Elden Ring Nightreign is designed around three-player squads, but solo play is possible. (Whether it’s enjoyable going solo remains to be seen.) But support for duos isn’t part of the plan and won’t be available when the game launches next week. But FromSoftware might reverse that decision; Elden Ring Nightreign director Junya Ishizaki tells IGN that the studio is considering adding two-player support after launch.
Ishizaki says that a two-player option was “overlooked during development,” and apologized to players who can’t (or don’t want to) get a trio together.
“As we said before, we set out to make this a multiplayer co-op game for three players, balanced for three players, so that was the main focus and it’s at the core of Nightreign,” Ishizaki says. “Of course, I myself as a player understand that and often want times where I’m just playing myself, so this is something that we considered from the start. And so we did put a lot of effort into creating this experience that was playable for solo players in as much as the rules and new systems allowed. So in putting all our efforts into that aspect, we kind of overlooked and neglected the duos aspect, but this is something that we are looking at and considering for post-launch support as well.”
FromSoftware often tweaks its games’ difficulty in post-launch updates, so scaling the game to adapt to two- and three-player teams will likely roll out over time. So if you’re dying to play with a friend or loved one, and not bring a third wheel into your squad, watch this space.