For the better part of 15 years, FromSoftware has been hailed as one of the most competent, consistent, and influential entities in the games industry. Certainly, the Tokyo-based studio has made massive waves with games like Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring, which have served to inspire everything from Assassin’s Creed Origins to God of War Ragnarok. But the studio’s most recent release, Elden Ring Nightreign, has enjoyed a more complicated different reception.
Elden Ring Nightreign, in stark contrast to the aforementioned single-player FromSoftware titles, was designed with multiplayer front-of-mind; you can technically play the game solo, but it’s clearly intended to be played with others. As a cooperative title with a lower initial cost of entry, Nightreign was promised to receive more regular updates and expansions relative to FromSoft’s previous titles, positioning the game as something of a live-service. But of course, gamers don’t tend to associate a company like FromSoftware with the live-service model, so how exactly has Nightreign developed since its May 2025 release? And now that the dust is settled, does Elden Ring Nightreign hold up?
Elden Ring Nightreign Is More Balanced, Especially for Solo Players
The most important, but also most easy to overlook, changes to Elden Ring Nightreign have come in the form of a variety of balancing patches, which have arrived periodically since launch. Audiences were quick to lament the incredible difficulty of Nightreign, prompting FromSoftware to issue patches for better relic discovery and higher starting stats, smoothing things out a bit. The game feels most improved in solo mode, which now gives players one extra life per boss encounter, making for a less punishing experience.
Who’s That Character?
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Easy (7.5s)Medium (5.0s)Hard (2.5s)Permadeath (2.5s)
Make no mistake, Nightreign is still tough, even by FromSoftware standards, but it’s certainly less frustrating. This is reflected outside of combat as well, as Nightreign has seen helpful UI changes and miscellaneous quality-of-life features that have greatly improved the moments between the meat-and-potatoes gameplay. On top of all this, FromSoftware added a duos mode to Elden Ring Nightreign, making it more accessible and offering a fresh way to experience the game.
Everdark Sovereigns and Deep of Night Make Elden Ring Nightreign Even More Brutal
It’s a good thing that Nightreign has been made more balanced and accessible, because free, post-launch challenges make the game considerably harder. The first optional difficulty spike came in the form of Everdark Sovereigns, extra-tough renditions of Nightlord fights that rotate weekly. Everdark versions of Nightlords may spend the entire fight in their second phase, for example, or they may have new attacks altogether.
The introduction of Everdark Sovereigns was followed by an even more challenging game mode, Deep of Night. It’s only unlocked after beating Nightreign’s “final boss,” Night Aspect, and introduces more powerful enemies and exclusive gear that can’t be unlocked during regular expeditions. It should go without saying that Deep of Night is intended for experienced players, its ranking system facilitating an endgame time-dump.
The Forsaken Hollows
By far, the most significant and widely publicized addition to Elden Ring Nightreign post-launch is The Forsaken Hollows, its first and possibly last paid DLC. Releasing in December 2025, The Forsaken Hollows added a slew of fresh content to the game, the most significant of which include:
- Scholar: a new Nightfarer specializing in buffing allies and debuffing enemies.
- Undertaker: a new Nightfarer with high agility, faith, and offensive potential, favoring heavy weapons.
- The Great Hollow Shifting Earth, which dramatically alters the Limveld overworld with new architecture and geography.
- Two new Night Lord bosses: Traitorous Straghess and Weapon-Bequeathed Harmonia
- Several new overworld bosses, including Knight Artorias from Dark Souls.
The Forsaken Hollows is the only Nightreign content drop that isn’t free, but considering that it retails for just $15, it’s quite a good deal. It’s especially worth investing in for those who’ve already mastered the game’s other Nightfarers and are looking for something fresh. Build diversity is one of the best parts of Elden Ring Nightreign, so the arrival of two all-new player-characters is easily The Forsaken Hollows’ biggest selling point.
The Future of Elden Ring Nightreign Is Uncertain, but Its Present State Is More Than Worth Playing
Elden Ring Nightreign’s most recent update was in January 2026, although this only consisted of a few additional balance tweaks—nothing very substantive. More telling are the comments Bandai Namco included at the end of this update’s patch notes, specifically: “Further updates will be distributed in the future for you to continue to enjoy ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN more comfortably.” Describing future updates as being designed to help players enjoy the game “more comfortably” may indicate that Nightreign is being shifted to maintenance mode. FromSoftware remains tight-lipped about its plans for Nightreign, and with The Duskbloods launching later this year, it’s hard to say what the future holds.
But if you’re wondering whether you should give Elden Ring Nightreign a shot, this shouldn’t matter to you: the game already has plenty of content worth sinking your teeth into. The average player can milk well over 100 hours of gameplay from Nightreign before they run out of things to do, especially in the wake of its many updates.
