Elden Ring: Nightreign's Duo Mode Is Coming to Save You From Matchmaking Hell
In Nightreign, you can play solo or in a team of three. On July 30, the option for Duo Expeditions will be available, letting players take on runs with a friend.
Players have been requesting a two-player mode since Nightreign came out. Modders even went so far as to release a mod to add the feature to the PC version of the game just days after it launched. Adding the Duo option means no longer needing to find a third player via matchmaking. As is the case with any online matchmaking, you never know if you'll get a competent player. There's also no voice chat in the game, so communication is limited to pinging locations on the map.
Nightreign is set in the Elden Ring universe and has a shrinking storm circle mechanic, similar to Fortnite. This takes 15 minutes, so players have to act quickly in order to gain levels and obtain the weapons and items they need to defeat the first night's boss. If the boss is defeated, the storm circle resets and players have another 15 minutes to get even more powerful. If they survive the second night, they'll be transported to an area to take on the Nightlord, a powerful boss needed to complete the run successfully.
Nightreign is a roguelike, so every run is different, with locations and night bosses changing. Because of that, it's easy to continue to play matches over and over again. Last month, FromSoftware released an option for harder Nightlords called Everdark Sovereigns. These are powered-up Nightlords that have more health and an additional phase in their fight, where the difficulty ramps up tremendously and makes for a battle meant for the most expert of players.
Duo Expeditions for Nightreign will arrive via an update on July 30. Elden Ring: Nightreign is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series consoles for $40.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
38 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Producer Lyrical Media Launches New Game Publisher Led By Take-Two, UTA Alum Blake Rochkind
Production company Lyrical Media is launching Lyrical Games a new, privately funded game publisher with its first three titles in production. Blake Rochkind, former Head of Business Development at Take-Two's Private Division, will oversee Lyrical Games, which says it aims to support imaginative and high-caliber games that live between the extremes of smaller indies and large productions. Rochkind was previously a Video Game Agent at United Talent Agency. More from Deadline Emily Henry Adapting 'Funny Story' Novel Into Feature Film With Lyrical Media and Ryder Picture Company Lyrical Media Acquires Reddit/NoSleep Short Story 'Purgatory Games'; Bryan Edward Hill To Adapt For Screen Djimon Hounsou & Halle Berry Join Africa-Set Thriller 'Red Card' Written By 'Bad Boys' Creator George Gallo & Nick Vallelonga He is joined by Roger Kurtz, former Head of Production at Private Division and a team of games publishing veterans from Devolver Digital, Humble Games, Microsoft and more. The company called the new venture 'a continuation of Lyrical Media's mission to empower storytellers and build expansive new worlds through partnerships with promising creative talents. With traditional publishers increasingly backing safe bets and dodging risk, Lyrical Games is stepping up to fund bold developers with vision, polish, and a clear path toward breaking through in an ever-competitive marketplace,' it said. Backed by Lyrical Media and founder and CEO Alexander Black, Lyrical Games has already partnered with top-tier developers and signed three titles including a new title from Blackbird Interactive, the creators of Hardspace: Shipbreaker. The others will be announced soon. 'From the very beginning of Lyrical Media, we set out to be a premier home for amazing storytelling regardless of medium,' Black said. 'We want to empower fiercely passionate game creators by bridging the gap between their art and the players who stand to be moved by it. Lyrical Games has the experience to know that we are nothing without our partners and their vision.' The company is looking to partner with a wide spectrum of developers, from seasoned veterans with years of experience to newer studios looking to push the envelope with fresh ideas. 'At Lyrical Games, we firmly believe developers are often the best stewards of their own games,' said Rochkind. 'In today's landscape, there has never been more noise, and not every developer necessarily needs a publisher. We built Lyrical Games to be the kind of publisher they want to work with. In this new normal, it's never been more important for both developers and their publishing partners to share a clear, holistic vision at the outset—not just for the game itself, but who that audience is and how they can and should be reached. 'In the high end indie or 'triple-i' space, we believe we can offer among the best, if not the best, deal terms available right now,' he added. 'We're not just looking for developers, but for partners who want a meaningful say in all the ways their game will be shown to the world. Developers we work with will always have ownership of their IP, and our partnerships will always value collaboration and transparency above all else.' Lyrical Media is currently in post-production on Adam Wingard's Onslaught and Michael Sarnoski's The Death of Robin Hood starring Hugh Jackman, Jodie Comer, and Bill Skarsgård, both of which will be distributed by A24. They are also developing a slate of projects, including Funny Story, an adaptation of Emily Henry's bestselling romantic comedy, Butcher & Blackbird, based on Brynne Weaver's popular novel and Powerless, a television adaptation of Lauren Roberts' best-selling debut YA novel. Best of Deadline 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery 2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Emmys, Oscars, Grammys & More 2025 TV Cancellations: Photo Gallery


The Verge
an hour ago
- The Verge
You can now use AMD's FSR 4 while playing Cyberpunk 2077.
Posted Aug 5, 2025 at 3:47 PM UTC Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates. Jay Peters Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Jay Peters Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All AMD Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Gaming Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All News Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All PC Gaming Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Tech


Digital Trends
an hour ago
- Digital Trends
Marvel Cosmic Invasion's tag system lets me finally feel like a beat-em-up pro
As a kid, there was never a trip to a movie theater or bowling alley where I didn't sink at least a handful of quarters into whatever beat-em-up arcade game was on site. I was enamored with The Simpsons arcade game and bewitched by TMNT, but the one that ate the vast majority of my quarters (okay, my parents' quarters) was the X-Men arcade game. Even looking at a screenshot of those majestic pixel-art graphics gives me phantosmia of slightly burnt popcorn and hot pretzels. I never had the skill or quarters necessary to get beyond one or two stages in those games, but that never diminished my love for beat-em-ups. I still like checking out new entries when I can, but love watching combo videos even more. Seeing one or two people work in perfect harmony with the game's mechanics to juggle, bounce, and style on those poor NPC enemies is an art form that I never thought I'd be able to participate in. Recommended Videos That was until this week when I got to play the first two stages of Marvel Cosmic Invasion. Be your own sidekick Coming from developer Tribute Games and Dotemu to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, Switch 2, and PC, Marvel Cosmic Invasion is more than just a love letter to the old arcade beat-em-up genre — it is the culmination of everything I want it to be. If you've played a beat-em-up before, you will recognize the core systems here. You pick your favorite superhero from a final roster that will consist of 15 heroes to brawl through sidescrolling stages against waves of enemies and a boss at the end. Your bread and butter buttons are a standard combo, special move, and ultimate ability to pull out in a pinch, but it is the layers Marvel Cosmic Invasion puts on top of the core formula that made me feel more like a pro on my first shot than I ever did in other games in the genre. My demo only featured two stages and a roster of 9 out of the final 15 heroes, but that was more than enough to give me a taste of the possibilities this game has. I knew one of the core features of Marvel Cosmic Invasion was the Cosmic Swap system, which would let me swap between two different heroes rather than be stuck as just one for the entire game. I assumed that would be a cool way to keep the game from feeling stale, but not be as transformative and integral to the moment-to-moment flow of combat as it ended up being. I chose Wolverine and Phyla-Vell as my initial pairing as a way to try something familiar and something new. Wolverine is the raw ball of fury I expected, rushing in with claws, leaping onto enemies to stab them, and charging up a big cross slash. Besides my default combo, I instinctively found a launcher by hitting attack and jump at the same time, as well as the aforementioned charge attack by holding attack. There was no tutorial or explanation on how to play in my demo beyond the control layout in the menu, so hopefully that is included in the full game to explain some of the less-obvious moves to those who aren't familiar with the language of beat-em-ups. That was all standard stuff. It felt and looked amazing, but didn't show its hand until I messed with the Cosmic Swap system. This isn't just a button I press to swap characters when I get tired of Wolverine's moves, though it could be used that way. This is more akin to the tag system in a fighting game like Marvel Vs. Capcom, where I can hold the assist button plus press one of my attacks to summon my backup character to inject one of their moves into my combo with or without swapping to them depending on the button. This cracked open the combat system in a way I'd never been able to even approach before. I found myself pulling off complex and extended combos almost on instinct by calling out an assist move when I left myself unable to continue juggling an enemy with my primary character. By pure accident, I was pulling off the types of combos I had only seen in clips online. I want to stress that I've never been able to do more than some basic combos before, but on the first stage in this Marvel Cosmic Invasion demo I managed to rack up a combo of over 200 purely by experimenting with all the moves. I can only imagine what two or more people, each controlling multiple characters, will be able to pull off. But the tag system didn't just make me feel like a pro because it let me dominate enemies that, for the most part, are there to be styled on. It also removes the most aggravating part of beat-em-ups, which is when I end up on the wrong side of a combo. Marvel Cosmic Invasion doesn't tone down the frustratingly long amount of time I am stunned when I do find myself getting hit, but instead of forcing me to grit my teeth and bear it, the tag system gives me an out. If I find myself getting hit, I can call in my assist to interrupt my attacker long enough to break out of the stun and strike back. Or, I can completely swap out to my second character to bypass the hitstun. Once I had ingrained that lesson into my toolkit, I always felt like I had an option in every scenario to turn things around. I would say the Cosmic Assist system is a little overpowered, but I think that's the point. It does come at a cost — a meter that drains as I use it but refills upon hitting an enemy. But unless I spammed it, that meter would stay replenished without having to think much about it. There were only two bosses in my demo, and even fighting them I never came close to death. Who knows how the difficulty will ramp up later, but I don't think Marvel Cosmic Invasion leaning on the easier side is by any means a bad thing. It lets average players like me feel like I'm making the most of the combat systems. Every time I experimented, even when I wasn't sure what attack my assist was going to do, I was almost always rewarded for it. Marvel Cosmic Invasion launches later this year.