Elden Ring Nightreign

Both work now, and neither did at launch — which is why the reviews you have read are misleading. FromSoftware's patch 1.01.1, on 2 June 2025, added the effect "Automatic Revival Upon Defeat", which allows revival once per night boss battle, to solo expeditions, and increased solo rune gain. Two Player Expeditions arrived on 31 July 2025 in patch 1.02, which renamed the "Expedition Type" setting to "Number of Players" and states the game balance will be adjusted to the current number of players. Every review published in May 2025 predates both changes. Solo is still the hardest way to play, but it is no longer the punishment those reviews describe.

Source: FromSoftware patch notes

No on both counts. Steam describes it as "a standalone adventure within the ELDEN RING universe, crafted to offer players a new gaming experience by reimagining the game's core design" — a separate purchase with no dependency on the 2022 game. Prior time in Elden Ring helps in one narrow way, reading enemy attack patterns, and matters less than you would think elsewhere: Nightreign levels your character automatically and hands you weapons during a run, so none of Elden Ring's build planning carries over. Coming in cold costs you recognition, not capability.

Source: Steam

One expedition is three in-game days: two days of scavenging and levelling, each closed by a night boss, then a final Nightlord fight. Game8 puts a single expedition at approximately 15 to 45 minutes depending on whether you survive all three day cycles. Budget around forty minutes for a full successful run and considerably less when it goes wrong early. This is the practical difference from Elden Ring that decides whether the game suits you: it is built around single-sitting sessions you can finish on a weeknight, not a campaign you chip away at for months.

Source: Game8

Not since January. The last patch notes on Steam are version 1.03.2, dated 16 January 2026, and the only announcement FromSoftware has posted in the six months since is an advert for a limited-edition vinyl collection. What did ship in 2025 was substantial and mostly free: Everdark Sovereigns added rotating harder boss variants, Deep of Night added a high-difficulty mode in September, and the one paid expansion, The Forsaken Hollows, arrived on 3 December 2025 at $15.00 with two more Nightfarers, two Day Three bosses and a new Shifting Earth. Treat what is on the disc today as what you are buying.

Source: FromSoftware patch notes

Yes if you have two friends, with one PC caveat. It sits at 83% positive across 128,019 Steam reviews and 80 on OpenCritic, and the two loudest launch complaints — brutal solo balance and no duo mode — were both fixed in 2025. The caveat is the direction of travel: the last 30 days read 78%, below the lifetime score, and the recent negatives are not from bounced newcomers but from players with hundreds of hours, split between asking for content after six months of silence and reporting crashes on a build that used to run fine for them. At $39.99 that is still a lot of game. Check the recent reviews yourself before buying on PC.

Source: Steam