer footage implies that they'll excel at Sekiro-style attack parrying — along with a pale feminine character that leaks suggest is called Revenant. Supposedly, Revenant will be a necromancer-type class with access to Elden Ring Spirit Ashes, but very little is known about her for sure.

To cap things off, the rundown concludes with a look at Nightreign's iteration of Roundtable Hold, which is where players can slot in permanent upgrades they earn from runs and purchase unique items from a Living Jar Merchant with an earned "Murk" currency. There's also a mirror where you can buy skins for each Nightfarer with Murk, and some of the costumes include classic characters from Dark Souls games like everyone's favorite jolly cooperator Solaire, Dark Souls 2's Faraam knight, and Leonhard's outfit from Dark Souls 3.

Elden Ring Nightreign looks fantastic, but...

I was already incredibly excited for Elden Ring Nightreign — as I wrote in February, I had a blast with the Network Test and think FromSoftware is definitely onto something here — but this new trailer has fueled my anticipation to jump in even further. Both Ironeye and Raider sound very fun to play, and some of Limveld's unique random events and dynamic map changes look very cool, too.

With that said, though, I still can't help but be worried by the fact that it seems like Limveld is the only map in Nightreign. Elden Ring has a ton of other thoughtfully designed overworld areas that I'd think would serve as excellent foundations for the spinoff's gameplay, and while Limveld — like Limgrave — is beautiful, I'd love some biome variety. It quickly got stale during the Network Test, and while that was just a small slice of what the full experience will offer, I still have concerns.

I suppose we'll see if Limveld has enough encounter and design diversity soon enough, as Elden Ring Nightreign is scheduled to release on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PS5 on May 30. It's got an MSRP of $39.99 — $20 less than Elden Ring itself — but thanks to some sweet deals, you can reserve your copy of the PC version for just $35.19 at Fanatical.

Elden Ring Nightreign isn't on Xbox Game Pass

Developer FromSoftware delivered what is widely considered to be one of the greatest action RPGs of all time in 2022 with its Game of the Year-winning hit Elden Ring, along with the critically acclaimed Shadow of the Erdtree DLC last year that was basically a full game in its own right. The studio isn't done with its beloved new property, though, because it's imminently releasing a brand new entry on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, PS5, and PS4 called Elden Ring Nightreign.

Compared to FromSoftware's other Soulslike games that promote slow and steady progression, thorough exploration, and meticulous buildcrafting, Nightreign is something far different — something far closer to a roguelike, and with a distinct co-op focus. Set in an alternate Elden Ring universe, Nightreign is a fast-paced three-player experience in which teams battle their way across a map for three "days," collecting random loot, unlocking upgrades, and challenging bosses along the way. Rather than creating a highly customized build, you're given the choice of eight different Nightfarer characters that have predetermined leveling paths and cater to different playstyles. You then have to make the best build you can with what you find throughout each run.

• DEAL: Xbox Game Pass Ultimate 1-month memberships are $17.69 at CDKeys, giving you access to Microsoft's service for a cool discount

It's a huge departure from typical FromSoftware fare — but after playing through it for my Elden Ring Nightreign review, it's become a game I can wholeheartedly recommend, even if it has some problems with environmental and enemy variety. Many other reviewers enjoyed it, too, and so there's plenty of hype and excitement for the co-op ARPG's May 30 release. Naturally, that also means many are hoping they'll be able to play the game on Xbox Game Pass.

A Game Pass release for Nightreign would undoubtedly make many Xbox and PC players happy, but unfortunately, it's not coming to Microsoft's buffet-style gaming service. There's been zero official mention of Game Pass availability for the title, and that's something that would have been heavily marketed by now if it was present. So, while the developers haven't come out and confirmed it won't be on Game Pass, it's clear that it won't be.

Could Elden Ring Nightreign come to Game Pass?

Elden Ring Nightreign won't be playable through Xbox Game Pass. But could the Soulsy co-op roguelike make its way to the service at some point in the future? It's not uncommon for new games to eventually come to Game Pass, so indeed, the possibility is there.

Sadly, though, it's still a very unlikely one. None of FromSoftware's other games on Xbox or PC — Dark Souls, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Armored Core 6, and the original Elden Ring — have ever been available on Game Pass before, so there's no reason to believe Nightreign will be, either. It's not impossible, of course, but even so, I wouldn't ever expect it to happen.

That means the only way to play Elden Ring Nightreign will be to purchase a permanent copy of it on your platform of choice. It has an MSRP of $39.99 with a $54.99 Deluxe Edition that includes future DLC access, a digital artbook and soundtrack, and some exclusive characters and bosses. Notably, though, you can get the Xbox and PC version for just $33.99 at Newegg with the promo code XVSAVE. You can also snag the Deluxe Edition for only $50.29 at CDKeys.

During the Nintendo Direct March 2025 event, Bandai Namco unveiled a new trailer for Shadow Labyrinth, a game that takes the colorful and child-friendly Pac-Man franchise and turns it on its head to create a gritty, sci-fi, side-scrolling 'Metroidvania' action game.

This trailer shows off Shadow Labyrinth's gameplay, glances at its story and characters, and its release date, which is confirmed to be July 17, 2025 for home consoles and July 18, 2025 for PC.

In Shadow Labyrinth, you play as a mysterious warrior known as Swordsman No.8 who wakes up at a mysterious location littered with ancient relics and bloodthirsty monsters.

To escape this planet and find out how you got there to begin with, you must heed guidance from a mechanical, yellow orb named PUCK (this universe's version of Pac-Man).

With PUCK's help, you will learn how to traverse treacherous landscapes safely, discover secrets, and gain powers that will help you survive, such as the ability to consume enemies and transform into a giant mechanical monster.

I admit that when I first saw Shadow Labyrinth's reveal at the 2024 Game Awards, I was skeptical at first. When a company gives a well-known cartoony videogame franchise an overtly edgy and dark reboot, it usually isn't executed very well and barely resembles the original source material (the biggest example being Bomberman ZERO).

However, Shadow Labyrinth seems to be putting a lot of effort into its crazy reimagining without forgetting the iconography of the Pac-Man franchise.

You still transform into Pac-Man to eat power pellets at certain points in the game and the whole game takes place in a dark labyrinth that you need to escape from, much like in the original arcade game.

It also helps that the gameplay itself looks insanely fun to play as it features classic staples of the Metroidvania genre.

These include a massive world to explore and unpack its secrets, a gigantic arsenal of cool abilities to unlock and mess around with, and epic boss battles to conquer.

The ability to transform into a cybernetic monster fused with a Pac-Man chest that fires laser beams from its mouth has definitely earned my attention, at least.

With the release of Hollow Knight: Silksong looking uncertain due to delays, Shadow Labyrinth could be a good alternative to fill your Metroidvania cravings on Xbox and PC, as long as it manages to execute its gritty reboot of Pac-Man well.

Either way, we will have to wait until Summer to find out when this insane upcoming Xbox title/upcoming PC title launches on 17 July 2025 for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch and July 18, 2025 for PC via Steam.

If you're a dedicated fan of FromSoftware ARPGs like Elden Ring, Dark Souls, and others, I'm willing to bet you're familiar with the name Zullie the Witch. The Soulsborne content creator has been making informative, easily digestible videos on the developer's titles for several years now, datamining and researching them and then using the findings to show off cut content, reveal hidden secrets, or put forward carefully thought-out lore theories.

Zullie has rapidly become one of the most popular and beloved YouTubers in the Soulsborne community, and has covered every FromSoftware game post-Demon's Souls extensively. In their first video about the upcoming co-op roguelike Elden Ring Nightreign, though, they shared that they've been going through some personal struggles.

"I am clawing my way out of a pit of depression, but the pit is deep and my claws are blunt. I'd been hoping to get back to making videos at the start of the month, only to find myself just slipping in at the end of it instead," Zullie wrote in a pinned comment on the video.

"Between that, the fact I haven't been able to secure a sponsor video in a while, and a looming $15,000 in medical expenses, I'm reluctant to do this, but I'm openly asking for donations."

Within hours, thousands of Soulsborne fans rallied to show Zullie their support, with each one donating at least $5 (possibly more) to their Ko-fi page. At the time of writing, 6,524 donations have been made, with more still coming in; so far, at least $32,620 have been raised in total.

"I'm removing the donation links because this has already smashed every expectation I had and I'm kind of overwhelmed by how quickly and emphatically you've all lent your support," Zullie said in an update to the original comment. "I've always been a deeply anxious person, and a large emphasis of that anxiety lately has been financial issues, so I truly didn't anticipate seeing the bulk of those issues get crushed into nothing in the span of a single afternoon."

"It feels conflicting, because I've always been ashamed of even slightly inconveniencing others, but choosing to suffer in noble silence was still suffering," they continued. "Thank you all so much, I'm hardly able to comprehend, let alone express, what I'm feeling right now."

As a huge fan of both FromSoftware games and Zullie's channel, coming across this story made my day, and reading through the remarks left with each Ko-fi donation has only made it even more heartwarming.

Scrolling through them, there's plenty of endearing Souls-style messages of "Amazing witch head" or "Don't give up, skeleton," along with the classic "Don't you dare go hollow" and heartfelt comments about how much people enjoy Zullie's content and want to support them.

Indeed, many nifty secrets and thought-provoking details have been unveiled by Zullie's videos, and they're always produced with a wholesome, calm tone that makes them easy to watch and encourages collaborative discussion in the community.

Whether you want to learn about the largest FromSoftware dragon, what an Armored Core 6 mech looks like in Elden Ring, or why dogs in Dark Souls 3 teleport when you run from them, their channel is a treasure trove of bite-sized high-quality content. I can't recommend checking it out enough.

Notably, Elden Ring Nightreign — another game Zullie will most likely investigate and make content on — is just a few months away from its scheduled May 30 launch on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PS5. The co-op roguelike take on the award-winning 2022 ARPG is available to preorder now for $39.99, but you can get it on PC for just $35.19 at Fanatical thanks to a deal.

It's time to head back to Lothric, Ashen One, because the best mod ever made for Elden Ring has now come to Dark Souls 3 — FromSoftware's critically acclaimed 2016 ARPG that concluded the studio's legendary Dark Souls trilogy.

That mod, as you might expect, is Seamless Co-op — an add-on that completely overhauls multiplayer by removing barriers between levels, allowing co-op in zones that didn't have it in vanilla, and letting jolly cooperators freely level and rest together at bonfires in the same instance. The mod also allows you to dodge the PvP invasions you'd normally have to deal with while co-oping, though you do have the option of enabling them if you want. You can download the Dark Souls 3 version of Seamless Co-op on Nexus Mods.

Seamless Co-op works by severing your connection to FromSoftware's matchmaking servers and instead connects you with up to five co-op buddies through peer-to-peer networking and separate character saves, ensuring that you won't get struck by a banhammer. It's hugely beneficial in Elden Ring since it has tons of barriers between its overworld and side zones to deal with, and now you can use it in Dark Souls 3, too.

Installing Seamless Co-op is easy, as all you have to do is drag the files from the mod download into the "Game" folder within your Dark Souls 3 installation, then launch the game with the mod's executable instead of the regular one. Using the included configuration file, you and your friends can then set a password that ensures you'll all connect together; this is effectively identical to how FromSoftware's password matchmaking works. You can also toggle invasions or tweak enemy scaling values in that same file.

Something important to note is that you can make regular Dark Souls 3 character saves compatible with Seamless Co-op by changing their file extension from ".sl2" to ".co2", but make sure you make a copy of them first; you won't be able to convert them back safely, as saves you made progress with in Seamless Co-op will get you flagged and banned by FromSoftware's systems if you try to make them work with vanilla Dark Souls 3 again.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the goal of Seamless Co-op is to make FromSoftware's ARPGs more accessible and enjoyable in multiplayer, not to make them easier. Dark Souls 3 Seamless Co-op scales enemy and boss health up when you have five or six party members (in vanilla, you can only have four) as a result, and also resets ongoing boss fights if a defeated player sits at a bonfire to respawn and attempt running back in.

For a full overview of everything you need to know, make sure you check out the mod's description. It goes over installation, Seamless Co-op's full suite of features, frequently asked questions, and more, so it's required reading.

It's awesome to see Seamless Co-op come to Dark Souls 3, and for me, it couldn't have arrived at a better time. My friends and I have been talking about doing a replay of the game soon, so we'll definitely be using this to do it.

Notably, this is the third FromSoftware game to get Seamless Co-op after Elden Ring and Armored Core 6. It's unclear if mod author Yui plans to also bring it to Dark Souls 2 or Dark Souls: Remastered, but I hope they do; Dark Souls 2 co-op is notorious for being extremely difficult to enjoy with friends because of Soul Memory, a mechanic that prevents players from playing together if one has collected significantly more souls (EXP) than the other during their journey.

Dark Souls 3 itself is one of FromSoftware's best games, arguably the best Dark Souls, and one of the best PC games to play if you enjoy challenging ARPGs with grandiose boss fights and rich combat systems. The PC version you can use the new Seamless Co-op mod with is normally $59.99, but thanks to this sweet deal, you can pick it up for just $24.69 at CDKeys. There's also the Deluxe Edition for $36.69 at CDKeys that includes all of Dark Souls 3's DLC.

I went into this weekend's Elden Ring Nightreign network test as blind as I could, opting to ignore most early details and press previews so I could be surprised by FromSoftware's latest Souls-style action RPG. All I knew going in was that Nightreign has been widely considered to be a "co-op Elden Ring roguelike," but what does that mean, really? How has the studio remixed its award-winning 2022 RPG — lauded for a colossal open world that was ultimately static, masterable, and slow to progress through — with a genre known for its dynamism and speed?

The answer, as it turns out, is with playable characters that have unique powers and predetermined level upgrade paths, randomized power-ups and weapon drops that eschew stat requirements, no armor, encumbrance, or fall damage mechanics whatsoever, an encroaching circle taken right out of a battle royale game, and mobility so fast and vertical that even Sekiro would look at the Nightfarers with envy. Indeed, Nightreign strips away all of the cautious, carefully planned exploration and buildcrafting we've come to expect from Soulsborne and transforms it into a series of quick decisions you'll make as you tear through the enemy camps and miniboss fights that litter the map by day, then think on your feet and stay on the move to keep ahead of the encroaching circle before squaring off against a major boss at night.

Put simply, it's Elden Ring distilled down to its core combat systems, with players encouraged to constantly get themselves into the thick of the action throughout Nightreign's 30-45 minute runs. It's like nothing else FromSoftware has ever made before, but for me, that's not a bad thing; on the contrary, after playing for six hours over the weekend, I've fallen in love. But depending on which elements of the studio's games you're okay with reining back, it may not be for you.

A sandbox to die for (a lot)

Nightreign may not allow for the meticulous buildcrafting Souls players are familiar with, but that doesn't mean you'll be railroaded into individual playstyles or left wanting for options. In fact, the removal of stat requirements means that you can use anything you pick up as you blast through the map, and really only have to think about each weapon's attack power and mana-powered Ash of War move. There is one other factor to consider, also: passive buffs that give your Nightfarer noteworthy boosts like, say, a small percentage of lifesteal on successive hits. These apply even if the weapon they're on isn't actively in your hands, allowing you to stack them by filling up your inventory.

That freedom means there's a crazy amount of experimentative fun to be had in Nightreign, especially since it pulls from the ridiculously large arsenal present in mainline Elden Ring. I was consistently getting weapon and magic combinations (staves and seals come with two spells on them) that simply wouldn't be effective in the original RPG without some overleveling, and together with some of the neat upgrades you can pick up from slain bosses — calling down lightning strikes every time you dodge, for example — I was able to put together some wild builds. My favorite of the lot was a tanky counter-attack setup that featured a greatshield, constant floating magical sword projectiles that flew into enemies as they approached, and a flaming sword that created holy damage explosions every time I block countered with it.

Of course, as is the case with most random drop-driven roguelikes, you're not always going to get an awesome build going where everything just clicks. Lady Luck is a fickle mistress, after all, but what's nice about Nightreign is that it's a Souls game, which means your skill is ultimately what will determine if you fail or complete a run. Players with mediocre builds can still take down bosses as long as they patiently learn and master fights and have at least a decent weapon, and conversely, having a perfect setup won't save you if you make too many fundamental mistakes like dodging at the wrong times or getting too greedy with your offense.

I should note that, at least in my runs, I was able to make any setup work with any of Nightreign's four Nightfarer classes (there will be eight in the full game). With that said, each character definitely has strengths and weaknesses that makes them conducive to using specific playstyles. Wylder — the grappling hook-wielding knight fellow in the marketing material — is a jack-of-all-trades type you can easily take in any direction, but the towering eagle man Guardian is the best tank since he starts with a greatshield and has a disruptive whirlwind ability. The dexterous Duchess is best played like a nimble rogue with her improved dodging, while the witchy Recluse's ability to siphon mana from the foes her magic hits and cast near-infinitely makes her the perfect character to play if you're into being a backline nuker.

Each Nightfarer is powerful in their own way, and regardless of the weapons and bonuses you end up with, the way you can use their abilities synergistically with your teammates is what makes Nightreign shine as a co-op experience. Wylder's explosive close-range ultimate is often a guaranteed stagger on bosses and opens up fantastic opportunities for huge damage, while Guardian's special move sees him soar into the air and then crash down back to earth, simultaneously damaging enemies, reviving downed teammates (comically, incapacitated allies can be helped by hitting them), and creating a shield that blocks incoming attacks until you run out of stamina to fuel it. The Duchess' Restage skill will re-deal all damage done to enemies recently to them again — this results in crazy high DPS if used at the right moments — and her ultimate turns your entire three-player team invisible, and lastly, the Recluse's strongest ability can tag foes with a debuff that restores HP and FP to everyone on the squad when they hit them.

All in all, between Nightreign's restriction-free approach to building your character and the awesome cooperative playmaking potential of the Nightfarers themselves, the potential of the spinoff's sandbox is sky high. Even with the relatively small collection of weapons and upgrades in the network test, I never ended up with the same build twice and was always getting that pull for "just one more run," so I can only imagine how much of a playground the full experience will feel like.

Gotta go fast, for better and worse

The breakneck pace of each session — enforced by the looming and constant threat of the creeping, health-draining circle — guarantees that you'll never go more than a minute or two without a battle to fight, and that's ultimately what will make or break this game for most. If you love the sound of constant fighting as you zip around Elden Ring's scenic environments, Nightreign will serve you up a never-ending feast of blood and carnage. But if you come to FromSoftware games for the journey — the slow, measured, and curious steps through a vast and mysterious world — you won't find one here. There's no time to stop and smell the roses, Nightfarer! Night is falling, the circle is closing in, and you only have a few precious minutes to go wallop that Crucible Knight and nab an upgrade from him before three Tree Sentinels show up and threaten to end your team's progress.

As someone who's had a blast with Nightreign so far, I have to admit that I do wish I had more time to explore Limveld, the remixed version of Elden Ring's Limgrave zone that serves as the network test's map, more thoroughly. There are still cool secrets to find like dropdowns that lead to hidden underground minibosses and mining caves that serve as useful shortcuts through towering plateaus, but often times I have to rush through these as fast as possible to maximize my loot gains and stay ahead of the circle. There's certainly something to be said about enjoying the joy of discovery in short bursts as I frantically sprint and jump to make my way towards an ally's map ping, but there's also a part of me that just wants a more traditional co-op focused Soulsborne title. In my perfect world, we'd just get something like Elden Ring's seamless co-op mod.

Even though it's not the co-op Souls game of my dreams, though, Nightreign offers plenty of action-packed fun in its own right, and I'm looking forward to diving back in with my friends once it's fully out on May 30. In addition to adding four more Nightfarers, the complete experience is also bringing more random elements to the map, more of Elden Ring's vast sandbox to play around with, and — hopefully — additional maps to play on.

Preorders for Elden Ring Nightreign are available now for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, PS5, and PS4, and it might end up being one of the best Xbox games and best PC games of 2025 if FromSoftware can stick the landing. It's got an MSRP of $39.99 — $20 less than Elden Ring itself — but thanks to some sweet deals, you can reserve your copy of the PC version for just $35.19 at Fanatical.

Original article: The long-awaited network test beta for Elden Ring Nightreign — FromSoftware's co-op roguelike take on its award-winning 2022 action RPG that's slated to release on May 30 — officially kicked off on Xbox Series X|S and PS5 with its first playtest session early on Friday. Unfortunately, things...didn't go well, to say the least.

While the first hour of the test seemed to go fairly okay for most folks, the servers quickly fell apart after that, and most players were either met with a "Cannot log in to the game server" message on the main menu or were booted to it in the middle of gameplay when "the connection to the game server was lost." FromSoftware explained that there was "a problem" and attempted to get things working again with a server restart and maintenance, but neither ultimately did any good.

"The first session of the ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN Network Test has ended. We apologize for the inconvenience caused by the game server issues," wrote the studio at the conclusion of the playtest this morning. "Work is currently ongoing to improve the stability of the Network Test. An additional Network Test session is being considered. Thank you."

Severe server issues like these would be frustrating regardless of the beta test's structure, but they're particularly aggravating in this case since playtime availability is very limited. Unlike most betas that typically give players 24-hour around-the-clock access while they're being held, Elden Ring Nightreign's network test this weekend only has a handful of three-hour windows that fans with access can play in. Indeed, there are just five, and there's only two others — February 14's 11am-2pm PT / 2pm-5pm ET / 7pm-10pm GT session and February 15's 3am-6am PT / 6am-9am ET / 11am-2pm GMT block — friendly to the European folks this first test was ideal for.

The good news, though, is that as FromSoftware confirmed in the above statement, the developer is considering holding an extra test to make up for this one's server problems. Another post from the studio's player support account suggests that this new window might open up "today," though there's no way to know if we'll actually get that additional test or not until the devs announce something officially.

By the way, the Elden Ring subreddit is precisely as abuzz as you'd expect it to be right now, with countless users complaining or posting memes about constantly getting kicked out of Nightreign before getting a chance to try it out. Others have used humorous images to make a point, which is that finding problems like these and developing solutions for them is precisely what betas and server tests like these are for.

Nightreign Network Testers When the Network isn’t Working: from r/Eldenring

That's definitely some important perspective to keep in mind, as is understanding that the team at FromSoftware is undoubtedly just as frustrated as players are with how the network test has gone so far. With that said, I do hope the studio ends up holding an extra play session so that fans who couldn't enjoy this one due to server instability have another shot.

Elden Ring Nightreign itself looks like it could be one of the best Xbox games and best PC games to play if you like the sound of an action-heavy roguelike with Elden Ring's combat and arsenal and plenty of bosses from FromSoftware's various Souls-style titles. I'm looking forward to jumping into it tonight with the second playtest happening at 7pm-10pm PT / 10pm-1am ET / 3am-6am GMT, as I consider the original Elden Ring to be one of the best games of all time.

Preorders for Elden Ring Nightreign are available now for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, PS5, and PS4. It's got an MSRP of $39.99 — $20 less than Elden Ring itself — but thanks to some sweet deals, you can reserve your copy of the PC version for just $35.19 at Fanatical.

Developer FromSoftware and publisher Bandai Namco shocked with the reveal of Elden Ring Nightreign at the Game Awards 2024, and now, this new game that's geared around co-op has a release date. Elden Ring Nightreign is slated to launch on May 30, 2025, making its way in as the first half of the calendar year comes to a close.

You can see a bit more of the game in the preorder trailer below, with new gameplay footage showing the enemies and bosses players have to team up against:

While Elden Ring and its expansion Shadow of the Erdtree naturally included co-op play, it was just an option, and the gargantuan role-playing game could be completely entirely solo if you were so inclined. That's not the case in Elden Ring Nightreign, which requires players to join up in squads of three in order to take on the Night Tide.

This new mechanic slowly constricts the playable area over time, like the circle closing in a battle royale game. Each session is concluded with a boss fight, and the limited time means figuring out the right upgrades are key. Players have some important advantages over the original Elden Ring though, as they can summon a ghostly bird to glide through the air, as well as sprinting extra fast on the ground. Maybe most important of all is a complete lack of fall damage, something that seriously changes up how you move through FromSoftware's level design.

A surprising change of pace for FromSoftware

Truthfully I'm still surprised this is a thing, but I'm definitely curious about playing it. Co-op in Elden Ring is fun, so I wonder how gearing an entire game around that aspect (as opposed to slow, methodical exploration) is going to turn out. The asset reuse from across FromSoftware's history is amusing, and it's going to be fun seeing what kinds of bosses have returned from the world of Dark Souls.

One full run is expected to take around 45 minutes to complete, which is a decent bit for a multiplayer or co-op experience, but likely not so long as to be extremely annoying or frustrating.

I am disappointed that there's no cross-play functionality. I'm aware it wasn't in Elden Ring before, but still, we're long past the days of cross-play being a novelty. In 2025, it's more an expected standard online feature for any sort of multiplayer or co-op game.

Elden Ring Nightreign is coming to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4.

To say that the open world of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is vast would be an understatement. The game's pair of maps are truly gargantuan, with double the size of the original game's world space in total and upwards of 150 hours of content to dive into. The vast majority of that are side quests, but there are some nifty and unique secrets out there, too — and one that was found on launch day will delight Elden Ring fans in particular.

That secret is an endearing reference to none other than Klein "Let Me Solo Her" Tsuboi, an extremely skilled Elden Ring player known for his pot helmet, dual-wielded katanas, and fighting the brutally difficult Malenia, Blade of Miquella boss better than you or I ever could. Malenia is one of the hardest fights in FromSoftware's 2022 ARPG, but Let Me Solo Her spent over 1,000 hours killing her over 6,000 times for random co-op buddies and almost never got hit while doing it. It's no exaggeration to say that he's Elden Ring's biggest community hero, and evidently, KCD2 developer Warhorse Studios is enamored with him as well.

In the southwest corner of the Trosky region, past the Lower Semine Mill and the nearby woodcutters' camp, you can find a lone skeleton lying next to a large tree in the middle of a dense forest with Let Me Solo Her's trademark pot on its head, and one sword-like weapon stub next to each of its hands. From its torso, a bright red poppy grows — a flower often used to symbolize remembrance and peace. The picturesque memorial is shown in the gallery below, with its specific location marked by a red flag in the second image.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is out now on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC (via Steam, the Epic Games Store, and GOG), and PS5. It's undoubtedly one of the best Xbox games and best PC games of the year, so if you enjoy RPGs, definitely consider picking it up (it's just $46.19 on CDKeys, which is an amazing deal).

Xbox fans can breath a sigh of relief, at least for now. It seems that Elden Ring's parent company isn't selling out to Sony PlayStation, as previously rumored.

A few weeks ago, rumors began to swirl that FromSoftware parent company Kadokawa was potentially looking to sell to Sony, giving Xbox's arch-rival ownership of blockbuster franchises like Elden Ring. FromSoftware has become an industry giant in recent years, thanks to non-stop success across franchises like Dark Souls and Armored Core, the former of which defined an entire genre.

FromSoftware has a storied history with PlayStation, developing Demon's Souls and Bloodborne as console exclusive titles back in the day. FromSoftware also developed an Xbox exclusive title named Ninja Blade as well, some may remember, although let's say it wasn't nearly as well received as some of their other titles ...

Parent company Kadokawa is also a giant in the anime and manga industry, which is an avenue Sony has increasingly pushed into as its legacy hardware business declined. As such, the acquisition would have made a huge amount of sense for the Japanese giant, although it doesn't seem to be happening for the time being.

Spotted by Wario64, Sony and Kadokawa have wrapped up their discussions and created a "Strategic Capital and Business Alliance," with Kadokawa issuing 12,054,100 new shares to lend Sony a 10% stake in the business. That stake now makes Sony the biggest shareholder in Kadokawa, outstripping Tencent's own previous 6.86% stake. Tencent previously paid around $264 million USD for its own "strategic business alliance" with Kadokawa. Sony's is worth roughly $331.2 million USD by comparison.

The content war is just heating up

As I outlined in a recent article, Xbox is struggling to find its footing in a universe where Sony PlayStation has become completely dominant with traditional console gamers. Xbox was able to pull a bit of a coup during the Xbox 360 era, but the chances of something like that happening again are pretty slim, given that everybody is now digitally locked in to specific platforms.

In any case, Xbox fans have grown increasingly worried that, with Xbox sales in freefall decline, AAA developers might end up pulling out of the platform, leading it towards a death spiral. So far, there's no evidence of that happening, as Xbox console engagement remains steady according to Microsoft, but as the PlayStation 6 and Nintendo Switch 2 roll into view, that engagement could very well drop off a cliff.

Microsoft has a huge messaging problem for its console business and it seems to be burying its head in the sand over it. Instead, it's marketing towards new gamers outside of Xbox, targeting Samsung TVs, phones, and even other consoles to promote its content. Microsoft acquired mountains of games from World of Warcraft to Call of Duty to Fallout to The Elder Scrolls over the last few years, and so far, it has done very little to weaponize them to grow its console user base.

With Sony having a bigger ear at Kadokawa, PlayStation could "strategically" lobby to see future games like Elden Ring 2 or whatever else FromSoftware works on arbitrarily skip Xbox. We've seen Sony pull these kinds of deals with Final Fantasy and Capcom in the past. A full buyout would likely have led to this scenario more quickly, but an investment stake indicates that, at least for now, Xbox will remain a target platform for FromSoftware.

How long Xbox remains viable as a target platform for businesses and consumers alike remains to be seen, but it's true that it has received better third-party support than ever in recent times. Previously-exclusive PlayStation titles like Yakuza, Genshin Impact, Final Fantasy, Death Stranding, and many more have been heading to the Xbox pastures.

Read next: Inside the risky strategy that will define Xbox's next decade

Bet you didn't see that one coming.

Just months after launching the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion for Elden Ring, developer FromSoftware showed up at the Game Awards 2024 to reveal Elden Ring Nightreign, a co-op focused survival experience that revels in massive boss battles. You can check out the reveal trailer below:

During the trailer, eagle-eyed FromSoftware fans will note a number of bosses from across the history of this team's games.

"We hope you will look forward to it," the team wrote in a message on X (Twitter).

RELATED: The Game Awards 2024 LIVE blog

Little else is known right now, but Elden Ring Nightreign is slated to launch across Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4 at some point in 2025. Naturally, we'll keep you up to date as more details are revealed.

Co-op has long been an important part of FromSoftware games, but this game is taking that to the next level by making it a central component of the design and structure.

In our review of Shadow of the Erdtree, my colleague Brendan Lowry wrote that "The Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is Elden Ring at its most refined, with overly formulaic elements of the base game's open world design cut away and some of the most exhilarating boss battles in the entire FromSoftware Soulsborne catalog."

I have to praise FromSoftware's output, as assuming nothing is delayed here, the teams at this studio will have managed to put out Elden Ring, Armored Core 6, Shadow of the Erdtree, and soon Nightreign in a three-year period.

What you need to know

• FromSoftware is the legendary arthouse behind Elden Ring, Dark Souls, Sekiro, Armored Core, and various other successful Xbox and Windows PC games.
• In a new interview, FromSoftware lead Hidetaka Miyazaki discussed a variety of topics, including what's next for the developer.
• It sounds as though we're not getting a follow up to Elden Ring any time soon, but there's a "variety" of other games in multiple genres in development.

There are few game developers out there as celebrated and beloved as FromSoftware today. The studio behind Elden Ring is one of the most decorated of recent times, continuing a relentless winning streak spanning literal decades. Its Demon's Souls, Bloodborne, and Dark Souls games defined an entire genre of homages and copycats alike, and culminated in the masterful Elden Ring, which brought the genre well and truly into the mass mainstream.

Many fans are eagerly awaiting what might be next for the studio, which counted the Elden Ring expansion Shadow of the Erdtree and the mech action game Armored Core VI among its recent major wins. Elden Ring remains among the most highly rated games on Xbox and Windows PCs, and could become the first "DLC" to win the coveted "Game of the Year" at Geoff Keighley's 2025 Game Awards, after the rules were changed specifically for the game.

You might expect most studios to dive right into a sequel to capitalize on Elden Ring and Shadow of the Erdtree's success. But studio lead Hidetaka Miyazaki has other plans.

In a new interview in Game Watch (via the awesome @Okami13_), Miyazaki discussed a range of topics, paraphrased via Japanese with Microsoft Copilot. Miyazaki remarked that achieving a large scale for Shadow of the Erdtree was important to continue Elden Ring's sense of adventure, alongside exploring elements of the unknown. Although he conceded that the developers learned new things they will take forward into their next titles.

What could that next title be? Not Elden Ring 2, at least. "At the moment, we are not considering Elden Ring 2. However, that's not to infer that we won't continue developing the Elden Ring IP."

Miyazaki elaborated that FromSoftware is already working on multiple projects across a variety of genres. Miyazaki noted that not all of those titles will be directed by him directly. Armored Core VI was directed by Masaru Yamamura for example, and Miyazaki expressed interest in having greater involvement in getting the franchise to the next level in another previous interview.

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Bloodborne 2? Sekiro 2? Armored Core 7?! NINJA BLADE 2?!

The sky is well and truly the limit for FromSoftware at this point potentially.

In PlayStation's 30 year anniversary tease, the firm showed a glimpse of Bloodborne with the phrase "persistence" emblazoned across, giving long-suffering fans hope that we could finally see a sequel or remaster to the gothic 2015 classic. Indeed, there are truly so many directions FromSoftware could go in following the success of Elden Ring.

The Dark Souls franchise still has enormous status, even if the franchise has been dormant for some time now. Armored Core has a lot of room to improve and develop to get to the next level. Or what about FromSoftware's oft-forgotten 2009 Xbox exclusive Ninja Blade?! Okay, maybe not that one.

But what is true is that Hidetaka Miyazaki and the team at FromSoftware represent some of the most imaginative and creative minds within the entire games industry. Whether it's a sequel, reboot, remake, or something completely new — I'm immediately confident that it'll be another hit for the storied developer.

What you need to know

• The nominees for the Game Awards 2024 have been revealed.
• In addition to games like Astro Bot and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree expansion is nominated for Game of the Year.
• This inclusion has caused a huge amount of angry discussions over what should and shouldn't be available for nomination.

It's a year starting in the number 2, which means people are complaining and engaging in discourse over the Game Awards again.

The nominees for the Game Awards 2024 are out and as always, there's plenty of back-and-forth, but one of this year's topics does actually highlight a fascinating debate. Alongside expected heavyweights like the massive Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and the ever-addictive Balatro, one of the titles nominated for Game of the Year isn't technically its own game. I'm referring to Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree, the massive DLC for FromSoftware's 2022 epic that arrived back in June.

It's a first for the annual show hosted by Geoff Keighley, which has been growing strong for a decade now, but it's not a new rule. Indeed, the Game Awards FAQ was updated with a clarification a few days before the nominees were announced that "Expansion packs, new game seasons, DLCs, remakes and remasters" were all eligible in all categories.

The fact that an expansion pack or DLC is up for Game of the Year has seen furor erupt across social media, with discussions and people replying to Keighley about what should or should not be nominated. Many people feel that it's not fair, that a DLC is fundamentally different from an entirely new game, no matter how much praise it garners.

As someone who was not at all involved in voting on these awards, I personally feel that it's complicated. No, I'm not trying to cop out here, but let's think about it for a bit.

At the end of the day, if this many people voting across different outlets feel that Shadow of the Erdtree was one of the highlights of their gaming experience in 2024, then this expansion's inclusion accurately reflects at least some kind of critical consensus. The issue then is not so much the very nature of why Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree is included, but the fact that by being included, it takes a possible spot away from a full standalone game that also released this year.

For my part, I mostly cosign our review, which awarded Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree a 5/5 score and praised it as a "...game-sized masterpiece of an expansion," but I also consider it just that, an expansion.

I wouldn't consider it one of my favorite games of the year, as it relies upon the foundation provided by Elden Ring in an inextricable way, but I can't bring myself to get angry at someone who feels differently, especially if the experience just resonated with them that strongly. Heck, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty was one of the best things I played last year, even if it was merely a meaty DLC. Would I have felt different if it was packaged separately as its own small, standalone game? I don't know.

For my money, if you're going to complain about the Game Awards, there are a number of other unaddressed issues far, far, far more worthy of bringing up.

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree is currently available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4.

What you need to know

• Nominations for The Game Awards 2024 are now live, with select gaming outlets voting once again on a number of categories in the award show hosted by Geoff Keighley.
• For 2024's entries, the Xbox first-party group saw a respectable 12 nominations across games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2.
• The team was locked out of the PlayStation-centric Game of the Year category however, with games nominated for the top award including Team Asobi's Astro Bot and Square Enix's Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.

The nominations for one of the biggest award shows of the year are in.

The Game Awards 2024 are slated to be held live on Dec. 12, 2024 and will be hosted by the show's creator Geoff Keighley, with the nominations for the show shared on Monday. For 2024, the Xbox first-party group managed to grab a total of 12 nominations across its different publishing brands, with multiple nominations in particular for Treyarch and Raven Software's Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Ninja Theory's Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2.

Even so, Xbox wasn't quite at the top, securing second place above Square Enix (which had 11 nominations) while PlayStation managed to grab 16 nominations. The latter company was also included in the ultra-discussed Game of the Year category, with Team Asobi's Astro Bot and Square Enix's Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth getting nominated.

You can find the full list of categories and nominees below:

Game of the Year

• Astro Bot
• Balatro
• Black Myth: Wukong
• Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree
• Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
• Metaphor: ReFantazio

Best Game Direction

• Astro Bot
• Balatro
• Black Myth: Wukong
• Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree
• Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
• Metaphor: ReFantazio

Best Narrative

• Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
• Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
• Metaphor: ReFantazio
• Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2
• Silent Hill 2

Best Art Direction

• Astro Bot
• Black Myth: Wukong
• Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree
• Metaphor: ReFantazio
• Neva

Best Score and Music

• Astro Bot
• Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
• Metaphor: ReFantazio
• Silent Hill 2
• Stellar Blade

Best Audio Design

• Astro Bot
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
• Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
• Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2
• Silent Hill 2

Best Performance

• Briana White as Aerith Gainsborough in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
• Hannah Telle as Max Caulfield in Life is Strange: Double Exposure
• Humberly González as Kay in Star Wars Outlaws
• Luke Roberts as James Sunderland in Silent Hill 2
• Melina Juergens as Senua in Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2

Innovation in Accessibility

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
• Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred
• Dragon Age: The Veilguard
• Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
• Star Wars Outlaws

Games for Impact

• Closer the Distance
• Indika
• Neva
• Life is Strange: Double Exposure
• Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2
• Tales of Kenzera: ZAU

Best Ongoing

• Destiny 2
• Diablo 4
• Final Fantasy XIV
• Fortnite
• Helldivers 2

Best Community Support

• Baldur's Gate 3
• Final Fantasy XIV
• Fortnite
• Helldivers 2
• No Man's Sky

Best Independent Game

• Animal Well
• Balatro
• Lorelei and the Laser Eyes
• Neva
• UFO 50

Best Debut Indie Game

• Animal Well
• Balatro
• Manor Lords
• Pacific Drive
• The Plucky Squire

Best Mobile Game

• AFK Journey
• Balatro
• Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket
• Wuthering Waves
• Zenless Zone Zero

Best VR/AR

• Arizona Sunshine Remake
• Asgard's Wrath 2
• Batman: Arkham Shadow
• Metal: Hellsinger VR
• Metro Awakening

Best Action Game

• Black Myth: Wukong
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
• Helldivers 2
• Stellar Blade
• Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2

Best Action/Adventure

• Astro Bot
• Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
• Silent Hill 2
• Star Wars Outlaws
• The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

Best RPG

• Dragon's Dogma 2
• Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree
• Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
• Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
• Metaphor: ReFantazio

Best Fighting

• Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero
• Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising
• Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics
• Multiversus
• Tekken 8

Best Family

• Astro Bot
• Princess Peach: Showtime!
• Super Mario Party Jamboree
• The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
• The Plucky Squire

Best Sim/Strategy

• Age of Mythology: Retold
• Frostpunk 2
• Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess
• Manor Lords
• Unicorn Overlord

Best Sports/Racing

• F1 24
• EA Sports FC 24
• NBA 2K25
• Top Spin 2K25
• WWE 2K24

Best Multiplayer

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
• Helldivers 2
• Super Mario Party Jamboree
• Tekken 8
• Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2

Best Adaption

• Arcane
• Fallout
• Knuckles
• Like a Dragon
• Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft

Most Anticipated Game

• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
• Ghost of Yōtei
• Grand Theft Auto 6
• Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
• Monster Hunter Wilds

Content Creator of the Year

• CaseOh
• IlluJuan
• Techo Gamerz
• TypicalGamer
• Usada Pekora

Best Esports Game

• Counter-Strike 2
• DOTA 2
• League of Legends
• Mobile Legends: Bang Bang
• Valorant

Best Esports Athlete

• Neta Shapira
• Aleksi Virolainen
• Jeong Ji-hoon
• Lee Sang-hyeok
• Mathieu Herbaut
• Zheng Yongkang

Best Esports Team

• Bilibili Gaming
• Gen.G
• Navi
• T1
• Team Liquid

What you need to know

• Bandai Namco Entertainment is one of the biggest game publishers in the world, and is behind hugely popular titles like Elden Ring and Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO.
• According to a new report, the company has moved 200 of its staff into oidashi beya, or "expulsion rooms," in an effort to pressure them to resign from their positions.
• In these rooms, workers are given no assignments, but understand their lack of productivity can be used as grounds to cut severance pay. Effectively, they're designed to get employees to leave voluntarily without breaching Japan's strict labor laws.
• In a statement, Bandai Namco has denied that it's making use of oidashi beya, commenting that "some employees may need to wait a certain amount of time before they are assigned their next project."
• The report comes after Bandai Namco cancelled multiple games, and notes that one of them was an unknown project in development with Nintendo. It also comes amidst widespread turmoil in the gaming industry, with over 23,000 cuts recorded since 2023.

According to a new report, Bandai Namco Entertainment — the publisher of wildly successful games like FromSoftware's Elden Ring and other titles like Tekken 8 and Gundam Revolution — is working to cut 200 members from its staff of 1,300 following multiple recent game cancellations.

Speaking with Bloomberg, "people familiar with the matter" say that the Tokyo-based company has moved 200 workers into oidashi beya, or "expulsion rooms." In these rooms, employees are given no work (many spend the time looking for new employment) but understand that their lack of productivity gives their superiors grounds to cut severance pay when they depart, pressuring them to leave quickly and voluntarily. Reportedly, around 100 workers have resigned already, with more departures expected in the near future.

Oidashi beya are occasionally used by Japanese companies to cull their workforce while still remaining compliant with the country's austere labor laws and regulations. However, in a statement given to Bloomberg, Bandai Namco has denied that the firm is utilizing these rooms and says some of its employees are simply waiting to be reassigned.

"Our decisions to discontinue games are based on comprehensive assessments of the situation. Some employees may need to wait a certain amount of time before they are assigned their next project, but we do move forward with assignments as new projects emerge," said a spokesperson for the publisher. "There is no organization like an ‘oidashi beya’ at Bandai Namco Studios designed to pressure people to leave voluntarily."

Bandai Namco is one of the biggest publishers in the industry, but like other game companies, it's been beleaguered by financial struggles — even despite big hits like Elden Ring and the explosively popular Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO that released last week. These declines are generally attributed to players having less time for gaming in the post-pandemic era, and have led to waves of significant layoffs in 2023 and 2024.

In Bandai Namco's case, the downturn has brought about major write-downs, along with multiple other projects getting shut down, cancelled, or put on ice this summer. Earlier this year, the company closed down the Tales of the Rays mobile game and announced its intent to shutter the popular free-to-play action RPG Blue Protocol in January. Bloomberg also reports that it's either halted development on or outright axed several additional games, including ones based on the Naruto and One Piece animes and one mystery project that was being worked on with Nintendo.

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Analysis: Devastating declines continue

Regardless of whether or not Bandai Namco is actually making use of "expulsion rooms" like the report suggests, widespread cuts and closures show that the overall state of the gaming industry right now is incredibly tumultuous. Even the largest publishers in the world have been racked by post-pandemic struggles; Xbox maker Microsoft, for example, laid off 1,900 workers in January and then slashed an additional 650 from its workforce just last month.

Analyses like those from DDM Games Investment Review suggest a recovery is in sight, but others have warned that the bleeding could continue well into 2025. I'm hopeful that things will get better sooner rather than later, but ultimately, the future is uncertain.

Above all else, though, my thoughts are with affected employees and their families — both at Bandai Namco, if they're being pressured to resign, and elsewhere. I hope you're able to find new positions quickly and smoothly.