If you thought Elden Ring tested your patience, wait until you hear what FromSoftware has cooked up for Elden Ring: Nightreign. The upcoming sequel to the massively acclaimed Elden Ring is not just upping the difficulty, it’s going to double down on punishment.
One special thing I must say about FromSoftware’s games is their complexity and end-level hardness thanks to the company’s efforts on introducing difficult boss fights, which I had to think twice before engaging in Elden Ring and the Shadows of the Erdtree DLC. Now, its new death penalty system in the upcoming Nightreign might be the most punishing the Soulsborne genre has ever seen.
FromSoftware has always worn its reputation for brutal difficulty like a badge of honor. Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Elden Ring all trained us to accept failure, learn from our mistakes, and try again—painfully. But Nightreign isn’t only sticking to the rules of losing your runes and trying again. You will watch your hard-earned progress literally disappear with every death.
Death Now Has Consequences that Sting a Lot
The traditional Soulsborne death penalty is still present. You die, you drop your runes (or souls), and get punted back to your last checkpoint. If you make it back without dying again, you get them back. Die again? Poof. Gone forever.
Nightreign keeps that core concept but then it adds a twist. Every time you die in this game, you lose one actual level, not EXP or currency. Since the level cap is a mere 15, that’s a brutal price to pay; it’s a slow, soul-crushing erosion of your power and progress and that’s not even the worst part.
When you fall in Elden Ring: Nightreign, you enter a “Near-Death” state. You’re not out of the game just yet but you might wish you were. You’re forced to crawl, pathetically slow, while your teammates scramble to revive you with a single strike. In case of failure to get saved in time, you will lose your runes, a level, and respawn somewhere nearby but not necessarily somewhere safe.
Adding insult to injury, enemies can steal your runes from your body. So the goon who took you down might be walking around with your hard-earned currency in their pocket. You’ll need to defeat those bad looters to recover it assuming you survive long enough to try.
Nighttime is the Wrong Time to Die
FromSoftware is even taking the game’s day/night cycle to a terrifying new level. If you fall during a night boss fight, you’ll stay in that Near-Death state until your allies revive you. There’s no backup respawn and no second chance unless someone comes to your rescue – it’s co-op or bust.
Even during the day, the revival timer is unforgiving. And if you’ve gone down a few too many times, it’ll take your teammates even longer to get you back on your feet. The blue bar above your body is your lifeline; each of its drains will take you one moment closer to losing another level.
There is one question: why so cruel, FromSoftware? The answer to me is simple is that this is FromSoft doing what the developers do best. Nightreign from what it looks for now will be their most punishing game yet, but also possibly their most rewarding. The steep death penalties mean survival matters more than ever. Every fight is tense, every risk is calculated and every win is the more much joyful.
Many players will find the level-loss mechanic frustrating (okay, rage-inducing), but Soulsborne fans know what they’re getting into. FromSoftware isn’t interested in coddling. They want you to struggle, suffer and then they want you to overcome it.
Elden Ring: Nightreign is releasing on May 30, 2025 for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC. Before you play and become a Nightfarer, remember that death isn’t the end but a personal regression. If that doesn’t send shivers down your spine, maybe this isn’t the game for you. But if it does? Welcome home, Tarnished.
You’re going to die a lot. Again. And again. And again. But maybe, just maybe, you’ll love every second of it like I am expecting from myself.
