Summary
- Nightreign innovates with pre-made characters & new abilities in Elden Ring world.
- Shifting Earth in Nightreign changes biomes, enemies, bosses, & buffs for fresh experiences.
- Mountaintop, Noklateo, Crater, Rotted Woods offer unique challenges & buffs in Nightreign.
Although it inherits most of the enemies, world design, and weapons from Elden Ring, Nightreign still has some significant creative innovations to distinguish itself from the original game and deliver a fresh experience. Replacing classes with pre-made characters or offering new movement abilities are some of the bold changes in Nightreign.
When it comes to the game's world, most buildings and areas seem to be fractions of the original Elden Ring. However, the game comes with a new idea known as Shifting Earth, where it changes the biome for a certain part of the map, hosting different enemies, bosses, and a unique buff to help players in the continuation of their expedition.
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Each Shifting Earth offers a different experience, but some of them are just better than others in the case of the bosses they host to farm Runes or the buff that they offer.
4 Mountaintop
Home Of Giants And Dragons With Frost Element
There are two main reasons that Mountaintop is the least pleasant Shifting Earth variant in Nightreign. First, the area is just difficult to navigate. Of course, that's how a mountain should look like, but it also makes traveling from one boss to another take a long time, let alone the buff itself that is located on the peak of the mountain. The path to the buff is long enough that it would probably leave no time to farm the area before the night ring starts moving.
There are some good mini-bosses to farm in the area, like mountain trolls and giant dogs, but without obtaining the area buff, it would be just more difficult. Mountaintop's buff halves the frost build-up and damage, and when frost is used nearby, it uses the player's attack. While this is pretty great for clearing the mountaintop, the buff doesn't really hold any value for a Nightlord boss, unless the player fights against Fissure.
Although Rotten Woods also gives a buff that is mostly suitable for the area itself, it also comes with a secondary passive skill to heal with attacks after receiving damage. But all that Favor of Mountaintop does is just unnecessary outside the region.
3 Noklateo, The Shrouded City
A Maze-Like Castle With Eerie Creatures
Noklateo is a complicated city and also quite confusing for navigation, just like Mountaintops. However, at least the players can learn it with a few tries and find the shortcuts, whereas Mountaintop is just full of long paths that cannot be shortened.
The problem with Noklateo is that it locks the area buff behind a difficult boss: Naturalborn of the Void. This is not a boss to tackle at early levels, even with a full squad. Also, the path to the boss is a little complicated, and players might not even manage to find it in their initial tries.
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However, the buff is worth the hard work. Noklateo's buff allows players to rise from a near-death state for a single time and become more powerful for a brief period. This is a buff that can come in handy in almost every fight, without limiting itself to a certain region. However, Noklateo is just not recommended for solo players. It doesn't have many major bosses, but there are still a lot of individuals or small groups of enemies to farm Runes without taking big risks.
2 The Crater
Big Lava Pool With Fire Enemies
Crater is one of the best locations to farm Runes, especially for those who don't want to deal with bosses. The area is quite big, and the players can find many smaller groups of enemies that can be dealt with pretty easily.
There are three major bosses in The Crater that players may face: Valiant Gargoyle, Magma Wyrm, and Fallingstar Beast. Two of these bosses usually lurk around the first level of the area, where some narrow rivers of lava are also located, while one last enemy usually spawns next to the area's buff, deep within The Crater.
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The Crater is not the best location for boss hunting, and it doesn't offer as many bosses as Rotten Woods. Also, fighting bosses next to lava rivers is just an annoying challenge that really is not worth it. However, it is strongly recommended to get the area's buff.
The Crater's buff is a magical smithing table that allows the player to upgrade one of their weapons to the Legendary rarity. So, make sure to hunt for some weapons before delving deep inside the magma crater. This is, by far, the best buff among all Shifting Earth variants.
1 Rotted Woods
Deadly Forest With Enemies Deal Scarlet Rot Damage
Rotted Woods is easily the best Shifting Earth event to farm Runes, especially for those who play as a team. The area is just filled with bosses, especially on Day 2. Players can think of the area as a compact boss-rush contest. Just make sure to grab the buff in the Rotted Woods before taking on the bosses.
Since the entire region is flooded with scarlet rot, breathing inside the forest will just add scarlet rot build-up to the player's character continuously. However, the area's buff nullifies the scarlet rot and makes it feel like a normal region. So, instead of wasting valuable flasks on scarlet rot damage, just get the buff first and then fight the bosses. The buffs also unlock a passive skill that allows the player to partially heal if they attack after receiving damage.
Rotted Woods will offer 6 bosses on Day 2, and the best thing about them is that they are all located in close proximity to each other, which cuts the time wasted while traveling. The list of bosses that have a chance to spawn includes Tree Sentinel, Erdtree Avatar, Bell Bearing Hunter, Ancestor Spirit, Black Blade Kindred, and Magma Wyrm. Slaying each boss grants 39,000 Runes. So, if a team manages to beat all six bosses on Day 2, they will easily net 230,000 Runes from Rotted Woods only, along with a valuable buff and plenty of purple loot.
Elden Ring Nightreign
- Released
- May 30, 2025
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- From Software
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Unknown
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG, Soulslike, Roguelite
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PC
