The latest major update for FromSoftware’s bold co-op roguelike spinoff Elden Ring Nightreign is Deep of Night, a patch that’s adding a high-difficulty hard mode to the game for experienced players hungry for new challenges to conquer. First announced in August, it’s set to launch on Xbox, PC, and PlayStation on September 11 at 6:30 p.m. PT / 8:30 p.m. ET (tomorrow, at the time of writing), and has gotten a new trailer you can watch below.
Structurally, Deep of Night’s new Expeditions will work the same way that regular ones do — two in-game “days” of exploring, gearing, and leveling up with major boss fights at night, followed by one final encounter — but they’ll have some noteworthy twists that make them considerably tougher to complete.
Of these, the most significant is the presence of more resilient foes that take more effort to defeat. The strongest of these are known as “mutants,” or variants of enemies that glow an ominous red and are “more powerful” than their standard counterparts. At the moment, it’s unclear if they simply have more health or if they have special new attacks as well.
Based on what’s shown in the trailer, everything from common mobs to minibosses can appear as a mutant variant — and that includes the Bell Bearing Hunter, the magic greatsword-wielding brute with a moveset so notoriously tricky and dangerous that spotting the boss and then running away in fear has become a meme in the Elden Ring community.
Beyond the aforementioned tougher enemy variants, Deep of Night also prevents you from choosing the Nightlord you’ll face at the end of your run, and instead selects one for you at random that you won’t be able to observe until the match begins; this makes it significantly harder to prepare for a run with specialized Relic loadouts.
Any ongoing Shifting Earth map alterations won’t affect the new mode, either, regardless of whether they’re chosen or begin randomly. It’s unknown if they can still occur in Deep of Night independent of the “regular’ Shifting Earth mechanic at the moment.
Another consideration is that Everdark Sovereign bosses — significantly more difficult versions of Nightlord encounters with bigger health bars and unique new mechanics — have a chance to appear instead of regular fights, upping the challenge at the end of your already tougher-than-usual runs. Keep that in mind, lest you’re caught off-guard when a Nightlord immediately starts their fight in Phase 2.
Another consideration is that Everdark Sovereign bosses — significantly more difficult versions of Nightlord encounters with bigger health bars and unique new mechanics — have a chance to appear instead of regular fights, upping the challenge at the end of your already tougher-than-usual runs.
You won’t be without advantages of your own, however. Special weapon drops from mutant enemy variants will come with new and powerful perks to give you an edge, though these will also bear negative effects as well; you’ll need to choose the ones you pick up carefully, prioritizing benefits strong for your chosen Nightfarer class and doing your best to mitigate or play around debuffs.
Similarly, completing Deep of Night Expeditions will reward you with Depths Relics — versions of the permanent unlocks that let you skew your build towards certain strengths before missions begin. These are only active in Deep of Night and can be used in conjunction with regular Relics, and like the mode’s unique weapons, will have impactful bonuses and detrimental effects both.
As you play Deep of Night runs, you can gain rating score by successfully completing missions or lose it by failing, with less rating lost the farther you progress before falling. Your rating will level up your Depth as you accrue it, with five tiers of Depth confirmed; the higher your Depth is, the harder enemies in the mode will be.
At higher Depth levels, you’ll also need to contend with some additional complications. You may not be able to see which Nightlord you’re fighting at the end of your Expedition until you start the fight itself, or point-of-interest (POI) icons on the map may be absent; that last one is pretty rough and will force you and your allies to search around to find POIs.
You may not be able to see which Nightlord you’re fighting at the end of your Expedition until you start the fight itself, or point-of-interest (POI) icons on the map may be absent; that last one is pretty rough, and will force you and your allies to search around to find POIs.
Deep of Night looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun to engage with if you’ve grown too comfortable with Elden Ring Nightreign’s normal difficulty and want to kick things up a notch. Note that you’ll need to defeat the Night Aspect Nightlord (the final boss) to unlock Deep of Night, so jump into that battle right away if you haven’t beaten it yet.
At this point, all the game is really missing now is more level variety, as there’s still only the Limveld map to play on; hopefully, the DLC coming later this year addresses that.
Elden Ring Nightreign is available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC (Steam), PS5, and PS4 for $39.99. However, you can actually get it for a few dollars off thanks to a deal that brings it down to $35.99 at Loaded (formerly CDKeys), provided you’re okay with playing the PC version.
