I Played Elden Ring Nightreign - These Are The 10 Biggest Things I Learned

Thanks to Bandai Namco, I had the opportunity to play Elden Ring Nightreignin late January 2025. This was essentially an early look at the upcoming Nightreign's Closed Network Test build, which is a significantly pared-back version of the full release, but is nonetheless enlightening. FromSoftware's co-op action roguelite is a surprising successor to Elden Ring, which won its fame by continuing the developer's run of deep single-player RPGs. Despite Elden Ring Nightreign being initially familiar, there are a number of significant changes to the experience.

Elden Ring Nightreign has you drop into a map in a region known as Limveld, a parallel world to Elden Ring's starting area, Limgrave. From there, a three-day cycle begins in which a squad of three Nightfarers must acquire gear and gather Runes (to level up with) in preparation for a boss fight at dusk. Much like in a battle royale, there is a constantly shrinking ring which pushes you toward said final confrontation. Three end-of-day bosses cap each leg of a run, which, if completed in full, runs for nearly 40 minutes. This general gameplay loop was revealed shortly after Nightreign's reveal at The Game Awards 2024, but my experience with the game has shed some light on more subtle, but impactful mechanics.

Please note that the following article is based upon my experience of the game preview, pre-launch. Some gameplay elements may be changed, or may not have been a part of the preview I attended.

10 You Don't Pick Where You Drop Into Limveld

Spawn Areas Are Predetermined

Each round in Elden Ring Nightreign begins with the three chosen Nightfarers leaping off a cliff and latching onto the leg of a sort of spectral bird. Following this brief cutscene, players are given control far above Limveld, where they'll be dropped into the action. The idea has become popular thanks to the rise of the battle royale genre, but Nightreign doesn't give you a lot of agency in determining your drop zone.

After dropping, you'll want to get to level two as quickly as possible to nearly double your HP and stats. Try clearing a nearby camp then immediately finding a Site of Grace.

You can direct the bird a little bit, but there are only a few seconds before your character is dropped into the action. There seems to be a handful of predetermined spawn locations around the randomized map, usually near Limveld's edges. All you can really do, therefore, is use the bird's-eye view to get a lay of the land to quickly consider where you want to go first. There are also ghostly trees around the map that send you back into the sky on a spectral bird, this time with a bit more control to get across Limveld quickly.

9 You Can't Crouch, But You Can Sprint Very Fast

Some Stealth Is Still Possible

A major advancement that Elden Ring inherited from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice was the accommodation of stealthy approaches. Elden Ring lets you crouch to help avoid detection by enemies, letting you often get a powerful backstab in before a fight breaks out. Crouching is not possible in Nightreign; instead, the new Surge Sprint is mapped to L3/LS, which lets your Nightfarer run much faster than the regular dash, which is still mapped to the Circle/B button.

Stealth isn't completely removed from the game, though, and one of Duchess' special abilities can be very powerful when used when going for an early backstab. Holding Triangle/Y and pressing L3/LT while playing Duchess causes her and both teammates to turn invisible for a short while. You can walk right in front of an enemy and they won't even know you're there, but the invisibility will wear off once you perform an attack.

8 There Are No Flasks For Recovering FP

HP Flasks Are Always Equipped

FromSoftware's default control scheme for its action RPGs has long reserved Square/X as a pretty flexible slot, usually where the Flasks of Cerulean and Crimson Tears are by default in Elden Ring. Nightreign follows this tradition, but that button is exclusively for HP flasks, and there is no equivalent to the Flask of Cerulean Tears. This makes FP a resource that's much more difficult to manage. There are places in Limveld to restore your FP, but there are also special mechanics, like the Recluse character being able to pull FP from their surroundings and siphon HP from enemies.

This broadly affects Nightreign's streamlined inventory management. With Square/X exclusively used for HP flasks, consumables, and throwables are mapped to up on the D-pad, with the down button cycling through them, much like it does in Elden Ring's default controls.

7 Day 3 Of A Nighreign Run Doesn't Have Any Exploration

You Go Straight Into A Boss Fight

The first two days of Elden Ring Nightreign's three-day cycle are nearly identical. When you defeat the first-day boss, the map is refreshed with new enemies and loot, and the cycle repeats for Day 2. Once you beat the second-day boss, you're given one more opportunity to grab some better gear or a buff and level up if you have enough Runes, then Day 3 takes a different tack.

You are not given another chance to explore, and are instead dropped into a nebulous realm in front of a large stone door. Beyond this door is where you'll fight a Night Lord – the Target you selected prior to matchmaking and the beginning of the run. This odd area seems to be where all final bosses are fought, and while only one was available in the preview build, eight are expected to be in Elden Ring Nightreign's full release on May 30.

6 Points Of Interest Still Have Lesser Boss Fights

A Good Source Of Loot

Despite the end-of-day bosses being the most important, Limveld is littered with other boss fights. Many significant points of interest will have a boss fight, many of which will be familiar to Elden Ring players. Seeking out a boss can be worth it since they offer exclusive loot. For instance, when you open a chest, the items that pop out have to be shared among the party, but when you beat a boss, you are offered one of three Dormant Powers, which can be loot or a permanent buff. Each player gets to make this selection.

Many ruins, churches, mining tunnels, and forts will seem familiar if you've played Elden Ring; Nightreign even has Evergaols, which can be opened with a Stonesword Key. Anytime a boss health bar appears across the bottom of the screen, you have a chance to earn a Dormant Power. Not every POI has a boss, but it's possible to complete multiple boss fights in one day.

5 The Roundtable Hold Is Different From Elden Ring's

Nightreign's Hub Area

The Roundtable Hold returns in Elden Ring Nightreign, but it's quite different from its Elden Ring counterpart. The area is more overgrown, and at least in the preview build and Closed Network Test, a lot of areas are closed off (though a small, empty basement is accessible). The Roundtable Hold acts as Nightreign's hub area; this is where you appear when you start the game, and where you'll spend time in between rounds.

Here is where you'll be able to upgrade and equip Relics, which provide buffs and act as Nightreign's long-term progression. In the full release, you'll be able to spend a currency called Murk in the Hold as well, but the NPC who trades for them isn't in the Network Test. There's also a training area, where you can try out all the game's weapons. The Roundtable Hold's alternate appearance may have some interesting implications for Elden Ring Nightreign's lore, but my time with the game was unfortunately scarce, so I didn't have much of a chance to poke around the place.

4 Each Nightfarer Can Equip Different Combinations Of Relics

Three Relics Can Be Equipped

The reward for defeating day bosses are Relics. These provide buffs, and each Nightfarer can have three equipped at any given time. There are some important restrictions, though. Every Relic has a color – blue, green, red, or orange, from what I've seen – and must be put into a slot of the corresponding color. A Nightfarer may be able to equip two blue Relics and one green Relic, for instance.

These appear to broadly align with the Nightfarer's intended play style. Wylder and Guardian are able to equip Relics that improve their melee abilities, while Recluse can use Relics that help with sorceries. During the preview event, I was told that Relics are the primary way in which character progression is achieved across runs. More powerful Relics will be earned by defeating more formidable Night Lords later in the game.

3 Nightfarers Can Be Talked To In The Roundtable Hold

Player Character/NPC Hybrids

You control one of the playable characters, known as Nightfarers, while interacting with things in the Roundtable Hold, and there's an altar where you can change which one to run around with. The others will be standing around ready for a chat, much like some of Elden Ring's NPCs, such as Rogier, Fia, and Sir Gideon Ofnir the All-Knowing (the pretentious killjoy that he is). Sadly, in the preview build, none of them really had anything interesting to say, but this conceivably might not be the case in the full release.

It's quite an interesting concept, especially since Elden Ring's main character, the Tarnished, and those that came before (e.g., Dark Souls' Chosen Undead or Bloodborne's Hunter) aren't really established characters in the world prior to the player's involvement. Sekiro is the closest analog, but even then, you can't talk to him as another character. This positions the Nightfarers as odd player character/NPC hybrids, and hopefully they'll end up with some pretty interesting background material to discuss.

2 You Lose A Level When You Die In Elden Ring Nightreign

You'll Respawn As Long You're Not Fighting A Day Boss

Dying in Nightreign isn't as disastrous as it can be in Elden Ring, but there's still a very harsh penalty. First, you'll go into a state called Near Death, where you can crawl around very slowly while a timer diminishes. Your teammates can attack you to bring you back to life, but if they don't, you'll respawn nearby – as long as you're not in the middle of fighting a day boss.

When you respawn, you'll have lost one level. This seems inconsequential at face value, but you can only reach a maximum level of 15. Jumps between lower levels can be especially punishing if you lose one early on in a run; every character nearly doubles their HP between levels one and two. This ensures an unfortunate death won't doom a run to continue with just two players, but it's difficult to overcome the day bosses if you wind up significantly under-leveled.

1 Invasion Bosses Will Chase You Even Outside The Circle

Night's Tide Doesn't Slow An Invader

One of the most intense scenarios Elden Ring Nightreign threw at me during my preview was a boss invasion. A couple of times, roughly halfway through the second day, Margit's disembodied voice taunted my teammates and I before he materialized, known in Nightreign only as The Fell Omen. Invasion bosses I'd known about because of prior info revealed about the game; what I didn't expect was for them to doggedly pursue you even through Night's Tide, the name of the encroaching ring of burning, deadly rain.

The Fell Omen seems to be the only invasion boss in the preview and Closed Network Test build, but there will be many more possibilities to appear in Nightreign's full release.

Invasion bosses seem to target one player specifically and will chase them no matter how far they run. The second time, he appeared while we were fighting another field boss, and during the impromptu duo showdown, the circle moved in on us. A mad dash ensued, with the Fell Omen attacking and slinging incantations whenever possible, while we sprinted and gulped HP flasks. We eventually made it out of Night's Tide and defeated him next to a Site of Grace, where flasks recharge if you keep coming into range. Keep that in mind if an invasion boss has you on the ropes in Elden Ring Nightreign.

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