Elden Ring: Nightreign is a better game that I thought it would be, but that doesn’t mean it can’t get any better. This week’s DLC drop is FromSoftware’s chance to add a bunch of stuff nobody expected to show up in a co-op spinoff.
Dark Souls has plenty of bosses to borrow from and the Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is full of weapons that would transform how you approach each run. The beauty of Nightreign is the randomization of the items you find and the bosses you face, so even a slight update could change a lot.
Let me kick Libra to death
Sean Martin, Senior Guides Writer: Playing as fist Raider in Deep of Night has really given me an appreciation for how every problem can be solved with punching, but we’re still missing some of the best hand-to-hand weapons in Elden Ring. I was admittedly a bit disappointed when one of the new Nightfarers didn’t turn out to be a Dryleaf martial artist, but FromSoftware could still add both Dryleaf Arts and Dane’s Footwork as weapons, giving us a really distinctive moveset to experiment with and master during expeditions.
Also add the Perfume Bottles, you cowards
Sean: Same goes for Perfume Bottles. I was also a bit sad we didn’t get a Perfumer Nightfarer, especially as we already have “Improved Perfuming Arts” as a relic modifier and the Perfumer’s Talisman in Nightreign, despite only having consumable perfumes and none of the actual Perfume Bottle weapons from Shadow of the Erdtree.
Considering their wide variety of scalings, they’d make for a really cool weapon addition that multiple Nightfarers could use, especially the Frenzyflame Perfume Bottle, which inflicts madness, and would provide another option to the limited weapon pool available when facing (and maddening) Libra.
And the other DLC weapons please and thank you
Ted Litchfield, Associate Editor: I mean, they’re right there, they’ve already been made, sock ’em to me. The light greatswords and backhand blades are fan favorites, but I’m a real sicko for Big Katana. I guess some spells for all you spell nerds would be nice too.
Tyler Colp, Contributor: If I don’t get the backhand blades I’ll cry.
Those godawful bird and lion knight guys from the DLC
Ted: You know who I’m talking about. I love pain: For myself, but especially for any of my fellow souls players who grouse about the games on Reddit. I want those awful bird and lion warriors from Enir Elim and Belurat to just start showing up in Nightreign. I want them to be literally unkillable in Deep of Night. I want this game’s players to beg to fight a red Bell Bearing Hunter instead as their controllers snap amid wailing and gnashing of teeth. It’s what we deserve.
Executor Sir Alonne skin
Ted: C’mon, it’s a perfect fit. He’d look so cool. Please?
Poison swamp or castle, obviously
Tyler: Nightreign doesn’t deserve the Elden Ring title if it lacks a proper poison area. The poison camps aren’t good enough, not annoying enough. We need a castle with a moat of poison around it and only poison monsters within, or a big swamp full of bugs and other nightmares. I want a part of the map that I hate as much as I hate the Bell Bearing Hunter.
A return of the most important FromSoftware NPC
Tyler: Patches, where are you? This dude has hounded me in every FromSoftware game since Demon’s Souls and yet he took a vacation for Nightreign. I don’t believe it. He needs to show up as a boss who doesn’t give you runes but will trade you for powerful weapons or something.
Another unexpected Dark Souls cameo
Tyler: FromSoft seems open to adding bosses that you wouldn’t expect from Dark Souls. Centipede Demon isn’t exactly a boss everyone remembers, which tells me that anyone is fair game. And that’s why I think Pinwheel should show up in the DLC. That weirdo with the funky music and haunting masks would be such a delight to fight in Nightreign. I imagine he would still make clones of himself but it would be on your teammates to spread out and figure out which one is the real him. It would also be a neat touch if he always dropped one of the three masks each time you fight him too, giving you a unique passive bonus that other bosses don’t provide.
Relics should stay as unwieldy as they are
Tyler: I think Nightreign’s relic system is perfect despite how reliant on RNG it is. Rolling for perfect relics and getting trash most of the time is why when you do get a good combination of stats it feels great. I don’t want the patch that comes alongside the DLC to make this experience any better. Leave it unpredictable and kind of a pain in the ass because any type of manual customization will put too much emphasis on getting the “right” ones rather than using what you’ve got. Nightreign is about embracing unpredictability and the relic system is a core component of that.
A remixed map for the new bosses
Tyler: I’m hoping to see a new version of the existing map for the two new bosses. I’d love to see the castle in the middle of the map have new enemy types and other surprises that make the map distinct from the normal one. If the DLC truly takes place after the end of Nightreign, it would make sense to see Limveld reflect that decay. My favorite part of every run is the journey across the map while you prepare for the final boss and anything to change that up would be welcome.
Not a new map, but a new layer to it
Tyler: This might be more of a prediction and a desire combined, but I would like to see an underground layer of the map in the DLC. We already know it’s getting a new Shifting Earth event that features an underground area. I hope that it’s more than a hole in the map, but actually an entrance to a new layer that’s filled with new enemies and items from the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC.
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