ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN – Gameplay Guide
Take command of heroes with unique skills and join forces with other players to take on the creeping threat of the Nightlord.
Here are the 4 characters you can use during the NETWORK TEST Ver.
A character with well-balanced abilities. Easy to handle, challenging to master.
Skill: Claw Shot
Shoot a grappling claw to draw foes into your range.
This grappling claw can also be used for more agile movement through your environment.
Skill: Onslaught Stake
Powerful single attack that launches an iron stake with a great explosion.
A character with high defensive capabilities who can use a shield to withstand even the most ferocious enemy attacks.
Skill: Whirlwind
Sprout wings from your back to whip up a wind-churning cyclone.
Skill: Wings of Salvation
Leap up and dive back down to protect an area.
A high prowess character skilled in cursed magic that allows them to use powerful spells.
Skill: Magic Cocktail
Collect the affinity residues of targets to fire an affinity-exploding magic cocktail.
Skill: Soulblood Songe
Unleash forbidden blood chant to brand nearby foes with blood sigils
This character is skilled in evasion, and can dodge quickly several consecutive times.
Skill: Restage
Surround and damage nearby foes with an illusory reprisal of recent actions.
Skill: Finale
Obscure self and surrounding allies to hide from foes.
As a new ELDEN RING world, Limveld is full of new adventures.
While the layout stays more or less the same, the loot/drops, enemies, bosses, all shift and change with each session you embark on.
When entering Limveld, your character starts at level 1. Defeat nearby enemies to collect runes and find Sites of Grace to level up.
While it is an open world similar to the Limgrave area in Elden Ring, with a limited amount of time in each day, players must make quick decisions about where to go in order to maximize their preparation by finding loot, defeating lesser enemies, and using Sites of Grace to level up and enhance their character.
Conquer enemy strongholds to obtain equipment, items, and runes.
Challenge and defeat formidable foes for powerful weapon and skills.
Increase your number of flasks at churches.
Enhance equipment by obtaining “Smithing Stones” in tunnels.
If you’re unsure where to go, open the map. Read about the attributes and locations of various camps, find safe areas unaffected by Night’s Tide, and learn more about the region to find your next objective.
Collect runes and level up or enhance equipment and items to strengthen your character.
Select your priorities to build a powerful player character.
Find weapons and items in treasure chests, wooden crates, and by defeating enemies.
Items have different levels of rarity. Higher rarity equipment offers more powerful stats and abilities.
Item drops are shared among all players. You can share items and weapons that you are no longer using with other players.
The equipment you collect comes with “Passive Effects” that grant you various benefits.
The different passive effects are activated simply by holding the weapon, and they stack with other benefits.
Choosing which benefits you collect on the weapons you use can become an important factor in strenghtening your character.
Passive Effects range from simple stat boosts to more unique effects that allow you to trigger magic when performing specific actions.
Collect weapons with various effects to strengthen your character and unlock new possibilities.
Defeating powerful enemies or groups of foes with names will drop a unique reward called “Dormant power”.
All players can choose one weapon or special effect from a selection of rewards and claim it from the “Dormant power”.
Choose the rewards you want to earn according to your character’s strength and desired build.
By equipping the “relics” obtained when returning from a mission on your character, you can gain the powers embedded in the relics whenever you set out on your next expeditions.
Relics come with up to three random effects, and each character can equip up to three relics on their designated vessels. Some relics have effects that work in any situation, while others are specific to certain characters or abilities.
Depending on the player’s customization choices, even the same character can be used in various playstyles.
Relics can be equipped from the “Relic Rite” menu at the “Round Table.”
The power of the relics takes effect at the beggining of the expedition and will not be consumed after returning from Lands Between, so collect as many relics as you can to prepare for the next expedition.
Overcome a relentless environmental threat
While individually formidable, their skills create powerful synergies when they unite as a team.
Skill
Can be used when the skill gauge is full, and can be reused after a short cool down. Explore synergies between the characters to take advantage of your enemies
Ultimate Arts
The character unleashes their most powerful move.
This ability holds the power to drastically change the tide of battle, but has a long cooldown period. Be sure to activate it at the right moment.
If you run out of HP, your character will enter a near-death state and die after a certain period of time. You can revive a player who is in this near-death state by attacking them. Repeatedly dropping into the near-death state will increase the death gauge, making subsequent rescues more difficult. This gauge can be reset by reaching a Site of Grace.
Evaluate the battlefield to find efficient ways to use skills, arts, and other abilities to rescue your allies when they are near death.
When night falls over Limveld, a powerful boss will emerge to attack you. Defeat this powerful foe to end the night and start a new day.
Completing your first expedition may be a challenge, but do your best to accumulate experience during the day and defeat the boss.
And after overcoming the second night, the doors leading to the Nightlord will open.
Roundtable Hold
The Nightfarers base of operations is the Roundtable Hold. Here you can prepare for deployment to Limveld, switch to a different character, review basic gameplay knowledge, and engage in combat practice.
You can start your expedition by using the Grace at the main round table. In order to play exclusively with your friends, set a password before setting out.
Training ground
You can review basic controls and actions available for your character, as well as practice combat in real expedition conditions. In the training settings menu, you can set it to allow unlimited use of skills and arts, or try out any weapon or item of your choice.
Fully explore and practice your character’s actions, weapons, and item usage before facing the dangers of Limveld.
Visual Codex
Review basic rules for expeditions and find useful information for Limveld exploration. Consult the codex if you have any questions about gameplay.
Actions
Characters can use various actions to move quickly across the field. These actions enable smooth exploration of the vast map.
Surge Sprint
Consumes a lot of stamina, but allows you to move faster than with a dash.
Wall jump/Climb up
After jumping, you can kick off a wall to perform a wall jump, and climb up if the wall edge is within your reach.
Spiritstream jump
In areas where blue air currents rise from cracks in the ground, you can perform a huge jump that allows you to reach high cliffs.
Spectral Hawk Tree
Summon the Spectral Hawk and fly in the direction of the wind from the Spectral Hawk Tree. You can easily fly over cliffs and other high elevation areas or you can suddenly drop from the sky to attack enemies.
Map
Likely spots for weapons and items at key locations are indicated by the following icons on the detailed view of the map.
Obtain specific equipement
Glintstone Staff, sacred seal, bow can be found here
Merchant
At the merchant’s location, you can use runes to purchase items and equipment, or use smithing stones at the anvil to upgrade your weapons.
Church
At the church, you can increase the number of “Sacred flasks” you possess.
Find information about the surrounding areas.
You can learn the locations of scarabs and buried treasures.
By defeating the scarabs or finding treasures, you can acquire precious equipment and items.
Share your position to your allies
Pins are used to mark locations.
Use them to coordinate with allies or share information.
Pins are placed on the map, and appear visually on the field as a column of light.
Pins also appear on the compasses of all allies.
To remove a pin, use the place pin command on the same location.
You can overlap your pin with those set by other players, and signaling your intention to coordinate. You can also place a simple pin at your feet or overlap with another player’s pin without having to open the map.
Share Runes
The runes obtained from defeating enemies are shared by all players regardless the distance player are from each others.
This means that even while exploring the field separately, you can still cooperate and grow stronger together.
Special events
During your exploration, you may encounter special events.
For example, threats like powerful enemies relentlessly hunting the player may arise. If you manage to overcome these challenges, you will receive rewards to strengthen your character.
Upon death, a character revives nearby at the cost of 1 level.
The character’s runes, including the runes for the lost level, are dropped at the location of death, where they can be retrieved. However, if a character dies before retrieving dropped runes, they are permanently lost.
Nearby foes sometimes snatch up dropped runes, but the runes can still be retrieved by defeating the offending foe.
Upon death, the runes held by the player will be dropped, and the player’s level will decrease by 1. However, the level will not drop below level 1. The dropped runes can be recovered either by retrieving them at the location of death or by defeating enemies that have stolen the runes.
As night falls, the Night’s Tide causes the accessible areas to shrink completely, and instead of dying and reviving from a near-death state, if all allies drop into the near-death condition during this night encounter, it will result in a defeat and retreat from the mission.
This concludes our gameplay introduction.
Be sure to use all of the abilities, advantages, and strategies available to you as you overcome the threat of Night that awaits you.
We hope you continue to enjoy ‘ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN’. Thank you for your support!
Expand your knowledge and get ready for the Network Test by exploring our Gameplay Guide, featuring details on playable characters like the Guardian, Recluse, Duchess and Wielder.
ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN is set for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC
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ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN is a standalone adventure within the ELDEN RING universe, crafted to offer players a new gaming experience by reimagining the game’s core design.
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Take on the Nightlord
Nightfarers
Expeditions
TIPS – to stand against the “Night”
Game Over
ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN
Read next
Wylder
Guardian
Recluse
Duchess
When you land on Limveld
Finding the Next Destination
Character Enhancement
Collect weapons and items
Use equipments with various effects
Special rewards – “Dormant power”
Character customize with Relics
Battles in the Land Between
Skill/Art
Near-death and rescue
Boss battle
Preparing your expedition
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STANDALONE ADVENTURE GAME ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN LAUNCHES 30TH MAY WITH PREORDERS NOW…
ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN – Starter Guide for Xbox Series X|S
ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN – Starter Guide for PS5
Elden Ring Nightreign: Save 12% on Steam If You Preorder Today
Rejoice! Elden Ring Nightreign launches on May 30, 2025, across PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC via Steam. With the network test getting underway this weekend, there’s a great opportunity to try the game, and potentially lock in your preorder at a discount.
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It’ll be a large-scale network stress test meant to evaluate the game’s online functionality and performance, encouraging players to participate in shaping the final experience. The test runs from February 14 to February 17 but is limited to specific three-hour sessions rather than full access throughout the period:
Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.
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