Elden Ring Nightreign's Patch 1.02 update next week is adding a feature we've all been waiting for since launch — and another I've been begging for, too

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.

ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN | Two Player Mode Trailer - YouTube

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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.

Elden Ring Nightreign
Was: $39.99
Now: $35.99 at CDKeys (PC)

Elden Ring Nightreign is a bold co-op roguelike offshoot from FromSoftware that creatively and satisfyingly brings Soulsborne gameplay to a new genre of RPG — even if issues with map and enemy variety hold it back from true greatness.

PC Deluxe Edition: $48.99 at CDKeys
Xbox Deluxe Edition: $46.19 at CDKeys

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