The Hilarious Chaos of Elden Ring’s Nightreign: From Ant Showers to Morgott’s Scares
By As we outlined in our Elden Ring Nightreign preview, FromSoftware‘s forthcoming roguelike-themed PvE challenge mainly centers around a distinct structure. Enter the arena, rummage for gear and Runes during the day, then confront bosses at night. This cycle continues for 2 in-game days, or roughly 35 to 45 minutes, before facing off against a significant boss. Variety is introduced through a basically randomized draw setup and an unexpected boss roster.
That said, the most amusing and unpredictable elements are likely the random occurrences you will encounter in this world; after experiencing two of them, I’m eager to uncover what other ridiculousness FromSoftware has prepared. I could only spend a few hours with the early access version of Elden Ring Nightreign, but I did speak with a representative from the publisher Bandai Namco, who confirmed that there are numerous additional random events in the full game.
These can occur seemingly at any moment. On day one of an earlier session, a dark pit appeared, and a swarm of giant ants from Elden Ring’s cramped caves unexpectedly attacked us. There had to be at least 15 of these creatures, crawling and flying while spewing acid throughout what was once our tranquil arena. It felt as if some unseen game master had reached into their bag of tricks, grabbed a handful of bugs, and tossed them in our direction just to surprise us like a mischievous prankster.
The random occurrence that my group faced on day two of another session was even more intense. Morgott, the boss from Elden Ring’s Leyndell, teleported in craving for blood. A similar event happens in Elden Ring itself: a phantom of Margit will ambush you in the war-torn outskirts of Leyndell. However, this was not Margit. It was Morgott himself – a boss with significantly more health and a much more dangerous set of abilities.
Morgott actually attacked us twice, and I recall hearing that he might potentially show up as a night boss if he does not invade you during the day, though I never witnessed this myself. We managed to defeat him the first time, but on his second encounter, he eliminated one of my teammates. I revived them, and they were quite taken aback to find they had been afflicted with a curse effect. Evidently, invader Morgott, like a cautious extraction shooter character, will retreat if he secures a kill, and his victim becomes debuffed, seemingly for the remainder of the session. It seems to be akin to the hug debuff from Elden Ring, but with fewer hugs and more destruction.
I am reminded of the game that started it all: Demon’s Souls. People talk about how unforgiving the Souls games are – and quite rightly so – but the core challenge on the PS3, death in Demon’s Souls immediately heightened the stakes of the game. If you died in body form, you would respawn in soul form – severely reducing your maximum health and tarnishing the world itself, making the enemies you would encounter much stronger. If your world tendency dropped low enough…