Elden Ring Nightreign Made Me Terrified Of Margit, The Fell Omen All Over Again

One of my favorite times to play video games is a new FromSoftware release during launch week, and I don't expect Elden Ring Nightreign to disappoint. The co-op action game is a significant departure from its predecessor, but the dedicated community that has convened around FromSoft's work is what really makes a new game from the studio special. There aren't any other games that match the same feeling of communal discovery, with the cobbled-together messages left on the ground, idiosyncratic multiplayer systems, early lore revelations, and, of course, players collectively banging their heads against skill-check bosses like Margit, the Fell Omen.

In Elden Ring's early days, Margit was a terror. He guards the gate of Stormveil Castle, the game's first Legacy Dungeon, and seems designed to teach players a valuable lesson: if you can't beat a boss, try something else. It was a new concept to FromSoftware's action RPG lineage due to Elden Ring's open-world design. Margit is now a relatively minor speed bump compared to bosses like Malenia or Shadow of the Erdtree's Promised Consort Radahn, but that hasn't stopped Margit – or at least a version of him – coming back to haunt me in Elden Ring Nightreign.

The Fell Omen Returns In Elden Ring Nightreign & He's Scarier Than Ever

Bosses Can Invade Your Game

I previewed Elden Ring Nightreign's Closed Network Test build a couple of weeks ahead of time, and while I was aware boss invasions were possible, that knowledge still didn't really prepare me for it. Boss fights are frequent in Nightreign, and not just because its rapid pace pushes you toward one at the end of each in-game day. Even aside from the three mandatory bosses in a run, Limveld's randomized locations are filled with lesser bosses. It may be a gamble to take one on, especially if you find a particularly pernicious one like a Crucible Knight, but the reward is often worth it.

Loot found in chests and in barrels and crates must be shared among your three Nightfarers. For instance, when a Fire Grease drops on the ground, only one of you can pick it up. Bosses operate a little differently, though: when you defeat one, what looks like some kind of special item shows up, and when you interact with it, you can select one of three options on a menu labeled "Dormant Power." These can be pretty powerful buffs or weapons to choose from that don't have to be shared – each player gets their own set of three to select from.

Invasion bosses are much harder to predict. It seems that The Fell Omen (the name Margit does not appear above his health bar) is the only invader in Nightreign's Closed Network Test, and he usually appears sometime during Day 2. He appears to target one player specifically, and will focus his efforts on killing that Nightfarer. If he happens to appear out in an open field, it may not be a huge issue; many Elden Ring veterans will have experience against him, and the three-on-one battle if you've stuck together affords an opportunity for the two non-targeted players to chase after The Fell Omen. Nightreign's randomized elements make it so an unfortunately timed invasion makes an already cutthroat game even more frantic.

Invasion Bosses Will Chase You Through The Night's Tide

The Fell Omen Isn't Stuck In Stormveil Anymore

Wylder walking toward the Night's Tide in Elden Ring Nightreign. The Night's Tide is encroaching rain that results in a blue flam where it hits the ground.

During one of my preview build sessions, The Fell Omen decided to show up at a very inopportune time. We were in a large enemy encampment – larger than you might see in the Lands Between, actually – filled with tents and surrounded by rows of chevaux de frise that are essentially useless against the Nightfarers' wall-jumping abillites, when Margit's disembodied voice announced his arrival. His timing was unfortunate because we were already fighting another boss and the mobs stationed in the camp.

The chaotic skirmish that followed didn't last very long, though, because the Night's Tide started to come in. Night's Tide is the name given to Nightreign's gradually closing circle of blue flames, sparked by a sinister, magical rainfall. Anyone who's dabbled in battle royales will be familiar – it shrinks the available map in stages, dealing gradual damage to anyone caught in the rain. I was at first disappointed our spontaneous dual-boss fight was interrupted, but it led to perhaps the most memorable sequence from my early look at Nightreign.

The Fell Omen chased us as we ran to keep up with the Night's Tide. Thanks to the new Surge Sprint mechanic, which replaces Elden Ring's ability to crouch and lets you move faster than a traditional dash on foot, you can outpace the circle most of the time. Nightreign's Limveld has plenty of environmental obstacles, including castle walls, sheer cliffs, and deep ravines you need to use a Spiritstream to jump out of.

Spiritstreams are Nightreign's pedestrian equivalent to Elden Ring's Spiritsprings, which let Torrent jump to great heights.

This turned the Fell Omen fight into a highly mobile affair, where we'd get out ahead of the Night's Tide to get a few blows in before fleeing again, or frantically dodging attacks while we looked for a way to get to relative safety inside the circle. We eventually emerged onto a field and beat the Fell Omen, partially thanks to a nearby Site of Grace, which would refill our health and flasks whenever we got near enough. Elden Ring Nightreign will have many more invasion bosses and map permutations when it fully launches, and this one scenario has me convinced the game will organically concoct some truly memorable encounters.

The Fell Omen Convinced Me I'll Really Enjoy Elden Ring Nightreign

It's Not The Usual FromSoftware Experience

While I've long been a huge fan of FromSoftware's co-op multiplayer design (despite how cumbersome it can be), I was initially a bit skeptical of Elden Ring Nightreign. Its intense focus on co-op combat and its session-based structure had me worried that a lot of the things I love about Elden Ring and its predecessors wouldn't be present. I probably won't see an equivalent online to people discovering a chest that teleported them into a mine in some hellscape called Caelid, nor will the gibberish of messages left on the ground in-game spawn a bunch of inside jokes. I don't expect the same level of cryptic storytelling, nor am I hoping to be floored by an elevator ride like the one down to Siofra River, but I think Nightreign is capable of a different kind of organic narrative.

My moving boss battle against The Fell Omen isn't necessarily handcrafted like Elden Ring's wowing moments, but it indicates that the sheer variety expected in Nightreign at release will lead to plenty of surprising situations. There may not be so much deep lore speculation because of Nightreign's design, but I believe it's a testament to the game's core ideas that even a single encounter can put such an interesting and unexpected twist on what has become a very familiar foe. I managed to survive the encounter, but it's easy to imagine how a couple of different variables might have left my Nightfarer dead in the Night's Tide thanks to The Fell Omen in Elden Ring Nightreign.