Elden Ring Nightreign's latest patch has made it impossible for greedy teammates to farm extra runes after the second-day boss, which is music to my ears

Familiar faces, unlockable as cosmetic character skins in Elden Ring Neightreign
(Image credit: Bandai Namco Entertainment)

Alongside Elden Ring Nightreign's Dark of Night endless mode, the latest patch has also brought a slew of fixes and updates, including a much-needed change to the holy damage icon (finally!) and a change to how badly the Night's Tide damage will hit players.

The patch notes read: "Increased the Night's Tide damage after defeating the second-night boss." It doesn't say how much it has increased by, but I can tell you from experience that it's a lot.

Selecting loot from a vanquished enemy.

(Image credit: FromSoftware)

I decided to test out just how lethal the Night Tide is now in one of my Deep of Night expeditions. After the second-day boss my two teammates carried on into the gloop, which sends you to the Nightlord boss arena, but I decided to head over to a close Site of Grace that was located in the Night Tide. It was but steps away from the safe zone, and I didn't even make it.

My health bar wasn't as big as it could've been, as I was only level 12 at the time and hadn't picked tons of HP buff effects, but the Night Tide still took a fifth of my health off in a matter of seconds. To make matters worse, on my second trip back into the Night Tide to go get my lost runes, I decided to overshoot and go to a Site of Grace, thinking it would replenish my health and flasks—it did not. So far, all Sites of Grace caught in the Night Tide have been unresponsive. This may just be a bug as I can't see any mention of a change in the patch notes. But even with the Sites of Grace traversing the Night on the second day is all but impossible now.

It took a few more times to inch my lost runes back to an area where I could safely pick them up. Needless to say, my teammates weren't happy with how long my idiotic test took. They both even shook their heads at me when I turned up at the Nightlord's gate.

Fighting a mutated enemy.

(Image credit: FromSoftware)

There is a lesson to be learned in being thankful for what you have in Nightreign. You may have wanted to reach level 15 before facing the Nightlord, and now you're just level 11 after the second end-of-day boss. Maybe a fight lasted longer than you expected, or you had a Recluse leave the team to visit every Mage Tower on the map.

Some players may endure this and head into the goop ready to face the consequences of their actions, but others are not so accepting. In instances such as this, third-day rune farming can be quite common. I once waited 15 minutes for my two other teammates to try and fail to kill the dragon in the South of Noklateo's map after we killed the second-day boss. It seemed to be quite a popular strategy for those greedy players who wanted more runes and a chance to get another helpful weapon. But this just won't be possible any more.

I can't say I'm particularly sad to break the news. I never liked messing around in the Night Tide after the second day—it always just seemed a bit too high on the 'fuck around and find out' chart for me. But it does mean that players are just going to have to bear with the runes they have after the second day is done, or find a ridiculously finicky way around the issue, which I'm sure is also possible, knowing Nightreign players.

Elden Ring Nightreign tipsNightreign tier listBest Nightreign rune farm route Best Nightreign team compsNightreign best relicsNightreign bosses listNightreign Remembrances

Elden Ring Nightreign tips - Start your run right
Nightreign tier list - The best nightfarers
Best Nightreign rune farm route - Level up fast
Best Nightreign team comps - Squad goals
Nightreign best relics - The rite stuff
Nightreign bosses list - Every Nightlord
Nightreign Remembrances - All character quests

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Elie Gould
News Writer

Elie is a news writer with an unhealthy love of horror games—even though their greatest fear is being chased. When they're not screaming or hiding, there's a good chance you'll find them testing their metal in metroidvanias or just admiring their Pokemon TCG collection. Elie has previously worked at TechRadar Gaming as a staff writer and studied at JOMEC in International Journalism and Documentaries – spending their free time filming short docs about Smash Bros. or any indie game that crossed their path.

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