Multiplayer Guide: How to Play Online with Friends

Multiplayer in Elden Ring: Nightreign governs how players team up, how enemies and rewards scale, what cooperative tools and penalties exist, and which special multiplayer-only events and interactions can occur. This page summarizes the core multiplayer systems, cooperative abilities, matchmaking constraints, score/penalty rules, and expedition-specific multiplayer events.

Overview and intent

Nightreign is built as a cooperative-focused roguelite where up to three players (three-player co-op) team up to clear timed expeditions, tackle bosses, and complete objectives. Multiplayer accelerates survivability and utility through shared character synergies, ultimate arts, passive abilities that affect allies, and team-based events — but many encounters and rewards scale to accommodate multiple players.

Player count and scaling

• Standard multiplayer sessions support up to three players in a team.
• Many enemies and bosses reduce their effective HP in multiplayer: when three players are present, certain major foes (including the Nightlord and other named tough enemies) have their HP reduced compared to solo. This makes boss fights noticeably easier in co-op.
• Some summoned or split enemy forms also have their HP adjusted downward in multiplayer.

Matchmaking and crossplay

• Matchmaking is platform-specific: Nightreign does not support crossplay across different platforms.

Shared mechanics and ally-affecting systems

• Many character passive abilities apply to allies. Examples:
  • Eagle Eye: adds +30 to Discovery for the wearer and also benefits allies, increasing rare drops, boss reward rarity, and the chance enemies drop usable equipment for the team.
  • Sixth Sense (Wylder): a visible one-time cheat-death effect that all players can observe under the Wylder’s health bar. Its state is shared (visible) but its usage is individual.
  • Confluence (Undertaker passive): when an ally activates their Ultimate Art, the Ultimate Art Gauge of other allies glows purple and is considered "filled" for 5 seconds, allowing those allies to activate their Ultimate Art during that window even if their own gauge is empty.
• Ultimate Arts and team interaction:
  • Some Ultimate Arts have explicit team-support functions:
    • Guardian — Wings of Salvation: leap, dive to revive fallen teammates within the landing area regardless of how low their Near-Death Gauge is; holding the input after landing projects a protective aura granting teammates inside immunity to damage (except grab attacks). The aura can last up to the remaining Art Gauge (maximum a few seconds) and can be cancelled to conserve gauge.
    • Scholar — Communion: the Scholar is invulnerable while casting and links nearby foes and allies so damage to one linked enemy is mirrored to others, and healing applied to one linked ally benefits all linked teammates.
    • Undertaker: benefits from Confluence passive described above (timing support for Ultimates).
• Passive and expedition-wide buffs:
  • Some relics and character passives confer effects that apply across the team (e.g., relics that make flasks heal allies, or increase team-wide stats when equipped by one player). Relic effects vary by class; certain guaranteed relics (Cleansing Tear, Night of the Fathom, etc.) are known to give team-helpful properties for Scholar builds and similar roles.

Revival, near-death, and invulnerability interactions

• Several mechanics restore or prevent death and interact with multiplayer:
  • Guardian’s Ultimate Art instantly revives fallen teammates in its landing AoE.
  • Wylder’s Sixth Sense is a single-use personal cheat-death that does not automatically replenish on teammate revives or some other auto-revives; it must be restored by revival from death or visiting a Site of Grace.
  • Some raid or expedition rewards grant one-time dodge/cheat-death buffs for subsequent lethal damage (e.g., rewards from certain raids grant temporary dodge-into-invisibility on lethal hit).
• Reviving a teammate consumes actions and positioning; Guardian-type ultimates provide powerful on-field revival tools that bypass the usual Near-Death thresholds.

Expedition raids and multiplayer events

• Expedition Raids:
  • Nightlord (Libra) and other powerful NPCs can initiate raids on players’ expeditions. When a raid occurs, the target’s visage appears on all team members’ screens and the team receives a negative effect (e.g., Libra’s raid curses the team with -30% max HP). A translucent marker indicates the raider’s location; interacting and paying the demanded amount removes the curse and grants a team buff (only one player needs to pay).
  • Some raids are region- or DLC-specific. For example, Caligo’s raid appears only in Forsaken Hollows DLC expeditions and spawns an ice storm fog that obscures vision and applies frostbite; striking Caligo once ends the raid and grants a survival buff to the team.
• Shifting Earth events:
  • Shifting Earth events alter maps and Points of Interest and introduce strong hazards/enemies and a specific objective that yields significant rewards if completed. These events trigger randomly and, once active for a player, persist for the next three expeditions. Players without an active Shifting Earth may be matched with players who do have one; the event will not apply to those without it but matchmaking is permitted.
  • Players can select a specific Shifting Earth to be active using one Sovereign Sigil if they have the Collector Signboard unlocked. Active Shifting Earths can be cancelled by sleeping at a bed inside the Shrouded Roundtable Hold.

Hexes, boss-phase spells, and special boss mechanics

• Bosses like Libra can cast randomized powerful effects (informally called Hexes) during enhanced fight phases. While casting, Libra gains substantial damage reduction and certain Hexes summon copies of players’ Nightfarers (Condemned), incite riots, or otherwise alter battlefield conditions. Some Hexes and summoned enemies interact with multiplayer in unique ways:
  • Condemned: summons copies of each player’s Nightfarer with randomized loadouts. These do not count as Night Invaders for relic effects. Defeating Condemned drops orbs that cure Madness and restore HP to the player who collects them. Condemned healed during repeated Hex casts receive stacking damage boosts.
• Madness and status interactions:
  • If Libra becomes afflicted with Madness, he enters a rampage and cannot cast Hexes until the rampage ends.

Scoring, penalties, and disconnect rules

• Score for expeditions:
  • Standard victory award is 200 points, with modifiers for Depth differences, concealed Points of Interest, and if the Nightlord is concealed to the final day.
• Score loss on defeat:
  • Defeat penalties escalate with Depth rank; Depth 1 players lose no points on defeat.
  • Specific numeric losses depend on Depth, day of defeat, and relative Depth differences; consult in-game scoreboard details for exact modifiers.
• Disconnection rules:
  • Leaving the session and not reconnecting counts as a normal defeat and incurs the same penalty.
  • Leaving and reconnecting avoids an immediate deduction, but any penalties are applied in the next expedition.
  • If any teammate has disconnected, points lost on defeat or disconnection are halved (victory awards remain unchanged).

Character selection and pre-made Nightfarers

• Nightreign uses a roster of prebuilt characters (Nightfarers) with distinct kits, Ultimate Arts, passive abilities, and playstyles tailored for co-op roles (e.g., Duchess provides brief invisibility for self and allies; Raider offers crowd-control terrain and heavy hammer hits; Scholar and Guardian provide powerful team ultimates).
• Selecting complementary Nightfarers increases team survivability and strategy options (healer/support ultimates combined with damage-focused characters, or synergies that boost relic effects).

Best practices for multiplayer teams

• Communicate Ultimate Art timing: Undertaker and Scholar synergies make coordinated Ultimate usage highly effective; use audio/visual cues visible on each player’s UI (some ultimates show icons or casting states).
• Prioritize mobility and revive options: characters with field revive or invulnerability Ultimates (Guardian, certain raid rewards, or cheat-death passives) reduce downtime and keep momentum.
• Manage shared objectives: in Shifting Earths and raids, coordinate who interacts with the raider or pays demanded costs; a single teammate can pay to remove expedition-wide curses for the entire team.
• Watch for platform limits: since Nightreign lacks crossplay, ensure teammates are on the same platform before attempting co-op.
• Account for disconnect rules: reconnect quickly to avoid full defeat penalties and to preserve team score.

Known technical notes

• A regulation patch fixed an issue where repeatedly performing certain actions during multiplayer could degrade performance. Ensure your game is updated to avoid this bug.

This guide captures the multiplayer systems that determine how teams interact, scale, and strategize in Elden Ring: Nightreign. Use character synergies, timed Ultimate Art activations, and coordinated responses to raids and Shifting Earth events to maximize success in three-player expeditions.