Singleplayer Elden Ring Nightreign is no longer hell to play, but it’s still a compromised game of 30-minute boss runbacks
I am Mr. Antisocial Souls—I don’t play many multiplayer games in general, and FromSoft’s offerings have always been, for me, private affairs. So I’m just as surprised as anyone that Elden Ring Nightreign’s multiplayer focus has really hooked me.
I still thought I’d be playing solo at least half the time until I realized that Nightreign’s singleplayer experience elevates all the game’s flaws to their maximum annoyance level. Two patches have made the solo experience about as good as it can get, I reckon, at least within the specific, run-based format FromSoftware has created. If the queue’s taking forever and none of your friends are online, it’s an option.
Alternatively, if you’re a challenge run YouTuber or you’ve got an unhealthy relationship with these games and a certain prideful streak, I can’t deny there’s a “lemme get one more shot at this guy” appeal here. I’m afraid I’m now in too deep and I will solo the Darkdrift Knight, RNG be damned.
What’s still busted?
I’ve got three main gripes with Nightreign overall: Its opacity and borked UI, the frustration of a wasted run and long runback to a boss, and the game’s cruel, often borderline trolling RNG. They’re all made much worse with the isolation and added pressure of solo play.
The game’s refusal to explain basic systems is certainly exacerbated if your first few runs are solo, as was my experience, but that naturally becomes less of an issue as you get more time in. The boss runback—the amount of time between a checkpoint and a boss room for repeat attempts—is something FromSoft has concertedly minimized with each new game, to the extent that it’s barely even a concern in Elden Ring.
Nightreign, with its half-hour roguelike runs, is Boss Runback: The Game. While rewards for dying to the Nightlord have been improved with the latest patch, losing a run in Nightreign still feels worse than in any roguelike I’ve played—I’d chalk this up to how much of the difficulty is weighted toward the final boss. After a certain point, you’re only really losing runs that have progressed all the way to day 3.
Not having allies to support and revive you adds to the ludicrously high stakes, and no matter how much damage tuning FromSoft does, the Nightlords in particular were designed with three players in mind. Losing to a boss that feels like it was designed for a trio, knowing it’ll take another half-hour for another shot, and not having anyone to commiserate with is just an awful feeling.
Then there’s the RNG question: One of the most fundamental, “You got Nightreigned” experiences is loading into a run only to find that there are few—or even zero—camps on the map with a guaranteed drop of the elemental weapon type the Nightlord is weak to.
I tested out the new patch today, and across two solo runs as archer Ironeye against the lightning-weak Darkdrift Knight, I only had three lightning camps spawn on the map—one in the first run, two in the next.
None of them produced a lightning bow for my archer character. Nightreigned yet again.
What’s gotten better?
FromSoft’s patches have done an admirable job mitigating the frustrations of solo play, and absent work on a structurally more solo-friendly experience—which just doesn’t make sense, given Nightreign’s focus—I think it’s as good as it’s going to get.
Self-revivals have been very well-balanced: You get one freebie each climax fight (night one boss, night two boss, Nightlord), and every merchant carries a Wending Grace item for sale providing one more revive. You can only buy one during the first two days, with the final, day three merchant having one more. This means you get two revive opportunities per night boss, and three in the final fight.
The balance of enemy health in solo play also now feels much closer to base Elden Ring—I don’t feel like I’m plinking away at raid boss health pool meant to stand up to three players anymore. Faster level-ups in solo play help make up for your inherently slower camp-clearing without friends to back you up.
Nightreign’s hit its natural ceiling for solo play, with a severely compromised experience, but a viable one. The whole reason I’ve been on a solo Darkdrift Knight kick is to complete Ironeye’s final remembrance quest, and solo play is, overall, a reasonable way to blow through remembrances without inconveniencing other players—or having a Discord call talking over a dramatic story beat.
There are just a lot of caveats even for me, Mr. Antisocial Souls, so I can hardly recommend Nightreign as a solo experience to someone without the Souls Sicko emotional handicap.
It works best as a supplemental gametype. If I were to prescribe a tolerable dose… maybe 15% of your total playtime? It’s another matter, though, if you aspire to the lifestyle of a challenge run YouTuber. Sekiro god Ongbal soloed Nightreign’s final boss just two days after launch, and now has a video of them soloing every Nightlord in the game. The rest of us mortals are probably going to have a lot more fun with a team.
