New Elden Ring: Nightreign Mode Is About To Ratchet The Difficulty Up To 11

Revealed weeks ago in a datamine, Elden Ring: Nightreign publisher Bandai Namco has officially confirmed a new endgame difficulty mode coming to the multiplayer roguelite next month. Deep of Night features new relics, randomized challenges, and an endless mode for those able to reach it.

“‘Deep of Night’ is a high-difficulty challenge mode designed for seasoned players who have navigated through the Night many times,” the publisher writes in a new blog post. The mode arrives on September 10 during the game’s usual update time and changes up the usual Nightreign run in a few ways. Players won’t be able to select the Nightlord they face or which Shifting Earth event is active, and enemies will all be stronger.

The “high-difficulty mode” is separated by various depths. Depth 1 is the easiest. Depths 2 and 3 are harder. Depths 4 and 5, meanwhile, feature an “endless battle for those seeking even greater thrills” so you can just play until you die. A skill-based matchmaking system will rank players and group them accordingly. Plus, new Relics and additional Vessel slots will give players more buildcrafting opportunities.

What does Nightreign change in Deep of Night?

The most challenging bit of Deep of Night might not be the boss fights either. Players who have already been exploring the mode early, thanks to mods, have found that the Night’s Tide storm, which slowly engulfs the map, does more damage. And that’s even before players suffer from a new debuff exclusive to gear discovered in the Deep of Night mode, which makes players more susceptible to the toxic rainfall. The rarest loot players pick up can come with other drawbacks as well to make surviving that much harder.

For now, players have two more weeks to try and beat any Everdark Sovereigns that are still on their to-do list. For many, that’s probably Libra, a fight that’s equal parts clever and chaotic. Fans have also already discovered clues for additional upcoming Nightreign content in the form of new subclasses. It’s unclear if those will be part of another free update or paid DLC in the future. There’s still so much of Elden Ring that could be repurposed into new content for the multiplayer spin-off.

One thing that I’d love to see FromSoftware do, and which presumably wouldn’t cost any extra money, is just flip a switch to make all of Nightreign‘s random events spawn more frequently. Some players have spent 100 hours in the game and still only encountered them once or twice.