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While you wait for an official update, Elden Ring Nightreign already has a two-player co-op mod

by admin June 1, 2025

Elden Ring Nightreign is, to the surprise of no one, off to a bit of a flying start (even if not everyone is completely in love with it just yet). I have no intention of diving into it just yet, in part because the solo experience doesn’t interest me all that much, and I don’t really want to be matched up with two other randos that would surely abandon me the moment I forget what my character can do. There isn’t a duos option either, the thing I’m actually after, something that was a bit forgotten about during development, but might be coming further down the line. The power of modding always comes through however, as despite only launching yesterday, there’s already a seamless co-op mod that allows for duos.

Aptly titled Seamless Co-op (Nightreign), those of you that have previously indulged in a bit of seamless co-op in other FromSoftware Soulslikes won’t be surprised to hear that it comes from none other than Yui. She made the original Elden Ring Seamless Co-op mod a few years ago, alongside a Dark Souls Remastered one last month.

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Much like those two mods, this one allows you to play online with a friend without all of the usual faff you’ll find in FromSoft’s games, even if it is easier to play with others in Nightreign than usual.

Right now, the mod is pretty simple. You can either create two or three player lobbies, and play online with them. Yui says that “there will be more to come, but whilst the current game lacks 2-player modes, this mod will be available in this state.” Don’t worry about it banning you from regular online either, as it prevents your game from even connecting to any matchmaking servers in the first place. What more could you ask for!

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June 1, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

How to replay Elden Ring Nightreign’s tutorial to beat Margit and get a unique relic

by admin June 1, 2025

In grand FromSoftware tradition, Elden Ring Nightreign begins with a fight you’re supposed to lose. As is also tradition, it’s perfectly possible to gut it out and beat him anyway if you’re enough of a toxic Souls tryhard cool guy.

Nightreign’s tutorial fight even furnishes you with a one-of-a-kind relic for your troubles. It’s nothing to write home about on its own, but could be handy before you’re able to build up your collection. And before you feel like you missed out, there’s an option to replay the tutorial that’s buried in a menu in perfectly obtuse Nightreign fashion.

How to replay Elden Ring Nightreign’s tutorial

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(Image credit: FromSoftware)(Image credit: FromSoftware)

You can run back Nightreign’s tutorial at any time from the Visual Codex in the Roundtable Hold. That’s the book on the desk just to the north of the jar merchant in the western hall of the fort. You can also just pull it up and warp there by pressing the select button. Here’s the step-by-step:

How to beat Margit in Elden Ring Nightreign’s tutorial

You’ll always be a low-level Wylder for this fight, but I was surprised at how many tools FromSoft gives you. I just blew through the tutorial my first time, but if you kill all the enemies and open both chests on the fairly linear path, you’ll be able to hit level six, have a pretty decent build, and two guaranteed uses of Wylder’s ultimate. Here’s a breakdown of all the tips and notes I have:

The best weapons in the tutorial (they’re guaranteed drops) are the Cold Katar and Rogier’s Rapier.
The rapier does good damage and automatically summons Glintblades (those floating magic daggers that auto-target enemies) every few seconds.
Use the katar to inflict Frostbite on Margit, then swap to the rapier.
The NPC Duchess you fight with actually does good damage, in addition to serving as a tank.
You should be close to ulting at the start of the fight, and you get a guaranteed extra use as part of the tutorial partway through the battle.
Ult Margit once right at the start, but save the second use to revive Duchess if she goes down.
You can revive once before the tutorial ends, and your souls are outside the boss room⁠—you can run back to the grace and level back up before fighting again.
Margit will have the amount of HP you left him with, but Duchess will not be there to help you anymore.

Fell Omen Fetish stats and use

Your reward for all that is… fine. Honestly, the Fell Omen Fetish is more interesting than genuinely useful, but it’s a pretty good option until you unlock some of the really strong relics by beating Nightlords and Remembrances. It gives you:

Damage bonus after switching weapons.
Improved throwing knife damage [utterly useless].
Vigor +1.

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(Image credit: FromSoftware)(Image credit: FromSoftware)(Image credit: FromSoftware)(Image credit: FromSoftware)

The only one of those that really stands out to me for potential buildcrafting is the weapon swap damage bonus: It’s pretty quick and easy to swap the weapon in one of your hands for a quick boost every few seconds. I’m also curious if Executor’s character skill where he pulls out the deflect katana counts as a swap for the relic’s purposes⁠—that would make it quite good on him, since he’s always switching between the cursed blade and his normal weapons.

Really though, I just like this as another sneaky surprise from Nightreign. It’s a nice encapsulation of the entire experience of being Nightreigned, in fact: Obtuse frustration, followed by a delightful surprise that just puts a smile on your face.

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June 1, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Elden Ring Nightreign is the first FromSoftware game that I honestly wish I could play on easy

by admin June 1, 2025

Elden Ring Nightreign is hard in a way that no FromSoftware game over the last decade has been.

Where the pacing of Dark Souls and Elden Ring normally reward patience, Nightreign demands a speedrunner’s frenzy. Where the intricate dungeons of those games encourage memorization, so that you can dart in to grab a killer weapon or key item your second go-round, Nightreign randomizes everything. The map could be overflowing with the types of weapons that’ll make a boss go down easily… or it might not offer you a single one.

And where FromSoftware’s recent games almost always offer a shortcut or spawn point that lets you quickly re-attempt a boss, a loss in Nightreign means you’ve got to repeat a whole 40 minute run for another chance.

Randomize this

When I first played it at FromSoftware’s offices in Tokyo last December, reaching and defeating the first Nightlord, Gladius, was a triumphant moment: we’d spent four hours getting our asses kicked as we learned the game and practiced coordinating as a team, which set us up to punch Gladius’s ticket when we got some great weapon drops on the next run. That felt great!

Less great: Getting all the way to that boss and losing, with only a few random, likely useless rewards to show for the time. Losing in any roguelike can feel crushing—they draw from deep pools of weapons, enemies, and other modifiers to remain exciting and challenging, and sometimes those things conspire to ruin your day. But failing a Nightreign run often feels bad to me in a way that most roguelikes don’t, because it really offers you only one goal and one way to play: survive to the end and kill the Nightlord for better rewards, or fail and get worse ones.

Elden Ring Nightreign Review | It’s kind of a mess, but… – YouTube

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With each “day” lasting only a few minutes of frantic scavenging, and each finale a high stakes showdown against huge bosses that can typically kill you in a single hit, Nightreign is the tryhard zenith of FromSoftware design: if you’re not locked in, you’re probably already dead.

Sometimes I’m absolutely game for that, but the more of Nightreign I’ve played, the more long-term potential I think it would have if FromSoftware had actually committed much harder to its asset reuse and dumped tons more bosses from Dark Souls and Elden Ring into the game, with some of them blatant push-overs that I can pound into the dust while only half paying attention.

I also want the brutally hard bosses! But instead of being the only objectives to shoot for, Nightreign’s eight Nightlords should be the game’s highest tier goal, with easier and more varied challenges kicking around beneath them.

Night scores

It’s been funny watching some commenters quickly judge Nightreign as a trend-chasing cash-in when it has in fact resisted including almost any of the “genre standard” features that compel me to replay roguelikes again and again. Take the progression in Hades as a prime example: early on, just making it to the final battle against the god of the underworld is a struggle. But as your skills improve you also accrue points you can use to get stronger until beating Hades feels trivial—and instead of that final battle being your only goal, ggwp uninstall, the game blossoms from there.

You can unlock different forms for each weapon that change how they play. You can apply modifiers to each run that add challenges for better rewards. You can earn unique items for the time you spend nurturing relationships with other characters.

(Image credit: Supergiant Games)

Not only are all those things satisfying, but they give purpose to repeated playthroughs. Maybe you want to crank up a ton of difficulty modifiers and beat Hades at his most punishing—that’s a run you have to be utterly locked in for. But maybe after one of those, you just want to keep hanging out in Hades’ world and beat a low stakes run with a weapon you haven’t used much, or polish off that one character’s questline you still haven’t seen to the end.

In my favorite co-op roguelike, Risk of Rain 2, my friends and I would often set the difficulty to easy to see how ridiculously overpowered our builds could get—we’d forgo fighting the final boss to just keep looping through levels and see how much crazy stuff we could accrue. Other times we’d set the difficulty to hard and try to reach the final boss as quickly as possible to defeat him and tick off one of the game’s primary challenges—an accomplishment that took a lot of practice, as well as a good bit of RNG luck.

It would be so fun to be able to do the same in Nightreign. Let me set some theoretical sliders to easy so I can stay on the field for four days instead of two, stacking my entire inventory with legendary weapons and smiting field bosses with a single swipe of the Sword of Night and Flame. Or let me fight the final boss on the equivalent of NG++, and earn something special for the accomplishment.

(Image credit: Hopoo Games)

Checklists of challenges and unlocks are not typically FromSoftware’s bag, so I’m not surprised to see them absent here. But it would’ve been relatively simple to give players a lot more to accomplish in Nightreign with some light structural changes—some progression systems beyond random relics and the meager memory fragment objectives for each character, some lower-tier bosses to target for chill runs.

Let me walk through the boss door and see Pinwheel waiting for me to disintegrate all his bones with a single hit. Give each character a couple alternate starter weapons and alternate ultimate abilities to unlock by accomplishing certain feats in battle. Challenge me to kill every boss in a single run!

Nightreign may actually see more post-launch support than FromSoftware’s typical games—the studio has said it plans to add another character, more bosses and “additional DLC,” whatever that means. I hope, in this case, it means actually chasing a trend for once and cribbing from other games that have excelled at making randomness their whole deal. Just like PC Gamer reviewer Tyler Colp, I’ve had a lot of fun with Nightreign’s fast-forward remix of Elden Ring. I just want a lot more reasons to keep playing it.

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June 1, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Elden Ring Nightreign: 7 Tips to Beat the First Boss, the Nightlord Gladius

by admin June 1, 2025

Elden Ring Nightreign, the newest multiplayer action RPG from FromSoftware, tosses you into the thick of battle and sets you up to die to a familiar face in its tutorial (it’s Margit, and he still takes ages to bring his hammer down on your head).

But the real proving ground is the Tricephalos expedition that ends with the triple-headed dog boss, Gladius. It’s the first journey you’ll embark on in the game, putting your skills to the test as you learn the flow of the day and night cycle. Speed is key, and you can’t spend a second lollygagging around in this version of The Lands Between.

There are key features locked behind the first boss: Most of the game’s other expeditions unlock after you beat the first one, new items unlock in the Small Jar Bazaar to advance your meta-progression and beating the first Nightlord aspect is a surefire way to unlock the first secret Nightfarer class.

If you’re having trouble overcoming the game’s first expedition, it’s probably because Nightreign is much faster-paced than other Souls games. But there are ways you can level the playing field and better prepare yourself for the fight against Gladius.

Keep an eye out for sites of grace, as you’ll have to quickly spend your runes before jumping into another prolonged battle.

Bandai Namco/Screenshot by CNET

Shoot for level 12 as you farm runes

The level cap for a Nightfarer on an expedition is 15 — but you’ll hardly ever reach that as you dash around the world farming runes and powers before the third night approaches. A much easier goal to shoot for is level 12 — which you can attain if you move quickly and prioritize clearing out camps and bosses.

Crucially, you usually don’t want to waste any precious runes on merchants you find during day one and two. If you purchase items, you might find yourself several thousand runes shy of eking out another level before the final boss. There’s a merchant available before the Nightlord fight in night three, so pack in as many levels as you can and then spend your leftover runes in that shop at the end.

Keep an eye out for the elemental icons next to each enemy camp.

Bandai Namco/Screenshot by CNET

Find a holy weapon before the final night

Each Nightlord aspect in Elden Ring Nightreign has an elemental weakness you can exploit — you can view these weaknesses from the expedition screen before you embark on your mission.

Gladius, the fiery dog awaiting you at the end of the Tricephalos expedition, is weak to holy damage. Hitting him with holy-imbued attacks creates additional stagger windows, giving the team more time to whale on the boss while one person strikes the critical hit.

You can consistently find weapons with elemental infusions by beating certain enemy camps and fortresses around the map. If the location has an icon for the elemental type next to it, you’ll be rewarded with a weapon that deals that type of elemental damage once you slay the final boss there.

Keep in mind that Nightreign has inherited Elden Ring’s icons for weapon affinities, and the elemental signifiers can be confusingly similar. The lightning affinity icon is a pale yellow blade stuck in the ground with crackling bolts around it, while the similar-looking sacred (holy) affinity icon is a golden blade stuck in the ground with a circle.

Every inventory slot is useful — you need not worry about “fat rolling” in Nightreign.

Screenshot by David Lumb/CNET

Grab other weapons that you won’t use

While you’ll probably want to wield a holy weapon when you’re face-to-face with Gladius, it’s well worth it to stock up on other weapons, too. There’s no equipment load in Nightreign, so it’s purely beneficial to fill up all of your inventory slots during an expedition.

Melee-attacking Nightfarers could benefit from picking up a bow to revive their allies from afar, and ranged-attacking Nightfarers might be able to use a dagger in a pinch. More importantly, though, are the bonuses that extra weapons confer upon your character.

When you pick up a new weapon, you’ll see a list of passive bonuses underneath the weapon stats and art of war. These bonuses apply to your character even when you’re not wielding that particular weapon (with rare exception), so stocking up on armaments will snowball your power before the final fight.

Fire damage negation might not help you survive the Nightlord’s cataclysmic shrinking circle, but it will help you take down Gladius in a head-to-head fight.

Bandai Namco/Screenshot by CNET

Invest in fire and physical damage negation

The final boss of the first expedition is a fire-spewing cerberus, and he hits like a truck. Nightfarers who have dodge rolls and other abilities that provide generous invincibility frames will likely be able to avoid the hits in this boss fight, but it won’t be nearly as easy for tank characters to do so.

During the first two days of your run, you’ll still have the option to invest in passive abilities that will help mitigate some of the damage the boss can mete out, selecting dormant powers instead of weapons from certain boss rewards. Night bosses provide especially powerful passive buffs, so if you can snag fire or physical damage negation passives, it’ll help soften some of Gladius’ blows.

These churches will look familiar to Elden Ring veterans.

Bandai Namco/Screenshot by CNET

Stock up on flasks at churches around the map

Even if you take passives that help you tank Gladius’ attacks, you’ll inevitably end up taking a few hits. That damage adds up, and you’ll need to heal through it. You start with three flasks and get two more by beating the bosses during the first two nights, but managing a Nightlord with only five flasks can still be a bit tricky.

That’s why churches are so important to find during day one and two of a Nightreign expedition. They appear as golden, glowing structures on the minimap, so you won’t have a hard time plotting a course to these locations — they look just like the churches that you can get flask healing upgrades from in Elden Ring, too.

Each church will up your flask count by one. Walking into a Nightlord fight with eight flasks instead of five makes a massive difference, especially since that’s effectively nine more opportunities to heal across an entire squad of Nightfarers. Churches aren’t a distraction from rune farming: they’re an investment in your survival.

As you prepare to face your first night three boss, here’s what you need to look out for.

Bandai Namco/Screenshot by CNET

Watch out for Gladius’ massive chainsword attack

Nightlord Gladius loves fighting in melee distance and spewing fire, which gives ranged Nightfarers ample opportunity to lay into him with holy damage from afar. When the boss charges away from the fight rather than into the party of Nightfarers, you’ll know he’s up to no good.

One of the hardest hitting attacks in this boss fight has Gladius grab the chainsword off of his back with one of his heads, swinging it as the blade extends across the ground. Original Dark Souls players will probably get flashbacks to fighting Great Grey Wolf Sif, but Gladius isn’t a good boy at all.

This sweeping attack covers a massive area of the arena and Gladius can use it multiple times in a row. The good news is that it’s pretty easy to dodge through, if your character has a roll with decent invincibility frames. The hardest part is identifying when this move is about to be unleashed — so keep an eye on how far away from you Gladius is trying to fight.

Once you begin your battle with Gladius, things can quickly get out of control. Stick together as a cohesive team unit.

Screenshot by David Lumb/CNET

When the boss splits up, don’t let your party follow suit

Once you beat Gladius down to half health, he adds a new move to his repertoire. The Nightlord will occasionally split into three fireballs that rocket across the arena — you’ll want to dodge roll through these — before turning around and returning to the party as three separate dogs.

These canines are no less fiery than the cerberus-form, and they’ll usually each target a single member of the party. Just because the dogs are split up doesn’t mean your team has to. Ranged Nightfarers like Ironeye or fragile glass cannons Nightfarers like Duchess and Recluse might have trouble once they’re singled out, so it’s best to group up and repel this phase of Gladius as a team.

Note that in its separated form, each dog takes damage for the full boss, so big attacks targeting an area like various Nightfarer ultimates (Ironeye and Raider especially) are potent here.

Once enough time passes, Gladius will fireball around the map once again and return in his cerberus form (unless you manage to defeat him before he switches phases once again). When he takes on his larger base form, you can revert to your original strategy to swiftly take down this very bad dog.

With Gladius defeated, a whole host of new expeditions will become available to you and your squad. Even though you’ve finally bested the real tutorial, you’ll probably benefit from our beginner guide as you set out on some of the more challenging Nightreign adventures. Good luck out there, Nightfarer.

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June 1, 2025 0 comments

Esports

Elden Ring Nightreign Remembrance quests & how to complete them

by admin June 1, 2025

Remembrances are one of Elden Ring Nightreign‘s more obtuse features, but they’re important to understand as each contains unique rewards.

Instead of exploring the history of its world like Elden Ring did, FromSoftware’s spin-off focuses its attention on the backstories of playable characters and how they came to be recruited to fight against the Nightlords.

Fully uncovering the motives and relationships between every Nightfarer is key to unlocking some of the best ability-altering Relics in Nightreign, so here’s everything you need to know about Remembrances and how they work.

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What are Remembrance quests?

Remembrance quests are accessed in the Roundtable Hold hub area by visiting the Journal. This grand tome documents key events in the lives of Nightreign’s eight playable characters, including those yet to happen.

Playing as each character and completing Expeditions with them will add additional lore to their Journal entry and eventually unlock a Remembrance. Activating these at the Journal will transport you to an instanced version of the Roundtable Hold, where an NPC, after delivering exposition, will ask you to complete an objective in Limveld.

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These tasks vary wildly in requirements and difficulty, often requiring that you defeat a special enemy or boss out in the field to obtain a quest item. Do note that finishing an Expedition after completing a Remembrance objective is not required to continue progress.

See the steps below for a breakdown of how Remembrance quests are generally structured.

How to complete Remembrance quests

Open the Journal in Roundtable Hold
Begin the selected character’s Remembrance (if applicable)
Complete the highlighted objective in Limveld
Complete and exit the Remembrance to claim a reward

Locate the Journal

Head to the highlighted area in the Roundtable Hold to access the Journal. Here, you can check individual story progress for each Nightfarer and begin a Remembrance if one is available.

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Complete a character-specific objective

After beginning a Remembrance, you’ll usually be directed to interact with a listed NPC in the Roundtable Hold, who will then ask you to complete a specific objective.

In this example, Guardian is tasked by the Iron Menial with locating and defeating a special enemy that will only spawn during his Remembrance. You’ll know exactly where to find these objectives as they’ll be highlighted with a unique icon on the Limveld map, as pictured below.

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Once your objective is complete, your progress will be saved regardless of whether the Expedition ends in success or failure. If you’re playing solo and only care about Remembrance progress, you can quit to the main menu and reload your save to expedite completion.

Claim unique rewards

Once you’ve returned to the Roundtable Hold, debrief with the NPC to wrap up loose ends. Some Remembrances – like Wylder’s first Remembrance – will require additional minor steps such as solving a riddle or small puzzle in the Hold.

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You’ll know a Remembrance is completed once a portal spawns nearby, returning you to the present day with a reward, usually in the form of a Relic. Completing Wylder’s first Remembrance, for example, unlocks the Slate Whetstone, which can be equipped to augment his Claw Shot ability.

Remembrances can be completed solo or in a group, although if you decide to follow the latter option, it’s worth noting that only one can be active per session and are not guaranteed to appear even if every condition is met.

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To make your life easier in finding memory fragments while out and about in Limveld, check out our character tier list and how to find much-needed Smithing Stones to upgrade your weapons.

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June 1, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Elden Ring Nightreign: How Long To Beat

by admin June 1, 2025

Elden Ring was a massive open-world game that stretched well beyond what many of us expected back in 2022; and its Shadow of the Erdtree DLC even added dozens more hours of fun. Elden Ring Nightreign, on the other hand, is a multiplayer roguelike game with a smaller scope and more focused, action-packed gameplay loop designed to keep you and some friends trying its limited expeditions again and again (and again).

The Most Sought After Elden Ring Sword Has A Storied History

Read More: Nightreign Explodes On Steam But Is Getting Cooked In The Reviews

As such, you’re not going to find seemingly endless new encounters or areas to explore within this entry in the franchise. Instead, you’ll find that the game is lengthy in an entirely different way, demanding hours and hours of dedication and an acceptance that failure and repetition are part of the game’s design. Here’s what to know about the amount of gameplay you’ll find in Elden Ring: Nightreign.

How long is Elden Ring Nightreign?

Elden Ring Nightreign is a challenging game that requires a lot of strategy and teamwork, so how long it takes to beat will vary greatly from person to person. Your success in this ultra-challenging multiplayer roguelike depends greatly on learning the best spots on the map for getting what you need, adapting to ever-changing scenarios, and leveraging your chosen character’s unique skillset.

With all of this in mind, it’s difficult to tell you just how long you’ll spend in Elden Ring Nightreign. As you set off on your initial few expeditions, success can seem nearly impossible. And whether or not you begin to find a groove is, again, dependent on your patience, adaptability, and skill.

Some folks may take dozens of hours playing a single expedition, while a really solid group with high skill and a bit of luck may complete it on their first try. Completing every expedition and tackling the true final boss of the game can take anywhere from 25-40 hours for veteran players, and those who struggle with these types of games (or have particularly bad luck) could see their game time stretched to upwards of 60 hours.

Of course, all of this is just to complete each of the expeditions once, which is barely scratching the surface of Elden Ring Nightreign. Completionists will find there are a handful of questlines tied to each of the characters that require you to finish certain expeditions or complete specific things on the world map. And there are enough trophies and achievements to keep diehards busy for many additional hours.

If you think you’ve got what it takes to tackle Elden Ring Nightreign ,you can grab it now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows PCs.

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June 1, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Should you play Elden Ring Nightreign solo?

by admin June 1, 2025

FromSoftware’s Dark Souls games all included multiplayer in some form, but with Elden Ring spin-off Nightreign it’s turned the soulslike genre into a true co-operative online experience. Players team up in groups of three to take on fearsome Nightlord bosses, able to seamlessly share in its exhilarating thrills together.

Yet this seems to go against fans of the genre. Sure, being able to summon help in the original Elden Ring led to community superstars like Let Me Solo Her, and there are mods to make seamless co-operative play possible. But for the most part, these games are predominantly solo experiences, offering grimdark worlds to explore with the occasional threat of player invasion. And with the reveal Switch 2 game The Duskbloods will similarly be an online multiplayer game, FromSoftware even had to reassure fans it’s still making solo games too.

However, it’s still possible to play Elden Ring Nightreign on your own. The question is: should you?

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Elden Ring Nightreign Review – An Authentic Souls ExperienceWatch on YouTube

Like many, I’ve always played Souls games completely alone and I’ve mostly ignored the series’ multiplayer mechanics, so I was intrigued to see how Nightreign would hold up. As I wrote in my Elden Ring Nightreign review, though, the game has surprisingly convinced me a co-operative Souls game can be just as challenging and thrilling. Yet reviewing a multiplayer game is an interesting experience, as there’s a limited pool of fellow media to join up with. That meant in the early stages I did dabble in the game’s single player mode – there’s an option to launch an expedition on your own instead of a team of three, though at present there’s no option for two players.

By comparison to playing with others online, playing Nightreign solo is an extremely lonely, frustrating, and repetitive experience. I would not recommend it – at least, not at first.

It’s clear, Nightreign has been designed primarily as a multiplayer experience, with players relying on each other for support. Character skills can sync up together for increased damage, and players can revive one another if downed in battle. What’s more, bosses have huge health pools, sweeping AoE attacks, and rush across the battlefield to target multiple players. At times, they can feel more like an MMORPG boss intended for multiple players. Often the best method for facing a Nightlord as a team is baiting it in one direction for others to hit from another angle.

But that’s not possible alone. Instead, you’ll likely be overwhelmed by a flurry of attacks, or spend time chasing after bosses rather than engaging them. And once knocked down, there’s no one to help revive you – and when facing a Nightlord, that means restarting an entire forty minute run all over again. FromSoftware has scaled down enemy health for solo players and there are purchasable revival items, but playing alone is absolutely a struggle. Runes – your experience gained by defeating enemies – are shared between multiple players, so as a team you can swiftly beat groups of enemies to quickly level up. Alone, smaller encounters waste your time and bosses are frustratingly challenging. What’s more, you can’t cover as much of the map, and won’t level up as quickly, so you’ll likely be severely under-levelled once you reach a boss. And while buff-providing Relics can boost your chances of success, you could spend hours grinding alone for the best ones to use. The game just isn’t designed that way.

Elden Ring Nightreign is fundamentally designed as a multiplayer experience | Image credit: FromSoftware

Of course, it’s still possible to play solo. And no doubt there will be experts already looking to rise to Nightreign’s considerable challenge without aid from other players. But this will require significant understanding of character skills, boss patterns and weaknesses, and the most optimal route across the map, all learned after hours of play. This isn’t a game to tackle alone until you’re aware of all its intricacies.

Solo play does have its place, though. While the Roundtable Hold, your base of operations, includes a training area, there’s nothing like a bit of in-the-field action to understand each character’s moveset. So if, like me, you’re too embarrassed to test a character for the first time with others, you can at least do a dummy run of the game alone offline without the prying or judgemental eyes of others.

It’s also handy for completing the game’s Remembrances. Each character has a distinct story, told through journal entries and extra missions, which often means defeating a certain enemy or finding a certain item on the map. These can be completed with others, but going alone allows you to rush over and focus on these missions without interrupting the strategies of other players.

How will The Duskbloods shake up the FromSoftware formula? | Image credit: FromSoftware

Still, the design of Nightreign is fundamentally geared towards three players and sharing those strategies. Playing with friends on voice chat is the best experience; playing with random matchmaking is feasible; and playing alone is a chore – even if the game’s day one patch has made some balance adjustments.

Yet there’s more to come. Next year FromSoftware will release The Duskbloods on Switch 2 and I’m intrigued to see what the studio will learn from Nightreign. Will it further blur the boundaries between a multiplayer and solo experience? And if all fans really want is another truly single-player game, how long will they have to wait?

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June 1, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Elden Ring Nightreign gets strong start on Steam, despite Mixed reaction

by admin June 1, 2025

UPDATE 4.30pm UK: Elden Ring Nightreign has had two million players in its first day.

FromSoftware shared the news on social media, celebrating the co-operative spin-off’s launch day.

A second patch is due next week to improve the game for solo players, following a backlash against the multiplayer game.

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ORIGINAL STORY 11am UK: Elden Ring Nightreign, released today, is off to an immediately strong start on Steam.

The online co-op spin-off has already reached a peak concurrent player count of 313,593 players within its first few hours of availability.

It’s also sitting comfortably in the top five most played games of the last 24 hours.

Elden Ring Nightreign For Dummies: Basics For EVERYTHING You Need to Know (But Were Afraid to Ask)Watch on YouTube

Of course, Steam’s most played games list tends to be dominated by multiplayer games – by their nature, they attract more players.

By contrast, the original Elden Ring has a peak concurrent player count of 953,426, sitting at ninth in the all-time most played games.

Still, there’s clearly interest in FromSoftware’s multiplayer experiment, although user reviews so far are “Mixed”. Many are complaining about the inability to play with two players, as well as the poor communication options without voice chat.

“No duo option, had random people join to just run off and do their own thing. Let me duo with my mate…” reads one particular review.

Indeed, the game is at its best when played with three friends. It’s possible to play solo, but isn’t recommended.

FromSoftware has stated it’s considering a two-player option in future, admitting it was “overlooked” during development.

The game is also available across PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.

A day one patch is available to download, which brings balance adjustments and bug fixes. However, FromSoftware has warned some PC configurations using the latest graphics cards may experience frame rate drops.

“FromSoftware’s multiplayer spin-off is an exhilarating rush and a celebration of the studio’s prior achievements Souls veterans will devour,” reads our Elden Ring Nightreign review.

Looking for help? We’ve got you covered with our Elden Ring Nightreign tips and tricks.

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June 1, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Elden Ring Nightreign Already Has A Two-Player Co-Op Mod On PC

by admin June 1, 2025

Elden Ring Nightreign may have only just launched but a well-known modder has already released a much requested Duos mode mod that players can download from the Elden Ring Nightreign Nexus for the PC version of the game.

The mod comes from Luke Yui, the modder also responsible for the popular Seamless Co-op mod for Elden Ring, as well as other From Software games. Within a few hours of Nightreign going live, Yui shared a short video demonstrating a prototype two-player setup that wasn’t connected to matchmaking servers. It wasn’t long after that that the actual mod launched for everyone else to use.

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Now Playing: Elden Ring Nightreign GameSpot Video Review

Elden Ring Nightreign is intended as an online co-op game for three players, or solo, but with no option to only play in pairs unless they match with a random third wheel. While a three-person group is quite common in online games, including Apex Legends and Destiny, the lack of a duo option has not gone down well for folks who just want to play with a friend or partner. It’s one of the criticisms highlighted amongst the negative reviews on Steam, where the game is currently sitting at a “Mixed” rating.

The lack of a Duos Mode was made clear during Elden Ring Nightreign’s announcement and game director Junya Ishizaki also explained in an IGN interview back in December that the reason behind focusing on three players was “largely a game balancing decision, rather than a game design decision.” In a later IGN interview ahead of the game’s launch, Ishizaki did however admit that duos were “kind of overlooked and neglected” and hinted that support may come post-launch.

While nothing has been officially confirmed, this is yet another example of modders stepping in to add such missing features to a game.

Elden Ring Nightreign is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, X.box One, and Xbox Series X|S.

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June 1, 2025 0 comments

The Executor in Elden Ring: Nightreign stands poised with his blade at the ready.

Gaming Gear

The GOAT of Sekiro has already soloed Elden Ring Nightreign’s final boss as its katana-parrying samurai guy

by admin May 31, 2025

Souls YouTuber Ongbal, known for their singularly stylish, often flawless play in Dark Souls, Elden Ring, and especially Sekiro, is back for Elden Ring Nightreign. One day after sharing their first solo run of the three-person co-op game, Ongbal posted their first solo victory against Nightreign’s final boss. Spoilers for that boss below.

Being a Sekiro enthusiast who often opts for katana builds in other Souls games, Ongbal naturally favors the Executor in Nightreign. This katana edgelord’s unique ability shifts him into a special stance that enables Sekiro-style timed blocks, as distinct from the big to-do of Elden Ring’s high risk, high reward parries.

Executor Solo VS Final Boss (Elden Ring Nightreign) – YouTube

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Nightreign’s final boss, Heolstor, starts out in a sluggish, “oooh I’m just a decrepit tragic king don’t hurt me” mode reminiscent of Vendrick from Dark Souls 2. He naturally launches into a “Haha, I’m actually a killer instinct anime sword god” mode once you deplete his first health bar⁠—think Lady Maria in Bloodborne or Gael phase 2 in Dark Souls 3. We’re playing the hits.