Elden Ring Nightreignhas been out for a few weeks now, and people are undoubtedly improving. If I see someone in aDark Soulsskin, I know a) they’ve beaten the game and b) they’re going to be pretty good.With Solaire and Darkwraith Knights by my side, I’ve torn through bosses I thought were once impossibly difficult in mere minutes, had adrenaline-fueled victory laps, and gotten comfortable with just about every Nightfarer. It’s been one hell of a kick coming to masterone of FromSoftware’s hardest outings.
To pay it back, every so often, I’ll dip my toes into the Tricephalos Expedition to help those still straddling the first boss, getting them on track for the meat of this Scarlet Rot-infested pie. I’m doing my part, etcetera. There’s an understanding if you queue with randoms against Gladius that they’re probably not very good yet — maybe they haven’t come to terms with how important status effects are, or are in the throes of learning the boss’s moveset. We’ve all been there, throwing ourselves at a wall until it clicks. But then you have the odd few who just… forget they’re in a multiplayer game.
Sure, Why Not? Fight The Draconic Tree Sentinel By Yourself
Nightreign got a lot of flak for not having voice chat at launch, as players argued that it made it impossible to win games with randoms. I haven’t found that to be true (did we need voice chat in other Souls games?), and I’m not sure that I want voice chat in a game like this. If you’ve ever been in a heatedCounter-Strikematch, trust me, you’ll just end up muting everyone anyway. But it seems that things have mostly settled into place, as the ping system does a good enough job of communicating strategy.
The problem is when people flat out ignore pings. I’ve had plenty of Tricephalos Expeditions now where two of us agree on a location, only for the third to run off and explore, die to a miniboss a few times, and rage quit. The gameisbalanced for solo, but only if you’re playing in the solo mode. Odds are, especially if you’re still on the first boss, you are not going to take out a Tree Sentinel by yourself, and if you’re dying to the Oracles (yes, the bubble-blowing freebies), you should probably stick with your squad.
It’s not hard to get to a high level in Nightreign so long as you pick the right battles, and things go a lot faster with three of you. You can clear entire camps while running through them, take down minibosses between objectives without breaking a sweat, and sweep the castle in the centre, getting to around level 13 by the end of the second night. Run around aimlessly by yourself, though, and you risk losing levels while dragging out boss fights for your teammates, leaving you all at a severe disadvantage.
you’re able to’t be revived if you die alone.
Nightreign is designed for co-op, even if you’re partying with strangers. It might seem logical to divide and conquer — in theory, getting more Runes — but it’s balanced around a group of trios sweeping the map together, so there’s no real benefit. With a tight squad working in tandem, you can clear most of the POIs and tackle some of the harder bosses for legendary loot, all while edging closer to max level. You don’t need to split up, and every game I’ve had where wedidsplit up, it’s gone horribly wrong.
So, if I had one piece of advice for all the randoms I keep bumping into at the start of the game: stick together. It’s a lot easier if you work as a team, and I promise it’s a lot less frustrating for all of us.
