Elden Ring Nightreign is not your typical FromSoftware experience. It’s a multiplayer game and draws inspiration from battle royales and looter shooters. It’s certainly not what you expect from the team behind some of the best RPGs of the last two decades.
Yet after spending more than six hours with the game on PS5, Nightreign revealed itself to be a surprisingly fresh experience from the fabled developer, and a fantastically fun co-op romp to boot. It may irk some FromSoft purists, but Nightreign is one to look out for when it drops on PS4 and PS5 on May 30th.
FromSoftware describes Nightreign as a “session-based RPG”. It’s a game that successfully manages to streamline the best aspects of Elden Ring, so that you can create a build, discover new secrets, and fight gruelling bosses all within a 45-minute session. While the base game wants you to take your time, steadily perfect that build, and learn enemy attack patterns, Nightreign is all about speed, strategy, and working with what you’ve got.

You start a session on Elden Ring Nightreign at the Roundtable Hold. Acting as your hub, it’s here that you select your Nightfarer, this game’s version of classes. During our preview, we had access to four different classes, essentially boiling down to the typical archetypes of soldier, tank, assassin, and mage. Each comes with pre-set stats, different levels of manoeuvrability, different starting gear, and most interestingly, two rechargeable ultimate abilities — which we’ll get into later.
You start your run by gliding into Limveld on a spectral hawk with your two other teammates, and it’s hard not to make comparisons to Fortnite here. Nightreign is made to be played as a trio, which you can do with friends or solo queue in matchmaking, but offline solo play is also possible.
As soon as you touch down, you’ve started Day One, a roughly 15 minute session in an open map that steadily gets smaller thanks to a battle royale-inspired circle. It’s during this initial period that you must find enemies to kill to collect runes and level up. You start a run with next to no health, stamina, or mana, making you easily killable in just a few hits by the weakest of foes.

The first thing you’ll notice as you touch down on Limveld is the quickened pace of gameplay. Switching the run button from Circle to L3 — a Godsend in our opinion — your character is much quicker and the game includes a number of ways to help you speed across its map: a wall mount mechanic allows you to climb higher surfaces like camp walls; there’s no fall damage meaning you can jump from cliff edges and tower peaks; and Spirit Springs and Spectral Oaks allow you to leap enormous heights and glide great distances. Interestingly, your trusty steed Torrent is not featured here.
This speedier gameplay ties into the levelling too, which upgrades all aspects of your character, rather than singling out specific attributes. Just a handful of levels (the cap is 15 from what we could tell) will massively boost all attributes of your character, leaving you in a much better stead for the tougher enemies to come.
But exploring Limveld isn’t just about runes. Weapons are at the forefront, allowing you to play with different styles and different damage types, with randomised loot meaning you never quite know what you’re going to get. Weapons are available on a tiered system, very similar to a game like Destiny, with grey, blue, purple, and gold tiers bringing better stats, passive perks, and powerful weapon arcs. You can upgrade a weapon with smithing stones, if you find them and a merchant before the circle closes in that is.

Inventory is massively mixed up in Nightreign, with no armour, only six weapon slots, and no over-encumbered status. You need to choose your weapons wisely, as not only will they dictate the kind of damage you can do, but most come with passive perks that can aid the power of your character — even if they aren’t equipped. So, you might not particularly like a weapon you come across, but it plays into a build you are hoping to craft up.
In your hunt for better gear, the map is filled with various points of interest, ranging from churches which always store additional healing flasks to named bosses which not only reward you with copious amounts of runes but also drop higher tier weapons and perks that last you the rest of your run.
With such a short amount of time, it’s not possible to do everything, so you must learn how to maximise the potential of your run. Sometimes that means splitting up in the hope of more catered gear — a magical staff can always be found in towers, for example — and others will see you focusing on bosses in the hope of the higher-level rewards.

Nightreign does have a trick up its sleeve too, with randomised events. In our preview build, we were accosted by the Fell Omen, who relentlessly chased us down until either they were dead or we were. We had plenty of runs where this event ruined our plans but it could also set us up for success if we managed to survive it. More events will be available in the full game, and we can’t wait to see all the types of chaos it will cause.
Once the circle has funnelled you into an end of day boss fight, this is the most traditionally Elden Ring that Nightreign ever gets. With an enclosed space you must use the tools and skills you’ve acquired to take down a named boss from the base game, with two possible bosses on each night depending on the Nightlord run you are currently on.
These boss fights are where the ultimate abilities really come into play. Each class comes with two abilities, ranging from marking an enemy so that teammates can regain HP and FP upon hits to a slam attack with a massive area of effect. Mixing and matching abilities really feeds into that team build synergy, and can vastly change your approach to the big bosses.

At one point in our session we ran a triple Duchess run (the assassin archetype), a class that’s able to temporarily make the team invisible and can repeat all damage done to enemies from the last five seconds or so. By timing up when we used our abilities, we were able to rinse a boss we had previously struggled with in mere minutes.
By defeating the boss at the end of Day One, the map opens up and Day Two begins. This works exactly the same as before, but this leg of the run is more about refining the build you crafted on the first day. You could try to find new perks and new weapons, but with limited time, you might actually be weaker than if you just doubled down on what you already have. It’s a choice we’re sure many players will struggle with.
Again you’re funnelled into a named boss and upon defeating it, you’ve now got one last chance to upgrade your character at a Site of Grace, and buy anything you can afford from a merchant. With a daunting cinematic showing your Nightfarers opening an epic doorway, you start the final Nightlord fight — new bosses made specifically for Elden Ring Nightreign.

Our fight was against a triple headed wolf named Gladius, who wielded a sword on a massive chain. Having to jump as its sweeping attacks whooshed by, the tension was palpable. While getting to this point is incredibly condensed by comparison to Elden Ring, it's still nerve-racking, especially knowing that death will set you all the way back to the start.
At this point in your run, you should be working in conjunction with not only the build you’ve crafted over the session, but also those of your teammates. While so many aspects of the game feel streamlined, it’s in this final boss fight that you realise the scope and depths of Elden Ring’s buildcrafting is still very much alive and present. Even with powerful builds, defeating Gladius was no small feat, making our eventual victory all the sweeter.

The completion of a run, regardless of whether you make it to the end or not, will reward you with Relics, permanent stat buffs that you can apply to specific classes. These range from healing perks to damage type boosts, so that you can go back for another run and lay the foundations for a certain kind of build. You just have to hope that your team finds the materials to make those stats bonuses shine.
Outside of this there was very little in the way of permanent progression, a surprising omission in the multiplayer space. During our session we were earning a form of credit that we couldn’t spend in our build, so we’d love to know if there’s more to character customisation, whether that’s purchasing Nightfarer skins or just rerolling Relic perks. The Roundtable Hold also feels a lot larger, but was noticeably empty. Whether this is filled come release or expanded out post-launch is yet to be seen.
One thing is for sure though: every single run feels like starting with a new character and a fresh set of build possibilities. With different boss pools, randomised loot spawning and events, eight character classes to play around with, and eight Nightlords to conquer, the scope of this game is massive. We can easily see Nightreign taking upwards of 50 hours just to work through the different classes and bosses, and that’s before you take into account simple replayability and the new content that will come to the game post-launch.

Elden Ring Nightreign is an exciting new venture from the famed RPG developer. By streamlining the best aspect of the base game and condensing it into a much more intense and focused co-op experience, it can’t be understated how much fun Nightreign is. Our team had such a laugh as we strategised build synergies and split off to widen our discovery of Limveld.
Some may see the experience as a lesser or shallower release compared to the developer’s past work, but to do so is to ignore the pin-point balancing act of speeding everything up whilst still retaining that Elden Ring feel. After nearly seven hours with the game on PS5, we feel like we’ve barely scratched the surface and we can’t wait to sink our teeth into what will undeniably be one of the most interesting multiplayer releases of 2025.
Will you be dropping into Limveld with a squad when Elden Ring Nightreign releases on PS4 and PS5 on May 30th? Let us know in the comments below!
PlayStation Buttons based on work by VictorPines, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Comments 34
How is it single player though? Err asking for a friend.
@themightyant You can play the game on your own in a solo offline mode, but it isn't a traditionally single player FromSoftware experience.
I am still stuck in the starting area in Elden Ring. Cannot get past the castle gates. 😂
Doesn’t sound like my cup of tea
@AaronBayne I know you CAN, I was wondering if you tried it out to see if it's any good that way (I know it's not how the game was primarily designed) as boss AI, aggression, health etc. should really be different with 1 vs 3 players. It's a different design challenge.
@themightyant Ah sorry misread your question. I didn't try the game on my own, so it's certainly something to check out with the CNT this weekend. If I get a moment to try myself, I'll get back to you!
A battle royale/Looter Shooter Multiplayer focused game reusing assets from the base game from a studio known primarily for single player games. You know if this was a Sony game it would be getting absolutely pilloried all over the internet. This comment section would have at least 100 comments, most snarky, none amusing(Concord Lolz)! and almost all hateful.
I bet they'll succeed where Sony invested billions and failed...
No worries @AaronBayne I didn't make it very clear originally. I'm just intrigued, and i'm sure some others are too, to see how it is as a single player experience as they announced that was an option.
@ZeD Have you gone exploring prior to getting to the castle gates? Exploration is so, so key to the Elden Ring experience. Not doing enough exploring contributes to making the game more difficult than it is…and it’s easier and more accessible than any other Soulslike from FromSoftware. Exploring is the best in this game.
@Ricketyrascal87 I did explore a little bit but the way I went, the creatures just got bigger. I remember being chased by a bear like creature until it killed me.
I struggle with that little camp before the gates too. I can take down a couple of the guards but then get swarmed.
I have very little experience with Soul like games, and "more accessible" comment is what made me think I could do this one. It is still way too hard for me.
Much as I love the soulsborne games, I am 100% out on this. If it works for you, fine, but I’m not wasting my time on a MP game when I could be enjoying a replay far more.
Unless this is F2P I can’t see it doing very well, the audience certainly doesn’t seem the type to stick around for this kind of thing. Oh and Concord, lol. As mentioned above.
I'm legit really interested in this. I loved Splatoon's first foray into roguelite territory with Side Order so I'm excited to see From Soft's take.
@ChrisDeku Except Sony would have spent $200M+ dollars and 5 years development time on it, whereas Fromsoft clearly knew how to efficiently produce a game like this by reusing assets from their previous game. This is hardly an apples to apples comparison.
I'm interested in this, but I don't have any friends to play online with. I'll need more info about the solo experience, or at the very least I'll need to know more about what it's like to play with casuals.
Do we know if this is a full priced release or free to play or something?
Well that's me well and truely out of this one, I thought it was a SP game tbh not a weird fortnite clone. Oh well, luckily plenty of other games to play.
@Bigtuna515 It's not free to play. It's $40.
@ZeD Aw yeah that feeling... thinking how you're gonna make it past the giant troll at the top and make progress...with some almost hopeless sound playing in the back...you wish you could ask the merchant Kalè in the Church of Elleh for help but he doesn't know what you're up to...you're all alone. It's all part of the charm that makes Elden Ring so memorable.
Limited time runs are a complete turn off for me. I enjoy taking my time, slow experimentation and getting to know the weapons and builds I can create. Everything about this game is designed to stop you doing any of that.
I have over 400 hours and a platinum for Elden Ring, a game I believe is one of the best designed in gaming history. But I wouldn't touch this even if it were for free. It's not for me by design.
@ChrisDeku Almost like Fromsoft is trustworthy with their track record and Sony isn't.
@Nepp67 in 6 of the last of the 12 years a Sony Published game has won the most amount of Goty awards. Only other company with more than one in that time is EA.
So you’re talking complete tosh.
@ZeD no worries. Hahahha that Bear! I remember that. I burst out laughing when it appeared out of nowhere and stomped my character. Pretty sure I downed him arrows from a distance. What makes Elden Ring so special IMO is that a long specific combat scenario you encounter can be solved a ton of different ways. I do recommend sticking with it but if it’s not fo your, it’s not for you and that’s okay.
@Ricketyrascal87 from this convo, I decided to restart my playthrough. This time I found the tutorial area (I thought it was a trap last time).
I followed a guide that gave me some good starter areas and I have managed to beat (what I would call) 2 bosses in 2 dungeons.
There was a stone Guard dog that took a few goes but using a Jellyfish spirit(?) helped a lot.
I think it might have clicked. I think my next location is to some ruins to fight the Mad Pumpkin Head
Deep Down this sounds familiar, but I have no recollection where from…
@ChrisDeku Not really, just recently they've shown that they're incapable of doing live service mp games to the point where it has been getting them to cancel multiple games so yeah something like this would've certainly gave them a terrible look. So yes bad track record.
@Nepp67 They released the game that won best ongoing game and best Multiplayer game at The Game Awards last year.
Fromsoft is really smart. there is so much reused materials that this game probably did not cost much to develop. No risk even if it fails. I will pass on this one and wait for the DS3 remaster
It saddens me how un-excited I am by this...
Generally speaking, I worship at the altar of FromSoft - Sekiro being one of my favorite games of all time. I loved Elden Ring, plaintum'd it twice (once on PS, and then did another 100% achievement run on Steamdeck).
Even Armored Core6.... amazing game, wasn't sure it would land for me but it absolutely delivered.
I genuinely hope to be proven wrong, but Nightreign really seems to be an exercise in trend-chasing.... and the 'money men' making a push to utilise From's beloved IP as a tool to lean into the Helldivers2 model? (with a splash of Fortnite / Overwatch?)
I heard Miyazaki isn't involved in this though? Allegedly he is working on From's 'next big project' - for which I am glad, as it infers he is being put to better use than spearheading Nightreign.
Hopefully From prove me wrong
@ZeD Awesome to hear!! Enjoy and remember that this game will periodically kick your ass but when you expect that to happen, the blow to the ego hurts less 😆
AREA OF CONCERN: "draws inspiration from battle royales and looter shooters" and "it’s hard not to make comparisons to Fortnite here"
AREA OF NO CONCERN: It's FromSoftware
@Ricketyrascal87 already hit a brick wall 😂
Cannot get past a cave troll boss in a dungeon. Feels like it’s impossible to avoid its attacks
@ZeD Best advice I can give: fail and learn their attack patterns through experience and further failure. It’s the Soulslike way.
How come if a game is multi platform you guys always say , also on PC and Switch. But you never mention Xbox?
It's also on Xbox btw.
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