Elden Ring Nightreign will get a new rock-hard Expedition mode called Deep of Night on 11th September. “Rock-hard” is a cliché worn to uselessness, of course: to be more specific, this is at least tungsten-carbide-hard, possibly even as hard as stishovite, though the exact degree of toughness is variable.
It’s variable because Deep of Night gets statistically harder, the more you win, with a difficulty rating or “depth” that fluctuates based on wins and losses. Enemies are tougher than usual by default, and you can’t specify which Nightlord you’re hunting, so be prepared for nasty surprises. There are new special Depth Relics, exclusive to this mode, which sadistically bundle together additional buffs and debuffs.
Hungry for more d33tz? Lucky for you, dataminers managed to unearth Deep of Night from the existing game’s files a whole three weeks ago, as written up by Mark. It looks like there are five “depths” in total, and there is mention of “magmafied” enemy variants.
Following the aforesaid datamining, Elden Ring Nightreign modders have contrived to get the mode operational and begun posting videos that show off some of the new gear. Kotaku have a write-up of those videos in which we are exposed to the harrowing truth that rats in the starting camp take three hits to kill, not two. Seriously, this is the kind of switch-up that could wreck a whole expedition. There’s also talk of one of the new gear items, a Sentry’s Torch that increases lightning damage negation while increasing the damage taken from the peripheral Night’s Tide.
Watch on YouTube
Seems fun? I find that every From game gets harder, the more I play it, but then again, that also applies to getting up in the morning as I age. I’m pretty sure datamining wasn’t what From Software had in mind when they talked about hidden depths. I’d ask them to comment, but they might get mad and throw a paperweight at me (+10 poise break).
