Although the base game had enjoyable enough multiplayer elements, Elden Ring Nightreign's whole shtick is that it's multiplayer co-op. You'll team up with two other players and, trust me, you'll need it. Nightreign is far from a walk in the park, even with a coordinated team.
Despite multiplayer being, y'know, the entire focus of the game, it's surprisingly confusing how it all works. Below, I'll go over how you can join friends in Elden Ring Nightreign, what you can and can't do together, and the lowdown on crossplay support.
How to play Elden Ring Nightreign multiplayer
To play with friends in Nightreign, you need to:
- Interact with the expeditions table at the centre of the Roundtable Hold.
- Select the multiplayer tab by pressing F2 or the right bumper on controller.
- Pick "invite members" to open up your platform's friends list, and then invite your friends.
- Once in the lobby, displayed in the top right corner (you won't see them in the Roundtable Hold), you can select an expedition and you'll all queue together.
At least right now, you can't go on expeditions with just two players. If you and a friend are looking to play together, then you'll also have a random player on board to fill the final slot. It's solos, trios, or a double and a tag-along. Take a look at the best Elden Ring Nightreign team compositions to set yourself up for success against the Nightlords.
If you're running into issues, there are a number of odd matchmaking rules that are worth understanding, as you're not told them in-game:
- You can't matchmake for any other Nightreign bosses beyond Gladius until you've beaten Tricephalos, except by invitation.
- You can matchmake with people who currently have a Shifting Earth event active if you don't have one, but only if you have unlocked the specific event. For example, if your friend has the Shifting Earth: Mountaintop event active, then you need to have at least unlocked it, even if it's not currently active in your own session.
- If you have a character remembrance active, you will not be able to matchmake with other players currently looking to do a remembrance event unless you invite them directly. In this case, the leader of the lobby takes priority and will have their objective active—the other players won't be able to progress their personal objectives until the host has finished theirs.
- Some character remembrance steps and story moments, like the Duchess unlock and Revenant unlock, can only be completed solo, though you can stay in the lobby while you do them.
Unfortunately, Elden Ring Nightreign doesn't have crossplay support, meaning you won't be able to play cross-platform. Given the multiplayer focus of Nightreign, it's honestly a baffling decision for the longevity of the game, so hopefully it will be added in the future. For now, though, you're limited to just the players on your platform, including your friends.
Nightreign does have cross-region play though, which seems to be disabled by default. This opens up the matchmaking parameters to allow players from further afield to join your expeditions. It could speed up your matchmaking at times, but chances are it'll also be more laggy depending on the region your allies are in.
How to use passwords in Elden Ring Nightreign
You've no doubt noticed the other options in the multiplayer menu, particularly the password and group password system. If you're playing casually with friends, then you're safe to ignore these—they sound more useful for content creators and events.
Essentially, you can set a multiplayer password that will matchmake you with other players also using the same password. Enter any code in this box, and have other players do the same, and it will limit the search to just those people. You can even change the number of players allowed to join the lobby through this method—selecting two players will fill the remaining position with a random player not using a password. Again, if you want to play with people you already know, then just invite them directly.
Group passwords are slightly different, and you might want to use this if you have a large group of friends wanting to share the experience. By using a group password, you can have up to five lobbies (whether solos, duos, or trios) linked together so you're more likely to see stuff like phantoms from other players using the same group password. You can't bypass the three-person expedition limit, but you'll at least get to see glimpses of what your other buddies are up to occasionally.
How to play Elden Ring Nightreign solo
If you're looking for a more traditional Souls experience, then you can also play Nightreign solo. To do this, just head to the multiplayer tab at the expedition table as you would to invite friends, but switch the option at the bottom of the menu from multiplayer to solo. You can then select any expedition and load into it without searching for allies.
You'd think that selecting an expedition would naturally throw you in solo, but this automatically queues you instead—multiplayer is very much the intended way to play Nightreign. By tweaking the setting above, you're effectively disabling the automatic matchmaking.
Beware that Nightreign is an even more challenging experience alone than it is with others. You'll still be pressed for time but won't benefit from the runes gathered by allies or, of course, a helping hand during combat.
