Technologies

Elden Ring Nightreign Director Interview: He Solo’d Every Boss and So Can You

In part one of our interview with Junya Ishizaki, the director of the Elden Ring spinoff answered our burning questions about the game.

Elden Ring launched in 2022 to great acclaim as the culmination of director Hidetaka Miyazaki’s successes with the Dark Souls and Bloodborne series of games. When calls went out in studio FromSoftware to explore more modest spinoff projects, Elden Ring combat director Junya Ishizaki raised his hand — and proceeded to direct the just-released Elden Ring Nightreign, the multiplayer-only spinoff game.

Nightreign is an ambitious attempt to distill the Elden Ring experience into under-an-hour repeatable runs killing enemies and mini-bosses before taking on a unique and deadly Nightlord main boss. Faster, meaner and in some ways tougher than the game it originates from, Nightreign is FromSoftware’s expedition into multiplayer. And while it inherits a lot from Elden Ring, the studio’s next game was developed to scratch a very different player itch — a co-op pressure cooker to produce the highest and lowest moments that Souls games are known for.

There are a lot of ways the games differ, but Nightreign’s director summarized it by saying «I would describe the Elden Ring experience as more of a journey while Nightreign’s experience is more of that on the battlefield.»

In part one of my interview with Ishizaki about his directorial debut in Nightreign, we chatted about what was kept and cut from Elden Ring, how the map design changed over development and whether he himself beat every boss in the game he helmed.

(Yes, he solo’d them all.)

Read more: Elden Ring Nightreign Beginner’s Guide: The Essentials for Not Getting Wrecked in the First 5 Minutes

David Lumb: With its co-op focus and fast pace, Nightreign’s gameplay is different than Elden Ring. What was kept and what was cut from the latter?

Junya Ishizaki: While it’s not limited to Elden Ring, with a lot of our games, we keep this sense of exploring the world and traversing the world. Building on these RPG systems and growing your character was definitely an element of Elden Ring that we wanted to keep and transfer into Nightreign.

I think in terms of, not what what we cut because boss battles are still a large part of Elden Ring, but more as a good focus point on where we had to deliver something new for Nightreign — we wanted these large-scale boss battles to feel really epic and really unique to this game.

DL: What’s it like to tweak the difficulty in a FromSoftware game, especially one built upon Elden Ring’s specific challenge level from the lethality of everyday enemies to the biggest bosses?

JI: These challenging elements to our games are always under scrutiny and that we’re always looking at closely. We felt like we needed to step back and review that process for difficulty balancing with Nightreign in particular … being a multiplayer-focused title, the player is constantly evolving and changing their power level on the fly during any one session. So you really need to focus on what that power curve and that difficulty curve looked like within each session quite closely.

Of course, as I say, we do look at this approach carefully from title to title. It’s not just an all-in, make-it-hard approach. That said, Elden Ring, we did go too far in some areas and I feel we didn’t go far enough in other areas. So we’re always learning from our projects and past experiences, trying to create a game that feels fair and satisfying and gives you a feeling of accomplishment when you do overcome these challenges.

DL: Hold on — I think everyone would like to know your opinion on which bosses in Elden Ring went too far and which didn’t go far enough!

JI: This is not necessarily related to the difficulty specifically, but I think in terms of the battle system with Elden Ring — which is something I was quite involved in the development of that game — where the player feels too pressured or too restricted in what they can do within that framework and that setting, I feel like that created a lot of the feeling of difficulty for a lot of players.

That is somewhere that we felt we were able to release the valve a little bit with Nightreign and allow for more player freedom and to have a more liberating experience. So with Nightreign, I think really leaning into something new was at the heart of this game, even though we’re using Elden Ring as a base, that really gave us a lot of room to explore these battle systems and explore how the player traverses the world. Really really lean into creating a fresh experience there that doesn’t feel like it’s too tied to the original game in that sense.

DL: Speaking of traversal, I can’t be the only one who’s wondered this: Was there ever fall damage in the game? I love dropping down from a great height.

JI: There was actually fall damage at one point, very momentarily. We did study it and try it for a bit but we felt like the game could exist without it. We felt like the game stood up on its own and didn’t need it in order to feel thrilling or to feel trepidation of other areas of the game.

DL: What are other things players might be surprised to discover had been cut during development or refined into something totally different?

JI: I’d say one example of this is the terrain changes that occur in Nightreign. At one point, there was the idea to have different maps — specific set maps for when you play each session. At one point, we had the idea to try to collapse this into a single map, and instead have these different layers and transformative changes that occur during that session.

We thought this could be a new challenge that could set it apart from previous and existing games, give us a new challenge to work with on Nightreign and provide a different gameplay experience as well to extend the breadth of each play session by having this layering feature to the terrain features.

We found this added very different gradients to the exploration and to the way each session pans out. When we tried this, we felt like there’s no one right answer. There’s no one correct way you can do this, it just depends on the game. And this presented a new and interesting challenge for us and a way to, again, spice up the new gameplay in Nightreign.

DL: That’s interesting and sounds like a lot of development in the game experience. Was Nightreign ever considered as a full-size game like Elden Ring?

JI: In a word, no, Nightreign was always considered a smaller, lighter title in comparison to the likes of Elden Ring. But to give a little bit of context to that, during the development of Elden Ring, I myself expressed interest in wanting to direct my own title, and this was picked up by Miyazaki and the other staff at From and I was given this opportunity.

Being a new director, we wanted to take things from a smaller scale and a smaller perspective and start with a strong base with Elden Ring. Of course, having had this experience as director, I’d very much like in the future to start completely from scratch and have my own project and see where it can go scope-wise, so I’m looking forward to that opportunity as well.

DL: Now that you’ve finished Nightreign, what’s your favorite part of it?

JI: There’s a lot of nice things to choose from, a lot about the game I like. But I think one thing we’ve honed in on with Nightreign in particular is the feeling of being both approachable and light in terms of an RPG, but also quite involved and quite in-depth if you want it to be. I think this is an area that we’ve managed to hit quite well.

DL: And what have you and FromSoftware learned from making Nightreign?

JI: I think there’s a lot of experience we can take forward into future projects. One thing in particular I think has been really successful and really valuable to work with is this new approach to characters and character design, both from a gameplay and narrative perspective.

I think this is a really unique aspect of Nightreign and it’s something I think could be developed even further with our future titles, characters feeling unique and interesting in terms of the way they play, the way their controls translate to their unique game feel, and also how you as a player approach and explore their backstories and narratives. These are areas that make Nightreign stand apart from other titles and I think this is something we could definitely improve on and refine going forward.

DL: Great. Last question: I beat the final boss yesterday and I just want to know — have you, in fact, beaten every boss and the final boss yourself?

JI: Yes, I can hopefully give you reassurance to know that I have beaten all of the game’s bosses. I’ve seen everything it has to offer, both in multiplayer and as a solo player. So I want you and players to know that this is very possible and I want you to have the confidence to give it a try yourself.

And in terms of secrets and a narrative as well, I think there’s a lot there for players who were invested in that side of it to uncover and I hope you look forward to experiencing everything that Nightreign has to offer.

DL: Just to clarify: you solo’d every boss in the game?

JI: Yes. And without relics.

Elden Ring Nightreign launched 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.

Technologies

Get Free Marvel Rivals Skins From Season 2.5’s Cerebro Database Event, Combat Chest and More

As Ultron invades the Hellfire Gala, it’s time to don some new combat gear. There are plenty of free skins in Marvel Rivals right now.

Marvel Rivals season 2.5 is moving the Hellfire Gala afterparty to space — our heroes are heading to the sentient planet Arakko to prevent Ultron’s planet-exterminating plans from coming to fruition.

Stopping a robot army is going to require a whole new wardrobe’s worth of battle gear. Luckily for you, there are many ways to unlock some free skins in the hit hero shooter right now — including a new seasonal event that unlocks a free Hawkeye skin.

The Cerebro Database Part 2 event is the debut seasonal event for Marvel Rivals season 2.5, and it’s a fairly standard challenge-based event. Different rewards include chrono tokens for the battle pass, units to spend on shop skins and other odds and ends, but the big ticket item is the Hawkeye Binary Arrow skin.

Outside of the latest event, there are still other ways to earn free skins right now. Whether you’re getting used to the new suite of team-up abilities or you’re getting in more playtime on the latest addition to the Strategist roster by beaming down enemies with Ultron, season 2.5 has introduced a slate of free skins that you can use to deck out your favorite characters.

Here’s what you should know about the Cerebro Database Part 2 event and the rest of the free skin lineup at the beginning of Marvel Rivals season 2.5.

Get the Hawkeye Binary Arrow skin free in the Cerebro Database Part 2 event

The Cerebro Database event is live now. It began with the launch of the season 2.5 patch on May 30 and ends on June 27.

While this event is fairly easy, the presentation might confuse some players. As with any Marvel Rivals event, you’ll need to complete challenges to earn rewards. In this event, though, each featured character (Iron Man, Black Widow, Magneto and Ultron) has nine unique challenges arranged in a 3×3 board.

You don’t need to complete all 36 challenges to receive all of the event rewards. Instead, you need to complete enough challenges to make three separate horizontal, vertical or diagonal lines on all four boards to finish the event. Basically, you’re playing tic-tac-toe to quickly make three lines on all of the boards to earn your rewards as efficiently as possible.

Like most Marvel Rivals events, several characters’ boards are time-gated, which means that the most enterprising players will only be able to unlock the Hawkeye Binary Arrow skin starting on June 11. Until then, you can earn Chrono Tokens, units, sprays and gallery pages.

Get the Mister Fantastic Future Foundation skin during the first ever Combat Chest event

A new type of experience-based battle pass also launched at the beginning of season 2.5. The Combat Chest is a smaller, half-season battle pass that rewards consistent playtime over challenge completion. The free track contains one costume, while the premium Combat Chest (which costs 690 Lattice, or roughly $7) has two additional costume rewards.

It contains 24 reward tiers and each reward tier requires 1,800 experience points to unlock. Players can earn a maximum of 7,200 experience points every day, so it’s theoretically possible to earn every Combat Chest reward in six days. The free Mister Fantastic Future Foundation skin is on tier 18 of the Combat Chest so it will take the most enterprising players four days to unlock the new addition to the body-bending hero’s wardrobe.

Premium skin rewards include Storm Ultimate Wind-Rider on tier 6 and Magneto Binary Sword on tier 24 of the Combat Chest. The first version of this shortened alternate battle pass will disappear July 11 at the end of season 2 but any players who purchase the premium version can continue unlocking any remaining tiers after that date.

How can I get free skins during Marvel Rivals season 2.5?

Players who link their Twitch account to their Marvel Rivals account right now can nab a free Emma Frost skin.

But if you only care about rewards you can earn in-game, a different Emma Frost skin and an Ultron skin are available by progressing through the competitive ladder and new Iron Fist and Magik looks are available free on the season 2 battle pass.

What Marvel Rivals skins are available free right now?

There are currently 11 free skins available. Here’s how you get them:

Hawkeye Binary Arrow: Complete the Cerebro Database Part 2 event challenges on all four characters by June 27 to unlock this skin.
Mister Fantastic Future Foundation: Complete 18 tiers of the current Combat Chest battle pass by July 11 to unlock this skin.
Emma Frost Will of Galacta: To claim this skin, you’ll need to link a Twitch account to your Marvel Rivals account and then watch four hours of livestreams from streamers participating in the drop campaign. If you’re unsure about which channels are partnered with Marvel Rivals, look for the mention of «Drops» in the stream title. This skin is only available until Friday, June 27.
Emma Frost Golden Diamond: Reach Gold rank or higher in competitive mode in season 2. You must play at least 10 competitive matches to be eligible to receive the skin.
Ultron Golden Ultron: Reach Gold rank or higher in competitive mode in season 2.5. You must play at least 10 competitive matches to be eligible to receive the skin.
Magik Retro X-Uniform: Reach page 3 in the season 2 battle pass by July 11.
Iron Fist Immortal Weapon of Agamotto: Reach page 9 in the season 2 battle pass by July 11.

Four of the currently available free skins are not time-gated although they are locked behind achievements or platform exclusivity. Here are the Marvel Rivals skins you can unlock at any time:

Spider-Man Scarlet Spider: This skin is available to PS Plus subscribers who play the game on the PS5. It can be found on the PSN Store under Marvel Rivals DLC.
Peni Parker Ven#m: Like the Scarlet Spider skin, this Ven#m skin is available for PS Plus subscribers and can be found in the PSN Store. This skin is also available in the Marvel Rivals in-game store, where it can be purchased with units.
Storm Ivory Breeze: Earn 200 Achievement Points in the Heroic Journey achievement section.
Star-Lord Jovial Star: Earn 400 Achievement Points in the Heroic Journey achievement section.

How can I get more free Marvel Rivals skins?

There are many ways to get skins in Marvel Rivals. Sometimes the developer issues special codes to unlock them while others require completing challenges. There are also some made available by watching streams on Twitch and many skins are «free» for progressing through the Marvel Rivals Battle Pass, which costs 990 Lattice, or approximately $10.

You can also earn skins through regularly playing the game, as a free skin is frequently awarded with the completion of seasonal events. Players who reach gold rank or higher in competition also receive a free skin as a reward for their performance. Live events like Cerebro Database include free skins as a completion reward.

What free skins used to be available in Marvel Rivals?

Twitch drops, battle passes and promo codes get cycled in and out of rotation, allowing Marvel Rivals players to earn different free skins from engaging with the game during different events. Here are all of the previously available free skins, what season they were introduced in and how they were obtainable.

Season 0 free skins

Iron Man Armor Model 42: This skin was unlocked through opening the Bundle Code main menu option and inputting the promo code nwarh4k3xqy. The skin rotated out of availability on March 5, 2025.
Scarlet Witch White Witch: This skin was an exclusive reward for Closed Alpha players, rewarded upon logging in for the first time in season 0.
Venom Cyan Clash: This skin was an exclusive reward for Closed Beta players, rewarded upon logging in for the first time in season 0.
Magneto Will of Galacta: This skin was unlocked as a Twitch drop during season 0. The skin rotated out of availability on Dec. 31, 2024.
Moon Knight Golden Moonlight: This skin was available as a competitive reward for any players who reached Gold or higher in Competitive mode in season 0.
Jeff the Shark Cuddly Fuzzlefin: This skin was a reward for the season 0 Winter Celebration event.
Hela Empress of the Cosmos: This skin was a free reward from the season 0 battle pass. The season 0 battle pass was briefly available for purchase again during season 2, temporarily reintroducing this skin to the game.

Season 1 free skins

Hela Will of Galacta: This skin was unlocked as a Twitch drop during season 1. The skin rotated out of availability on Jan. 25, 2025.
Adam Warlock Will of Galacta: This skin was unlocked as a Twitch drop during season 1. The skin rotated out of availability on April 4, 2025.
Winter Soldier Revolution: Available via a promo code sent to moviegoers who saw Captain America: Brave New World in participating Regal theaters during opening weekend. Also available to buy in the in-game shop.
Invisible Woman Blood Shield: This skin was available as a competitive reward for any players who reached Gold or higher in Competitive mode in season 1.
Human Torch Blood Blaze: This skin was available as a competitive reward for any players who reached Gold or higher in Competitive mode in season 1.5.
Thor Reborn From Ragnarok: This skin was a reward for the season 1 Midnight Features Part 1 event.
Groot Carved Traveler: This skin was a reward for the season 1 Midnight Features Part 2 event.
Black Widow Mrs. Barnes: This skin was a reward for the season 1 Galacta’s Cosmic Adventure event. It can be bought now in the in-game shop.
Peni Parker Blue Tarantula: This skin was a free reward from the season 1 battle pass.
Scarlet Witch Emporium Matron: This skin was a free reward from the season 1 battle pass.

Season 2 free skins

Namor Will of Galacta: This skin was unlocked as a Twitch drop during season 2. The skin rotated out of availability on April 30, 2025.
Mantis Flora Maiden: This skin was a reward for the season 2 Cerebro Database Part 1 event. It is now available for purchase in the in-game shop.
Wolverine Patch: This skin was a reward for the season 2 Hellfire Gala 2025: Moments event. It is now available for purchase in the in-game shop.
Scarlet Witch Chaos Gown: This skin was a reward for playing nine quickplay or competitive matches at the beginning of season 2. The skin rotated out of availability on April 25, 2025.
Thing The Unlimited: This skin was available as part of an exclusive promotion with the Marvel Unlimited comics reading app. Users who signed up for Marvel Unlimited before April 16, 2025, received a code for this Thing skin.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for June 1, #721

Hints and answers for Connections for June 1, #721.

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

Today’s Connections puzzle has a fun yellow category, if you like this particular kind of hangout. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group, to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Cheers!

Green group hint: Olympic competition.

Blue group hint: It’s in the bag.

Purple group hint: Not fun, but…

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Local watering hole.

Green group: Compete in a modern pentathlon.

Blue group: Ensure, as a victory.

Purple group: ____ fund.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is local watering hole. The four answers are dive, establishment, haunt and joint.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is compete in a modern pentathlon. The four answers are fence, ride, shoot and swim.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is ensure, as a victory. The four answers are cinch, guarantee, ice and lock.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ____ fund. The four answers are hedge, mutual, slush and trust.

Technologies

Here’s How to Factory Reset Your PS5 or PS4

It’s a good idea to protect your personal information before selling or giving away your PlayStation. Here’s how to erase your data from your console.

Yes, even the PlayStation 5 isn’t new anymore. That console came out in 2020, which means it’s currently in the second half of its life cycle. Since then, new consoles like the Nintendo Switch 2 have hit the market. If you’re tiring of your PS5, you have more options than storing it in the top of your closet where it will just collect dust. You could give the console away or sell it for some extra cash.

Regardless of whether you’re ready to give yours away to the recent grad in your life or if you’re looking to sell your device for some extra cash, you have plenty of options. There’s one important thing you need to do to your console before you get rid of it: reset the system and wipe your personal data.

Factory resetting is a crucial step that you should take whenever you’re selling or giving away a piece of technology. Your old PlayStation is no exception. While you might not be storing the same kind of information on your PS4 or PS5 that you would on your laptop or smartphone, this step can save you a great deal of stress by taking care of any leftover information.

Read on for everything you need to know about resetting your PS5 or your PS4. For more, here’s what to know about buying a used iPhone and our picks for the best place to sell your electronics.

Resetting the PlayStation 5

You have a few options when it comes to factory resetting your PS5. To access these options, navigate to the Home Screen and then select Settings > System > System Software > Reset Options.

After selecting Reset Options you will be presented with three options: Clear Learning Dictionary, Restore Default Settings and Reset Your Console.

Clear Learning Dictionary will clear the history of all the terms that you have typed on your PS5.
Restore Default Settings will restore all of the settings on your PS5 to their default setting, but leave your data intact.
Reset Your Console will restore all of the settings to their default options and erase all of the data that has been saved to your PS5.

If you are looking to factory reset your console before selling it or giving it away, select Reset Your Console to fully wipe all of your data from the device and factory reset the console.

Resetting the PlayStation 4

The process for factory resetting your console is a bit different for the PS4. First, you will need to navigate to Settings > Initialization. Much like the process for factory resetting the Playstation 5, you will be presented with three options after selecting Initialization: Clear Learning Dictionary, Restore Default Settings and Initialize PS4.

Clear Learning Dictionary and Restore Default Settings operate the same as they do on the PS5. Initialize PS4 operates in the same way as the Reset Your Console option does on the PS5.

If you are looking to factory reset your PS4 before giving it away or selling it, selecting Initialize PS4 will do the trick.