FromSoftware's new co-op roguelike offshoot Elden Ring Nightreign was designed at its core to be a three-player multiplayer experience, though it also supports playing solo if you'd like to with lower enemy and boss scaling (solo play will have some other accommodations as well after next week's Patch 1.02 update). One thing that game doesn't have, however, is a duos mode that lets you adventure in Limveld with one other Nightfarer.
Such an option would be greatly beneficial to folks who only have one other friend to play with, or only have one friend online at any given time. And the good news is that it might come to the game one day; director Junya Ishizaki said in an interview that FromSoftware "kind of overlooked and neglected the duos aspect" and that it's something that it's "looking at and considering for post-launch support."
I'm hopeful we'll eventually see duos support come to Nightreign officially one day, but if you're on the PC version, a mod has already been released that unlocks that functionality: Seamless Co-op (Nightreign), a project from the popular Soulsborne modder Yui — the creator of Elden Ring Seamless Co-op, the Blue Sentinel anti-cheat mod for Dark Souls 3, and most recently, seamless co-op releases for the Dark Souls games.
Like Yui's other seamless co-op mods, this one works by disconnecting you from FromSoftware's matchmaking servers entirely and then allowing you to connect to your friends with a peer-to-peer connection instead. This, along with the fact the mod creates a different save file for you to use with it and automatically switches to it when you launch it, means there's no risk of being banned by the developer's anti-cheat systems that comb your game for mod files.
The mod's page on Nexus Mods (linked above) explains installation and usage clearly, but the TL;DR is that you drag the project's files into your Elden Ring Nightreign game folder, edit the nrsc_settings.ini file to select how many players you want in your party, and then launch the game with the nrsc_launcher.exe executable. This is the only way to boot it up with the mod active; launching through Steam or with the regular .exe will start Nightreign with its regular connection to FromSoftware's servers and your vanilla save file.
Once you're in the Roundtable Hold in the modded version of the game, all you then have to do is invite your friend (or friends, if you're playing with two others) through Steam in the matchmaking menu like you would normally. From there, you can jump right into a run.
There's little reason to use Nightreign's seamless co-op with three players unless you and your friends want to mess around with mods, but the big draw here is the duos functionality; the lack of it in the vanilla experience led to the mod being released in "a rushed alpha state."
That means you'll likely run into some bugs, and indeed, the mod page's forum has many users reporting issues like connection troubles or a curious glitch that makes every instance of in-game text display a [string not found] error. Overall, though, the mod does work, and I'm sure Yui will iron out its kinks with time and future releases.
Notably, Yui says "this mod will be expanded on in the future," which makes me think Nightreign's seamless co-op will eventually support options for altering gameplay variables or parties of up to four players or more. For now, though, take advantage of their hard work and enjoy playing Nightreign in a duo if you've got a buddy you want to partner with.
Elden Ring Nightreign is a bold new experimental spinoff from FromSoftware that spices up the original game's Soulsborne combat with a roguelike, co-op driven twist. Though it has sizable issues like only having one map or underwhelming enemy variety, it's nevertheless going to be one of this year's best Xbox games and best PC games for Souls fans craving action. It's $39.99, but you can get it for $33.99 at Newegg with the promo code XVSAVE (Xbox) or EPES3Z23 (PC).
