Elden Ring Nightreign's latest update brought many great things with it: a new Everdark boss (Augur), highly anticipated duo expeditions, and a brilliant new relic sorting system. But something rather unexpected also came with: whispers of upcoming (unannounced) Nightreign content.
After the recent patch, dataminers got to work sifting through files to see if there was anything new to find, and there was quite a bit, actually. Not only was there information about all the remaining Everdark boss fights, but one dataminer (who has since had their video taken down) supposedly found details about a new game mode named "Deep of Night".
Elden Ring Nightreign new mode: Deep of Night from user/Adminisitrator
This will apparently be an endless mode—in the sense that you can grind it endlessly, not that it'll keep you locked in forever—with random encounters, where the difficulty gradually increases. "The Deep of Night is a battlefield of endless Night," the game file description says (via Scavinjx). "Victory will increase your rating, burnishing your Depth. The darkness extends unto infinity."
If these leaks are to be believed, this mode will also come with a new rating system and skill-based matchmaking that'll group you with other Nightfarers of the same level. Depending on how you do in this mode, you can either gain or lose points, which will affect your rank.
Dataminers claim there are five Depths, each with 999 ratings. So Depth 1, the easiest, has a Rating from 0-999, then Depth 2's Rating goes from 1000-1999, and so on until Depth 5, which has a Rating of 6,000+.
That may seem like a ton of levels, and the prospect of having the most hellish losing streak known to man, but it's ok, once you get to the next Depth, you can't be demoted. "If you continually lose Rating, your Depth will be reduced, but once you have reached Depth 2, you cannot return to Depth 1," the game file says. Potentially meaning that the five Depths will act like checkpoints for players.
This system sounds similar to the one that FromSoftware used for Armored Core 6, where winning matches would increase your ranked XP, or decrease it if you lost. If you wanted to rank up, then you'd have to perform well during a promotional phase, where you'd need to win a certain number of times to reach the next rank or in this case, Depth.
This would likely translate to Nightreign's new mode well, as it would separate casual players from more competitive ones. But as one player points out, just because Nightreign may add ranks doesn't mean that you have to try and climb to the top: "A warning to the NR community if this is similar to AC6; don't push for promotions if you want to enjoy a more casual setting… Be aware of what you want from the game, and don't stress yourself out by pushing beyond what you find enjoyable."
You'll also be matched with players of a similar level, but in cases where the wait time is too long "the pool of eligible players will be expanded to include players with different Depths" for a short period of time.
There are even already players taking a swing at some overhaul mods based on what the Nightlords will act like during the Deep of Night. With some new effects also being unearthed from the file, like Wylder's skill inflicting blood loss, or Revenant's increased max FP upon Ability activation.
I've doubted just how much FromSoft was willing to put into Nightreign or had prepared. Especially after the round-robin of Everdark bosses was reintroduced to buy time for new content. But I'll happily be proven wrong if Deep of Night makes it out of the game files. It sounds like exactly the kind of next stage that Nightreign needs and that players have been asking for, and it may even be enough to keep players satiated for a good long while. At least until the upcoming DLC drops.
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