It’s early days for Elden Ring Nightreign, but already players have run up against their toughest challenge so far. No, it’s not a classic FromSoftware boss, it’s the struggle to find friends to play with.
Elden Ring Nightreign drops players into the shifting lands of Limveld, exploring and fighting for survival either solo or in groups of three. There is no way to play two-player co-op. We’ve already reported on Elden Ring Nightreign’s ‘mixed’ Steam user review rating, with most of the complaints revolving around a lack of a duos option as well as no voice chat.
Playing Elden Ring Nightreign solo is proving to be a particularly difficult experience. As explained in IGN’s Elden Ring Nightreign review: “Let’s get the most important caveat out of the way first: if you are hoping to tackle Nightreign entirely solo, and are anything less than a hardcore Elden Ring player that actively seeks out ways to make that already difficult game even more challenging, Nightreign isn’t for you. Yes, there is technically a single-player option, but it is so poorly balanced that I would be shocked if it isn’t patched and adjusted within the first month of release. And this is coming from someone who lives and breathes these types of games.”
So, solo players are faced with matchmaking with random players, which itself is presenting problems because of a lack of coordination required to defeat Elden Ring Nightreign’s bosses.
As a result, players are turning to the Elden Ring community for help. The Elden Ring subreddit, for example, is packed with requests from duos looking for a third player (yes, the community is having fun with this situation).
“There’s like a zero % chance I’d find one other person to play with much less two,” said redditor trickponies. “Is the game even worth it solo?”
Players are pointing out that Elden Ring Nightreign does have matchmaking, so you can play trios if you do not have friends to play with. But, as others have countered, playing this game with randoms isn’t always the best experience.
“I have seen too many videos on this sub to trust randoms with anything more than the newspaper,” said one player. “I love you all. But from a distance. My blood pressure can only take so much.”
Players are turning to Discords and other online platforms as they hunt for like-minded fans to team up with. Elden Ring Nightreign hasn’t even been out 24 hours, but this is proving to be a big hurdle for the community as they work their way through the game.
Nightreign solo cuz my friends have a 9 to 5 and I’m unemployed pic.twitter.com/t47UrYoDSv
— Raph (@RaphDeee) May 29, 2025
Some Elden Ring fans are even saying they won’t buy the game because they don’t have any friends to play with.
“Yeah, as disappointing as it is, Imma have to pass on this game, purely because I don’t have any friends to play it with and I can’t play solo,” said Twinkie454.
Others are calling on FromSoftware to rebalance the solo experience so it’s more manageable. “We’ll see what FromSoft does to re-balance it, so maybe have some patience,” one person said.
And, as you’d expect, some fans are offering to help others out. “…. Did we just become best friends?!” said one Elden Ring player. “Get the game bestie, I’ll see you tomorrow when I get off work!”
Despite these issues, Elden Ring Nightreign has enjoyed a massive launch on Steam, with an incredible 313,593 peak concurrent users on Steam overnight. That was enough to make Elden Ring Nightreign one of the most-played games on Valve’s platform.
And it sounds like FromSoftware may add a duos option at some point in the future. In IGN’s interview with Elden Ring Nightreign director Junya Ishizaki, the Nightreign lead developer discussed the choice to lean on solos and trios as the core experience options. When asked why there’s no option for a pair of players to drop in together without a matchmade third player, Ishizaki said it was overlooked.
“The simple answer is that this is simply something that was overlooked during development as just a two-player option, so we’re very sorry about that,” said Ishizaki. “As we said before, we set out to make this a multiplayer co-op game for three players, balanced for three players, so that was the main focus and it’s at the core of Nightreign.
“Of course, I myself as a player understand that and often want times where I’m just playing myself, so this is something that we considered from the start,” Ishizaki continued.
“And so we did put a lot of effort into creating this experience that was playable for solo players in as much as the rules and new systems allowed. So in putting all our efforts into that aspect, we kind of overlooked and neglected the duos aspect, but this is something that we are looking at and considering for post-launch support as well.”
Top 25 FromSoftware Bosses
Top 25 FromSoftware Bosses
We’ve got plenty of Nightreign tips and tricks to help you take down all the eight Nightlord Bosses, and if you’re wondering how to unlock the two locked Nightfarer Classes, check out How to Unlock the Revenant and How to Unlock the Duchess, plus How to Change Characters.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
