Elden Ring Nightreign Gets New Update for January 2026

A major new update for Elden Ring NIghtreign has finally arrived and while it fixes a variety of bugs and other issues, the biggest piece to this patch are the sweeping adjustments being made to Nightfarers, Relics, and other gameplay elements. After launching in May 2025, Elden Ring Nightreign has seen its fair share of successes, even if it is quite different from the more traditional FromSoftware style games. The online experience has seen plenty of updates over the past few months as well as limited time events, but the ride hasn’t always been a smooth one.

Although Nightreign lost a sizable portion of its playerbase a few months after launch, FromSoftware ended 2025 strong when it launched the first official expansion. The Forsaken Hollows added two new Nightfarers to Elden Ring Nightreign, along with new bosses to hunt in a a Shifting Earth environment called The Great Hollow. Currently, fans don’t have a great idea on what to expect from Nightreign in 2026, though it seems likely that even more content is on the way. However, simply adding new content wasn’t enough, as some of the legacy characters and gear were in dire need of improvement as well.

For Elden Ring Nightreign‘s January 15 update, FromSoftware has issued massive balancing and other adjustments to the game. Essentially, all of the Nightreign classes that most would agree are on the weaker side have recieved substantial buffs to hopefully improve their pick rate. Specifically, the Raider, Guardian, Executor, and Revenant are now much stronger than they were previously. It’s also worth noting that the Dutchess, Scholar, and Undertaker were also included in the patch notes, but not for any big specific changes, only minor adjustments.

The Executor Nightfarer in Elden Ring Nightreign, largely considered to be one of the tougher classes to play, recieved the biggest total number of changes in this patch. Almost every aspect of this character including, damage, stamina, and abilities were buffed in some way, especially when the Cursed Sword skill is active. The power of the Executor’s attacks, minus roar, as well as negating damage when the Ultimate is active has also been increased.

The Raider, who is traditionally the slow but powerful character, saw a major boost to attack speed with one weapon, while the movement distance of “some attacks” has also been adjusted. The Fighter’s Resolve passive ability was also buffed so that it also increases attack power when HP is reduced. The Totem Stela ultimate now has a larger attack range benefit.

The Guardian and Revenant, while having the smaller number of buffs in total (2 each), are also likely to benefit greatly from the buffs they did recieve. The magic focused and summoning Revenant class in Nightreign now has an attack power and damage negation boost for summoned spirits when the Ultimate Art is triggered or when in Deep of Night. The Guardian, on the other hand, recieved a big boost to survivability thanks to an increased Guard Boost and better damage negation for both physical and elemental enemy attacks.

Outside of classes, the Relics of Elden Ring Nightreign have also seen substantial adjustments, with most seeing increased power and effects. Only the “Successive Attacks Boost Attack Power”, “Improved Bow Attack Power”, and “Improved Attack Power with 3+ Bows Equipped” Relics had their effects decreased. Players will likely also notice some changes made to sorcery and incantations, as Shattering Crystal and Beast Claw have had their FP consumption increased.

FromSoftware even adjusted various elements to the map, including where and how many enemies spawn like the Night Invaders linked to the Marsh Key. In fact, the March and Blacksmith Village areas of the map now offer more runes for defeating some enemies there and well as the probability of finding rarer weapons and items from Treasure Chests. Certain Raid events like Tricephalos, Fissure in the Fog, and Balancers have also been tweaked. Finally, “The Great Hollow” Shifting Earth may have special shops appearing more often than they did previously.

The community has been very receptive to these changes, especially for the much needed characters buffs. Following the launch of The Forsaken Hollows and its powerful new classes of the Undertaker and Scholar have made the deficiencies of the existing classes even more apparent. It’ll bne interesting to see how these changes now shake up the current meta in-game going forward.

Elden Ring Nightreign Update 1.03.2 Patch Notes

Balance Adjustments and Feature Updates

Nightfarers Adjustments

Duchess

• Adjusted the visibility of the phantom when Duchess’s skill “Restage” is triggered.

Guardian

• Increased damage negation for physical and various elemental attacks.
• Increased Guard Boost when guarding.

Raider

• Increased the speed of various attacks, except dual-wield and jump attacks, and adjusted the movement distance of some attacks when using weapons of the Greataxes, Great Hammers, or Colossal Weapons categories.
• Added an effect to the passive ability “Fighter’s Resolve” that increases attack power for a certain period when HP is significantly reduced.
• Expanded the attack range when activating the Ultimate Art “Totem Stela”.

Revenant

• Increased the attack power of the special attacks performed by summoned spirits when the Revenant’s Ultimate Art “Immortal March” is triggered with active summoned spirits.
• Increased the attack power and damage negation of spirits summoned through the skill “Summon Spirit” in the Deep of Night mode, scaling with the depth level of Expeditions.

Executor

• Increased the attack power of critical hits while the “Cursed Sword” Character Skill is active.
• Increased the Guard Boost while the “Cursed Sword” Character Skill is active.
• Increased the stagger damage upon successful deflection while the “Cursed Sword” Character Skill is active.
• Reduced the stamina reduction upon successful deflection while the “Cursed Sword” Character Skill is active.
• Running out of stamina after a successful deflection no longer result in a guard break while the “Cursed Sword” Character Skill is active.
• Changed the specifications to apply the effects of “Improved Skill Attack Power” and “Improved Melee Attack Power” to weapon arts while the “Cursed Sword” Character Skill is active.
• Increased the power of attacks – except for “Roar” – while the Ultimate Art: “Aspects of the Crucible: Beast” is active.
• Increased damage negation when performing the L2(PS5) /LT (Xbox) / Q (Steam) skill attack while the Ultimate Art: “Aspects of the Crucible” transformation is active, and added a short window where it is not possible to become critically wounded even if your HP reaches zero. If your HP reaches zero during the skill’s activation, you will end the transformation with 1 HP remaining.
• Increased the power scaling of attacks – except for “Roar” – in accordance to the depth level – while the Ultimate Art: “Aspects of the Crucible: Beast” is active and in the Deep of Night mode.

Scholar

• Adjusted the distance criteria that affect the progress rate against large enemies in the skill “Analyse”.

Undertaker

• Adjusted the movement distance of some attacks against stationary targets when using weapons of the Hammer category.

Relic Adjustments

• The burn damage caused by the “[Wylder] Art activation spreads fire in area” Relic Effect now increases the art gauge.
• Increased the effect of the “HP Recovery From Successful Guarding” Relic Effect.
• Increased the effect of the “Draw enemy attention while guarding” Relic Effect.
• Increased the power of the shockwaves generated by the “[Guardian] Successful guards send out shockwaves while ability is active” Relic Effect.
• Increased the effect of the “Defeating enemies near Totem Stela restores HP” Relic Effect.
• Increased the effect of the “Improved Poise Near Totem Stela” Relic Effect.
• Increased the effect of the “[Executor] While Character Skill is active, unlocking use of cursed sword restores HP” Relic Effect.
• Renamed and modified the “[Executor] “Character Skill Boosts Attack but Attacking Drains HP” Relic Effect to “[Executor] Character Skill Boosts Attack but Lowers Damage Negation While Attacking” and increased the effect amount of the attack power boost.
• Increased the healing effect duration of the “[Executor] Slowly Restore HP upon Ability Activation” Relic Effect.
• Increased the effect of the “[Undertaker] Attack power increased by landing the final blow of a chain attack” Relic Effect.
• Increased the effect of the “[Undertaker] Physical attacks boosted while assist effect from incantation is active for self” Relic Effect.
• Decreased the effect of the “Successive Attacks Boost Attack Power” Relic Effect.
• Decreased the effect of the “Improved Bow Attack Power” and “Improved Attack Power with 3+ Bows Equipped” Relic Effects.

*This addresses an intended bug where the increased effect of the “Improved ●● Attack Power” and “Improved Attack Power with 3+ ●● Equipped” Relic Effects in Patch 1.03 were mistakenly applied to the bow weapon category.

Adjustments to Equipment, Sorceries, and Incantations

• Distance-related drop-off is now applied to status ailment accumulation, Ultimate Art gauge charging and near-death gauge depletion when attacking downed allies for attacks that take in account damage drop-offs, such as Ranged Weapons.
• Changed the primary sorcery of the “Rotten Crystal Staff” from “Shattering Crystal” to “Crystal Release.”
• Increased the FP consumption of the “Shattering Crystal” sorcery.
• Increased the FP consumption of the “Beast Claw” incantation.
• Adjusted the visibility of the effects of some sorceries and incantations.
• Reduced the “Reduced Maximum HP” effect of the “Primal Glintstone Blade” talisman.
• Reduced the “Impaired Damage Negation” effect of the “Crucible Feather Talisman”.

Field Adjustments

• “Fire Pots” and “Throwing Knives” now have a maximum amount that can be bought in shops.
• Increased the number of Night Invaders that appear when the “Marsh” Key location experiences cataclysms.
• Adjusted the number of some enemies appearing in the “Blacksmith Village” Key location.
• Decreased the attack power of some enemies appearing in the “Blacksmith Village” Key location in “The Deep of Night.”
• Increased the amount of runes obtained by defeating some enemies in the “Marsh” and “Blacksmith Village” Key locations.
• Increased the probability of rare weapons and items appearing in some treasure chests in the “Marsh” and “Blacksmith Village” Key locations.
• Adjusted the spawn rate of special shops in “The Great Hollow” Shifting Earth.
• Increased the effect of the “Beast’s Hunt” special ability obtained in the “Tricephalos” Raid event to fully restore stamina for surrounding allies during continuous attacks.
• Decreased the continuous damage received by player characters during the “Tricephalos” Raid event.
• Adjusted the visibility during the “Tricephalos” Raid event.
• Adjusted the visibility during the “Fissure in the Fog” Raid event.
• Decreased the falling hail damage during the “Fissure in the Fog” Raid event in the Deep of Night mode.
• Adjusted the number of enemies entering the Charm state at some points during the “Balancers” Raid event.
• Decreased the amount of attack power boost for enemies in the Charm state during the “Balancers” Raid event.

Other adjustments

• Adjusted the appearance rates of the target bosses, key locations, and Shifting Earth added in the DLC “The Forsaken Hollows” in “The Deep of Night”.

*This adjustment applies to Expeditions when matched only with players who also own the DLC.

Bug Fixes and Improvements

• Added an icon display and the description of Special Effects in the status menu for the “Improved Attack Power at Full HP” and “Improved Damage Negation at Full HP” passive effects while they are active.
• Added an icon display and the description of Special Effects in the status menu for the “Switching Weapons Boosts Attack Power” Relic Effect while it is active.
• Fixed an issue where some costumes for Scholar and Undertaker, as well as unique relics that can only be obtained once in the DLC, would disappear and made it possible to re-acquire them at the Roundtable Hold.
• Fixed a bug where it was possible to obtain multiple copies of the relic “The Will of the Balancers” under certain conditions.
• Additionally, if multiple copies of the relic “The Will of the Balancers” are equipped, only one of these relics will become activate.
• Fixed a bug where, when the relic with the “[Raider] Hit With Character Skill to Reduce Enemy Attack Power” effect was equipped, the Raider’s Character Skill: “Retaliate” would sometimes not stagger enemies even when hitting them while in an enhanced state.
• Fixed an issue where spirits summoned by Revenant’s skill could be staggered by enemy attacks within the defensive area summoned by Guardian’s Ultimate Art: Wings of Salvation.
• Improved the partial appearance of some movements when Raider performs a critical hit.
• Fixed a bug where, under certain conditions, Executor’s “Aspects of the Crucible: Beast” Ultimate Art would cause unintended damage related to Status Ailments when triggered.
• Fixed a bug where the effect of reducing the near-death gauge using the level 3 “Warming Stone” item from Scholar’s Passive Ability “Bagcraft” did not apply to the player who used the item.
• Fixed a bug where activating Executor’s “Aspects of the Crucible: Beast” Ultimate Art while linked with Scholar’s Ultimate Art “Communion” would cause unintended large damage to the linked enemies.
• Fixed a bug where the attack hitbox of the “Beast Claw” Incantation could disappear during use.
• Fixed a bug in the Whip weapon category where the first part of a normal attack did not apply the Passive Effects “Improved Melee Attack Power”.
• Fixed bugs in some attack hitboxes of the following Weapon Arts where the effects of “Improved Skill Attack Power” and “Improved Melee Attack Power” from Relics or Passive Effects were not applied.
  • Waves of Darkness
  • Eruption
  • Lightning Slash
  • Golden Land
  • Ice Lightning Sword
  • Sorcery of the Crozier
  • Sacred Phalanx
  • Flame Dance
• Fixed a bug where of “Improved Skill Attack Power” effect from Relics or Passive Effects did not apply to the “Torch Attack” Skill.
• Fixed a bug where the gravitational wave generated by the “Power of the Starscourge” of the Colossal Sword “Collapsing Stars Greatsword” Passive Effect did not apply the effect of “Improved Melee Attack Power” from Relics or Passive Effects.
• Fixed bugs where effects triggered by continuous attacks from Relics or Passive Effects did not activate in some attack hitboxes of the following Weapon Arts.
  • “Kick”
  • “Charge Forth”
  • “Giant Hunting”
  • “Carian Greatsword”
  • “Carian Grandeur”
  • “Carian Greatsword”
  • “Miquella’s Ring of Light”
  • “Spinning Wheel”
  • “Giant Hunting”
• Fixed a bug where the shockwave generated by the “Attacks Generate Golden Shockwave” Passive Effect did not leave an elemental mark when hitting enemies.
• Fixed a bug where the attribute added to the weapon held in the opposite hand would disappear when the “Switching Weapons Adds an Affinity Attack” Relic Effect was active and the weapon was switched.
• Fixed a bug where the attack power of the “Glintstone Scrap” and “Large Glintstone Scrap” Items did not increase with the “Improved Glintstone and Gravity Stone Damage” Relic Effect.
• Fixed a bug where the following Relic Effects would not apply even when their activation conditions were met while the player character was in a near-death state.
  • “Max FP increased for each Sorcerer’s Rise unlocked”
  • “Runes and Item Discovery increased for each great enemy defeated at a Fort”
  • “Attack power increased for each evergaol prisoner defeated”
  • “Attack power increased for each Night Invader defeated”
• Fixed a bug under certain conditions where player characters would not enter a near-death state or would die without entering the near-death state when HP reached zero due to an enemy’s grab attack.
• Fixed a bug where executing a critical hit from behind some enemies would cause damage to an adjacent allied player character.
• Fixed a bug where the ice mist effect from the “Fissure in the Fog” Raid event would activate upon using Executor’s “Aspects of the Crucible: Beast” Ultimate Art under certain conditions.
• Fixed a bug where the Untold Power would not appear even after reducing the HP of the “Albinauric Archers” powerful foes to zero in ruins.
• Fixed a bug where the “Night’s Cavalry” boss would not flinch significantly from certain arts and attacks while mounted.
• Fixed a bug where the HP gauge of the “Royal Cavalryman” would not display when beginning combat with the bosses “Tree Sentinel, Royal Cavalryman” and “Draconic Tree Sentinel, Royal Cavalryman” when other field bosses’ HP gauges are displayed.
• Fixed a bug where the playback timing of some BGM in the battle against the boss “Divine Beast Dancing Lion” was not as playing as intended.
• Fixed a bug where temporary Special Effects granted to the player character during the battle against the boss “Knight Artorias” would persist even after the battle ended.
• Fixed a bug where some enemy skills would activate in unintended positions during the battle against the “Balancers” boss under certain conditions.
• Fixed a bug where the volume of some sound effects would be lower than intended depending on the distance from the enemy during the battle against the “Balancers” boss.
• Fixed a bug where the battle against the “Balancers” boss would not progress under certain conditions.
• Fixed a bug where the effects of some attacks would not render when the distance from the enemy was too far during the battle against the Salvation’s Standard-Bearers “Balancers” boss.
• Reduced the rendering load for some enemy attacks during the battle against the Salvation’s Standard-Bearers “Balancers” boss.
• Reduced the unstable rendering of allied player characters’ movements during the battle against the Salvation’s Standard-Bearers “Balancers” boss.
• Fixed a bug where some parts of the combat would be skipped during the battle against the “Dreglord” boss under certain conditions.
• Fixed a bug where the Weapon Art of the weapon “Nox Flowing Hammer” sold in shops was different than intended.
• Fixed a bug where the objects required to solve the gimmicks in Sorcerer’s Rise would be buried in the ground under certain conditions.
• Fixed a bug in the “Tricephalos” Raid event where rewards could not be obtained if the event’s completion and achievement occurred simultaneously.
• Fixed a bug in the “Balancers” Raid event where the HP of the “Balancers” could be reduced from the start during multiplayer.
• Fixed a bug in the “Balancers” Raid event where events might not occur in the “Great Church” Key location.
• Fixed a bug where player characters could not move properly when the “Balancers” Raid event occurred under certain conditions.
• Fixed a bug where obtaining the “Favor of the Great Hollow” Special Effect in The Great Hollow Shifting Earth did not increase the “Encounters with shifting earth” in the Visual Codex Menu’s Battle Record.
• Fixed a bug where multiple instances of the “Cold Mirage” Special Effects might be displayed in the Result menu.
• Fixed a bug where the game could not progress if the session host left immediately after embarking on an Expedition.
• Fixed a bug in the fight against the Salvation’s Standard-Bearers “Balancers” boss where some enemy actions would not occur if other players left at specific timings.
• Fixed a bug in the fight against the “Dreglord” boss where some parts of the “Decayed Favor of the Rotted Woods” Special Effect would not become inactive after a session leave and rejoin at a specific timing.
• Fixed a bug in the fight against the “Dreglord” boss where some field-wide effects would not be applied after a session leave and rejoin at a specific timing.
• Corrected some text.
• Fixed rendering bugs in some graphics and effects.
• Fixed behavioral bugs with certain enemies.
• Fixed several minor bugs and improved performance.
• Fixed a bug in the Steam version where connection issues could occur immediately after matchmaking was completed.