The marketing for FromSoftware and Bandai Namco’s new Elden Ring co-op spinoff Elden Ring Nightreign has been relatively quiet overall, with very little about the game said or advertised since its announcement at The Game Awards last year and the Network Test that was held in February. Now that May has arrived, however, the Soulsian roguelike is just a month away from release — and to give fans a detailed look at what they can expect from the experience, the developers have released a new overview trailer that runs through each of its major elements.
I’ll go over the contents of the 10-minute trailer here, of course, but I recommend watching it yourself either with this link or through the embed below. It starts by explaining the core of the Elden Ring Nightreign gameplay loop, which is exploring a version of Elden Ring’s Limgrave called Limveld with two other players and rapidly defeating enemies to collect powerful weapons, unlock stat buff upgrades, and accrue runes to level up at Sites of Grace.
The catch, though, is that as time goes on and night falls, a circular wall of flame constantly encroaches, slowly constricting your available space battle-royale style and eventually forcing you to challenge a difficult boss to continue. On top of that, Limveld is also said to be very dynamic, with many different enemy spawns, miniboss encounters, “unpredictable events,” and map variations (volcanic craters and Scarlet Rot forests, for example) possible. Make it through this cycle twice, and you’ll be able to challenge a major Nightlord boss on the third day and either claim victory or suffer defeat.
The overview then zeroes in on several of the Elden Ring Nightreign playable character classes, dubbed “Nightfarers.” When the game launches on May 30, there will be eight — four of which (Wylder, Guardian, Duchess, and Recluse) were in the Network Test and have been known for a while now. However, this trailer introduced a few more; one of them is Ironeye, an archer with a Marking skill that “greatly disrupts” an enemy’s poise and creates “openings to exploit” and a special deadly piercing shot.
The other is Raider, a Viking raider-style character with tons of poise, a heavy-hitting Retaliate counter-attack skill, and a nifty Totem Stella ultimate art that creates a massive gravestone. The gravestone damages enemies it collides with when spawning, buffs teammates near it, and can even be used as cover by standing behind or on top of it.
There was also a bronze-armored Nightfarer called the Executor seen — previous trailer footage implies that they’ll excel at Sekiro-style attack parrying — along with a pale feminine character that leaks suggest is called Revenant. Supposedly, Revenant will be a necromancer-type class with access to Elden Ring Spirit Ashes, but very little is known about her for sure.
To cap things off, the rundown concludes with a look at Nightreign’s iteration of Roundtable Hold, which is where players can slot in permanent upgrades they earn from runs and purchase unique items from a Living Jar Merchant with an earned “Murk” currency. There’s also a mirror where you can buy skins for each Nightfarer with Murk, and some of the costumes include classic characters from Dark Souls games like everyone’s favorite jolly cooperator Solaire, Dark Souls 2’s Faraam knight, and Leonhard’s outfit from Dark Souls 3.
Elden Ring Nightreign looks fantastic, but…
I was already incredibly excited for Elden Ring Nightreign — as I wrote in February, I had a blast with the Network Test and think FromSoftware is definitely onto something here — but this new trailer has fueled my anticipation to jump in even further. Both Ironeye and Raider sound very fun to play, and some of Limveld’s unique random events and dynamic map changes look very cool, too.
With that said, though, I still can’t help but be worried by the fact that it seems like Limveld is the only map in Nightreign. Elden Ring has a ton of other thoughtfully designed overworld areas that I’d think would serve as excellent foundations for the spinoff’s gameplay, and while Limveld — like Limgrave — is beautiful, I’d love some biome variety. It quickly got stale during the Network Test, and while that was just a small slice of what the full experience will offer, I still have concerns.
I suppose we’ll see if Limveld has enough encounter and design diversity soon enough, as Elden Ring Nightreign is scheduled to release on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PS5 on May 30. It’s got an MSRP of $39.99 — $20 less than Elden Ring itself — but thanks to some sweet deals, you can reserve your copy of the PC version for just $35.19 at Fanatical.
