Itâs been a while since FromSoftware made any big changes to Elden Ring Nightreign but todayâs patch brings a surprising number of significant tweaks. Itâs full of bug fixes, character reworks, and other changes players will want to be aware of before descending into the multiplayer rogueliteâs new Deep of Night endgame mode that goes live Wednesday evening.
Anyone whoâs been paying attention to the datamined leaks around Deep of Night will know itâs a multi-level retooling of the regular game that adds much more challenging enemies as well as debuffs that weigh players down as they journey through Limveld. Successful runs will build playersâ ranks, helping them to reach lower depths where enemy health and power keeps getting multiplied. I expect it to be like hitting a brick wall, otherwise known as playing Elden Ring Nightreign during that first week after it launched.
But the patch notes for todayâs 1.02.2 update reveal important changes to the rest of the game as well.
Night Tideâs damage is going up after the second night
Itâs become common for players to kill the second boss in each run and then run around the map taking damage from the rain to clean up a few loose ends or get that last level needed to reach 15. FromSoftware is trying to put and end to that by jacking up how much damage players take from the rain before ascending to take on the Nightlord.
The icon for Holy damage finally looks different from lightning
One of the cruelest tricks Nightreign played was making its first boss weak to holy and then making the holy symbol look indistinguishable from the lightning one. Months later, seasoned players might still confuse the symbols when rapidly scrolling through their inventories. To fix that, the symbol now has an orange hue (lightning is more green) and has more visible balls of light orbiting the blade. Hallelujah. It only took four months!
ED Libra finally got nerfed
The hardest boss in the game is getting dialed down a bit. Iâd love to know what the clear rate was on Everdark Sovereign Libra compared to the rest. The goat summoned Condemned warriors to fight on its behalf who were copies of the players facing him. Those Condemned will now have less damage negation when being re-summoned, drop light shards that buff players more, and be less likely to dodge ranged attacks. The Guardian version will do less damage and all of them will target players differently, presumably meaning that theyâll actually attack Libra when he performs the Rioting ritual.
Targeting will be less finicky
Nightreignâs targeting system is terrible. It doesnât activate unless your character is facing the target and it can get very sticky when youâre trying to quickly switch. One important fix, though, will help alleviate one source of constant lock-on pain, at least for PC players: âFixed a bug where it was difficult to switch targets with a diagonal input.â
Lots of Relic changes
Here are the ones that stand out
- Adjusted the effect â[Wylder] Standard attacks enhanced with fiery follow-ups when using Character Skill (greatsword only)â to consume stamina when performing follow-up attacks.
- Increased the attack power of the â[Wylder] Art activation spreads fire in areaâ burn effect.
- Increased the potency of the âContinuous HP Recoveryâ effect.
- Increased the potency of the â[Recluse] Activating Ultimate Art raises Max HPâ effect.
- Changed the â[Recluse] Activating Ultimate Art raises Max HPâ effect so that the HP increase persists until an attack is received, even after the artâs duration ends.
- Increased the amount of Runes obtained through the âCritical Hits Earn Runesâ effect.
- Increased the potency of the âHP Restoration upon (specific weapon type) attacksâ effect.
- Increased the potency of the effect âFP Restoration upon (specific weapon type) attacksâ effect.
Guardians are getting buffed
FromSoftware is throwing the weakest class a bone or three. Guardians will get better strength and dexterity gains as they level, better attack on Halberd guard counters, and higher range on their ultimate artâs attack. All of this should help them be much more effective in the early game while being even tankier in the final boss fights.
There might actually be penalties for leaving games now
I wrote all the way back in July that Nightreignâs penalty system for disconnecting felt fake. Players left all the time and never reported getting temporarily banned from matchmaking. Well, thatâs about to change. âDisconnecting from a session due to network issues or quitting the game during a session in progress will result in penalties, which may limit multiplayer capabilities,â the new patch notes read. âRejoining the session you left will remove the penalty imposed upon disconnection.â
The timing couldnât be better because I have a feeling a ton of players are about to start rage-quitting their Deep of Night runs.
