Elden Ring Nightreign will not have two-player co-op due to “balancing”
Elden Ring Nighttrain it is a co-op spin-off, marked with an asterisk. According to director Junya Ishizaki in an interview with IGN, you can play it as a group of three or solo, but not as a duo. However, there is no technical reason for this inconvenient limitation. It’s about game balance.
“It was mainly a game balancing decision rather than a game design decision,” Ishizaki said. “So it happened as it evolved.” As in Elden RingThe enemies’ health will depend on the size of your group. However, the team has found the “sweet spot” of three players because it “doesn’t feel too overwhelming or too busy,” he said.
Despite Elden Ring worked great with two people, Night rain he has a completely different approach to combat. You only have three nights to level up and collect gear before the toughest bosses appear. Hands-on previews from IGN and PC Gamer say the run-based structure speeds up the action compared to what you’re familiar with in the original game, and the unique heroes have abilities they can perform together.
Moving around the randomized world will also become faster. In the trailer, characters fly over pools of lava on ghostly eagles and climb walls. You’ll race to find as much loot as possible before night falls and the battle royale-style circle engulfs you. According to Ishizaki, three groups of players “allow each player to go off on their own and cover part of the map” before they reunite for a boss.
Single players or duos looking for a third can use matchmaking to fill empty slots. Otherwise, you will still have to use the group password to find each other. As someone who played through the game with the Seamless Co-op mod on PC, I wouldn’t be surprised if a modder figured out how to make two-player co-op work. But until then, the rules are the rules.
It is clear that not everyone is happy about this. “Well… this sucks. I planned to play with my friend who I always collaborated with. Elden Ring s,” one Reddit user commented on this news. “If a random third party shows up, that might be okay, but that doesn’t mean that person will be included in our voice chat.”
The circle may not be the only one Night rain recreates the battle royale experience: you can be the third link in a group coordinating without you, or a duo ignoring a random player on the team. In such a cruel game as Elden RingI’m not even sure the ping button will fix this.
Elden Ring Nighttrain will be released on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and PC in 2025. FromSoft is also running a short beta in February.