Video Games

Nameless King won’t be the only Dark Souls enemy in Elden Ring Nightreign

Plus details on characters and more

Marco Wutz

FromSoftware / Bandai Namco

Newly announced Elden Ring Nightreign was one of the greater surprises of The Game Awards 2024 and its director, Junya Ishizaki, has spoken to Japanese outlet Famitsu about the title and revealed further details – thanks to Automaton for the translation.

The appearance of the Nameless King, an iconic enemy from Dark Souls 3, in the Nightreign trailer sent shockwaves through FromSoftware’s fan base and it looks like his majesty won’t remain the sole enemy making its way over from the Dark Souls universe – Ishizaki explained that Dark Souls creatures will be a rarer sight than their Elden Ring counterparts, but they’ll be around.

Nightreign basically challenges a group of three players to survive in its hostile world for three days and nights, after which the trio must slay a final boss it has chosen before embarking on the session. As is a staple in survival games, daytime provided ample opportunities to explore and defeat more manageable enemies to obtain equipment. At night, exploration will be limited and a difficult boss enemy awaits being challenged. Altogether, a round is supposed to last for about 40 minutes.

Though designed for groups of three players, Elden Ring Nightreign can be played solo. In very FromSoftware fashion, there will be no text chat for communication – pings and gestures must be enough to coordinate with members of your team.

Elden Ring Nightreign screenshot of characters fighting a giant spider enemy.
Looks like Poison Swamps are still very much on the menu. / FromSoftware / Bandai Namco

Featuring different dungeons and bases, the map will be reshuffled for every session – and so will the loot obtainable from chests with the stats of weapons being randomly determined.

Instead of making their own characters, players will choose from eight predetermined options following a loose class structure, though Ishizaki didn’t delve into any more detail on this.

Ishizaki explained that while the controls and world of the game will feel familiar to FromSoftware fans, the feel of the game will be a fresh one – enemies encountered during the day won’t be like insurmountable obstacles, but more like prey to be hunted.

Elden Ring Nightreign is targeting a release in 2025 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

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Marco Wutz
MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg

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