I’m really bad at Elden Ring Nightreign. Not, like, embarrassingly so, but not great. I managed to beat Elden Ring by playing an Astrologer build and using spirit summons to tank for me while I cast spells at a distance. I don’t want to learn to parry, and I take a long time to learn attack patterns well enough to dodge them. So in Nightreign, I play Recluse, or more recently, Scholar, stand back, and try my best to support my husband and my friend in our little trio to take down night bosses. We lose. A lot. Many nights were spent on Libra. We still haven’t finished the two new DLC bosses added six months ago, though you can chalk that up partially to us not playing for a while.
Anyway my point is, I suck at Nightreign. Absolutely terrible. And it’s so, so much fun.
I really haven’t ever had this much fun playing a game I spend most of the time losing at, but here we are. I think if you don’t play Nightreign, it’s perhaps difficult to understand why we’re still playing this game over a year in when it doesn’t seem to change that much from run to run. And yet, it’s those small, subtle changes that are everything. Will we get a lot of points of interest themed around the night boss’ weakness? Will a random event force us to toss our plans in the garbage and sprint across the map while being attacked by dogs, or hailed on, or swarmed by locusts? Is the Bell Bearing Hunter in the castle basement again?
Nightreign is a game of incremental improvements that feel momentous. For instance, my trio beat the Night Aspect, the final boss of the main campaign, ages ago. But when last year’s Forsaken Hollows DLC came out, we decided to try him again using the two new characters, Scholar and Undertaker, to complete their questlines. It took ages as we worked up our skills on these new roles, and when we finally did it, the surge of relief was electric. Then, the very next day, I accidentally queued us for Night Aspect again instead of the first DLC boss, Balancers. We didn’t notice until we walked in the arena, totally unprepared. And yet, free of pressure or concern, we downed him easily again. What a rush!
It’s been over a year since the original launch of Elden Ring Nightreign, and the community has largely given up hope on any future updates beyond The Forsaken Hollows. And yet, the subreddit is still bustling, with people sharing chaotic and hilarious moments, swapping tips, and asking for opinions on their relic builds. Personally I’ve put in 130 hours, and if I’m being honest with myself, I’ll probably get that number closer to 200 before we finally down Balancers and Dreglord. We haven’t even touched Deep of Night or the Everdark bosses, and I can’t even fathom what it would look like if we did. I’d love more DLC, and I think this game deserves it, but how can I complain when I’m having so much fun being so terrible at a game so consistently for so long?
Now, we’re working on Balancers, trying to learn the new DLC map full of dangerous pits and hidden crystals, and figuring out the best strategy for second night boss Mogh, Lord of Blood, with his stupid mid-fight insta-kill and his stupid tridents that cover the field with a stupid blood mist. I’m still working, inch by inch, on my Scholar game, figuring out when it’s better to get really good at throwing knives and when I should pivot to throwing pots and eating fistfuls of boiled crab. At the end of each run, I pray for a better relic reward that will help me buff my poor Scholar somehow, but my luck has been awful thus far. Earlier this week, we had our worst-ever evening of Nightreign games, with poor luck, a bad internet connection, and just generally iffy play keeping us from getting anywhere near Balancers. The next night, we relaxed, practiced the new map, and got better.
It’s all just a part of the Elden Ring Nightreign experience.
