Elden Ring Nightreign launched in late May, putting a multiplayer spin on FromSoftware’s polished Soulsborne formula. Like any new launch, though, it still has some quirks to work out, two of the biggest being that to have the best time with Nightreign, you need friends willing to play with you, and they actually need to be decent at the game. Now, the game’s first major patch is making Nightreign earlier for solo players to tackle while addressing a host of other issues with the Fortnite-ified RPG.
The biggest changes in the new patch come to how Nightreign treats solo players. It’s an incredibly unforgiving game no matter what, and bad teammates can be almost as little help as no teammates at all. But up to this point, tackling Nightreign alone has been all but impossible for most people, which is unsurprising given that it’s billed as a co-op experience first and foremost.
From now on, those trying to tackle it in singleplayer will have a little help. As of the new patch, you’ll automatically revive once if you fall in a boss battle as long as you’re playing alone, and you’ll get more runes for every enemy you take out.
Compared to the game’s multiplayer mode, trying to take on Nightreign on your own will still be a huge challenge, but these updates should nudge the experience from near-impossible to just very challenging. Getting a free revive for each boss battle will definitely help avoid the sting of getting caught in a move you weren’t ready for, and should be especially helpful when you’re still trying to learn a new boss’ attacks so you won’t be taken out in one swoop. The boost to runes will also prevent you from heading into fights without properly leveling up first, and the stat boosts that provides might end up doing more for you than the auto-revives in the long run.
Even for players are aren’t taking on the masochistic challenge of playing Nightreign solo, the new patch includes a few balance updates. Rare relics will appear more often from vendors and more will be offered as rewards if you manage to survive to day three, the final round of each match. These relics add bonuses to your character that provide sometimes crucial boosts to your offense and defense, so any chance to get these should make the game both easier and more fun.
On top of its difficulty changes, the new Nightreign patch also introduces a host of bug fixes that are less exciting but still important improvements to the game. Many of them focus on fixing spells and passive effects that weren’t activating correctly. A few changes are also meant to address crashes and graphics glitches that were occurring for some players.
So far, Nightreign has been a deeply divisive game. The release of any new Soulslike game is almost guaranteed to spark another round of players debating the role of difficulty, but that’s been particularly heated around FromSoft’s latest release. Almost all of the developer’s games have featured some form of multiplayer, but it’s always been optional, and some fans have typically avoided it to avoid making things any easier on themselves.
With Nightreign, multiplayer is almost a must, and while a skilled group can make even the toughest fights easier, party members who won’t pull their weight can be just as much of a threat as any enemy. With the game’s latest patch, everyone will have more opportunities to increase their power before a match’s final face-off, and even those who want to tackle it alone may have a fighting chance.
