Elden Ring Nightreign will, very soon, get its higher difficulty mode – The Deep of Night. The game is clearly about to have a moment again. FromSoftware knows this, of course, so the developer decided to roll out a big update to tweak several things ahead of the new mode’s release.
This latest patch, version 1.02.2, arrived moments ago across all platforms, bringing with it a number of unexpected balance changes and gameplay tweaks that were no doubt made with Deep of Night in mind.
Manage cookie settings
Patch 1.02.2 released following an hour of server maintenance. While it does contain Deep of Night content, that higher difficulty mode won’t be available until tomorrow, September 11, as previously announced.
What you are going to see today, however, is a list of wide-ranging balance changes to all of (except Ironeye) the game’s Nightfarer character classes. Here are some of the highlights: Wylder now has increased poise while casting Claw Shot, and the ability now deals increased Stamina damage to blocking enemies. Guardian now gains more Strength and Dex with each level, and their Steel Guard passive has a wider range.
Duchess has a lot of changes of her own. She gets more Dexterity with each level up, and some of her dagger attacks deal more damage. Her ever-popular Finale Ultimate now lasts longer, too. Executor gets a flat attack power increase while Cursed Sword is in use, and a boost to the skill itself. While Aspects of the Crucible: Beast is active, the class now deals more damage. Revenant is the recipient of another interesting change, as other players can now pass through her summoned spirits. Their transparency has also been adjusted, perhaps to better signal to players that they can be passed through.
Image credit: Bandai Namco/VG247
Beyond the individual changes for each Nightfarer, 1.02.2 makes changes that affect everyone using certain weapons. For example, dual-wielded jump attacks performed with small and medium weapons now deal more stagger damage, but doing the same with larger weapons will deal less.
Death Flare of Eclipse Shotel, a weapon skill that applies Death, should now be more effective at doing so. Interestingly, there’s now a cap on the cumulative effects of the Power of Vengeance and Power of House Marais passives, which is something that might mess with some builds out there.
The other big component of the patch affects a couple of the Everdark Sovereign bosses. Everdark Sovereigns are more challenging versions of the game’s Nightlord bosses, and though some have seen balance tweaks in the past, today’s changes have a wider reach. Everdark Sovereign Sentient Pest, Equilibrious Beast, and Darkdrift Knight have received a mix of buffs and nerfs to their attacks, as well as how they respond to attacks/status effects from players.
Image credit: Bandai Namco/VG247
Read on below for the full change log.
Nightfarers adjustments
Wylder
- Increased Poise while casting Claw Shot.
- Increased Stamina damage dealt by Claw Shot to blocking enemies.
Guardian
- Increased Strength and Dexterity gain when leveling up.
- Increased the Steel Guard passive ability angle range.
- Increased the range of the Wings of Salvation Ultimate Art’s weapon portion.
- Increased the attack power of Halberd guard counters.
Duchess
- Increased Dexterity gain when leveling up.
- Increased the attack power of some Dagger attacks.
- Decreased the two-handed Dagger’s second heavy attack damage.
- This change does not affect charged attacks.
- Increased the duration of the Finale Ultimate Art.
Raider
- Increased the Greataxe’s and Great Hammer’s ability to stagger enemies with attacks.
- Increased the attack range of the Retaliation skill.
Revenant
- Adjusted the transparency of Revenant’s summoned spirits.
- Players can now pass through Revenant’s spirits Helen and Frederick.
Recluse
- Increased the offensive spells attack power of Magic Cocktail.
- Decreased the time required to cast spells using Magic Cocktail.
Executor
- Increased attack power while Cursed Sword is in use.
- Increased the attack power of the Cursed Sword weapon skill when the skill is in use and the blade is in its unleashed state.
- Increased the attack power of some attacks while Aspects of the Crucible: Beast is active.
Weapons, Passive Effects, and Special Effects adjustments
- Increased the stagger damage with dual-wielded jump attacks for some small and medium weapons..
- Decreased the stagger damage with dual-wielded jump attacks for some large weapons.
- Increased the potency of the death status ailment applied by the weapon skill Death Flare of Eclipse Shotel.
- Set a cap on the cumulative effects of the Power of Vengeance and Power of House Marais passive effects and adjusted their potency accordingly.
- Adjusted the stagger effect of the “Guard counters trigger holy bursts” passive’s explosion to ensure that it doesn’t reset the enemy’s posture break state.
Relic Effects adjustments
- Adjusted the effect “[Wylder] Standard attacks enhanced with fiery follow-ups when using Character Skill (greatsword only)” to consume stamina when performing follow-up attacks.
- Increased the attack power of the “[Wylder] Art activation spreads fire in area” burn effect.
- Adjusted the effect “[Wylder] Art activation spreads fire in area” so that the burn effect’s attack power does not vary between one-handed and two-handed weapon wielding. Increased the duration extension of the “[Ironeye] Extends duration of weak point” effect.
- Increased the potency of the “Continuous HP Recovery” effect.
- Increased the potency of the “HP restored when using medicinal boluses, etc” effect.
- Increased the potency of the “[Recluse] Activating Ultimate Art raises Max HP” effect.
- Changed the “[Recluse] Activating Ultimate Art raises Max HP” effect so that the HP increase persists until an attack is received, even after the art’s duration ends.
- Increased the amount of Runes obtained through the “Critical Hits Earn Runes” effect.
- Increased the potency of the “HP Restoration upon (specific weapon type) attacks” effect.
- Increased the potency of the effect “FP Restoration upon (specific weapon type) attacks” effect.
- Reduced the duration of the “Improved Poise & Damage Negation When Knocked Back by Damage” effect.
Other Nightfarers adjustments
- Adjusted the visibility of the “Rykard’s Rancor” sorcery.
Everdark Sovereign adjustments
Everdark Sovereign Sentient Pest
- Increased attack and stamina attack power against guarding Nightfarers while possessed by Animus, Ascendant Light.
- Adjusted and modified the attack actions of Animus, Ascendant Light, Gnoster, Wisdom of Night, and Faurtis Stoneshield.
- Reduced the stagger duration when Nightfarers is hit by some attacks of Animus, Ascendant Light.
Everdark Sovereign Equilibrious Beast
- Adjusted the effect granted to summoned condemned Nightfarers so that it can be dispelled by Law of Regression.
- Increased the enhancement granted by the light dropped by defeated condemned Nightfarers.
- Reduced the attack power of the condemned Guardian.
- Removed the effect that increased damage negation upon re-summoning condemned.
- Reduced the death status effect resistance of condemned Nightfarers.
- Adjusted the reaction of condemned Nightfarers to player character’s ranged attacks.
- Adjusted the targeting priority of condemned Nightfarers under specific combat rules.
Everdark Sovereign Darkdrift Knight
- Increased the HP and stamina attack power against guarding Nightfarers for Fulghor, Champion of Nightglow.
- Increased the attack power of some attacks from Fulghor, Champion of Nightglow.
Other enemies
- Adjusted the reaction to player character’s ranged attacks of condemned Nightfarers that appear during events.
- Added a stagger reaction when strong attacks, such as Ultimate Arts, hit the Red Wolf of the King Consort boss.
- Fixed a bug where some attacks of the Marionette Soldiers were less likely to hit player characters.
Limveld adjustments
- Increased the Night’s Tide damage after defeating the second night boss.
- Adjusted the spawn locations of Sentient Pest incursions so they are less likely to occur far from player characters.
Menu adjustments
- Adjusted the design of the Holy attribute icon.
Penalties for disconnecting from online sessions
- Adjusted the penalties rate for session disconnection.
- Disconnecting from a session due to network issues or quitting the game during a session in progress will result in penalties, which may limit multiplayer capabilities. Rejoining the session you left will remove the penalty imposed upon disconnection.
Bug fixes
- Fixed a bug where the post-attack delay for right-handed Greatswords when handled by Wylder was shorter than expected when using Sorceries or Incantations with a left-hand weapon right after attacking.
- Fixed a bug where Guardian’s Wings of Salvation Ultimate Art could be interrupted by enemy attacks or other factors during its activation.
- Fixed a bug where Guardian’s Wings of Salvation Ultimate Art could be deflected and interrupted.
- Fixed a bug where backstepping as Duchess did not accept pre-inputs for skill commands.
- Fixed a bug where spells cast through using the Magic Cocktail skill could be casted again under certain conditions.
- Fixed a bug where allied player characters could clip through tombstones when Totem Stella was used.
- Fixed a bug where spirits summoned by Revenant did not revive if their HPs were depleted.
- Fixed a bug where special effects applied to spirits summoned by Revenant would appear above Revenant.
- Fixed a bug where Executor could not perform critical hits using the Cursed Sword while holding a weapon in the right hand that cannot land critical hits.
- Fixed a bug where the Relic Effect “HP Restoration upon Thrusting Counterattack” did not apply to the attacks of Executor’s Cursed Sword.
- Fixed a bug where Executor could not use pre-inputs for actions after deflecting an enemy attack with the Cursed Sword under certain circumstances.
- Fixed a bug where accumulated effects of Power of Vengeance and Power of House Marais Passive Effects would disappear when opening the large door and moving to the final battle area by using the “Open the door” action prompt in the Spirit Shelter.
- Fixed a bug where the rarity of weapons placed directly on the field from Dormant Power might not be displayed correctly.
- Fixed an issue where Passive Effects triggered by walking did not activate during horizontal movement with precision-aimed shots using “Bow” and “Crossbow”.
- Fixed an issue where the player character could become unresponsive for several seconds after performing an attack from a stance with certain Skills.
- Fixed an issue where the passive effect “Improved Charged Sorceries” was not applied to the sorcery “Shattering Crystal”.
- Fixed an issue where the status ailment “Frostbite” could be inflicted on the player character due to the accumulation of the frostbite status ailment from some enemy attacks while using an Ultimate Art.
- Fixed an issue in the battle with the Everdark Sovereign “Equilibrious Beast” where “Libra, Creature of Night” could move below the ground under certain conditions.
- Fixed a bug where levels would decrease without healing from flasks when False Blessing occured during the battle against Everdark Sovereign Equilibrious Beast.
- Fixed a bug where the player would level down if the False Blessing effect was activated during the battle against Everdark Sovereign: Equilibrious Beast, even if the action was interrupted by an enemy attack before the HP recovery effect occurred.
- Fixed a bug where blessings would become usable again after defeating the second night boss.
- Fixed a bug where the player character could perform unintentional moves when using the Spectral Hawk.
- This addresses issues that were not fully resolved in App Ver. 1.02.
- Fixed a bug where the player might not be correctly transported to the battle area if they died from falling during the cutscene while moving to the final battle area in the Spirit Shelter.
- Fixed a bug where Dormant Power might not appear upon defeating an enemy under unstable network conditions.
- Fixed a bug where the effect of an used Wending Grace could activate when rejoining a session after a disconnection.
- Reduced rendering load for some attacks of the Everdark Sovereign Tricephalos on PS4 and Xbox One.
- Fixed a bug where it was difficult to switch targets with a diagonal input (PC only).
- Improved game stability in some environments (PC only).