One Roguelike Feature of Elden Ring Nightreign Desperately Needs Reworking

Elden Ring Nightreign has been a slightly unexpectedly divisive game, with fans loving its Roguelike features, and others turned off by them. Perhaps this isn’t so surprising in retrospect, as Nightreign’s Roguelike features can make it feel quite alien compared to FromSoftware’s catalog of Soulslikes games. There’s a whole new difficulty curve, randomized points of interest, and character movesets to learn, which all give it a unique identity.

While Elden Ring Nightreign is arguably a success when it comes to blending these two genres, it is far from perfect. A few of Nightreign’s more frustrating features can be attributed to the new ideas it introduces, from its strict time constraints, to the strained remembrance matchmaking. However, one feature above all of them desperately needs reworking, as it can ruin even the best runs.

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How to Become OP Early in Elden Ring Nightreign

Elden Ring Nightreign is a roguelike, and while it may not let players get as powerful as similar games, there are still some easy OP builds.

Boss Raids Can Ruin a Run of Elden Ring Nightreign in Ways That Don’t Seem Intended

Many players will have come across Nightreign’s boss raids, a new feature to the game where players can randomly encounter various events spawned by bosses. Some of these are pretty simple, such as a Fell Omen invasion spawning the boss near the player, while some can be convoluted, such as the Sentient Pest’s Plague of Locusts. The mechanic adds some enjoyable randomness, and can sometimes yield useful rewards for certain Nightfarers should they beat the boss raid.

Libra’s Boss Raid Can Go Wrong in Ways That Are Extremely Punishing

Unfortunately, not all boss raids are the same, and where in one game they can pose no problem, they can ruin a run in another. It has a lot to do with how they spawn, as sometimes, the boss raid will be easy to reach, and simple enough to beat. Sometimes, though, a boss raid will happen in an area that is impossible to reach. Curse of the Demon is a boss raid that causes Libra to appear, stealing a third of the player’s health, forcing them to continue cursed, or find Libra to make a deal.

Where and when Libra spawns can turn this mechanic into a run-killer, as sometimes, Libra will spawn outside the circle as it is closing, making removing the curse impossible. If it happens on day one, a player can’t go back on day two, as Libra will leave when a player runs away. This can also happen if a player doesn’t have the runes to pay, and being forced to fight the Equilibrious Beast can slow down the progress of a run significantly, even if a player wins.

Other boss raids, such as Augur, will chase the player with teleportation bubbles that will drag them into a closed-off part of the map. It can be frustrating when, halfway through killing one boss, Augur’s bubble takes all the players out of the fight. While it is probably the easiest of the boss raids, it too can spawn outside the circle, causing players to get caught in night’s tide with no escape, and no chance of reclaiming their lost souls.

Roguelikes Should Random and Difficult, but Not Punitive

There will always be a degree of randomness that can upset a run. That’s just the nature of Roguelikes: the player can’t win every time. However, given the amount of setup that can go into a run of Nightreign, and the impossible circumstances that can randomly occur, it is often a frustrating experience encountering a boss raid. In the cases of Libra or Sentient Pest, boss raids can leave players with brutal disadvantages that can spoil even the best runs, and the strange spawning behavior of these encounters feels like it isn’t intentional, but more of an annoying oversight. If boss raids did not take so much time and effort out of a run, they could be quite a rewarding RNG experience, but as they are now, they can easily go too far.