With the recent announcement of Elden Ring Nightreign surprising fans of the franchise at The Game Awards 2024, players are excited to see the many changes to gameplay that Nightreign will have compared to Elden Ring. The new chapter in the saga promises to be a complete departure from the original and the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC expansion, and will likely be divisive for those who enjoy a "classic" Soulsborne experience.

Elden Ring Nightreign releases in 2025 and will be an entirely new standalone experience unlike anything FromSoftware has produced before. Some of the changes to gameplay will be controversial, such as randomized maps, emphasis on cooperative multiplayer, and the decision to use pre-fabricated characters as opposed to custom ones. Here's a look at 10 of the major, unexpected gameplay changes coming in Elden Ring Nightreign.

10 Elden Ring Nightreign Will Not Have Custom Character Creation

Pre-Created Characters That Are Based On Class Archetypes Will Be Available

One major gameplay change that will have some fans scratching their heads is the decision to use pre-created characters that are based on class archetypes, each with their own unique set of skills, abilities, and moves. According to director Junya Ishizaki in an interview with IGN, the decision to do away with character creation was focused on creating a "multiplayer experience that you could just jump into very quickly and casually without worrying too much about character creation or character build off the bat."

It's unclear how successful this gameplay change will be at pulling RPG fans into the game in similar ways to Elden Ring. However, the streamlined character class system appears to be in line with many other changes in the game aimed at making it more accessible to a wider player-base.

9 Speedrun Elements Factor Heavily Into Nightreign's Gameplay Loop

There Will Be Limitations On How Much Time Players Can Spend Exploring

In a gigantic shift away from Elden Ring's dungeon-crawler style of gameplay, Nightreign is designed as a speedrun sort of experience, encouraging players to slash and hack their way through the randomized maps and enemies in order to collect weapons and runes to level up, as revealed via IGN's hands-on preview of Nightreign. Part of the core gameplay introduces limitations on how much time players can spend exploring, so time is of the essence.

While it seems there will still be aspects of that open exploration involved, it will be in a more condensed version, as with most of the changes between Elden Ring and Nightreign.

This change might turn some players off to the game, especially those who enjoyed taking their time exploring the Lands Between and discovering new or hidden areas, or using stealth to creep slowly through certain castles or dungeons. While it seems there will still be aspects of that open exploration involved, it will be in a more condensed version, as with most of the changes between Elden Ring and Nightreign.

8 Every Session Features Randomized Maps And Bosses

A Unique Experience Every Time Players Start A New Day Cycle

Each time players start a session in Nightreign, they'll be dropped into a randomized version of the very familiar areas they know from the original Elden Ring. Bosses, landmarks, and loot are randomized between each session, creating a unique and novel experience each time players start a new day cycle (more on that next). The randomization of each boss will incentivize players to replay and defeat all eight of the unique bosses included in the game.

The randomized maps and bosses in Nightreign are possibly the biggest diversion from the classic Soulsborne formula that FromSoftware has built its reputation around. The move to a luck-of-the-draw style of gameplay could make the Nightreign experience more challenging than the original in some regards, though the cooperative multiplayer elements may act to balance out that difficulty at some level.

7 The Nightreign Cycle Covers 3 Days & Nights

Players Will Face A Different Kind Of Challenge

The core structure of Nightreign's gameplay (and story) is centered around a three-day/night cycle indicated by an encroaching "ring of reign." When players enter the Nightreign territory, they are blasted with blue acid rain and risk death if they don't cross back over the threshold. This will add a serious level of difficulty once players reach the final day of the cycle, and also creates the time limit that will give the game its speedrun feel.

On the first day, players will be able to openly explore the randomized maps and try to take down as many enemies as possible before the next day, which comes with a smaller, more limited explorable area surrounded by the encroaching night. This is a completely novel feature to the Soulsborne games catalog, and will hopefully give players a different sort of challenge than what they are used to.

6 Nightreign Has A Huge Emphasis On Cooperative Multiplayer

The Gameplay Is Designed To Optimize The Three-Player Journey

While Elden Ring's PvP and PvE elements allow players a limited multiplayer experience in the Lands Between, Nightreign is taking a new approach to this with a completely cooperative multiplayer emphasis. While it will be possible to play as a single player, it is not possible to play with just two players, and the gameplay is truly designed to optimize the three-player cooperative journey.

As with the other major changes to gameplay coming to Nightreign, this one has the potential to be incredibly successful – or a huge mistake. With the recent failure of certain multiplayer games such as Concord, the decision to go this route is a major gamble. Players will feel like they are missing out by only playing single-player, and many Elden Ring fans enjoy the solo-style adventuring that comes with the classic gameplay style.

5 Character Skills And Ultimate Attacks Are Determined By Class

Each Of The Eight Core Playable Character Classes Has Distinct Abilities

In Nightreign, characters will not have the same access to spells or incantations that they would in Elden Ring. Instead, each of the eight core playable character classes has a distinct proficiency in a certain type of combat, with particular skills built off that proficiency. Each character will also have a unique ultimate attack, a powerful ability that gives the player or the team useful buffs and makes enemies more manageable. Using these skills in a coordinated effort is how players will maximize damage on tough bosses.

All of these skills and the ultimate attack are set on a cooldown timer, making the collective timing of each teammate a strategic and important focus for bigger encounters and boss fights. It's unclear at this stage how these skills and abilities might be leveled up or enhanced with runes, weapons, or other items in the game.

4 Invading Bosses Will Disrupt An Elden Ring Nightreign Run

Players Saw Something Similar In The Original Game

Players will be familiar with the idea of invaders from the original game, where other Tarnished or NPCs would appear and engage in combat somewhere in the open world of the Lands Between. Nightreign takes this idea and turns it on its head slightly, introducing an invader boss that stalks players as they explore the map during the daytime periods of each cycle. This can become dangerous for teams that split up to explore the map, as it's possible to get cornered and have to take on a powerful foe 1v1.

Invading bosses can potentially be recognizable foes, like Margit, the Fell Omen, who's the notorious miniboss in Elden Ring's Stormveil Castle.

The rewards for taking down these powerful invader bosses are substantial, however, incentivizing players to do their best to take them down and get a serious boost to experience and a windfall of runes, as well as a unique Favor of the Night buff. These buffs are randomized as well, but will make taking down bosses in the night stages much easier.

3 Wall-Jumping And No Fall Damage Completely Change Traversal

The Intention Is To Give Players An Enhanced, Sped-Up Version Of Elden Ring

An exciting new feature that will help speed up the gameplay compared to Elden Ring is the addition of a wall-jumping ability. In the original game, traversing certain castles or dungeons took time and very careful platforming skills, while other areas could not be reached with a simple jump. In Nightreign, players will not only be able to use walls and structures to jump up to hard-to-reach locations, they will not have to worry about fall damage anymore.

Ultimately, the removal of fall damage and the addition of wall-jumping is meant to give players an enhanced, condensed, and sped-up version of Elden Ring.

This will come as a welcome change to most Elden Ring fans, especially when considering frustrating instances such as descending the Subterranean Shunning Grounds to pursue the Frenzied Flame ending. Ultimately, the removal of fall damage and the addition of wall-jumping is meant to give players an enhanced, condensed, and sped-up version of Elden Ring.

2 More Armaments, But No More Armor Will Streamline Loadouts

Weapons Can Still Be Upgraded, But With A New Streamlined System

For better or worse, Nightreign will no longer have an armor system for players to worry about defense, resistances, etc., and instead relies on in-game pickups that will buff players and give them better damage resistance. Armaments and weapons are still in play, and are awarded to players after defeating lesser and greater bosses.

Three armaments can be equipped per hand, and their ive buffs will affect players whether they wield the specific armament or not. Weapons can still be upgraded, but with a new streamlined system that doesn't require as much attention to detail as the original. There is also no need to worry about weight management, as equip load is not an issue in Nightreign at all.

1 Death Is Not The End In Elden Ring Nightreign

Players Can Revive Their Teammates

Unlike its predecessors, Nightreign is slightly forgiving when it comes to being downed or killed. Players are now able to revive downed teammates similar to Borderlands or similar co-op shooters, and will have a meter appear once they are downed. During the day, if the meter runs out before players are helped by a teammate, the player will respawn with full health, but be penalized one level.

Players can revive teammates by jumping on them or using certain attacks on them, which seems strange but will likely be quite fun in practice. These are just a few of the many, many gameplay changes players will see in the new installment of the epic franchise.

While the gameplay will be almost nothing like what players are familiar with in the classic Souls experience or in Elden Ring, there's no doubt these changes will force players to utilize the speedrun style and multiplayer bonuses that are core to Elden Ring Nightreign's gameplay.

Source: IGN (1, 2)