I drop into a fantasy land with a sword and two squadmates, all dedicated to defeating the Nightlord ruling over our shadowy limbo realm — but first, we have to survive. From the deepest mines to the highest snow-capped peaks, we clashed and slew monstrous beasts for two in-game days at a breakneck pace to stay ahead of the closing ring of blue flame. On the third day, confronting the Nightlord in its lair, we get close to defeating it with wild weapons and spells — but win or lose, we shrug and queue up to drop once more.

This is Elden Ring Nightreign, a spin-off of studio FromSoftware’s phenomenally successful and notoriously difficult fantasy action-RPG game Elden Ring. Rather than spend dozens of hours exploring wide lands in a solo adventure, Nightreign takes the combat and boss structure to a co-op multiplayer setting where tight gameplay must be balanced against speed and strategy to survive each trip into the game’s arena. 

Nightreign is a departure for FromSoftware, eschewing the slow solo explorations of its previous games in favor of fast-paced rounds building your heroes from scratch, kind of similar to battle royale shooters like Fortnite and Apex Legends. But unlike those PvP-intensive games, each Nightreign round pits the friendly squad against a map full of computer-controlled enemies, leaving players dependent on teammates to survive — or themselves, if they’re bold enough for a solo run. (Currently, players can either go it alone or queue for three-player squads.)

Read more: Elden Ring Nightreign Beginner’s Guide: Team Strategy, Level Goals and Survival Tips

Nightreign is focused, repeatable Soulslike action 

Nightreign ambitiously tries to see how much of an idiosyncratic yet popular game can be slimmed down and imported into a new gameplay loop. It’s easy to put a hundred hours or more into Elden Ring, exploring every nook and cranny, upgrading weapons and trying out different strategies. Nightreign punishes that slow pace, requiring squads to blitz around the map, hitting specific points of interest to get as strong as they can to survive and defeat the big boss at the end of each three-day run. (Playing through three in-game days and facing the Nightlord boss at the end of a run can take 45 minutes to an hour — or less, if you die along the way.)

This approach will be catnip for fans of FromSoftware’s signature tough boss combat, as it distills Elden Ring down to its core combat loop with just enough randomized surprises to somewhat refresh each run while keeping enough the same to quickly plan and alter course along a run. That makes sense, as Nightreign is directed by Junya Ishizaki, the person in charge of overseeing the combat for Elden Ring. 

On the surface, a lot has carried over from Elden Ring, but there are plenty of subtle refinements to make it fit fast-paced multiplayer gameplay. Player characters kit themselves out with powerful weapons and spells without worrying about stat requirements or armor. There’s no fall damage, allowing players to drop from great heights to keep moving, and spirit hawks lift them in aerial routes around the map. Running up to a spiritual spring of blue fire lets you leap upward hundreds of feet in an invigorating ascent with a heavy bass sound effect — I breeze around the map feeling fast and powerful, a hunter in a forsaken land.

But there is some part of FromSoftware’s spirit that’s lost in Nightreign: that feeling of being dwarfed by an alien world that slowly unfolds its mysterious history as you cut your way through its cursed remains. Instead, Nightreign leans heavily on the mystique and lore built up in Elden Ring, presenting a mirror version of that well-known setting with its own limited mythology that can be revealed with optional missions. But you can just stick with the gameplay loop, and many will, turning Nightreign into a greatest hits album of fun FromSoftware moments that doesn’t introduce too much that’s new — beyond designing the game around persistent squad multiplayer.

And the multiplayer is a joy, despite rough edges that, in true FromSoftware fashion, are unexplained or buggy in ways that the community will likely fondly rehabilitate as part of the game’s charm. For instance, the game requires a lot of ascending big plateaus by hopping up misshapen steps with erratically successful ledge grabs. It’s minorly frustrating, but does ratchet up the tension when you’re trying to escape death or rush to a teammate’s aid — and much like the rest of FromSoftware’s games, Nightreign is so tightly polished elsewhere that this slight jank, or other aspects like it, is tolerated and treated as part of its difficulty and flavor.

Which is all to say that, for $40, Nightreign delivers on its vision of concentrated, easily repeatable FromSoftware action that’s sure to hook the studio’s die-hard fans and potentially lure other difficulty junkies who prefer quick multiplayer romps to lore-heavy solo adventures. With rogue-like novelty that rewards replaying, there’s a decent blend of familiar elements and shifting map factors for fans of FromSoftware’s tough gameplay to get their fix without needing to replay games they know so well.

Fans of the longevity of Elden Ring and its DLC Shadows of the Erdtree should be cautioned: On top of a more narrow appeal than prior FromSoftware games, players will vary in how much replay value they’ll get out of Nightreign, since there’s currently only one map and a finite number of end-run bosses to tackle. The eight character classes, called Nightfarers, have varying complexity in their ability mechanics and will take players a while to master, but they’ll likely spend most of their time attacking with weapons and dodging enemy blows, as in Elden Ring.

There are plenty of randomized factors that mix up a run, from shifting terrain opening up new areas to «invasions» of powerful enemy computer-controlled Nightfarers. But in the 20 hours it took me to beat half the end-run bosses and kill the final boss, the single map became such a known entity that I stopped paying attention to it as anything but a race course to speed over on the way to my next task.

Where Elden Ring Nightreign triumphs and falters

As a FromSoftware fan who can muck his way through its games in ways that nobody would describe as «dominant,» Nightreign is something of a relief, as my two permanent teammates can help a lot in distracting bosses and picking me up when I make mistakes. 

Thanks to previewing the game earlier this year, I hit the ground running, pairing up with CNET teammates to try taking on big bosses — and failing. But after pairing up with a very skilled Bandai Namco employee (one of many who volunteered to help reviewers like me take on bosses and finish the game), we took down some of the biggest and baddest Nightreign has to offer. 

There’s no mistaking that I was carried by more skilled teammates, and that has me concerned for a bit of the game’s flow and player skill growth. While I was used to cautiously and slowly going through FromSoftware games, my more skilled teammates flung us outbound on a speedy tour of the map zones we needed to hit to get as strong as we could. When I fell, they tanked bosses and dodged attacks to revive me. When the map’s Shifting Earth conditions led to a new area, my expert teammate took us to the exact right spot to take full advantage of it — something that might have taken plenty more runs to figure out on my own.

I certainly improved over time, but it was all during rounds — in the Roundtable hub, players return to between missions, a Sparring Grounds area lets you try out each of the eight total (six starting, two unlockable) Nightfarers’ regular and ultimate skills, along with every weapon in the game. But it’s a far cry from the game’s high-pressure situations of boss events, enemy groups and more. Players will improve only by trial and error in the field, sometimes letting down their teammates in the process.

Yet, when you and your team are firing on all cylinders, there’s no thrill like eking out a win over a monstrous boss. After killing a trio of end-run bosses, another reviewer, Bandai Namco employee Micah (team Cat Password all the way) and I locked in to beat the game’s final boss. Shouting out congratulations over team chat, my body shaking with adrenaline, I felt like I’d completed a gaming feat — something not unknown to many Elden Ring players after surmounting one of that game’s many challenging bosses. 

I felt accomplished. I wanted to tell everyone, and when the game comes out, bring my friends in to play Nightreign with them, guiding as I was guided. But would I recommend my FromSoftware newcomer friends to play?

Who is Elden Ring Nightreign for?

The more I thought about it, the more I felt my dozens of hours in Elden Ring were essential to starting Nightreign strong — and even then, it took 20 hours in Nightreign to feel like I’d gotten a good handle on the best way to play. Knowing Elden Ring’s massive arsenal of weapons and spells felt essential to picking up Nightreign and immediately having fun.

New players who don’t have baked-in knowledge of Elden Ring or the combat flow of FromSoftware games will probably be left in the cold. Aside from a tutorial section teaching players basic mechanics, Nightreign lacks the carefully crafted early sections of the studio’s other games — it quite literally drops players into the map for a run and tells them to get killing. 

The virtue of FromSoftware’s single-player adventures’ difficulties is that players could approach them at their own pace; in Nightreign, they must rapidly adapt to the studio’s particular flavor of tough combat while also figuring out a largely unexplained world. The studio’s famed minimalist storytelling will likely do a disservice to new players who die too quickly to learn.

Whether they continue with the game after a humiliating defeat is, indeed, the classic trial that every FromSoftware player faces. But it sure seems like new players have a high hill to climb picking up on the game’s subtly conveyed details — map flow, enemy camps, bosses, weapons, churches, strategies — while also figuring out how to play Soulslikes from scratch. 

And yet, Nightreign is so unlike every other game out there that its sheer novelty may be enough to tempt FromSoftware veterans and newcomers alike. It’s polished, is easy to get into the action and has a very high skill ceiling. If players stick through its lack of direction and difficulty, they’ll find a multiplayer game that feels rewarding to win in a way few other games are. And when they lose, they may find themselves like I did — nursing annoyance that they fumbled but eager to drop in one more time with their trusted squad.

Elden Ring Nightreign launches on May 30 for PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One consoles for $40. Owning the original Elden Ring is not required to play this game.

Elden Ring Nightreign, the newest multiplayer action RPG from FromSoftware, tosses you into the thick of battle and sets you up to die to a familiar face in its tutorial (it’s Margit, and he still takes ages to bring his hammer down on your head).

But the real proving ground is the Tricephalos expedition that ends with the triple-headed dog boss, Gladius. It’s the first journey you’ll embark on in the game, putting your skills to the test as you learn the flow of the day and night cycle. Speed is key here, and you can’t spend a second lollygagging around in this version of The Lands Between.

There are key features locked behind the first boss: Most of the game’s other expeditions unlock after you beat the first one, new items unlock in the Small Jar Bazaar to advance your meta-progression and beating the first Nightlord aspect is a surefire way to unlock the first secret Nightfarer class.

If you’re having trouble overcoming the game’s first expedition, it’s probably because Nightreign is much faster-paced than other Souls games. But there are ways you can level the playing field and better prepare yourself for the fight against Gladius.

Shoot for level 12 as you farm runes

The level cap for a Nightfarer on an expedition is 15 — but you’ll hardly ever reach that level as you dash around the world farming runes and powers before the third night approaches. A much easier goal to shoot for is level 12 — which you can attain if you move quickly and prioritize clearing out camps and bosses.

Crucially, you generally don’t want to waste any precious runes on merchants you find during day one and two. If you purchase items, you might find yourself several thousand runes shy of eking out another level before the final boss. There’s a merchant available before the Nightlord fight in night three, so pack in as many levels as you can and then spend your leftover runes in that shop at the end.

Find a holy weapon before the final night

Each Nightlord aspect in Elden Ring Nightreign has an elemental weakness you can exploit — you can view these weaknesses from the expedition screen before you embark on your mission. 

Gladius, the fiery dog awaiting you at the end of the Tricephalos expedition, is weak to holy damage. Hitting him with holy-imbued attacks creates additional stagger windows, giving the team more time to whale on the boss while one person strikes the critical hit.

You can consistently find weapons with elemental infusions by beating certain enemy camps and fortresses around the map. If the location has an icon for the elemental type next to it, you’ll be rewarded with a weapon that deals that type of elemental damage once you slay the final boss there.

Keep in mind that Nightreign has inherited Elden Ring’s icons for weapon affinities, and the elemental signifiers can be confusingly similar. The lightning affinity icon is a pale yellow blade stuck in the ground with crackling bolts around it, while the similar-looking sacred (holy) affinity icon is a more golden blade stuck in the ground with a circle.

Grab other weapons that you won’t use

While you’ll probably want to wield a holy weapon when you’re face-to-face with Gladius, it’s well worth it to stock up on other weapons as well. There’s no equipment load in Nightreign, so it’s purely beneficial to fill up all of your inventory slots during an expedition.

Melee-attacking Nightfarers could benefit from picking up a bow to revive their allies from afar, and ranged-attacking Nightfarers might be able to use a dagger in a pinch. More importantly, though, are the bonuses that extra weapons confer upon your character.

When you pick up a new weapon, you’ll see a list of passive bonuses underneath the weapon stats and art of war. These bonuses apply to your character even when you’re not wielding that particular weapon (with rare exception), so stocking up on armaments will snowball your power before the final fight.

Invest in fire and physical damage negation

The final boss of the first expedition is a fire-spewing cerberus, and he hits like a truck. Nightfarers who have dodge rolls and other abilities that provide generous invincibility frames will likely be able to avoid the hits in this boss fight, but it won’t be nearly as easy for tank characters to do so.

During the first two days of your run, you’ll still have the option to invest in passive abilities that will help mitigate some of the damage the boss can mete out, selecting dormant powers instead of weapons from certain boss rewards. Night bosses provide especially powerful passive buffs, so if you can snag fire or physical damage negation passives, it’ll help soften some of Gladius’ blows.

Stock up on flasks at churches around the map

Even if you take passives that help you tank Gladius’ attacks, you’ll inevitably end up taking a few hits. That damage adds up, and you’ll need to heal through it. You start with three flasks and get two more by beating the bosses during the first two nights, but managing a Nightlord with only five flasks can still be a bit tricky.

That’s why churches are so important to find during day one and two of a Nightreign expedition. They appear as golden, glowing structures on the minimap, so you won’t have a hard time plotting a course to these locations — they look just like the churches that you can get flask healing upgrades from in Elden Ring, too.

Each church will up your flask count by one. Walking into a Nightlord fight with eight flasks instead of five makes a massive difference, especially since that’s effectively nine more opportunities to heal across an entire squad of Nightfarers. Churches aren’t a distraction from rune farming: They’re an investment in your survival.

Watch out for Gladius’ massive chainsword attack

Nightlord Gladius loves fighting in melee distance and spewing fire, which gives ranged Nightfarers ample opportunity to lay into him with holy damage from afar. When the boss charges away from the fight rather than into the party of Nightfarers, you’ll know he’s up to no good.

One of the hardest hitting attacks in this boss fight has Gladius grab the chainsword off of his back with one of his heads, swinging it as the blade extends across the ground. Original Dark Souls players will probably get flashbacks to fighting Great Grey Wolf Sif, but Gladius isn’t a good boy at all.

This sweeping attack covers a massive area of the arena and Gladius can use it multiple times in a row. The good news is that it’s pretty easy to dodge through, if your character has a roll with decent invincibility frames. The hardest part is identifying when this move is about to be unleashed — so keep an eye on how far away from you Gladius is trying to fight.

When the boss splits up, don’t let your party follow suit

Once you beat Gladius down to half health, he adds a new move to his repertoire. The Nightlord will occasionally split into three fireballs that rocket across the arena — you’ll want to dodge roll through these — before turning around and returning to the party as three separate dogs.

These canines are no less fiery than the cerberus-form, and they’ll usually each target a single member of the party. Just because the dogs are split up doesn’t mean your team has to, though. Ranged Nightfarers like Ironeye or fragile glass cannons Nightfarers like Duchess and Recluse might have trouble once they’re singled out, so it’s best to group up and repel this phase of Gladius as a team. 

Note that in its separated form, each dog takes damage for the full boss, so big attacks targeting an area like various Nightfarer ultimates (Ironeye and Raider especially) are potent here. 

Once enough time passes, Gladius will fireball around the map once again and return in his cerberus form (unless you manage to defeat him before he switches phases once again). When he takes on his larger base form, you can revert to your original strategy to swiftly take down this very bad dog.

With Gladius defeated, a whole host of new expeditions will become available to you and your squad. Even though you’ve finally bested the real tutorial, you’ll probably benefit from our beginner guide as you set out on some of the more challenging Nightreign adventures. Good luck out there, Nightfarer.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

If you’ve ever watched a legal drama, today’s NYT Strands puzzle should be easy for you. If you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story. 

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: All rise

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Who’s Wapner?

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

• HOLY, TOUR, ROOM, ROUT, BOOR, TROUT, MOOR, MONO, HONE, COURT, BARE, MOON, HONOR, BOOT

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

• BAIL, ALIBI, LAWYER, MOTION, COURTROOM, OBJECTION

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is YOURHONOR.  To find it, start with the Y that’s four letters down on the far-left row, and wind across.