In a new message on X, "The Everything App," FromSoftware has revealed the final names and stats of the two additional classes coming in Elden Ring's $5 Tarnished Edition DLC. The Idus Knight looks sick as ever, while the Heavy Knight appears to have gotten the gentlest, most tender of nerfs since we saw their stats leak from a Tarnished Edition playtest last year.

The Heavy Knight will start at level 10, as opposed to eight in the playtest, with their two extra levels shaking out as a plus one to their Faith and Mind stats. Hardly ruinous, and I think HK will still be a new top pick for a very specific niche of builds (Hulk smash), but the change stands out to me all the same.

Due to Elden Ring's one stat point per level system and exponentially increasing cost to level up, it's beneficial for a class to start as low level as possible, avoiding any points lost to "junk" stats not used by your build. Buildcrafters got all in a lather about HK's aggressively min-maxed stats, and now those stats have been ever so slightly less min-maxed.

It's an almost imperceptible change for your average player, but may factor into speed or challenge runs and the like. Otherwise? Heavy Knight = big guy + big sword (of the "curved great" variety) + big armor, and both of those bits of gear are new to the Tarnished Edition.

The Knight of Idus has always been more exciting to me: An agile swordsman class to give the base game Samurai some competition. They start with a scandalously swagged out new armor set, a shield of indeterminate extraction, and the previously Shadow of the Erdtree-exclusive Milady light greatsword, an extremely cool weapon that used to take hours of gameplay to acquire.

Stat-wise, Idus strikes me as a slight upgrade to the Samurai (to the same degree that the Heavy Knight was slightly nerfed): More Faith and Strength, less Arcane, Vigor, and Int, but also a lower starting level of seven.

They also introduce the nation of Idus, which has never before been mentioned in Elden Ring, and will likely be the exclusive domain of the item descriptions for the knight's armor pieces⁠. Never change, FromSoftware. The DLC will be made available on PC the same day as the Tarnished Edition's Switch 2 release: August 28.

Knight of Idus stats

• Level: 7
• Vigor: 10
• Mind: 12
• Endurance: 11
• Strength: 13
• Dexterity: 15
• Intelligence: 8
• Faith: 11
• Arcane: 6

Heavy Knight Stats

• Level: 10
• Vigor: 14
• Mind: 8
• Endurance: 17
• Strength: 15
• Dexterity: 11
• Intelligence: 7
• Faith: 8
• Arcane: 9

FromSoftware president and game director Hidetaka Miyazaki is one of the most revered names in today's games industry. Even figures like legendary former Tekken boss Katsuhiro Harada hold him in high esteem: Recently asked on X about his opinion of Miyazaki, Harada said the Dark Souls creator is a "rather unique, yet extremely serious game developer."

But while he called Miyazaki's career "remarkable," Harada said it's one that isn't fully appreciated by those touting FromSoft's achievements, because more attention is paid to the breakout sales successes of the Souls games than the gradual growth of the developers that made it possible.

What makes Miyazaki's career "so unique," Harada said, is that the FromSoft director was a relative latecomer to game development. After working as an Oracle account manager, Miyazaki made an abrupt decision to pursue a game dev career at age 29 after becoming enraptured with Ico on a friend's suggestion. Given his lack of industry experience, few companies were willing to consider his application—but FromSoft did.

"It's remarkable that someone who wasn't even a game developer during the dawn of the polygon era eventually became one of Japan's most representative game creators," Harada said. "In other words, compared to the rest of us from the same generation—including myself—his career path is exceptionally unusual. Most notably, unlike many of us, he was not working at one of the major development studios that held a significant technological advantage during the early polygon era."

First working as a designer on Armored Core: Last Raven, Miyazaki would later shift into a director role on Armored Core 4 and For Answer—and eventually, Demon's Souls and Dark Souls. While Dark Souls' ascendance as a global phenomenon might have seemed like it emerged out of nowhere, Harada said his tenure as Bandai Namco producer and marketing general manager—a tenure that overlapped with the Souls series and Elden Ring development—allowed him to appreciate how FromSoft had honed its craft as a studio.

"From that perspective, I can say that Dark Souls didn't suddenly become a massive success overnight," Harada said. "It was the result of everything Miyazaki and his team had built up through their previous titles."

According to Harada, the acclaim that FromSoft enjoys feels like "almost complete reversals in attitude" compared to "the days when [Miyazaki] and his team were struggling the most." It was a contributing factor to his own exhaustion with people who he says can only judge a game's merits "by saying things like, 'That title cost X billion yen to make and sold Y million copies.'"

"There were so many people who couldn't appreciate the journey or the growth of the developers themselves," Harada said, expressing surprise that "even if people couldn't properly evaluate that journey, nobody seemed interested in trying to understand the process of how those developers gradually reached where they are today."

He made sure to clarify that he wasn't talking about fans, indicating that there may have been some on the business side at Bandai Namco who didn't have much patience for game devs' long-term professional development. (Given today's wide-ranging Xbox layoffs, that's evidently an international issue.)

As for Miyazaki himself, Harada says the FromSoft director seems to have a pervasive case of impostor syndrome. According to Harada, Miyazaki's discomfort with appearing in video interviews is due, in part, to a feeling that his own understanding of game development "is still shallow" and that he's not in a position to speak about the discipline authoritatively—a notion that the Tekken boss thinks is absurd.

"It's common for well-known developers to say, 'I still have a long way to go,'" Harada said, "But whenever someone like him says that, my reaction is always, 'Come on, if you say you're still not there yet, then the rest of us won't feel qualified to talk about games at all.'"

You remember Elden Ring, right? Pretty good game, pretty successful, won a few awards? Well, forget about all that: A Reuters report says a substantial number of shareholders in Kadokawa Corporation, the parent company of Elden Ring developer FromSoftware, want to give CEO Takeshi Natsuno the boot because, simply put, he's blowing it with Elden Ring.

Natsuno appeared to be in a strong position atop the company, earning the support of 90% of the company's shareholders at Kadokawa's 2025 annual general meeting. But Oasis Management, described in the report as "one of the most active activist investors in Japan," is now Kadokawa's largest single shareholder, with nearly 14% of the company, and it wants Natsuno gone.

• We're keeping track of all the Amazon Prime Day PC gaming deals here

The problem, ironically, is Elden Ring's success. I may have (also ironically) undersold it just a bit up above: Elden Ring had sold more than 30 million copies as of April 2025, three years after its release, and the Shadow of the Erdtree punched out 10 million more. Add another five million copies of the multiplayer Elden Ring Nightreign on top of that, and you've got yourself some enviable numbers by any measure. But as Janet Jackson once famously asked, what have you done for me lately?

The problem is "profit leakage," essentially meaning that Kadokawa under Natsuno's leadership has failed to capitalize on Elden Ring's success to make more money—in particular, it's let money slip through its fingers by partnering with external publishers for game releases. Elden Ring, for instance, is published by Kadokawa (via FromSoftware) in Japan, but Bandai Namco is the global publisher.

In a press release calling for Natsuno's ouster earlier this month, Oasis described FromSoftware as a "crown jewel asset," but said Kadokawa "continues to leave a meaningful share of the economics from [its] titles with third-party publishing partners, creating a significant and ongoing loss of value for all of Kadokawa stakeholders."

"Oasis has long advocated with Kadokawa privately and directly for a more ambitious approach to capturing the full value of FromSoftware’s success," Oasis wrote. "Management itself previously committed to self-publishing under its prior mid-term plan, and raised money in 2022, diluting shareholders, to self-publish. But CEO Natsuno has since retreated from that commitment without providing shareholders with a clear explanation, economic framework, or decision criteria for how and when Kadokawa will improve gaming economics.

"Oasis is not saying that every title must be self-published immediately. Rather, Oasis is asking for transparency, discipline, and a credible plan for how Kadokawa will capture more value from one of the most important assets in the global gaming industry."

Beyond Natsuno, Oasis believes "Kadokawa also requires broader improvements in governance, capital allocation, cost discipline, and Board oversight." But he's the top dog, and that's where you start with these things.

Elden Ring isn't Natsuno's only problem: A 2024 data leak cost the company millions, which apparently didn't go over super-well with anyone, and shareholders are also reportedly unhappy that a hoped-for (by investors) acquisition by Sony turned into a relatively small-potatoes "strategic alliance" in which Sony took 10% of the company. It came to light in a new Reuters report that Natsuno did in fact survive the AGM and will maintain his position, but the actual results of the vote won't be known for several days; if his support has dropped off sharply, Natsuno may be forced to implement many of the changes desired by Oasis and other activist investors anyway.

In an email statement to Japanese gaming site Denfaminico Gamer, FromSoftware boss Hidetaka Miyazaki indicated that the studio has unannounced new projects in the works, while largely demurring from making a comment about recent investor drama at FromSoft's parent company, Kadokawa.

I've relied on machine translation to parse Denfaminico's article and Miyazaki's email response. The developer stated he was not in a position to discuss recent action by activist investors in Kadokawa, but said he was "generally satisfied with the development environment" under the anime publishing giant, and that the studio was "able to freely create the games we want to make without excessive interference."

"I believe that maintaining such an environment in the future, allowing us to concentrate solely on game development as much as possible, is of utmost importance to both myself and to us at FromSoftware," Miyazaki told Denfaminico Gamer.

It's understandable the developer would be reluctant to say much else about Kadokawa's current situation. As reported by Automaton, Hong Kong-based hedge fund Oasis Management purchased a majority share in Kadokawa, and is pushing for its current CEO to be fired.

With regards to FromSoftware, Oasis was critical of Kadokawa allowing it to work with third party publishers like Bandai Namco, instead of having the developer publish through Kadokawa itself.

Miyazaki did drop a little crumb of something at the end for the fans, though. "We want to assure you that we will continue to work harder than ever to create truly valuable games," said Miyazaki. "We hope you will look forward to our upcoming titles, both those already announced and those yet to be announced."

It's not much, but it's something. Currently the only upcoming project FromSoft has announced is the Switch 2-exclusive multiplayer game, Duskbloods, but it's felt like the studio must have something else in its back pocket to reveal soon. Whatever FromSoft's next big thing is, I'm hoping we see it in some form before the end of the year.

We included Elden Ring and Armored Core developer FromSoftware among our notable Summer Game Fest no-shows, and that's not technically true anymore: The studio piped up during today's Nintendo Direct to say, "Yeah, Duskbloods network test sometime this summer, I guess."

The Switch 2 exclusive's new trailer is even more cryptic than its first. It's the sort of mood piece that would make more sense as an initial teaser than a follow-up.

We got a few shots of gothic exteriors and stained glass windows, then close-ups of John Bangs (give this fella a haircut!) and some manner of rat man with glowing tattoos (I like the cut of his jib, at least). The narration? You better believe it's ominous and incomprehensible.

FromSoft's playing the hits, Duskbloods is not beating the Bloodborne 2 allegations, and I'm just miffed that this next game from one of my favorite studios is an exclusive (however temporarily) for the Switch 2, a worse handheld PC shackled to Nintendo's domineering software walled garden.

It feels like it's just about that time, you know? "Freaky teaser trailer for FromSoft's next big thing" o'clock. Elden Ring Nightreign certainly isn't getting support, so the studio can spare that manpower. Duskbloods' Nintendo-exclusive, multiplayer nature makes it feel like it can't possibly be FromSoft's next big thing, could it?

I'm still lighting a candle for an Armored Core 6 expansion-sequel in the series tradition, which seems less and less likely with each passing year. If nothing else, at least we have Elden Ring's Tarnished Edition DLC to look forward to. Bandai Namco has yet to reveal a price, but the pack will add two new classes, plus a number of new weapons and armor on August 28.

Original Story: Bandai Namco has revealed that the Switch 2 "Tarnished Edition" of Elden Ring will finally launch on August 28. But who cares about that⁠—the company's press release also confirmed that the Tarnished Edition's new goodies will also be coming to the PC version on the same day.

The Tarnished Edition was initially supposed to be a launch game for the Switch 2, but amid reports of booboo performance at preview events, it was unceremoniously booted into 2026 with no firm launch window. No skin off my back, but the delay took the Tarnished Edition patch on other platforms with it.

And there's some juicy stuff in there, like two new starting classes: The big boy Heavy Knight and the dexlord Knight of Ides. The former is an Iron Tarkus-looking lad with new armor and a new weapon, a never-before-seen curved greatsword, but paradoxically, he doesn't have a shield. Heavy Knight had the community in a tizzy with an early peek at his strength build-centric, powergaming-friendly stat spread.

I'm more excited about the Knight of Ides, though, who starts the game with some badass-looking armor and the killer M'lady light greatsword, a standout weapon from the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion that previously took dozens of hours to acquire. I've been holding off on a new playthrough so I could rock with the Knight of Ides.

The Tarnished Edition will also come with other new weapons and armor, like Lucatiel of Mirrah's set from Dark Souls 2, and I've got my fingers crossed that FromSoft has been holding some surprises in reserve.

If you've ever played one of FromSoftware's oeuvre in front of another Souls fan, you already know what a scourge backseat gaming is. Now imagine you're a streamer playing in front of thousands of folks who are convinced they know better than you. Well, one streaming fan has created a lightweight tool that allows backseat gamers to prove on-stream they're as good as they say.

Vtuber girl_dm_ recently showcased the aforementioned in-browser tool during a Dark Souls 2 stream. The streamer explained on X that the tool "takes a clone of my latest save and gives a chatter eight minutes to show me what they want me to do." The result is then broadcast live, picture-in-picture style, to her adoring audience.

Called 'backseatNOW 9000,' the tool was made by one of the Vtuber's community members, and works without the viewer needing to download anything extra. Girl_dm_ explains, "It’s essentially pulling my save info, putting it to the host computer (which is running a legal copy of the game), and [allows] the chatter to remotely play for their limited session—it's Temu Google Stadia with a browser source viewer for me as the streamer."

For those who may have forgotten, Google Stadia launched in 2019 and promised a game streaming revolution. The subscription-based service offered playable games streamed over the internet without the need for pricey hardware. Its streaming library included both big-budget blowouts, titles exclusive to the platform, and limited time demos, but the service ultimately shuttered in 2023.

As game streaming services live or die by the stability of the user's internet connection, many of Stadia's big promises about cloud-gaming were left largely unrealised.

But let's get back to the 'Temu Stadia' setup, which also has its own techy quirks. For one thing, mouse and keyboard controls are currently not an option. For another, a backseat gamer will need to lock their mouse to play. You're also slightly limited in what controller you can use to backseat, as the PS5's DualSense does not currently play nice with the tool.

As for streamers, the tool does require more than a bit of setup. For instance, girl_dm_ uses Streamer.Bot and a Blackmagic streaming encoder for her fairly complex, interactive streams.

This also wouldn't be much of a tool for streamers without some basic community management features. To begin with, would-be backseaters can only log in to the tool via unique credentials that girl_dm_ sends herself, and which are only valid for their eight-minute session. Anyone attempting to hijack the stream via the tool gets a chat timeout for a week.

Hiccoughs and setup aside, the implementation of the tool is pretty elegant. I know my introduction suggested something a little more ego-based and competitive, but it's way more positive in practice.

Souls games are known for being labyrinthine in structure, with many easily missed secrets along the way. This tool allows experienced Dark Souls 2 gamers to guide first-time player girl_dm_ to the coolest corners of Drangleic, and serves as a shining example of the community at its best. Now, I wonder how backseat gamers will fare with that Dark Souls 2 path tracing mod.

Back in February some amazing footage emerged of path tracing implementation in Dark Souls 2. At the time I was pretty impressed, but I didn't have my fingers crossed that the ambitious mod—which is an update to the beloved DS2Lighting Engine Mod—would be available to the public anytime soon.

I was wrong: the DS2LightingEngine mod on Nexus Mods was updated today with path tracing implemented. It's compatible with the Scholar of the First Sin version of Dark Souls 2.

The mod actually released on Discord late last month but is now more widely available on Nexus for people who might not be actively following its development. It's a beta, so you should expect some hiccups here and there, but it's an impressive feat and it brings the often scrappy-looking RPG to life.

It's worth pointing out, as per mod creator Ragevitamins on the DSLightingEngine Disord, that path tracing will inevitably make Dark Souls 2 more challenging, which I'm sure is music to the ears of sickos the world around. If there aren't light sources the game's going to be dark, meaning you'll need to use in-game light items like Prism Stones, torches, or the Cast Light spell if you can't see anything. "If there is a cave without [a] possible light source, it means you must be prepared for the dark."

That's fine: if you don't want punishing realistic lighting the earlier, non-path tracing version of the mod is still available on Nexus. But if you do use path tracing, Dark Souls 2's once-touted survival elements come to life with tech that FromSoftware would not have had access to in 2014.

While development continues—this new version of the mod is after all in beta—it's a great result for Dark Souls 2, which the modding community has obsessed over for 12 years by dint of its famously lacklustre launch state. Pre-release footage of the original game showed dynamic lighting the likes of which was completely absent in the final game; modders have not only added those features over time, but improved on them exponentially.

If you want to see the mod in action, YouTube LobosJr demonstrates it, with the added bonus of having a randomisation mod installed:

The ongoing project to port The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind into Elden Ring—recognised by UNESCO as the eighth wonder of the world*—is one of the more Herculean projects currently bubbling away in the mod scene, and it just got a new update. Long story short: this thing is nuts (complimentary).

In a new video, cheekily dedicated to one particular commenter who declared the project would never get done, author InfernoPlus walks us through the progress he's made on Elden Wind (my title, not his, probably because it sounds like a medieval doctor diagnosing a gastric issue) and, my friends, I'm impressed.

InfernoPlus takes us on a whistlestop tour of Seyda Neen—Morrowind's starting area—and Balmora. Buddy, let me tell you: as a guy who has seen a lot of the original Seyda Neen and Balmora in his life, that sure is Seyda Neen and Balmora. Our boy's done a sterling job. You can buy some starting gear from Arrille and pop into Addamasartus to free the slaves held there.

In keeping with the true Morrowind experience, InfernoPlus quickly gets impaled by one of the slavers, though it sounds like that's because he hasn't really futzed around with their stats yet. Still, it's authentic.

We've also got Tarhiel falling out of the sky and, over in Balmora, the ability to join the Fighter's Guild and kill some rats. And then kill some people, which is just as much an escalation here as it was back in 2002.

The part that really brings a tear to your eye, though, is the fact that NPCs can call you fantasy slurs ("Fetcher," in this case) and stab you simultaneously. It really is Morrowind, folks.

So it's done now, right? All good to go? We can play?

Ah, well, not quite. There's still plenty of stuff left to put in before the mod can see the light of full release, not least of which is proper volunteer voice acting rather than the charming Microsoft Sam-style voice NPCs use now.

Still, what is in there is amazing. InfernoPlus has managed to get a full-on crime and punishment system going, a process he likens to "Teaching a dog calculus," and there's weapon enchantment and skill training too.

I guess that guy who said the mod would never be finished might be proved right yet, but what's already here is really impressive.

*This is not true, but envision a better world with me.

We all have our guys, the true freaks and sickos online who it feels like only we know about, whose trials and travails move us in ways we can scarcely explain. Replica sword reviewers, world-class competitors in niche sports, historical reenactors with hearts of gold⁠—you know, your guys. One such guy, for me, is eauvni, a YouTuber who silently and implacably keeps playing Elden Ring Nightreign alone, then uploading the VODs.

Crucially, eauvni is very good at Elden Ring Nightreign, and will upload multiple runs a week, like clockwork. They rotate through the entire cast, but seem to have a particular affinity for the Sekiro-parrying Executor. All of their runs have been in the mega-hard Deep of Night mode since its release at the end of last year, but they've exclusively uploaded VODs of Depth Three of Five in recent months.

My guess would be that, even at this skill level, solo Depth Five just isn't fun⁠—even Sekiro/Souls no-hit maestro Ongbal has said as much (in the description of a successful Depth Five solo run, naturally). My understanding is that the jump in difficulty from Depth Three to Four is the most pronounced in the game, with enemies dealing twice as much damage in Four vs. Three⁠—and that's on top of the three depths worth of DoN advancements over the base game already.

The Depth Three/Four barrier is what separates the freaks from the perverts among Nightreign players, while the Four/Five divide splits the perverts and the reprobates.

The individual videos are prime "have something on in the background while you do something else" material for me, but as a whole, eauvni's body of work is kind of staggering as a record of obsession: Dozens and dozens of Nightreign runs, all on the same two maps with the same bosses. I've played a fraction as much of this game as eauvni, and there's a point where you start to see the Matrix code, you recognize different map seeds and can even anticipate individual boss placements.

And all to seemingly no end: Eauvni has reached Depth Five and turned back, content to keep fighting more manageable versions of the same pool of base Elden Ring bosses. They already have mathematically perfect relic builds for every character. There is, seemingly, no further support or content for the game planned in the future, nothing to anticipate or prepare for. Alexander wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer.

I can relate to this obession, even at a much lower skill level: Almost every day for our lunch break, PCG writers Tyler Colp, Sean Martin, and I do a Nightreign run. We are in the latter half of Depth Four, coming up on Depth Five, and I have never felt more hated by a game.

Eauvni's "Thank You Nightreign Compilation" is very illustrative: Even more than FromSoft's other games, whether it's glitches, enemy AI, or RNG odds, there's a spite lurking beneath Nightreign. It feels like there's a malicious intelligence working against you at all times. This only makes eauvni's stoic, meditative repetition all the more disquieting to me.

Their recent no-damage run as Executor is a real heater: Eauvni has a habit of level one bum rushing bosses I'd be hesitant to tango with at the end of a run. They began this latest video with a ballsy, flawlessly executed level two takedown of a red (read: turbocharged) Erdtree Avatar at the top of Limveld castle. Elsewhere, they've 1v1'd the memetically difficult Bell Bearing Hunter at level one so many times, it almost doesn't feel worth commenting on anymore.

My friends and I aren't as good as eauvni, but part of me is worried that Nightreign will ruin normal FromSoft games for us and other disturbed Deep of Night holdouts: When I finally replay Elden Ring again with the Tarnished Edition patch allegedly due out this year, will it just feel too fair and well-balanced for me to enjoy? When I'm not instakilled by an overtuned area of effect attack in FromSoft's next mainline release, will I miss the thrill?

We've been getting heaps of behind-the-scenes leaked footage and images for the upcoming Elden Ring movie directed by Alex Garland, who last time we checked was on his seventh playthrough. We've seen stills of the sets, an image of Marika with not one, but two braids? Interesting.

But the biggest news we've had so far is undoubtedly the 37 seconds of footage depicting none other than the Loathsome Dung Eater hanging from the stocks in what looks to be a town square while getting pummelled with rotten food by angry onlookers. That's it. It's quite literally just 37 seconds of people hurling food at the poor sod and screaming from the top of their lungs.

In the game, Dung Eater gets hanged in front of a crowd at Leyndell, the royal capital, during the introductory cutscene. But again, if it's anything like the game, this won't be the last we see of him as you can find his apparition in one of the backrooms of the Roundtable Hold and his real body beneath Leyndell in the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds where he was jailed among other noble Omen, (those horned dudes no one seems to like, sorry Morgott).

But why was he hanged? Well the Dung Eater may be iconic among Elden Ring fans, but he's not a very nice fellow. Before his hanging, he was a Tarnished who murdered and defiled victims with the seedbed curse, severing their connection to the Erdtree and cursing them to come back as Omen.

But who knows what shape the film will take or how closely it will coincide with the narrative from the games. While it may not follow how the game plays out (imagine it just being a 60-hour silent playthrough), I do reckon there won't be any changes to the canon, what with Garland clearly being such a huge fan.

So far, the mood of fans after seeing the Dung Eater clip seems to just be elated. The comments under the leaked footage are full of people praising the legendary "Pee-Pee Poo-Poo man" or the "Darstardly Doo-doo Devourer", all fond nicknames. While others take it more seriously: "Amazing shot! Can't wait to see this all coming together", before someone else brings it back down to earth: "If they actually say 'The Loathsome Dung Eater' in this movie it's going to be my personal Chicken Jockey."

I hadn't actually thought of this, but there are a lot of opportunities to send cinemas into the same chaotic haze the Minecraft movie did if Garland plays his cards right. The Loathsome Dung Eater is just one example of this; others include the Radahn Festival, "Bear Witness", or quite literally anything written on Scriptstones, whether that be "Fort, night", "Try finger, but hole", or just "Dog". I'm definitely going to watch the Elden Ring movie, though. I'll just need to mentally prepare myself for another Chicken Jockey moment.

FromSoftware's continued silence on a series tradition expansion/mini-sequel to Armored Core 6 remains one of the great tragedies of my life, but the game's fan community has stayed vibrant. AC buildmaster and YouTuber Thryfe recently stole my heart with a fantastic Sailor Moon "cosplay" mech.

Thryfe's whole deal is rolling out creative or novelty builds for AC6 PvP. This has usually taken the form of recreating ACs from previous entries of the series, like No Count, Noblesse Oblige, and White Glint from Armored Core 4. Thryfe first rolled out his Sailor Moon build last July, but has recently highlighted it again via YouTube Shorts.

The attention to detail on the paint job is what really sells things for me, particularly how well Thryfe mapped the distinctive color scheme onto an incongruously harsh, industrial mech shell. He made some really inspired choices with the parts, too. What usually scans as some kind of armored tabard on the Alba legs makes for a perfect girlypop skirt in this context.

The Alba arms' shoulder pads easily scan as a blouse's short sleeves, and I never would have thought to repurpose the insectoid Verril head as a face with pigtails. The Moonlight sword was also a great choice: Its striking curve and sleek profile give it more of a fantasy vibe than any other weapon in AC6. The build also does great work in PvP, as the main body of Thryfe's video demonstrates. After some post-launch buffs, that Moonlight sword can be built into as one of the best stagger punishes in the game.

Mech building is one of the best parts of Armored Core, combining the joys of RPG character building with the sort of vehicle customization I associate with a racing game garage. The stats of your individual mech parts matter much more than armor in FromSoft's Elden Soulsborne games, so I find I have even more respect for a well-executed Fashion Core that can still hold its own in high-level PvP⁠—In Elden Ring, it's all about the fashion, so you really don't have an excuse to dress shabbily. If you'd like to see more AC6 builds from Thryfe, you can subscribe to his channel on YouTube.

Whether you think Dark Souls 2 is FromSoftware's worst Souls game or its best (as many diehard fans believe) it's undoubtedly the game that had the roughest development in the series. The sequel went through a mid-development reboot that resulted in a complete story overhaul, as well as the various level design quirks evident in its strange, surreal world.

One of the byproducts of this reboot was a host of cut content, ranging from small items to parts of levels to giant crab bosses. But one of the largest cut sections is an enormous sewer map that was ultimately replaced by The Gutter, a similarly subterranean area that connects The Grave of Saints and Black Gulch.

While various cut areas of Dark Souls 2 have been unearthed before, this sewer level has remained hidden until now. YouTuber and FromSoft enthusiast Doneda succeeded in restoring the cut sewer area, posting a video in which he explores the location in detail.

As Doneda explains during the introduction of his video, the areas that appear in most FromSoft games are dictated by the asset format MapStudioBinary (or MSB). Modders can use various tools to manipulate these file formats, which is how Doneda was able to unearth the sewer area.

As you'd expect, the cut map is incomplete, devoid of enemies and a lot of the more granular details you'd expect to see in a FromSoft game (like giant clusters of jars to roll through) But it is partially textured and mostly interconnected. It's also absolutely vast.

The bulk of the video is dedicated to Doneda poking around it, and it takes him almost an hour to do so even without any enemies to battle along the way. Some of the map has an almost temple-like design, with Doneda wandering beneath vast vaulted ceilings and domed towers. But as with the final version of the Gutter, Dark Souls' Blighttown is a clear inspiration, with the midsection of the map featuring a jumbled, ramshackle shanty with vast superstructures visible in the distance.

There are a couple of areas worth spotlighting. One, which Doneda describes as "maybe the best part of the cut map" is a tavern hidden within the Blighttown-ish section. Aside from the fact that it's one of the map's more complete areas, it's also neat to see a dedicated recreational space in a series that tends to be all tombs, torture chambers and poison swamps.

Another, more traditionally Souls area is what initially appears to be a boss arena. Passing through a placeholder fog doorway, Doneda enters a chamber flanked by two enormous statues, with a central dais surrounded by what initially look like swords. As Doneda notes, however, they are more likely to be unlit candles. Either way, these objects call into question whether this actually is a boss arena, as all those sword-candles would get in the way of a fight. Perhaps, then, it's just where you were supposed to meet an important character.

Aside from seeing what could have been for DS2's Gutter, the video also provides a fascinating insight into the design of Dark Souls 2. Right at the outset of his guided tour, Doneda encounters a pathway that isn't connected to the rest of the map, and notes that the designers were likely undecided on how exactly the player should proceed at this point.

In a way, it serves to highlight Miyazaki's own point that Dark Souls 2 "carried the rest of the series forward" in terms of all the things the team figured out over the course of that project, and how some of the studio's best work in games like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Elden Ring might not exist without its difficult gestation.

A forthcoming Bloodborne film adaptation will be an "R-rated animated feature" co-produced by YouTuber JackSepticEye, Variety reports. In case you're doubting the veracity of this, Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group president Sanford Panitch made the announcement himself during CinemaCon today, which is currently taking place in Las Vegas.

According to the report, the adaptation will be just as gruesomely violent as the games, news that is sure to delight sickos worldwide.

Perhaps the most surprising news is JackSepticEye's involvement, though given his 31.2 million YouTube subscribers, maybe it's not so surprising. The Irish content creator, whose real name is Seán William McLoughlin, has racked up nearly five million viewers for his Bloodborne playthrough, and it's apparently his favourite game. Whether that's enough to make him fit to help adapt one of the most beloved games of the 21st century, I guess we'll find out.

JackSepticEye will co-produce with Sony Productions and Lyrical Animation, which is also working on a Death Stranding adaptation and Hell Followed With Us, which is based on a YA "dystopian fantasy horror" novel.

No word as yet on when this film will hit cinemas or streaming services, but it's part of a significant push on Sony's part to turn its games into movies and TV: The Last of Us comes immediately to mind, as does God Of War. Sony is also working on a live-action Legend of Zelda film.

Whatever the case, Bloodborne still isn't on PC and it's becoming increasingly unlikely that it will given Sony's reported U-turn on porting its exclusives. Thankfully, emulating Bloodborne is becoming more and more seamless by the day.

Now this is what I'm talking about: Modder Ionian-MikiriyAKATotallyNotShinobi (god damn that's a mouthful) has come out with a banger on the Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Nexus: Jet Set Sekiro, a custom skateboarding level where you shred around the Fountainhead Palace like the spirit of 2002 never died.

The channel Mod Server on YouTube has a great video of the thing in action: It retrofits Sekiro's normal animations for skateboarding gameplay, with a new movement system that functions exactly how you'd expect.

The new level, which appears heavily based on (if not just reusing the layout of) the base game's Fountainhead Palace, sees you rolling around and collecting spray paint canisters to graffiti tag select spots on the map.

It's a delightful little mod, and feels very much in line with the history of skateboarding games writ large. I'm thinking of how Darth Maul was an unlockable character in Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3, or Spyro the Dragon's various skateboarding levels in Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon. At a cosmic level, I feel like there's a kinship between Japanese action and skateboarding games, similar to the one between hip-hop and kung fu movies.

This isn't the first crossover between skateboarding and FromSoft specifically: I fondly recall the Firelink Shrine modded map for Tony Hawk's Underground 2 by sockpuppetkingdom. It paired beautifully with the Solaire player model by Syeo. The difference this time around is that Ionian-Mikiriy brought the skateboarding to FromSoft, and not the other way around.

In other videogame skateboarding news, one of our favorite games of last year, Skate Story, is on sale for $16 on GOG. Please do not pirate it, no matter what its creator Sam Eng says.

Our first glimpse of Alex Garland's upcoming Elden Ring movie might be in a TikTok video shot by a lucky fan in the UK. Not only is it unmistakably a near-exact recreation of the ruined churches from the game, there's evidence that it's being built in a popular filming location.

Throxtv, an Elden Ring fan and Twitch streamer, posted a short video on Friday of a ruined stone building with a statue of a woman that looks exactly like the churches of Marika found throughout The Lands Between. The open field it's sitting in resembles the game's opening area, Limgrave, minus the fences surrounding it.

In a follow-up video posted earlier today, Throxtv showed off the opposite side of the church and the other props nearby. Wagons, barrels, and stacks of cinderblocks can be seen, along with construction equipment. The cinderblocks bear the logo of Hedgehog Construction, a company known for providing "specialist scenery construction for film and television", according to its website.

Hedgehog Construction also happens to be near the Windsor Great Park, which is a popular filming location for television shows and movies, like Pirates of the Caribbean and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Throxtv wouldn't reveal the exact location of the set to PC Gamer over direct messages, but the park would be my first guess.

None of this confirms the set has anything to do with the movie, though. It could be part of a marketing campaign for the upcoming Tarnished Edition of the game, or something else unrelated. I reached out to A24 to ask if it would confirm that the set is related to the film and will update this post if I hear back.

Throxtv provided PC Gamer with a third video of the set that was taken earlier today by a friend. It appears the church has been camouflaged by a tarp to protect it from photos, and has two people standing outside—presumably to stop anyone else from trying to take a peek.

Meanwhile, Elden Ring fans are busy speculating what the movie could be about now that they've seen something as recognizable as a church of Marika. Very little else is known about the approach director Alex Garland will take with it. The filmmaker is a noted fan of the game, so much so that he whipped up a 160-page script just to convince FromSoftware and Bandai Namco that he should be the one to handle it. But apart from his credentials, the rest of the film, including where and when it takes place, is unknown.

Independent entertainment journalist Jeff Sneider reported last year that actors Ben Whishaw (Skyfall), Kit Connor (Heartstopper), and Cailee Spaeny (Civil War) were "in talks" to star in the film. However, A24 hasn't said a word since its initial announcement.

All I know is that the set is absolutely a church of Marika, and one that has a statue that is more or less intact compared to all the broken ones that inhabit the DLC. Specifically, it looks like it could be the third church of Marika, but it's really far too early to know how it will be used in the film—if at all—at this point.

Longtime FromSoftware dataminer Lance McDonald has unveiled his latest discovery from deep in the bowels of Elden Ring, a WIP base game cutscene featuring DLC antagonist Miquella the Kind, who remains one of the most enigmatic characters in any FromSoft game.

The cut scene (cut cutscene?) shows Miquella planting a sapling Haligtree⁠—the endgame dungeon where you fight Malenia⁠—then watering it with his own blood. It takes place in a modified version of Malenia's boss room, further solidifying its connection with the origins of the Haligtree. Miquella's character model appears to be the same as the one from his final scene in the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion.

I can't tell if this is Miquella's same voice actor as in Shadow of the Erdtree, Naomi McDonald (no relation). His voice sounds more childlike and feminine, but that could be a matter of delivery. McDonald, for what it's worth, has an impressive range: You may remember her as Stone Trader Chloanne in Dark Souls 2 or Johnny the Godling from The Witcher 3.

While the exact order of the voice lines is not certain due to a missing intermediary file, McDonald played them in the order that they are listed in Elden Ring's files:

"Young seedling, young seedling, grow larger, stronger. My dear twin, accept this gift, a gift of abundance. My last drop of dew. Let all things flourish, whether graceful or malign. If thou coveteth the throne, impress my vision upon thine heart. In the new world of thine making, all things will flourish, whether graceful or malign."

Yep, that's FromSoft dialogue alright. According to McDonald, this cutscene would have played when you received part of the Dectus Medallion from Gideon Ofnir at Roundtable Hold, almost like a teaser for the Haligtree subplot. Here are a few of my takeaways, as a freak for the lore:

• This scene presages the SotE denouement in a number of ways: The empty throne, Miquella's kneeling position and obscured face, his addressing a demigod sibling, and the scene's nature as a relative non-sequitur.
• Miquella is speaking to Malenia in the second sentence, but from "if thou" onward, seems to be speaking to the player instead.
• That, coupled with the odd repetition of "graceful and malign" so close together, has me wondering if the first half pertains to this scene, and the second to something else.
• Miquella waters the tree with his blood, then is later absorbed by it before getting kidnapped by Mohg.
• It's okay, Miquella brainwashed Mohg. It wasn't Mohg's fault. Mohg: Cleared of all charges.
• You can see the outline of an earlier, more benevolent characterization of Miquella from before the DLC, one with a greater emphasis on his utopian, egalitarian vision, rather than the ruthless things he would do to secure it.
• Miquella's reference to "abundance" caught my attention. A cut "Abundance and Decay Twinblade" was datamined years ago, shortly after Elden Ring's launch and long before Shadow of the Erdtree was announced. Its item description directly connected it to Miquella's cut content. Its model was later reworked into Euporia in Shadow of the Erdtree, further legitimizing the earlier datamined version.

It's hard to be impressed by new Dark Souls feats in 2026 because the feats have become ludicrous. "Dark Souls 2 player beats its hardest boss on NG+7 by wearing his clothes and committing seppuku 47 times," reads a headline from June. "Dark Souls completed by throwing literal crap at bosses," was a thing that happened in 2022. That's not to mention all the dance mat and music peripheral challenges.

Which is why I'm drawn to the relative simplicity of this latest feat. YouTuber Zeldasouls has beaten Dark Souls at soul level 1 without using dodge rolls or ranged weapons. In the run embedded above, every boss is beaten under these limitations.

When I say "simplicity" I mean it's a pretty straightforward challenge as far as Dark Souls challenge runs go in 2026. There's no headline-grabbing twist, it's not completed on a set of bongos, but it's nevertheless bullshit hard. I don't think I could beat the Asylum Demon without dodge rolling, for example. I don't think I'd get far without ranged weapons either, which under Zeldasouls' conditions includes not only bows and magic projectiles, but also throwable items.

Just to be perfectly clear, here's the full list of conditions as per Zeldasouls:

• No levelling up
• No bows, crossbows, ranged consumables
• No ranged pyromancies, sorceries or miracles
• No rolls
• No jump rolls
• No back steps
• No quit outs to de-aggro enemies or reset player position
• No hits from enemies
• No staggers from enemies
• No deaths incurred by enemies (except for the first Seath encounter, which is a scripted death)

So basically: you're at a severe-verging-insurmountable disadvantage.

"I genuinely do not have the words to describe how I feel now that this is over," Zeldasouls writes on YouTube. "I spent countless hours grinding, coming up with strats, failing, suffering, raging, all over the course of the last two years. This is undoubtedly the hardest hitless run ever done in dark souls 1, and possibly in the entire souls series.

"Thank you to everyone who watched me attempt this run over the years. Most people will only see the end result of my blood, sweat, and tears."

You'll probably need to be a Dark Souls fanatic to endure the full playthrough: due to the limitations Zeldasouls has to take it extremely slowly, practicing a molasses-slow abundance of caution even in early areas like the Undead Burg. Still: If you've got three and a half hours, it's a gruelling watch.

Modder Transquility on the Elden Ring Nexus has restored Merchant Kalé's NPC quest in our 2022 game of the year. There was originally a lot more to the early game vendor's character, and I think it could have been a standout part of the game. Spoilers for Elden Ring and the cut quest ahead.

Kalé doesn't have much to do in the release version of Elden Ring: He's memorable, being the second NPC you run into, and he offers an intro of sorts to wolf knight Blaidd and Ranni's sprawling questline. But as dataminer Sekiro Dubi revealed shortly after Elden Ring's launch, Kalé was, at one point, meant to be the driving force behind the hidden Frenzied Flame ending⁠—the one where you commit omnicide⁠—taking up the role occupied by "Shabriri Grapes" Hyetta in the final game.

The upshot is that actor Nabil Elouahabi delivers one hell of a performance, starting out as the affable merchant we know but devolving into despair and rage as he discovers how his people were wronged by Marika and her Golden Order, ultimately urging you to take up the Frenzied Flame to avenge them.

This quest more explicitly contextualizes the people you find buried alive under Leyndell⁠—context that's buried in item descriptions in the final game, classic FromSoft⁠—and it offers a reason to pursue the Frenzied Flame ending beyond just "being evil" or completionist gamer curiosity. Melina's pleading with you not to meet the Three Fingers takes on a different cast in conversation with Kalé, whose rage and indignation over the fate of his people undercuts Melina's optimistic humanism.

It's great stuff, but the only way to experience it until now has been Sekiro Dubi's 20-minute video featuring Elouahabi's datamined voice lines. Transquility has reimplemented the quest, so it's now fully playable. Elden Ring mods are pretty simple to install and use, too: The Mod Engine 2 utility required here runs a separate executable offline and has modded saves separate from normal ones, keeping everything kosher with Easy Anticheat.

Writing this just now, I felt a stirring of hope that FromSoft might reimplement Kalé's quest in some form in the upcoming Tarnished Edition update to Elden Ring. Remember how that free GOTY update was supposed to come out last year? I don't care how booboo the Switch 2 port of Elden Ring runs, I've been putting off a replay with those new weapons and starting classes for too long!

The Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice anime is ticking along nicely—after a brief hubbub about potential AI use (which the director was quick to dismiss, and I never held much stock in any way, smear frames look weird), talk about the series, dubbed Sekiro: No Defeat, mostly quietened down.

Well, it's all livened up again, thanks to both a recent Variety interview with its director, and a new trailer that looks—for lack of a better word—sick as hell.

While the trailer from six months ago was certainly nothing to sniff at, suspicious smear frames notwithstanding, this new one gives off a much stronger visual identity. Scratchy, loose linework and kinetic action combined with some lovely painterly backgrounds—the words 'controlled messiness' come to mind.

Which is somewhat fitting if you're trying to replicate the frantic pace I felt while fighting most of the bosses, several of which can be spotted here—Owl can be seen in several scenes bodying/throwing the poor Wolf around, Genichiro's flinging lightning again, and is that Gyoubu Oniwa I spy? (as he breathes, you will not pass the castle gate).

This kind of trailer-combing has, per the aforementioned Variety review, been of some concern to the series' director Kenichi Kutsuna:

"FromSoftware, they make such high quality game experiences, and they've established this community and fandom worldwide," he explains. "So we understand that the potential audience for what we're making in this anime is going to put this under the microscope, and it's going to be a very, very—I don't wanna say harsh or strict lens, but you could say the audience will be looking at it.

"So I of course, am nervous if we are able to answer that level of resolution that they perhaps might be looking for. But I think we've done everything we could from the production side in terms of maintaining a level of quality that wouldn't tarnish the FromSoftware and 'Sekiro' brand."

I don't think there's any risk of tarnishing going on here, after all, this isn't Elden Ring, ohoho. But in all seriousness, I'm more bought in than I was before. As for what game ending the anime will be bending towards, Kutsuna states that it'll be just as open to interpretation:

"[Sekiro] allows a lot of interpretation on the players' part in terms of how they want to proceed through the game. And those who have played will know that type of experience. So, in taking that and transforming it into an audio-visual adaptation, we wanted it to be open to interpretation in a similar way that the game presented itself to its players."

Sekiro: No Defeat doesn't have an official release date yet, but it'll be coming this year. In the meantime, I'll be preparing myself by watching those sickos no-hit Genichiro off his stupid, lightning-infested tower again.

It might finally be time to accept that a Bloodborne remake isn't happening, at least not anytime soon. According to a report from Bloomberg, the project almost happened, but FromSoftware are the ones that ultimately turned it down.

A Bloodborne remake has been demanded by fans for so long that Sony's remaster studio, Bluepoint, figured it was inevitable that it would be given the job, especially after its very successful Demon's Souls remake in 2020. But Sony tasked the studio with making a live service God of War game instead.

When Sony abruptly ditched its live service initiative in early 2025 and cancelled Bluepoint's God of War game, Bluepoint was left to search for other projects. It approached Sony again to pitch its idea for a Bloodborne remake, and Sony was receptive: The only reason it didn't happen, according to the report, was because FromSoft didn't want it to happen.

Bloomberg doesn't have the details on why FromSoft turned it down, but points to a comment by former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida in an interview with Kinda Funny about FromSoft president Hidetaka Miyazaki wanting it to happen, but not wanting "anyone else to touch it." Miyazaki has previously said he's not "opposed" to a PC port of Bloodborne, and acknowledged that other FromSoft developers want to make one, but if Miyazaki is insistent on doing it himself, Yoshida believes Sony would respect his wishes even though it owns the rights to the game.

Bluepoint was still looking for something to work on when Sony announced last week that it would be shutting the studio down, laying off what will be reportedly about 70 people.

Yoshida is also the person who has spoken about a dispute between Sony and FromSoft around the release of Demon's Souls on a podcast last year. Sony, owning the rights to the Dark Souls progenitor, wanted to work with FromSoft on a sequel, but the studio was "so disappointed" with how it was treated it chose Bandai Namco as a publisher instead.

Sony and FromSoft's partnership for Bloodborne might've been a sign of some kind of resolution between the two, or merely a compromise, if it's true that Miyazaki doesn't trust it enough to handle a remake. Miyazaki told Game Informer earlier this year that "Bloodborne is a special game for me," and that it's "perhaps the strongest reflection of my type of flavoring of a game that one can experience."

It sounds like it's going to be up to Miyazaki and Miyazaki alone for whether or not we ever get a remake of one of the greatest action RPGs of all time. I have my issues with Bluepoint's Demon's Souls remake when it comes to the modernized aesthetic compared to the original game, but I would've happily taken a Bloodborne remake of any kind from a studio with such a strong track record.

In November 2024, developer Maxime Foulquier posted footage of Bloodborne Top Down Arena, a fan tribute mixing FromSoftware's relentlessly goth setting with Vampire Survivors mechanics. The project looked kinda cool, if not a little close to its source material.

Foulquier went quiet on the project after posting that video, and as it turns out, for good reason: In March 2025 he received a sternly-worded letter from lawyers representing Sony. Rather than announce straight away that the project was done for, Foulquier decided to wait.

"I didn’t say anything in March 2025 because I decided to repurpose all the assets I had created for that project into a new game set in my own universe, inspired by Bloodborne," Foulquier wrote on X, where he has also posted an image of the cease and desist letter. "My plan was to reveal the letter once the game was ready to communicate.

"Unfortunately, plans have changed. I’d rather speak about it now, as my disappointment is immense. The disappearance of Bluepoint is a tremendous loss for the industry and for the dream of a Bloodborne remake."

Foulquier posted the letter just after Sony confirmed it will close famed remake studio Bluepoint. It has long been hoped—but never hinted at by Sony—that Bluepoint might work on either a Bloodborne remake or remaster. A pipe dream for sure, but Bluepoint did remake Demon's Souls and Shadow of the Colossus, two other Sony-owned games with severely loyal followings.

With the closure, one of the Bloodborne community's most powerful coping mechanisms has been dashed. It was for the hope of a Bluepoint-fronted Bloodborne remake that Foulquier received the cease and desist letter with equanimity.

"I was incredibly excited about this project and worked on it a lot in my spare time," Foulquier wrote. "Then I received the letter you can see here. I told myself, 'Okay… I expected this might happen. Maybe it’s because a real Bloodborne remake is actually in development, with Bluepoint leading it for the PS6 launch?'"

It's not the first time Sony has killed a fanmade Bloodborne project: Bloodborne Kart was, as the name implies, a kart racer set in Yharnam, before Sony's lawyers got involved. It's now called Nightmare Kart.

"Why are you making such absurd decisions, Sony?" Foulquier wrote. "Shutting down such a talented studio while you’re not even making a Bloodborne remake and on top of that, sending cease and desist letters to small fan projects? Are you serious?"

While we wait, perhaps futilely, for Sony to decide it wants to make a lot of money from a cherished classic, Bloodborne PC emulation has made a lot of progress of late.

FromSoftware's King's Field was an astonishingly immersive RPG for 1994, a dark fantasy where every object was something that could be examined up close and from all angles. Every herb. Every skeleton. Every treasure chest and trap.

These first-person visual wonders weren't contained within some artificially restrictive turn-based RPG, tile-based dungeon crawl, or hemmed in by an intrusive framerate-saving UI. Players were free to explore the deadly domain however they pleased. Monsters could sneak up from behind, ledges could be cautiously peered over, painful surprises could swoop in from above, and coins could be collected off the floor.

That turned heads at a time when Chrono Trigger was still months away from making its Super Nintendo debut, even if the latter proved to be more timeless. But what kept people playing King's Field long after, through sequels and spiritually similar FromSoft RPGs and even into fan games created years later, was the series' enthralling atmosphere and unforgiving difficulty. The chance to be left alone in the dark and made to wander an environment so hostile there was a real chance the ground underfoot could kill, or approaching the wrong thing from the wrong angle could prove fatal.

The awkward controls, with camera movement tied to the PlayStation's shoulder buttons (a necessity in pre-analogue pad times, yet retained after) and sword swings imagined as slow, stamina-sapping motions, were features, not bugs. It should be difficult to hit something crawling along the floor. Spotting a monster hanging from the ceiling should take conscious thought and additional effort. Fighting should feel tense and deadly.

Like the Souls games that came after it, the series challenges players to defy seemingly impossible odds. Every step forwards through these tantalisingly freeform and often unmapped places feels like a small victory. Half-revealed mysteries and well-hidden secrets give seemingly simplistic stone corridors and magic swords meaning, every small and often charmingly lo-poly detail one part of a larger tapestry.

Something glinting in the distance is an invitation to push ahead, in spite of the dangers.

Thankfully this ethos is more than gaming history. Fans have eagerly picked up where FromSoftware left off, creating a new batch of nightmarish horrors and inhospitable locations for PC gamers to pick their way through. All of the following take King's Field's template and run with it, emphasising their own favourite aspects of the series' timeless design.

Lunacid: Atmosphere is everything

After the end of the world.

Developer: Kira LLC | Release date: 2023 | Steam Deck: Verified | Link: Steam

• King's Field + Ultima Underworld
• Controls like: A sports car fresh off the lot (as long as you put points in the Speed stat)

Lunacid does an incredible job of capturing one of the most alluring yet intangible parts of King's Field's style: an almost soul-crushingly melancholy mood. Playing this feels a lot like turning up to your own post-apocalyptic funeral, where everything's already broken and it's too late to fix it. And somehow the game manages to convey this feeling while using fewer polygons for an entire room than AAA games expend on someone's left nostril.

Everything feels old and worn and never less than deeply unsettling, the low level of detail only encouraging your imagination to fill in the polygonal blanks. Silent micro-stories are found everywhere, past tragedies hinted at through subtle visual choices. Disfigured bodies sit in serene prayer. A sea of blood stretches out into the dark, gravestones jutting out above the surface. Cloth bandages are found inside filthy straw-strewn cells.

Lunacid runs as deep as the choking shadows found around every corner. Every suspicious nook seems to hide a secret. Sanity can have an impact on how tangible certain beings are, and even the phases of the moon matter, strengthening and weakening certain monsters. Nothing is as straightforward as it seems, every new session leading to some new discovery or unexpected (and probably deadly) surprise.

Verho - Curse of Faces: The joys of an unfolding landscape

Enthusiasm for exploration.

Developer: Kasur Games | Release date: 2025 | Steam Deck: Verified | Link: Steam

• King's Field + Dark Souls 2
• Controls like: A sensible station wagon in a forsaken kingdom

There's all of the classic FromSoftware paraphernalia in here—a slightly awkward magic system, highly stylised NPCs with no real faces, aggressive plants, poison lakes—but what makes this game stand out is how interconnected it all is. Right from the start there's always some shortcut-creating ladder to kick down, a locked door to keep in mind for later, or a fast travel-enabling magical statue to make a slightly desperate dash for as monsters close in behind. Every step forward is an opportunity to either build a convenient path back to safety, or forge ahead into the unknown, torch in hand. With time and practice an initial panicked sprint past dead bodies and previously unseen monsters becomes a place to fight through for key items, then a place to cautiously explore for unlockable paths and links to new areas, then somewhere to farm monsters for XP and boldly explore for secrets.

Enigmatic NPCs can often be found sitting by campfires or resting in quieter spots, ready to give these areas context, or to offer a reason to push on into dangerous territory. Maybe they can open an otherwise impassable door if they're given a special item found in a dangerous area, warn people away from a nearby deathtrap, or offer tantalising hints for upcoming mysteries. There's always a new road to travel, a new opportunity to explore.

Monomyth: Improvisation and interactivity above all

It's supposed to be on fire. Honest.

Developer: Rat Tower | Release date: 2024 (early access) | Steam Deck: Playable | Link: Steam

• King's Field + Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
• Controls like: American muscle in a demolition derby

Monomyth may eschew the faux-retro look used to great effect by many Field-likes, but is no less atmospheric or authentic for its modern extravagances. Flames cast long shadows in the gloom, magical auras distort reality itself, and cool mists pool around armoured ankles. More impressive than the graphics is the fact that none of this additional detail is just for show. Enemies can see better in well lit areas, which can lead to some interesting torch-pilfering/light-dousing tactics. Bloodstained bandages can be washed in clean water, and a fish can be cooked simply by placing it near a fire or grill and then waiting for the heat to work its magic, the food visibly charring in the process.

Creative exploration isn't just possible, it's encouraged. Boxes can be stacked and stood on, creating shortcuts that officially don't exist. There's a good chance a locked door can be picked open, or even smashed to pieces or set alight. A metal cup on a desk is more than simple decoration—it can be picked up and hurled through iron bars, triggering the pressure plate on the other side, creating an unscripted workaround.

The correct solution to any problem is simply whatever happens to work.

Caput Mortum: Using friction as a feature

Better for being awkward.

Developer: WildArts Games | Release date: 2025 | Steam Deck: Playable | Link: Steam

• King's Field + Amnesia
• Controls like: A WWII anti-aircraft gun

Captum Mortum eagerly embraces the idea of being awkward to play, choosing to map turning and vertical camera movement to a controller's shoulder buttons (as King's Field games did) so the right analogue stick can dedicate itself to manoeuvring the player's right arm. It's deliberately clunky and difficult, and so much better for it. This virtual body is a physical presence; a clearly defined object within this alchemically-themed world, with all the natural limitations and restrictions that go with it. This means items can be out of arm's reach, even if they're within what every other game would insist was some kind of permissible interaction range.

It's not enough to jab "open" when near a door, the hand must be made to reach towards the handle first.Of course it should—how else would a door open? In other instances physical gestures must be mimicked with reasonable accuracy, and washing a wall with a sponge to reveal hidden secrets is an involved, manual act, rather than some forgettably generic command.

It's all the small things most games smooth away until they're easily ignored or forgotten, brought to the foreground and made interesting again. Simple interactions become satisfying tasks, and what would be stock actions elsewhere are transformed into unique, personal acts.

Labyrinth of the Demon King: Be afraid

Very afraid.

Developer: J.R. Hudepohl | Release date: 2025 | Steam Deck: Playable | Link: Steam

• King's Field + Silent Hill
• Controls like: A sedan whose wheels are spinning in the mud as someone tries to carjack you

King's Field games were always scary, but this game takes that fear and then turns it up to 11 by adding a generous helping of Silent Hill to the mix. Anything that isn't swallowed by shadows is smothered by a thick layer of fog, and everything close enough to see is covered in dark rust, black mould, stale blood, or some unholy combination of all three. Fleshy growths pulsate. Monsters have skin where their eyes should be. Eyes where their skin should be. Not enough flesh on undead bones. A skin-crawling need to scuttle.

It's more than just dirty, it's actively repulsive.

Running away from these terrors is rarely an option within the often narrow confines of the game's old prisons and ancient Japanese buildings, and combat is tense and involved. Enemies skew fast and aggressive—so aggressive they'll regularly fight and kill each other—and aren't afraid of closing the distance or attacking from around a corner with little warning. Weapon swings tend to consume a lot of stamina, meaning blows must be well-timed to avoid being left vulnerable, and learning when to kick enemies away needs to be mastered as quickly as possible. This is about as close to a playable nightmare as RPGs of any kind can get.

Dark Souls 2 is the second-best Dark Souls game and that's fairly uncontroversial. But it's also famously the most ugly. Chief among the complaints people have about Dark Souls 2, is that the game's original lighting engine—the one FromSoftware went to great lengths to show off back in 2013—was entirely absent in the final game.

In pre-release footage, Dark Souls 2's lighting always looked a tad ambitious for a seventh-gen console game. It was meant to be an important aspect of gameplay, necessitating the use of torches in dark areas, whose fire would cast dynamic shadows and reflections. When the game actually released on consoles it looked flat, murky, and torches were never a necessity. It was kinda similar even when it hit PC with the Scholar of the First Sin edition, so for those looking for something more akin to that pre-release footage, the DS2Lighting Engine Mod has been a go-to.

Now the team responsible for that mod is experimenting with path tracing and the results are pretty phenomenal. Check out this footage from the Shaded Woods:

The Shaded Woods is probably one of the ugliest areas from the original game (you can check out bits of it in this video), though some would argue Earthen Peak deserves that distinction. I'm not being contrary when I say that there's something kinda charming about Dark Souls 2's utilitarian ugliness, especially in hindsight, but path traced Shaded Woods is so richly atmospheric that it's possible to say it's pretty without kinda lying about it.

The path tracing applies to everything, including spells, and there are some other videos doing the rounds also. Check them out below:

Elden Ring Nightreign was a major shakeup to the formula FromSoftware cultivated over several Dark Souls games, Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Elden Ring—while each of those games is a departure from the last, Nightreign's multiplayer focus and battle royale-inspired format make it a different beast altogether. But even though it was less of an RPG than the studio's past games, it's getting a pen and paper counterpart of its own.

As reported by Polygon, the adaptation was announced on January 26 and will be published by Group SNE, the same folks behind Sword World RPG, Record of Lodoss War, and tabletop adaptations of Dark Souls and Elden Ring. These are Japanese games, and not to be confused with the English-language Dark Souls RPG or Elden Ring board game, which were published by Steamforged Games.

Now, Dark Souls and Elden Ring are easy to picture as roleplaying games. If my understanding of FromSoftware's RPGs isn't outdated, I think it's safe to assume the party is made up of extremely grim-looking knights and wizards who go around killing poetically tragic beasts and monsters while rolling around a lot. Sounds like a good time.

Nightreign, though, is made distinct by its format moreso than its world. In this pen and paper game, will the party be chased around by an ever-shrinking storm? Will character creation limit players to the hero-like nightfarers? We don't know anything about the game yet so it's hard to know for sure, but if I can turn into a giant wolf-man, that's all the convincing I need. If only I spoke Japanese.

The above announcement states that "publication is scheduled for spring 2026," so if you're keen to give the game a shot, you won't be waiting too long. In the meantime, there's always the Forsaken Hollows DLC to catch up on.

"Who would win in a fight, this guy or this guy" is one of the most worthy questions you can ask, so I love those YouTube channels that do NPC battle royales⁠—the Oblivion Imperial City Arena walked so these guys could run. The channel "Elden Ring Fights" is exactly what it says on the tin, and it recently uploaded a banger: Dark Souls' Artorias vs. the bosses of base game Elden Ring.

FromSoft dusted off the venerable swordsman to serve as a boss in Elden Ring Nightreign's recent Deathly Forsaken Hollows DLC. He's effectively been "ported" to Elden Ring's iteration of the FromSoft game engine, allowing Elden Ring Fights to pit him against the Lands Between's finest.

And boy, for a battered veteran coming out of retirement, Artorias fares better than all those tomato cans they kept setting up in front of Jake Paul. Artorias went on an absolutely brutal tear through the bosses of Elden Ring: Early terrors like Margit and Godfrey don't stand a chance, with single hits from Abyss Artie chunking their health bars. If you have a real job and don't like watching 30-minute YouTube videos, here are the highlight battles I'd recommend skipping to:

• 8:22 - Maliketh the Black Blade
• 13:31 - Dragonlord Placidusax
• 16:53 - Radagon & Elden Beast
• 24:06 - Malenia

All four of these were fun to watch because they're quite dynamic, close fights. Maliketh delivers one of only two L's to Artorias, coming from behind in spectacular fashion in his second phase. I don't think I've ever once felt in control of the Maliketh battle across five playthroughs, and if he had a beefier health bar, I think he'd be the toughest guy FromSoft ever made.

Malenia is Malenia: The fact that she can be flinched gives her a huge disadvantage in these boss vs. boss battles, which do really boil down to facetank DPS races. But her health back on strikes, plus the (mostly) uninterruptible Waterfowl Dance, make up for it.

Placidusax and Elden Beast are notable for being come-from-behind victories for our boy in blue. His AI clearly wasn't designed to handle their mobility or brutal AoE attacks, not to mention the Radagon - Elden Beast fight's marathon nature. And yet, he still squeaked it out. The Fire Giant fight is similarly close, but it's a slog to watch.

I have absolutely no respect for Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy, née Praetor. He's a big dumb blob of snake with two health bars and an AOE fire damage effect, resulting in an unentertaining, unearned victory over Artorias. That's a Mickey Mouse title belt he's wearing, I tell you.

But this video also doesn't tell the full story: We don't know how Artorias fares against Shadow of the Erdtree bosses. Another Elden Ring Fights video shows him getting beat by Carian Knight Rellana in a different context, which doesn't bode well for his chances elsewhere. Still, Artorias risks sullying his legacy as a fighter, preserving a 20 - 2 - 0 record by not taking fights he might lose.

A whopping 16 main Armored Core games have released since 1997, but only 2023's brilliant Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon is officially available on PC. Until now, that is: a second Armored Core game just released on Steam courtesy of Japanese publisher G-Mode, and it's going for the bargain price of $11.

Alas, Armored Core: Mobile 3 is not likely an instalment the masses will embrace. It was originally released for flip phones in 2007, and further complicating matters, it was a Japanese exclusive. While that's not exactly the case now—you can easily go and buy Armored Core: Mobile 3 on Steam right now—few will have the patience to play it without English subs. Indeed, no major efforts have been made to modernize this ancient artefact, though it does appear to have controller support.

Here's the trailer:

If that's not enough to discourage you, it's pretty cool to have this curio made available again. It takes place between Armored Core Nexus and Armored Core Last Raven, both of which were offshoots of Armored Core 3. They released for PlayStation 2 in 2004 and 2005 respectively (PS2 owners ate well: a huge seven Armored Core games released for the platform).

The format is pretty much identical to the main Armored Core games: players customize their mech, all the better to complete a series of discrete missions "across various scenarios, including assaults and defenses in urban areas and open wastelands".

Why this mobile port instead of the more palatable console instalments? It's never been officially addressed, but the publishing history of the Armored Core series is a tangled web, with stakeholders including Sega, Sony, Ubisoft, the now-defunct Agetec, as well as current custodians Bandai Namco. Given how voluminous the series is, that's a lot of admin work for something that probably won't ever achieve the level of success of a Dark Souls or Elden Ring.

If you're curious to see how the port plays, YouTuber Cleric Armored Core recorded this stream recently:

Elden Ring: Nightreign has been collecting some dust in my library recently—not for any particular reason, I got 66 hours out of the dang thing, I'm just a human being with limited time, MMOs to keep up with, and, like, chores to do (I am aware this is quitter talk).

I might, however, blow off the dust and give it another whirl, because my favourite boy, the Executor, just got a huge sweep of buffs. Oh, and also, like, Guardians and Revenants and Raiders, but who cares about that—my Sekiro-loving heart just got everything it ever wanted.

I'll just be going through the Nightfarers caught up in the patch 1.03.2 buffs one by one, starting with my favourite: The Executor's Cursed Sword skill, the thing that lets you parry, is now a lot stronger. Higher critical hits, better guard boost, more stagger damage when you deflect, and deflecting successfully while on low stamina won't result in a guard break anymore.

I'm yet to test this myself, but the implication is that even on zero stamina, if your timing's good, you can just ride the lightning and never die. My timing is not good, so I imagine I'll be dying a lot, but the aspiration of a clutch moment or two is something to shoot for. The Cursed Sword's weapon art will now also have Skill Power and Attack Power boosts applied to it correctly.

Lastly, Executor received boosts to its ultimate ability that should make it hit harder—as well as a temporary immortality window while transforming, making it a better 'oh crap' button.

Guardians are a little more straightforward—their guarding's better, go figure. Raiders are enjoying faster attacks, a new effect on their Fighter's Resolve passive that makes them hit harder after taking damage for a short time, and their Ultimate should hit in a wider area, now. And finally, Revenant's summoned spirits now scale with the levels in the Deep of Night mode, making her more useful in high-level play.

All in all, cause for celebration. It's nice to see FromSoftware helping out some of Nightreign's underdogs, and I'm not just saying that because I secretly want to be playing multiplayer Sekiro. I mean, I am saying that, but the main gladness I feel is due to FromSoftware's adherence to the "buff, don't nerf" philosophy. It's better to make underperformers feel powerful than to kneecap what other players are finding fun, especially in a co-op game.

Granted, this is FromSoftware, and FromSoftware is habitually obtuse, so there aren't any specific numbers in these patch notes, and we'll have to find out how effective these buffs are in play. Otherwise? I'll be heading back for a few more rounds of frustration very soon. You can read the full patch notes on the game's official site.

In dark times, the indomitable human spirit continues, relentlessly, to triumph. Such is the lesson imparted to us by Dr Doot, the sax symbol who most recently graced our pages for 100%ing Silksong using his trademark saxophone controller and declaring it's not even the hardest game he's sax'd.

Well, chalk up another win for the Dootster. As noted by GamesRadar, the good doctor has completed his no-hit run of Dark Souls the first, attaining hitless victory over Gwyn, Lord of Cinder with a song in his heart and also in his saxophone. Combine that with his previous no-hit wins in Dark Souls 2 and 3 (and Elden Ring, by the by) and you've got the full combo: a hitless, sax-based run of the entire Souls trilogy, a feat presumably unparalleled through all human history.

To be fair, Gwyn went down like a chump. Dr Doot was using a sorcery build that made total mincemeat of the old guy. Rather than a nailbiter finish, it was more of a one-punch (one-doot) man situation. Still, our hero was rightly pleased with his achievement.

"The World's First Sax-Controlled Dark Souls No-Hit Run has been DOOTED!" wrote Dr Doot in a post on X. "I just beat Dark Souls without getting hit by a single enemy/trap while playing the game on an electric sax!!! I now can officially say that I have beaten THE ENTIRE DARK SOULS TRILOGY HITLESS ON A SAX!!!"

If you're curious as to how this works, it's actually pretty simple. Each note on the Doc's sax is tied to a different input. So you might blow an A to advance and a D to hit. If you knew which note was tied to which symbol, you could presumably envision every move he's doing from audio alone in your mind palace. I don't know why you would, but you could.

Anyway, next up on Dr Doot's playlist is a 112% Hollow Knight run played, of course, on sax. In other news, I've resolved to never say I'm good at a videogame ever again.

It's funny, but I didn't even enjoy Elden Ring Nightreign at first. Like most FromSoftware fans, I was resistant to the concept of an Elden Ring spinoff you're supposed to play almost entirely in multiplayer. I also recognised its obvious limitations. Despite being a roguelike all about team interplay, as you use your limited time to accrue as much power and pertinent passives as possible while journeying to battle the Nightlord, one thing stuck out to me: It doesn't have comms.

Unless you're playing with friends through Discord, you have to limit your interactions to tagging. Predictably, this leads to endless frustrations and horror stories about incompetent teammates, plenty of which you can find if you peruse the game's subreddit. It's an important flaw to recognise, because if I didn't have two other FromSoftware-fanatic friends with which to play Nightreign, I would've quit.

As you can see from all the clips I've shared below, Nightreign with comms, where you can strategise as your run progresses and share gear more easily, is night and day in comparison to no-comms Nightreign. My recommendation here is primarily based on that caveat. If you have others you can share this game with (especially if they played Elden Ring or Dark Souls), you'll have a really good time, excepting the usual blood, sweat, and tears you'll pour into its hardest bosses.

So how does Nightreign work? You play as a group of Nightfarers (characters with specific skills and stats) who drop into a map with random landmarks, where you're expected to gather runes to level up and gear to make you more powerful. At the end of each night, a death circle will begin to close, culminating in a night end boss. After two nights, you'll face a Nightlord—a challenging large-scale boss battle. While you can wipe during a run and be just fine, if you all die to a night boss or the Nightlord? It's game over.

Elden Ring Nightreign is exactly what you'd imagine from a FromSoftware multiplayer game, and that's both good and bad. A great deal isn't explained—to this day, I'm still learning new info about which passives can stack and how they work.

While not quite as hilariously unbalanced as Elden Ring was, Nightreign is still unbalanced as multiplayer games go. Hell, until recently, one of my teammates' builds in Deep of Night (the endgame mode) revolved around using one very specific flail because its skill does obscene damage for seemingly no reason.

My favorite character, Raider, has an ultimate ability which essentially breaks the game, summoning a giant rock that characters and bosses clip through, and doesn't even protect you properly against ground-based threats while standing on it. Does this hilarious jank stop me using it in the middle of a boss fight and enjoying the utter chaos it causes? Of course not. See below:

Nightreign is a bad multiplayer game when you judge it within the context of most other multiplayer games, but the flaws I'm describing above are things I personally wouldn't ever want to change about FromSoftware's game design. I love the way in which Elden Ring, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne all obfuscate info and leave it up to you to work most things out. I also love the hilarious imbalance and jank of Elden Ring and the total nonsense it leads to.

In many ways, Nightreign acts as a victory lap for Elden Ring. Yes, a lot of it is reused content, bringing many bosses, enemies, weapons, and assets from that game, but remixing them into a big bubbling pot of roguelike chaos. If you're someone like me, who has an almost categorical knowledge of Elden Ring (I guided it at launch) it's a really fun time as you're able to actively apply that know how during each run.

Whether we're talking skills, weapons, boss weaknesses, or spells, Nightreign is such a fun game for those who were really into Elden Ring, but also love the role hard-won knowledge has always played in FromSoftware games. When you throw Dark Souls bosses into the mix, too, plus Nightlord invasions, random events, and the Shifting Earth (which changes the map entirely), you've got a game that fans can really sink their teeth into.

I think that's the real reason Nightreign grabbed me so hard this year. FromSoft players are a bit starved for the genuine article at the moment. Sure, we've been eating good this year with Soulslikes such as Lies of P's Overture DLC or The First Berserker: Khazan, but my brain longs for a big proper Bloodborne or Souls that I can just drink in and frontload into my noggin. Nightreign feels particularly well coded for Souls sickos looking for their regular hit.

FromSoft has also done a really good job supporting the game and fleshing out content. After launch we got the Everdark Sovereigns, superpowered versions of the Nightlord bosses with additional mechanics, and this made for some quite challenging yet fun bosses to work away at. Deep of Night was also added—an endgame mode that gets progressively harder as you gain XP, but that also offers new powerful passives and relics (which make your loadout). One particularly great modifier that can appear in this mode removes all map markers, so you're left to navigate by knowledge and line of sight alone.

Though it was initially expected for next year, we also got The Forsaken Hollows DLC. While it didn't add the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC weapons, spells, and skills everyone was craving, it did bring a new map, two new extremely fun Nightlord bosses, and two Nightfarers, both of whom fill particular niches that were lacking in the game. The Scholar especially helps make Nightreign's items actually worthwhile, levelling them up as he uses them.

With the release of the DLC, I think it's likely that FromSoftware will move onto pastures new next year, but if you're like me, hungry for the next Souls, Bloodborne, or whatever it may be, Nightreign is in the best state it's been since launch, with tonnes of content, Nightfarers to pick up and learn, and bosses to battle. If you've got one or two Elden Ring-loving friends and you're looking for something to play this festive season, I would absolutely recommend diving in.

It's become increasingly apparent over the last few weeks that someone at FromSoftware carefully observed all the strategies players were employing before the Forsaken Hollows DLC dropped, and they were taking notes. The new map and bosses are a big middle finger to people who got comfortable with the old meta.

Many Nightreign players, including myself, got used to running similar setups for boosting damage output as much as possible without having to waste too much time in a run. The shrinking, battle royale-style circle doesn't give you a lot of time to dawdle, so the meta revolved around a specific relic that gives you attack power for defeating summonable bosses around the map via evergaols—which is far easier than searching for bosses and hoping to find good random rewards.

Here's the thing: The new map in the DLC features zero evergaols. The relic that lots of players have relied on to easily route through the map is unusable if you want to do the new stuff. You have to actually explore again and figure out an efficient route every time you drop in, which is made even tougher by how labyrinthine the layout is.

The reason I think this was an intentional move is because FromSoft also included some smaller changes that basically make up for this, one of which just came out earlier this week.

Defeating one of the new bosses, The Balancers, gives you a relic that can boost the damage of the special skills on weapons by a significant amount (about 20%). Defeating the enhanced version of that boss, which just debuted this week, gives you an almost identical relic that can stack with the other one. There isn't a single combo of relics in the game that matches the 40% damage boost you can get by equipping both of them before a run.

This is absolutely insane from r/Nightreign

The new relic is so good that YouTuber Youwy, who does all the math to determine the best builds, calls it broken in his latest video. Players have already identified some of the best weapons to use it with, like the Halo Scythe that lets you fling out holy discs in quick succession. Executor players in particular benefit the most from the relics because they naturally find katanas, and one of the best weapons skills comes on a katana.

Considering the DLC also adds the only character in the game who benefits from picking up consumable items off the ground—items everyone previously ignored—it feels like FromSoft specifically added stuff to shake things up and break players out of their habits. And it seems OK with adding something super powerful as long as it encourages you to engage with a part of the game you wouldn't normally care as much about.

For a game that was never promised regular live service updates and is an experimental multiplayer spin-off from a developer that primarily works on singleplayer RPGs, the DLC has been surprisingly successful at keeping the game fresh no matter how many hours you've already sunk into it. FromSoft has also suggested that more updates are coming. They might not be full-on DLC, but hopefully it's more stuff like this that gets everyone working together to find out the next best way to survive the night.

You know a FromSoftware game is going to be good when your first reaction to it is anger, frustration, and utter despair. I've had an adverse reaction to the start of every Dark Souls, Elden Ring, and Demon Souls, proclaiming to anyone who'd listen that I'd never touch any of these games again, only to then put hundreds of hours into them. I'm nothing if not consistent.

Elden Ring Nightreign was no different in this respect. Dropped into the chaos that is Limveld, I had no idea what was going on or why I had just spawned next to one of the Godskin duo at an evergaol. It was a rough entry into the game, and I hated it, but then I played another round and started to join the dots together. Snap to 200 hours later, and I had beaten all the Nightlords and their Everdark variants, but games were strangely easy.

Well, FromSoft must've heard all my bragging because the latest DLC, Forsaken Hollows, launched last week, and it's rough. I've been repeatedly stomped on by the two new nightlords, the Balancers and Dreglord, whether I'm playing one of the new nightfarers or not. I can't even get past the second night boss sometimes—why is that Demon Prince so angry, and who thought it was a good idea to let Curseblade and Divine Beast Warrior team up?

But the difficulty of the latest DLC hasn't stopped a shedload of dedicated nightfarers from diving in and putting themselves through the wringer. "2 million nightfarers in search of the Forsaken Hollows," an official blog post says. "For every nightfarer who joined the hunt against the Dreglord, we offer our immense gratitude."

I don't want to speak for everyone playing this DLC, as not everyone welcomed the update with open arms, but while I initially bounced off Forsaken Hollows as I do with every FromSoftware game, I've come to love it for its difficulty. The new map is only just starting to click as I learn where I can and cannot go, what's the best order to go about exploring the map, and which points of interest are actually worth my time. But starting again from scratch has actually been really rewarding.

It's no longer a guarantee that I'll hit level 15 before I reach the nightlord, or that I'll even make it past the first or second night boss. There's no more floating through fights—you need to make every hit count.

There's no telling how long this will actually last, though. Like with the base game, all it takes to master FromSoft games is some dedication, grit, and practice. Players will likely turn getting through the new map and bosses into an art form very soon, but I'm just going to embrace the chaos until that happens for me.

On December 1, Bandai Namco released an assortment of Elden Ring Nightreign player statistics to celebrate the release of The Forsaken Hollows DLC. There are some interesting omissions, like the popularity of each nightfarer (but we can extrapolate from the data we do have), as well as some surprising reveals.

The biggest shock for me is that the memetically terrifying Bell Bearing Hunter isn't even in the top three for deadliest field bosses: He's beaten by Erdtree Avatar, Draconic Tree Sentinel, and Royal Carian Knight in rising order. I'm curious if this is in terms of absolute bodycount or proportional to attempts on the boss⁠—either way, it could very well be that, as word of the Bell Bearing Hunter's difficulty spread, players just stopped trying to fight him⁠—my crew skips him nine times out of ten.

The Erdtree Avatar is an absolutely wild pull for number three. It's one of the slowest, most predictable bosses in the game, but that could very well be its secret weapon: It's surprisingly tanky and hard-hitting in Nightreign versus its original Elden Ring appearance, best saved for late in a run, and I've absolutely underestimated it before.

Draconic Tree Sentinel is a brute, a beast, and a cretin. I hope he chokes on his sniper fireball one-hit kills. As for the Carian Knight⁠—Loretta from the base game⁠—she's certainly challenging, but I never would have picked her for the number one spot. Shout out to the castle-defending Pot Trolls at number five: I hate you guys so much.

The top two emotes make me very happy: The "I'm just gonna take five" Spread Out, and the "T-pose for dominance" Golden Order Totality at second- and most-used respectively. My own Nightreign crew has made it a habit of T-posing at the end of every successful run.

There have been 1.2 billion revives in total, which is a suitably big, impossible-to-imagine number. Bamco laid out the most popular skins for each nightfarer in the blog post as well. If we take them as proxies for the respective character's overall use⁠—assuming no surprise variables like a huge gap in popularity between skins, say⁠—that gives us the following power ranking for the nightfarers:

1. Wylder, 18 Million (Abysswalker)
2. Ironeye, 17.3 (Sellsword)
3. Recluse, 11.2 (Darkness)
4. Duchess, 10.3 (Darkness)
5. Raider, 9.6 (Remembrance)
6. Executor, 8.7 (Darkness)
7. Revenant, 8.6 (Darkness)
8. Guardian, 4.1 (Dawn)

Poor Guardian, I will never play as you. It's hard to imagine the avian halberdier's lot improving either: Both new nightfarers introduced with The Forsaken Hollows whip ass. I was having plenty of fun with the bizarre support/damage hybrid Scholar, but the Undertaker is where it's at: Mobile, powerful, aggressive, and boasting an ultimate ability I hope never gets nerfed.

The Undertaker Remembrance is fairly simple compared to many of the other Nightfarers in Elden Ring Nightreign. There's only one step that's likely to trip you up, as you help this corrupted abbess search for the Scholar in Limveld. The reason this step is so hard is because it's entirely inaccurate; the Scholar is actually in The Great Hollow event.

I guess that's technically in Limveld, even though it's an entirely different map. As you'll quickly discern from the Remembrance entries, the Undertaker is a nun who started consuming the night corruption, hence the rather questionable screenshots circulating of her licking night juice off the wall while the Scholar watches her. Hey, who am I to kink shame?

As well as a walkthrough for all quest chapters, I've also included info for what you're supposed to do after Chapter 6 to get her Remembrance skin and ending.

How to complete Undertaker's remembrance in Elden Ring Nightreign

As usual for Nightreign Remembrances, you'll first need to undertake some expeditions with the character to earn Memory Fragments, unlocking subsequent Remembrance chapters. For Undertaker, I just completed a couple of Tricephalos expeditions and that got me Chapter 2, and then Chapter 3, where the first Remembrance quest begins.

Undertaker Remembrance Chapter 3

This Remembrance is pretty straightforward. Upon entering it, you'll find yourself in a room with the Iron Menial. Speak to him and he'll turn hostile, whipping out some knives and trying to shank you. After you've killed him, you'll have to work your way through the Roundtable Hold, murdering the other Nightfarers:

• Kill Executor just outside the door to the room
• Kill Guardian and Recluse in the main room with the roundtable
• Kill Wylder near the Visual Codex
• Kill Raider and Ironeye in the DLC chapel

After this, you'll wake up in the chapel and can speak to the Iron Menial again to apologise. Now, you need to:

1. Squash the purple orb on the wall behind where the Iron Menial was
2. Lick the wall… yup
3. Find the Scholar in the grounds of the Roundtable Hold marked on the map and speak to him

He'll explain he's leaving the hold in search of something and will give you the Leather Monocle Case relic. This has:

• [Undertaker] Physical attacks boosted while assist effect from incantation is active for self
• Extended spell effect duration
• Physical attack up +2

You're likely wondering what in god's name that first passive means—effectively, this relic is about self-buffing with Sacred Seals, either via weapon enhancement or HP/damage negation spells. This takes advantage of Undertaker's high faith stat, prolongs said spells, and gives you extra attack while they're active.

Once you've finished speaking to the Scholar, you can exit via the nearby portal to complete this chapter.

Undertaker Remembrance Chapter 5

After you've acquired another couple of Memory Fragments by undertaking expeditions, unlocking Chapter 4 and then Chapter 5, you'll be given another task. Enter the Remembrance and then:

1. Speak to Duchess and exhaust her dialogue
2. Offer a prayer in the DLC chapel
3. Speak to the Iron Menial

He'll explain that a new Shifting Earth event has occurred (The Great Hollow) and that the Scholar is probably chilling out there. You'll get the objective "Search for the Scholar in Limveld", which is absurdly inaccurate. He isn't on the Limveld map; he's in The Great Hollow map, so you'll want to launch an expedition with the event active. If the event is no longer around, remember that you can activate any Shifting Earth event using Sovereign Sigils at the sigil store, provided you've beaten an Everdark Sovereign to unlock it.

Once in The Great Hollow, head to the big castle in the northwest of the map (with the red flag icon). The video above shows you how to access where the Scholar is, but in case you can't view that, I'll lay out instructions below. Since there are Fire Knights and enemies up there, digest these instructions before you try doing them, as you won't have time to stop and read.

1. Head to the main entrance to the castle and then go left around the outside until you find the jump pad (marked on the map)
2. Jump up onto the balcony and go through the door on the left
3. Jump up onto the specimen hanging from chains in the centre of the room and head right onto the rafters to find a hole in the wall you can go through
4. Follow the corridor to find the Scholar trapped in a big crystal and interact with him to take the Primal Core

You don't have to complete the expedition for this to count, but make sure you don't quit out. Basically, just die to the first night boss and you can return to the hold with the objective still complete. Now speak to the Scholar back in the DLC chapel to get the Night-Hued Glass, Bundled Paper, and Undertaker's Chalice once you exit the Remembrance.

How to get Undertaker's Remembrance skin

Once you've completed Chapter 5 and reach Chapter 6, you'll have to do a few things to finish off her Remembrance and get her special skin. It's important to note that these aren't guided parts of the Remembrance, you just have to do them. These are:

1. Defeat Heolstor while playing as Undertaker in the Night Aspect expedition.
2. When you enter the Roundtable Hold ending sequence you'll find you have the Dismembered Finger item in your inventory.
3. Head to the corpse you activate the end the game, but instead, discard the Dismembered Finger next to it (literally drop the item near the corpse as you would with a weapon you don't want). If you've done it right Undertaker will say "That will do".
4. Activate the corpse and finish the game.

When you return to the Roundtable Hold, you'll have unlocked the Remembrance skin (the key difference being that Undertaker has a different necklace) and the Glass Necklace relic, which has:

• [Undertaker] Activating ultimate art increases attack power
• Successive attacks boost attack power
• Ultimate art auto charge +3

With that, you've complete the Undertaker's Remembrance. Now time to do Scholar.

If you've just started playing Elden Ring Nightreign's new Forsaken Hollows DLC and you're already looking for how to unlock Scholar and Undertaker skins, then congratulations! You've got your priorities right. Fashion first. What's the point in slaying the Dreglord if you can't slay where it truly matters?

Both the new Nightfarers have four skins each, consisting of the usual Dawn and Darkness attire, as well as two Dark Souls skins, a battle which the Undertaker has definitely won. The Dawn and Darkness outfits are kind of hit and miss depending on your preferences, but there are lots you can choose from, so you should find one you like. Here's how to unlock the Elden Ring Nightreign DLC skins.

How to unlock the Elden Ring Nightreign DLC skins

Similar to the Dark Souls outfits in the base game, you'll actually have to do some stuff in order to unlock both the regular outfits for the Scholar and the Undertaker and their own Dark Souls skins.

• To unlock the Dawn and Darkness skins for both the Scholar and Undertaker, you need to defeat the Balancers boss. This is the first boss of the DLC that becomes available once you unlock Forsaken Hollows. They aren't too tricky to beat provided you know the Balancers weakness plus some tips to deal with them.
• To unlock the Dark Souls skins for both the Scholar and Undertaker, you have to defeat the Dreglord, the second boss of the DLC. You will have gotten a small preview of this big fella when you fought him to unlock the new characters. He'll unlock once you've defeated the Balancers and, though he doesn't have a weakness listed, fire can stun him at certain moments, and deals additional damage, as does holy.

The Dreglord is a fairly tough and long fight, in many ways a battle of attrition similar to taking down Heolstor, so this will be your biggest obstacle to unlocking and enjoying the Scholar and Undertaker's Dark Souls skins.

Once done, you can purchase the outfits at the mirror for either Murk or Sovereign Sigils (which you get for defeating Everdark Sovereigns). You can also buy them from the sigil store instead once you've unlocked that via defeating a sovereign.

Finding out the Balancers weakness in Elden Ring Nightreign's new Forsaken Hollows DLC will give you a better shot at beating them if you're struggling. I personally think this mob boss is one of the coolest in the game, part-Deacons of the Deep from Dark Souls 3, part-Cleanrot Knights from Elden Ring. This group of glaive-wielding valkyries can gang up on you if you're not careful.

After you defeat them all, they do an Abyss Watchers from Dark Souls 3, creating a super version of themselves with enhanced attacks. All the other Balancers will get back up, too, meaning you have to balance dealing with them and the main aggressive entity.

It's a fun yet chaotic fight, so here's what they're weak to, as well as some additional tips to help you beat them if you're struggling.

Elden Ring Nightreign Balancers boss weakness and tips

The Balancers are weak to sleep. You can see the symbol of the closed eye if you examine them in the expedition menu at the table, so you'll want to look for ruins on the map with this same symbol. Sleep ruins usually have a Runebear boss and will often reward you with weapons that inflict sleep.

If you smash containers in the ruins and search the chests in the cellar, you'll also find Soporific Grease, which can apply sleep to your weapon, as well as Sleep Pots you can throw. The new maps also have sleep cathedrals, so watch out for those.

Grease or Sleep Pots are definitely your best best, especially as there's only one weapon in Nightreign that's guaranteed to apply sleep; the Sword of St. Trina. In many ways, sleep is just as hard a weakness to cope with as bringing madness weapons for Libra, since it's mainly down to RNG whether you find an appropriate ruin or happen to find that sword.

It's also a challenging boss weakness because it's not an affinity. Except for poison against Gaping Jaw, and Libra's madness, all the other Nightlords are weak to damage types, rather than status build-up. That said, ailments usually have a very precise effect against bosses that are weak to them.

If you poison Gaping Jaw, for example, it gets staggered and has to stop to vomit the poison out. If you inflict madness on Libra, he stops casting spells and goes into his slightly easier to deal with rampage mode. In this case, sleep will put Balancers into a slumber, making the fight a little less chaotic. Here are some additional tips:

• I haven't worked out whether the Scholar can link status effects on enemies, but if so, you should be able to sleep all the Balancers at once. Either way, the Scholar is definitely a strong pick for this fight, as linking the Balancers will let you damage them simultaneously. Since the Scholar can upgrade items through use as well, he'll also be better at using Sleep Pots.
• Due to the number of grab attacks the Balancers do (especially after they buff their attack), and the fact that Undertaker gets a free art cast when she dodges a grab attack, she's also a strong pick if you've cracked those attack timings.
• Remember that killing the central most-aggressive Balancer with the enhanced attacks will stun them all, but before long, it'll reincarnate as another of the Balancers. With all that in mind, the best tactic is to kite the main one while the rest of the team take out the others.

Also make sure you communicate (if on comms) when that main Balancer suddenly switches aggro to another player. It's a chaotic fight, but easily survivable provided you know who the most aggressive Balancer is attacking.

So you're wondering why you've suddenly been reduced to 50% HP while trying to explore The Great Hollow map? Elden Ring Nightreign's new Shifting Earth event has a special (and somewhat annoying) mechanic called the 'crystal curse', which inflicts a half-health reduction whenever you enter the castles or ruins in each corner of the map.

This isn't ideal since those areas contain the best weapons and are the most lucrative when it comes to farming runes and gaining strength to face the new night bosses. Below, I'll explain what you need to do to complete the event and remove the curse so you can take on those areas at full HP.

How to complete The Great Hollow in Elden Ring Nightreign

Except for giving you an entirely different map, The Great Hollow event inflicts you with the crystal curse, a debuff that reduces your HP to 50% when you enter one of the region's big strongholds or castles. You can try to take these on at half health, but it's a challenge.

Instead, to complete The Great Hollow and shatter the crystal curse, you have to find and break four crystals around the map. There are usually eight of these altogether, and they each look like a giant glowing blue crystal, pictured below. When you get close, you'll get the option to interact and 'Resonate', which will break the crystal. You'll get the message that the great crystal (that big purple thing marked towards the centre of the map) is cracking, and with the fourth, it'll shatter.

You can find these crystals on the first day, which is ideal if you want time to raid castles, but if you can't, the crystals will be marked on the map when day two starts (like formidable foes are). I recommend smashing as many as you spot while running around, and then finishing them off at the start of day two. It's unclear whether these crystals appear randomly each run, but I would assume so.

After you've smashed the crystals, you'll have to head to the broken great crystal in the center of the map, which will now be marked with a little red flag like Shifting Earth event objects usually are. Travel there and grab the buff from the central crystal, pictured below, to "Gain the power of the great crystal".

This buff breaks the crystal curse, but also increases art charge rate when you've used all your flasks. Now you're free to battle through the castles, forts, and ruins in each corner of the map at full HP.

Working out how to unlock Undertaker in Elden Ring Nightreign is actually a lot simpler than it was for previous characters like Duchess. This nun is set to be one of the most powerful characters in the game alongside Wylder, entering a state where she can surge-sprint without consuming stamina as well as get an enhanced dodge.

She can also use her art whenever another character uses theirs, which is pretty cracked if I'm frank. You'll need to unlock both Undertaker and Scholar, as well as defeat two Nightlords (including Gladius), if you want to access the new Balancers boss and The Great Hollows Shifting Earth event, so you'll need to do this first before you can start Forsaken Hollows properly.

How to unlock Undertaker in Elden Ring Nightreign

To unlock Undertaker in Nightreign's Forsaken Hollows expansion, you first have to defeat Tricephalos, the first expedition which culminates in the Gladius boss. Once you return, you need to:

1. Speak to the Iron Menial by the roundtable in the main room (this will automatically happen when you spawn in if you've completed Tricephalos)
2. Go to see the Small Jar Merchant in the west wing of the Roundtable Hold and speak to him
3. Interact with the door he indicates by him to be summoned into a boss fight with the Dreglord (with Undertaker fighting it already)

Now, it doesn't matter whether you defeat this boss or not. Either way, a cutscene will play introducing you to the Dreglord, and then you'll be teleported back to the main room of the Roundtable Hold. Return to the door by the Small Jar Merchant to find it open and head inside. You'll find the Undertaker just in front of the altar, so speak to her to unlock her. You can also speak to the Scholar at the same time to unlock him.

Puzzling out how to unlock Scholar in Elden Ring Nightreign isn't all that confusing, especially compared to the slightly weird unlock conditions that Duchess had when the game first launched. This learned gentleman is more of a support Nightfarer, debuffing enemies, linking them together for shared damage, and also connecting allies so they heal each other.

He also has a very cool talent focused around consumable items—the more he uses them, the more he levels them up, increasing their overall effectiveness. Finally, someone who might actually get a use out of the Companion Jar talisman.

In order to access the new Balancers boss and The Great Hollows shifting earth event, you need to unlock both Undertaker and Scholar, as well as defeat two Nightlords (including Gladius), so here's how to do it.

How to unlock Scholar in Elden Ring Nightreign

To unlock Scholar in the Forsaken Hollows DLC, you'll first have to beat Tricephalos, the first expedition in the game, and defeat its boss, Gladius. After that, you need to:

1. Speak to the Iron Menial in the main room of the Roundtable Hold (this will automatically happen when you spawn in if you've completed Tricephalos)
2. Go and see the Small Jar Merchant in the west wing and speak to him
3. Interact with the door he indicated next to him to enter a boss fight with the Dreglord (with the Scholar and Undertaker fighting it already)

Now, it doesn't matter whether you defeat the boss or not as far as I can tell. Either way a cutscene will play, and you'll return to the main room of the Roundtable Hold after. Return to the Small Jar Merchant, where the door will now be open. You can speak to the Scholar inside to unlock him as a playable Nightfarer. The Undertaker will also be near the altar so speak to her as well to recruit her.

As is ever the case with FromSoftware DLC, part of the challenge with Elden Ring Nightreign's expansion is working out how to unlock The Forsaken Hollows. Thankfully, it's nowhere near as cryptic as something like the Artorias of the Abyss expansion in Dark Souls, which was pretty much impossible to find unless you knew where to look.

With Nightreign, you've simply got to fulfill a few specific requirements, similar to unlocking Duchess and Revenant in the main game. You'll have to defeat some Nightlords, but chances are, unless you're starting fresh, you will have already done that. Either way, here's how to unlock the Forsaken Hollows DLC in Nightreign.

How to start the Forsaken Hollows in Elden Ring Nightreign

There are a couple of conditions you'll have to meet to start the new Forsaken Hollows expansion content for Nightreign. These are:

1. Defeat two different Nightlord expeditions (including the first Tricephalos expedition). I recommend Augur if you want an easy second win.
2. Unlock both the Undertaker and the Scholar Nightfarers.

Once you've done both, head to the Small Jar Merchant in the east wing of the Roundtable Hold to find that the door behind him has opened into a chapel. Now, you'll be able to undertake the new shifting earth event 'The Great Hollow' and the expedition for the Balancers boss.

DLC content will also start showing up in Deep of Night, which is a bit terrifying, but it's important to note that you need to matchmake with other DLC owners for that to happen, so it's not necessarily guaranteed if you're playing with randoms versus people you know who have the expansion.

As everyone else drools over the new characters and bosses coming in Elden Ring Nightreign's DLC, I am ecstatic over a quality-of-life change in the latest patch notes.

Sure, melee characters, like Wylder and Raider, are getting big buffs to related passive effects, but I personally have received a huge buff because you can now rename your relic presets.

Nightreign has given players the ability to save a relic setup for a while now, and it's incredibly useful to tailor them for different bosses. I have Ironeye set up with a relic that gives his bow poison damage for the bosses weak to that specific element, for instance. Not every boss is weak to poison, however, so it's a good idea to have a few different presets ready.

There was one problem though: You had no way of sorting your presets by anything other than the date you saved them, for some reason. The new patch fixes this problem and lets you just name them whatever you want. No longer will I have to frantically skim through each preset to figure out which one is for fire damage and which one is for frost. I can just name them "fire" and "frost". Nightreign is finally playable.

The relic system has been divisive from the start. Most people hate how hard it is to randomly roll one with useful effects. I don't mind it; I think relics would be far less interesting if you could just make perfect ones. The RNG is part of the fun. But what I didn't like was how fussy they were to actually use and sort through until FromSoft started fixing those issues. And now, it's basically perfect.

I'm happy to see that FromSoft agrees and is focusing on making them much easier to work with rather than giving you ways to craft them or something. People who have been digging into the game files since the patch went out claim that relics will roll better stats more often now but that the improvement isn't substantial. What's more impactful are the buffs to the weaker passives, like physical attack power up, that effectively raise the floor on "bad" relic rolls.

The patch notes are light on direct balance changes, mostly because the small changes should be enough on their own. It's very likely that The Forsaken Hollows' new map could contain tons of new weapons and items that will help out too. We will find out later today when Nightreign's DLC is released.

The Elden Ring Nightreign: The Forsaken Hollows release date is closing in quickly, but the exact times it'll reach you depend on where you are in the world. Anyone who braved the horrors in FromSoftware's multiplayer spin-off will no doubt want to see how the DLC's new characters, new bosses, and new map work.

The Forsaken Hollows has more in it than FromSoft originally let on. Sure, you can play the new supportive scholar character or the aggressive nun with the hammer, but there's also new locations coming to the original Limveld map and a new shifting earth event that brings you to what is effectively an entirely separate landmass.

For a $15 DLC, that's quite a lot—and that's not counting all the new items and monsters we haven't seen yet. I'm still crossing my fingers that we get those backhand blades.

Here are the Elden Ring Nightreign Forsaken Hollows release times for each region.

Elden Ring Nightreign: The Forsaken Hollows release date and time

The Forsaken Hollows will launch at the same time around the world, but that means some regions will be able to drop into The Forsaken Hollows on December 3, while the others will need to wait until December 4.

• West Coast US: 3 pm PST
• East Coast US: 6 pm EST
• UK: 11 pm GMT
• Europe: 12 am CET (December 4)
• Australia: 10 am AEDT (December 4)
• New Zealand: 12 pm NZDT (December 4)

Does Elden Ring Nightreign: The Forsaken Hollows have preload available?

According to a post by Bandai Namco, The Forsaken Hollows won't have preloads available on Steam. You can only start downloading it at the global release time in your region (see above). A patch for the game will also be available earlier in the day to prepare for the DLC's launch.

Elden Ring Nightreign is a better game that I thought it would be, but that doesn't mean it can't get any better. This week's DLC drop is FromSoftware's chance to add a bunch of stuff nobody expected to show up in a co-op spinoff.

Dark Souls has plenty of bosses to borrow from and the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is full of weapons that would transform how you approach each run. The beauty of Nightreign is the randomization of the items you find and the bosses you face, so even a slight update could change a lot.

These are the things we'd like to see added (and not added) to the game to make the next 300 or so hours even more fun than before.

Let me kick Libra to death

Sean Martin, Senior Guides Writer: Playing as fist Raider in Deep of Night has really given me an appreciation for how every problem can be solved with punching, but we're still missing some of the best hand-to-hand weapons in Elden Ring. I was admittedly a bit disappointed when one of the new Nightfarers didn't turn out to be a Dryleaf martial artist, but FromSoftware could still add both Dryleaf Arts and Dane's Footwork as weapons, giving us a really distinctive moveset to experiment with and master during expeditions.

Also add the Perfume Bottles, you cowards

Sean: Same goes for Perfume Bottles. I was also a bit sad we didn't get a Perfumer Nightfarer, especially as we already have "Improved Perfuming Arts" as a relic modifier and the Perfumer's Talisman in Nightreign, despite only having consumable perfumes and none of the actual Perfume Bottle weapons from Shadow of the Erdtree.

Considering their wide variety of scalings, they'd make for a really cool weapon addition that multiple Nightfarers could use, especially the Frenzyflame Perfume Bottle, which inflicts madness, and would provide another option to the limited weapon pool available when facing (and maddening) Libra.

And the other DLC weapons please and thank you

Ted Litchfield, Associate Editor: I mean, they're right there, they've already been made, sock 'em to me. The light greatswords and backhand blades are fan favorites, but I'm a real sicko for Big Katana. I guess some spells for all you spell nerds would be nice too.

Tyler Colp, Contributor: If I don't get the backhand blades I'll cry.

Those godawful bird and lion knight guys from the DLC

Ted: You know who I'm talking about. I love pain: For myself, but especially for any of my fellow souls players who grouse about the games on Reddit. I want those awful bird and lion warriors from Enir Elim and Belurat to just start showing up in Nightreign. I want them to be literally unkillable in Deep of Night. I want this game's players to beg to fight a red Bell Bearing Hunter instead as their controllers snap amid wailing and gnashing of teeth. It's what we deserve.

Executor Sir Alonne skin

Ted: C'mon, it's a perfect fit. He'd look so cool. Please?

Poison swamp or castle, obviously

Tyler: Nightreign doesn't deserve the Elden Ring title if it lacks a proper poison area. The poison camps aren't good enough, not annoying enough. We need a castle with a moat of poison around it and only poison monsters within, or a big swamp full of bugs and other nightmares. I want a part of the map that I hate as much as I hate the Bell Bearing Hunter.

A return of the most important FromSoftware NPC

Tyler: Patches, where are you? This dude has hounded me in every FromSoftware game since Demon's Souls and yet he took a vacation for Nightreign. I don't believe it. He needs to show up as a boss who doesn't give you runes but will trade you for powerful weapons or something.

Another unexpected Dark Souls cameo

Tyler: FromSoft seems open to adding bosses that you wouldn't expect from Dark Souls. Centipede Demon isn't exactly a boss everyone remembers, which tells me that anyone is fair game. And that's why I think Pinwheel should show up in the DLC. That weirdo with the funky music and haunting masks would be such a delight to fight in Nightreign. I imagine he would still make clones of himself but it would be on your teammates to spread out and figure out which one is the real him. It would also be a neat touch if he always dropped one of the three masks each time you fight him too, giving you a unique passive bonus that other bosses don't provide.

Relics should stay as unwieldy as they are

Tyler: I think Nightreign's relic system is perfect despite how reliant on RNG it is. Rolling for perfect relics and getting trash most of the time is why when you do get a good combination of stats it feels great. I don't want the patch that comes alongside the DLC to make this experience any better. Leave it unpredictable and kind of a pain in the ass because any type of manual customization will put too much emphasis on getting the "right" ones rather than using what you've got. Nightreign is about embracing unpredictability and the relic system is a core component of that.

A remixed map for the new bosses

Tyler: I'm hoping to see a new version of the existing map for the two new bosses. I'd love to see the castle in the middle of the map have new enemy types and other surprises that make the map distinct from the normal one. If the DLC truly takes place after the end of Nightreign, it would make sense to see Limveld reflect that decay. My favorite part of every run is the journey across the map while you prepare for the final boss and anything to change that up would be welcome.

Not a new map, but a new layer to it

Tyler: This might be more of a prediction and a desire combined, but I would like to see an underground layer of the map in the DLC. We already know it's getting a new Shifting Earth event that features an underground area. I hope that it's more than a hole in the map, but actually an entrance to a new layer that's filled with new enemies and items from the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC.

Stripped every last bit of meat from Elden Ring's bones? Finding even Shadow Of The Erdtree a bit familiar these days? Nightreign not quite hitting the same high notes? After sinking dozens of hours into long-running, ever-expanding overhaul mod Elden Ring Reforged I've been reminded just how much I loved FromSoftware's sprawling, hostile open world. It might be just what you need, too—especially now that Reforged has its own private multiplayer servers, the headline feature of its recent 2.0 update.

Even more ambitiously than the popular Seamless Co-op mod (which is also fully supported here), Reforged bypasses the original game's anti-cheat systems while retaining bloodstains, phantoms, summons and invasions. Helpful, as there are more than 1,200 collectible stat-boosting rune fragments hidden throughout the entire game like Crackdown's irresistible agility orbs, many of which you'd never find without other kindly players placing glowing, tongue-in-cheek hints. This mod understands that even playing solo, Elden Ring is a shared experience. It just wouldn't be the same without people declaring that every single turtle is actually a dog.

So, what does Reforged change? After years of updates, it's easier to list what it doesn't do, as even Reforged's official Wiki isn't comprehensive. If you're after a completely reworked world you might be better served by mods like Convergence or the recent grim n' gothic rework Graceborne. While Reforged does add a couple new areas and new encounters (see boxout), that's not the focus here. Instead, the mod focuses on refreshing and rebalancing almost every mechanic in the game.

Graceful combat

The combat's been reworked so dramatically that the mod opens with a brand new tutorial. Precisely timed combos increase attack power and save on stamina. Defence involves more than blocking with the biggest shield you can find, as Sekiro-like timed deflections make it possible to no-sell even the biggest attacks shieldless, if you're good enough. Getting guard-broken now hurts you, further discouraging turtling. The seldom-used backstep has been replaced by a snappy duck button, with fewer I-frames than a dodge but much faster recovery.

Spellcasting sees a similar rework, with lighter, rapid-fire spells regenerating FP instead of draining it, so the wizarding-inclined can start blasting immediately and constantly. Reforged tries to balance every weapon, armor piece and Ash of War to be viable, admittedly at the cost of eliminating some overpowered options (spellcasters can't deal quite the same ferocious burst damage anymore). On top of all that, there's a new subclass system called Fortunes, unlockable sets of perks and penalties to really personalize your build.

I set out to play an agile sword-saint, blasting with holy magic at range while fighting with fast two-handed weapons up close—a build I could never successfully pull off in the original game. And by jove, it works! Especially once I re-learned the timing of the early game bosses so I could sassily deflect each combo hit before countering with a full stamina bar. Mistakes were costly due to my low armor, but being able to outright negate damage with well-timed blocks is thrilling.

That's the heart of Reforged, really. Over the years, the Elden Ring 'meta' has become ingrained: Players have optimized routes and builds to a science. Reforged's stated goal is making the game every cave, ruin and dungeon freshly rewarding, and even basic combat encounters unpredictable again.

Enemy groups tend to cover each other more aggressively, will chase you much further, and will remain challenging for longer thanks to partial level-scaling that extends well into New Game Plus, ensuring you'll not outgrow the world even when it becomes familiar again.

There are even some new areas to see. Redmane Castle (previously just passed through for Radahn's festival) is reworked into a full-on dungeon with a multi-phase, fire-breathing end boss based on the giant lion enemies, making Caelid feel a bit more complete. Later, Mt Gelmir hides a new path into The Serpentine Depths, a proper subterranean dungeon full of frenzy-inducing enemies (including the Jailers visiting from Dark Souls 3) and with some tricky platforming over lava. Were I not familiar with DS3's enemy roster, I could have believed this area had always been lurking undiscovered under my nose. That's a true testament to Reforged's quality.

Suffering is optional

Reforged isn't obsessed with being "hardcore" like so many FromSoft mods; quite the opposite. Combat is a little tougher than vanilla Elden Ring, but this mod features—brace yourself—difficulty settings. Loads of them, including separate modes balanced for larger parties if you're running Seamless Co-op. Lower settings still pose some challenge, but a forgiving one with zero death penalties. Higher difficulties give bosses more aggressive AI and even some nasty reworked attacks.

Beyond difficulty changes, Additional Enemies is a toggle that adds some fiendishly placed new encounters to every single dungeon and cave in both the main game and DLC. Adventure Mode heavily restricts fast-travel, making you really live out in the wilds. Most creative of all the extra modes is Eternal Return, which has you trapped in a Majora's Mask-like time-loop, giving only 72 in-game hours to level up and unlock permanent, powerful boosts through completing NPC quests before the world resets again.

Elden Ring Reforged earns my highest recommendation as a mod. It's polished, professionally produced and brings back that first-playthrough magic all over again without sacrificing Elden Ring's offbeat online features. Plus, it's incredibly easy to install. Just download, unzip it to its own directory and click to play.

We've been patiently waiting for FromSoftware to say a single word about its plans for Elden Ring Nightreign's DLC, which was meant to include new bosses as well as playable characters. Now we've seen it: in a surprise trailer during Sony's Japan-focused State of Play livestream on Tuesday, the studio debuted The Forsaken Hollows, its first expansion dropping December 4. And one of the studio's all-time great bosses is coming back.

At the 1:15 mark in the trailer above, Artorias of the Abyss from the first Dark Souls appears as a new addition to the pool of bosses you'll have to face before one of the end-of-run Nightlords. He's not the first Dark Souls boss to apear in Nightreign: DS1's Gaping Dragon is in the game, too, as one of the easier bosses to dispatch. Something tells me Artorias will be a bit more of a challenge.

That something is probably my memory of fighting Artorias in his namesake DLC for Dark Souls, Artorias of the Abyss, released in 2012. While FromSoftware's games are quite fast-paced today, demanding quick reflexes in fights against the likes of Malenia, that wasn't the case in Dark Souls. Many of the bosses are lumbering beasts, and even the fastest foes have simple, relatively short attack combos compared to what FromSoftware throws at players today. Artorias was the very beginning of that paradigm shift.

You hear stories about the legendary knight throughout Dark Souls, but it's not until the DLC that you get to face him: a hero corrupted by the Abyss, driven into a mad frenzy. He leaps around his battle arena swinging a huge longsword one-handed. His range is fierce, and he'll punish you for trying to step back and heal. His battle serves as a precursor for the many 1v1 duels FromSoft would later make some of the most memorable encounters in the Dark Souls sequels and Elden Ring.

It was a hard fight by Dark Souls' standards, and also a thrilling way to kick off its expansion after a full game of lore build up. I can't think of a better fit for Nightreign, which FromSoftware is clearly treating as a greatest hits remix for beloved moments (and fearsome villains) from across its RPGs.

How well will this fight translate to a 3v1 co-op fight? I don't know! Artorias might need a bit of an AI tune-up to serve as much of a threat in Nightreign. But my #1 wish for the game since launch has been a deeper pool of mid-run bosses pulled from the older games for the sake of variety. I couldn't ask for a better first pick.

The time has come for Elden Ring Nightreign's DLC. FromSoftware dropped a jam-packed trailer at Sony's State of Play today that has glimpses of a transformed map, new characters, new bosses, and enemies returning from the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC.

It's called The Forsaken Hollows, and the first thing we see is a few quick shots of knights and caves not in the base game. In fact, the entire Limveil map has been transformed by a new event called The Great Hollow.

"A great cavity in the depths of Limveld," is how the post on the PlayStation Blog describes it. It's a big hole with a big crystal and everything down there looks terrifying.

To fight the new horrors are two new characters: The Scholar and The Undertaker. The Undertaker is a strength- and faith-based character who wields a mace and has an ultimate that sends her flying up to attack enemies. The Scholar looks less mobile, but equipped with a tome he can use to lift enemies up in place.

The PlayStation Blog confirms that there are two new Nightlord bosses to fight at the end of each run. One of them is a battalion of angelic knights holding golden spears and the other is, well, some kind of twisted abomination that roars just as the trailer comes to an end. Apparently FromSoft is holding that surprise for when we get to actually jump in and face it.

The Dancing Lion boss from the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC makes an appearance and everyone's favorite fallen knight Artorias has shown back up to fight you too.

If I had to make a guess for what's going on here, I'd say that this DLC will take place after the events of the main game. The new locations and enemies look absolutely ravaged by the toxic rain that's consuming the world, and the big hole in the ground is our ticket to revisiting the enemies from the Elden Ring DLC. Hopefully we'll also be able to utilize some new weapons and spells down there too.

I guess we'll find out next month on December 4 when Elden Ring Nightreign – The Forsaken Hollows launches.

Elden Ring has maybe the best arsenal FromSoftware's ever produced⁠—I'd even rank it above Bloodborne's amazing trick weapons⁠—and I've found it hard to imagine how the studio will outdo itself in future games. Enter modder cleverraptor6, also known as Clever, whose imaginative, stylish, and combo-heavy weapons are exactly what I'd like to see in these games officially.

Clever's been quietly plugging away, periodically releasing new weapons as standalone projects and as part of a master collection of all their work. The Sacred Arsenal is one of those projects, released in 2024 and recently showcased by Elden Ring challenge runner eauvni.

Sacred Arsenal is an incredibly cool realization of Margit/Morgot's moveset, specifically the glowing gold weapons he'll summon for single attacks. Clever actually did something like this shortly after Elden Ring's launch, but that first project feels like a prototype of Sacred Arsenal's more well-realized delivery. Sacred Arsenal nails the virtuoso, changeup feeling of Margit's attacks, with different weapon functions (light, heavy, jumping, running) being represented by their own summoned arms:

• Light, jump, and rolling attacks summon dual straight swords, with the light chain ending in a great hammer switchup.
• Heavy attacks also summon the great hammer.
• Running light attacks use a sword and shield.
• Running and jumping heavies, as well as backstep attacks, summon a great spear.
• You can dodge out of a charged heavy attack to feint and throw daggers.
• The weapon art does that sick rain of swords from Morgott's boss fight.

Like all of Clever's weapon projects, the Sacred Arsenal is complex and varied without feeling overwhelming⁠—I've always hated memorizing combos⁠—and this really nails a sweet spot of complexity for me, being tied to the same attack types as the rest of Elden Ring's weapons. It's also surprising, unique, and very cool while still fitting in with the game's setting and aesthetic. Sacred Arsenal is tasteful, a far cry from a lightsaber mod or all those guys who add tactical ACOG Call of Duty-type guns to New Vegas.

The standalone version of the mod appears to be out of date, and Clever advises getting it through the mega pack of all their weapons instead. Sacred Arsenal requires katalash's Mod Engine 2, but both involve just unzipping the mod files to your PC in a separate location from your Elden Ring installation. Mod Engine helpfully runs Elden Ring off its own .exe and produces separate save files, keeping everything kosher where Easy Anticheat is concerned.

I always figured I'd shoot for a pure sorcery build in the unlikely event I found a spare 140 hours to play Elden Ring again, given my run of any FromSoft game always devolves into paddling bosses with the biggest sword I can find. I may need to change these (highly theoretical) plans, however, as some three-finger-frenzied modding wizard has added a complete Witcher moveset into Miyazaki's magnum opus.

Created by modder therealsqueam, the simply titled Witcher—Moveset Mod lets you get your Geralt on in The Lands Between by adding a full fighting style inspired by Andrzej Sapkowski's monster hunters into the game. It also adds the ability to cast signs, and even incorporates Geralt-style fisticuffs just in case you're caught without your weapon drawn.

Chiefly, the mod replaces Milady and Leda's swords with blades of steel and silver, typically wielded by Witchers, both of which can be purchased from Merchant Kalé in Limgrave. The steel sword naturally scales with dexterity, while the silver sword dishes out big holy damage, making it ideal for dealing with undead creatures.

Both swords use the same moveset, which borrows heavily from the acrobatic combat techniques seen in The Witcher 3. Inspired by Geralt's whirl, light attacks can continue repeating until stamina drains, while you can also follow up those nimble flourishes with a leaping heavy attack. The moveset also includes specific techniques for running attacks, roll and backstep follow-ups, and jumping strikes.

As for the signs, the mod supports all five Witcher incantations, infusing them with an impressive level of depth. The concussive Aard sign, for example, can knock back individual enemies with its light attack, or produce a damaging 360 shockwave with its heavy counterpart. Igni, meanwhile, lets your character shoot a continual stream of fire from their hand, buff your weapon with flame, or unleash an infernal tsunami via the heavy attack.

At a glance, it seems like a pretty powerful build, though therealsqueam has made some attempt to balance it against Elden Ring's challenge. The Axii sign, for example, lets you temporarily turn enemies to your side, but you must get close to an opponent to use it, and it takes several seconds to cast, leaving you vulnerable to attack. The shield sign Quen, meanwhile, only lasts for 10 seconds per cast, during which time it will rebuff light attacks completely, but only reduce damage from heavy strikes.

Apparently, the mod requires Elden Ring's expansion Shadow of the Erdtree to function, so make sure you've got that installed before you download it. But if you've exhausted the decision trees of CD Projekt's trilogy, Witchering through The Lands Between should help tide you over until The Witcher 4 arrives, whenever that turns out to be.

Soulsborne challenge runner Ongbal, whose exploits include no hitting Malenia, Promised Consort Radahn, and every single boss in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, has uploaded a video showing a solo completion of Elden Ring Nightreign's maximum-difficulty Depth Five. But he doesn't really recommend it.

Depth Five was introduced as part of Nightreign's recent Deep of Night update, and requires slowly leveling up through the earlier depths first. The lower depths introduce more challenging enemies and random Nightlords, but balance this difficulty with powerful new weapon and relic effects that seriously open up the game's buildcrafting.

"I grinded up to depth five this past week," Ongbal wrote in the video description. "And well… honestly it's not enjoyable at higher depths."

Ongbal accomplished this solo run as John Darksouls himself, Wylder. Despite the YouTuber's predilection for katanas and Sekiro, Ongbal only favored the Sekiro-parrying samurai character, Executor, early on, with his videos quickly transitioning to focus on Wylder gameplay. It makes sense: Wylder's mobility and surprisingly high skill ceiling has made him a favorite among the hardcore Souls kiddies.

Perhaps the most notable thing about Ongbal's Depth Five run is how unremarkable it was: No god drops, shifting earth, surprise invasions, or nail-biter moments, just a meat and potatoes run where the enemies were super tanky and could pretty much kill in one hit.

Build-wise, Ongbal had the extra Wylder grapple and blood loss upgrade from relics, as well as bleed on the starter greatsword, which he kept and upgraded through the entire run. Ongbal paired it with an offhand Flamberge for bonus bleed-inflicting jump attacks, and that's about it. Otherwise Ongbal just executed everything at a very high level, and for the Nightlord, he squared off with a non-Everdark Fulghur.

That last bit really chafed my hams: On my second Depth Two run, my team wiped to a surprise Everdark Libra whose summons glitched out and turned invisible⁠—we didn't stand a chance. It's a shame that Ongbal's run was so tame, because the real fun in Deep of Night is the new weapon effects you can build around. My favorites have been bows that have powerful effects when you aim with the trigger instead of locking on, like casting the Swarm of Flies spell or inflicting Scarlet Rot.

I've been hyping myself up for Elden Ring Nightreign's Deep of Night mode ever since it was uncovered by dataminers a month ago. It's not like I need an excuse to play, but running through Nightlords and Everdark Sovereigns was starting to get tedious. I wanted a new challenge, and what better than a ranked "endless mode"?

Deep of Night isn't endless in the sense that you just keep going day after day until you die, but it is endless in the sense that you rank up or down depending on whether you win a run, and then your progress affects your rank, which you can keep working towards.

It's largely more of the same, with the two-day expedition followed by Nightlord finale, the same maps, and the same kinds of enemies that inhabit them. The main differences lie in how strong these enemies can get and what kind of weapons you can find around the map.

Not only do the regular grunts hit harder now, but there are souped-up versions of enemies called mutants with a bloody-red tinge to them. They're yet another step up from what players are used to, but fighting them is worth it because of what they drop: weapons with additional and more powerful effects.

I picked up a composite bow, which gave me improved sorceries and a 28% increase in damage negation, while others have granted me effects like glintblades and a range increase.

Getting two buffs does come in handy when facing up against stronger foes, but FromSoft isn't handing out party favours; these new weapons also come with debuffs. Reduced flask HP restoration, a hit to your FP meter, and a decrease in damage negation whilst using a flask. It's important to take a look at what you're picking up in case you get a particularly harsh penalty.

Another advantage that Deep of Night grants players is dishing out Depths Relics alongside regular relics at the end of each run as a reward. These grant additional effects that aren't found in the base game, and therefore can't be used in regular runs. But like the new weapons, these also come with debuffs (because we can't have anything nice).

One relic I got granted me improved sorceries, but reduced dexterity and faith. Another granted improved lightning damage negation, but taking damage causes blood loss buildup. And a third improved vigour and strength for Ironeye, but reduced dexterity.

There's also "dormant powers" attached to relics, which can grant new items like Opaline Hardtears at the start of the expedition or allow players to discover more of a certain weapon type like Great Hammers.

My first couple of runs saw me face up against Tricephalos and Gaping Jaw, but there is a possibility that you'll have to face up against an Everdark Sovereign, as you don't pick your Nightlord; it's anyone's guess as to who you're going to have to fight. (Although given the surprising lack of actual randomness in Nightreign's map seeds, perhaps the same will end up applying to Deep of Night, too).

Deep of Night isn't that different from what I've come to expect from regular expeditions at its early stages, but it's not really meant to be. It's a mode that'll scale in difficulty as you progress through the Depths (ranks), encountering harder enemies and Nightlords as you go.

You can't pick which Nightlord you're facing up against, but at the lower ranks, you'll at least be able to see who you're fighting on the third day when you enter the hero select menu and on the map, so you can gather weapons and effects accordingly. At higher ratings, however, there may be roadblocks like not knowing which Nightlord you're facing up against or not having points of interest show up on the map.

Nightreign has managed to almost entirely captivate me since it was released a few months ago. But despite loving my time with it, expeditions did start to go stale as my friends and I ripped through all the Nightlords and Everdark Sovereigns we came up against; fights just didn't have the same kick as they used to. But Deep of Night seems like a mode that'll only get more interesting and harder the more time you spend with it, which is exactly the right direction to take a game that's now got a pretty hardened and experienced playerbase.