It’s early days for Elden Ring Nightreign, however already gamers have run up in opposition to their hardest problem to this point. No, it is not a traditional FromSoftware boss, it’s the battle to discover pals to play with.
Elden Ring Nightreign drops gamers into the shifting lands of Limveld, exploring and preventing for survival both solo or in teams of three. There is no such thing as a means to play two-player co-op. We’ve already reported on Elden Ring Nightreign’s ‘blended’ Steam person assessment score, with many of the complaints revolving round a scarcity of a duos choice in addition to no voice chat.
Enjoying Elden Ring Nightreign solo is proving to be a very troublesome expertise. As defined in IGN’s Elden Ring Nightreign assessment: “Let’s get an important caveat out of the way in which first: if you’re hoping to deal with Nightreign solely solo, and are something lower than a hardcore Elden Ring participant that actively seeks out methods to make that already troublesome sport much more difficult, Nightreign isn’t for you. Sure, there’s technically a single-player choice, however it’s so poorly balanced that I might be shocked if it isn’t patched and adjusted throughout the first month of launch. And that is coming from somebody who lives and breathes most of these video games.”
So, solo gamers are confronted with matchmaking with random gamers, which itself is presenting issues due to a scarcity of coordination required to defeat Elden Ring Nightreign’s bosses.
Because of this, gamers are turning to the Elden Ring neighborhood for assist. The Elden Ring subreddit, for instance, is full of requests from duos searching for a 3rd participant (sure, the neighborhood is having enjoyable with this example).
“There’s like a zero % likelihood I’d discover one different individual to play with a lot much less two,” mentioned redditor trickponies. “Is the sport even price it solo?”
Gamers are mentioning that Elden Ring Nightreign does have matchmaking, so you’ll be able to play trios in the event you don’t have pals to play with. However, as others have countered, enjoying this sport with randoms isn’t all the time the perfect expertise.
“I’ve seen too many movies on this sub to belief randoms with something greater than the newspaper,” mentioned one participant. “I like you all. However from a distance. My blood stress can solely take a lot.”
Gamers are turning to Discords and different on-line platforms as they hunt for like-minded followers to workforce up with. Elden Ring Nightreign hasn’t even been out 24 hours, however that is proving to be a giant hurdle for the neighborhood as they work their means by means of the sport.
Nightreign solo cuz my pals have a 9 to 5 and I am unemployed pic.twitter.com/t47UrYoDSv
— Raph (@RaphDeee) May 29, 2025
Some Elden Ring followers are even saying they gained’t purchase the sport as a result of they don’t have any pals to play with.
“Yeah, as disappointing as it’s, Imma have to cross on this sport, purely as a result of I haven’t got any pals to play it with and I am unable to play solo,” mentioned Twinkie454.
Others are calling on FromSoftware to rebalance the solo expertise so it’s extra manageable. “We’ll see what FromSoft does to re-balance it, so perhaps have some persistence,” one individual mentioned.
And, as you’d anticipate, some followers are providing to assist others out. “…. Did we simply turn out to be greatest pals?!” mentioned one Elden Ring participant. “Get the sport bestie, I am going to see you tomorrow after I get off work!”
Regardless of these points, Elden Ring Nightreign has loved a large launch on Steam, with an unbelievable 313,593 peak concurrent customers on Steam in a single day. That was sufficient to make Elden Ring Nightreign one of many most-played video games on Valve’s platform.
And it appears like FromSoftware might add a duos choice sooner or later sooner or later. In IGN’s interview with Elden Ring Nightreign director Junya Ishizaki, the Nightreign lead developer mentioned the selection to lean on solos and trios because the core expertise choices. When requested why there is no choice for a pair of gamers to drop in collectively with out a matchmade third participant, Ishizaki mentioned it was ignored.
“The straightforward reply is that that is merely one thing that was ignored throughout growth as only a two-player choice, so we’re very sorry about that,” mentioned Ishizaki. “As we mentioned earlier than, we set out to make this a multiplayer co-op sport for 3 gamers, balanced for 3 gamers, in order that was the principle focus and it is on the core of Nightreign.
“In fact, I actually as a participant perceive that and sometimes need occasions the place I am simply enjoying myself, so that is one thing that we thought-about from the beginning,” Ishizaki continued.
“And so we did put a number of effort into creating this expertise that was playable for solo gamers in as a lot as the foundations and new techniques allowed. So in placing all our efforts into that side, we sort of ignored and uncared for the duos side, however that is one thing that we’re taking a look at and contemplating for post-launch assist as nicely.”
High 25 FromSoftware Bosses
High 25 FromSoftware Bosses
We’ve bought loads of Nightreign ideas and methods to allow you to take down all of the eight Nightlord Bosses, and in the event you’re questioning how to unlock the 2 locked Nightfarer Courses, take a look at How to Unlock the Revenant and How to Unlock the Duchess, plus How to Change Characters.
Wesley is Director, Information at IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You possibly can attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.