The trailer in front Elden Ring Night Reign which dropped during The Game Awards on Thursday doesn’t really explain what’s going on. It opens with overhead shots of a world that looks a bit like The Lands Between if the giant golden tree is missing, and then spends the next three minutes showing off things that simply weren’t possible in Elden Ring. Characters fight bosses in the open world, fly over lava on ghostly eagles, and – wait a minute – was that a grappling hook?
Yep, that’s totally a grappling hook, according to real-world examples of PC gamer And IGN. Elden Ring Night Reign has eight heroes to choose from and one of them has the ability to pull himself towards enemies so he can create an explosion that does a ton of damage. That’s right: this is a spin-off adventure where you don’t create your own character. Instead, there are different heroes to play as and ways to improve their unique abilities along the way.
Elden Ring Night Reign is not about forcing your way to another throne; it’s about surviving three nights in an ever-changing realm of known and unknown monsters with your friends. You could even call it a cooperative run-based roguelike set on a randomized map that looks a lot like Limgrave, Elden Ring‘s opening area. PC Gamer says each session lasts about 30 minutes, as long as you don’t get swallowed up by a dangerous ring that traps you like in a Battle Royale.
You start each run at level 1 and redeem runes to boost all your stats at once, kind of like the Scadutree Blessing system in Shadow of the Erdtree. Camps, caves and crumbling ruins will be your sources of loot, but what you encounter will change each time. Enemy placements will also shift, and if you fall, your teammates can revive you. It’ll be quite a task to customize your loadout before the sun sets and one of the game’s bosses appears to be monitoring your progress.
It wouldn’t be a FromSoft game if dying didn’t sting. If your teammates don’t reach you in time, you’ll respawn nearby and lose all your runes and one level. Both PC Gamer and IGN make it seem like this isn’t as bad as it sounds considering the speed at which you collect runes, but it can certainly lead to a complete party wipe and ending the run prematurely. For that reason, you may want to play with friends rather than random players. Even Night rain The focus is on co-op, FromSoft hasn’t come up with anything better than setting up a shared multiplayer password to play with your friends. The seamless co-op mod spoiled me.
There are plenty of other details in the descriptions from PC Gamer and IGN, like how each hero works and what cool combos you can perform with your allies. But neither explains why Dark Souls bosses are in the trailer. I know I am not the only one who has seen all the cameos Dark souls 3. Who does FromSoft think it’s fooling with that cloaked lady wearing the mask? That’s mine Fire warden. All the press release says is that Night Reign is set in “a universe that runs parallel to the events of Elden Ring”, and the lore devil in me desperately wants to know more.
Elden Ring Night Reign will launch in 2025 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and PC.