Here’s when the next Elden Ring Nightreign update arrives: What to expect?

With the DLC for Elden Ring Nightreign already confirmed and ready for sale, many are wondering when exactly the next update is going to arrive and what to expect from it.

Indeed, mentions of DLC have already appeared in parts of Elden Ring Nightreign, specifically any edition other than the standard one, so there’s no question about it coming out, the only questions that remain are when precisely this will happen and what it will include.

As it happens, in an interview with CNET’s David Lumb on June 1, director Junya Ishizaki touched on it a little bit when Lumb asked him about the DLC, and here’s what he had to say:

“For future content, we have the already-announced DLC, which we’re currently underway on developing. The content for that will be focused on mainly new playable characters and new boss encounters, so please look forward to that.”

In other words, this obviously means new Nightlords and new Nightfarers, according to the views shared by gaming commentator Ziostorm in a YouTube video from July 8.

Next Elden Ring Nightreign update: Q4 2025

As to when the DLC is coming, the Deluxe Edition product listing on Steam reads that the additional DLC will be available by Q4 2025. Considering that the label has been there since the game launched and has not been updated, its creators are probably confident in that date or they would’ve changed it.

In other words, we’re talking about the holiday season up until the end of the year. This also coincides with the possible timeline for the end of the Everdark Sovereign fights – which is around the start of August. August also makes an ideal time to release the Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition and give Nightreign a bit of a break.

After this, around the start of September, the developers could start marketing the DLC for Nightreign and launch it sometime in October or November. This would be early enough to avoid the major Christmas-time push for all the other games coming out this year and early next year. 

Next Elden Ring Nightreign update: Content

As for the content of the next Elden Ring Nightreign update, we can expect more Nightfarers, but it’s difficult to say what exactly they’re going to be unless we think in terms of archetypes. What’s missing in the current lineup while present in the base game is a healer.

Although we do have the Revenant and the Recluse who can use faith-based miracles and healing spells, they’re both primarily combat roles. A new character’s Passive Ability, Skill, or even Ultimate Art could contribute to healing your teammates, granting them buffs, or debuffs to bosses. This could mean some kind of a Priestess, Cleric, or Paladin character. Another thing we could expect is a sort of a Perfumer or a Dragon Cultist. 

When it comes to Nightlords, there aren’t any archetypes to go off of, but we can think in terms of attributes, as each boss in Nightreign represents one. For instance, Gladius represents fire, Augur sleep, Sentient Pest magic, and so on. We’re missing a boss that deals with Destined Death, something like Maliketh. Since Maliketh is already a sort of swordsman archetype, maybe we could have some kind of Destined Death Wizard Nightlord. There also isn’t a Poison attribute currently, so we could easily get some kind of a giant snake Nightlord inflicting it.

Unconfirmed new content

As for unconfirmed details, we can expect some Shadow of the Erdtree content, which will probably include all the weapons from Elden Ring’s expansion pack. If Perfumes are introduced, it would be a major opportunity to bring in a new class type, like a Perfumery Nightfarer. Also, things like the Dryleaf Arts or a Martial Artist-type of character.

We might also see the return of the lion dance fight, as it repeats itself in the DLC, perhaps even Commander Gaius but under a different name, the Sunflower thing, Scadutee avatar, although there might also be some new Night bosses, or things like the Ghostflame Dragons, the Red Bears, Death Knights, and the Furnace Golems.

Finally, we could expect at least one new Shifting Earth event, as there’s a large empty portion of the map in the top right when you overlay the Shifting Earths. This might be Leyndell or the Haligtree, a big Golden Royal Castle variant, or even something from Shadow of the Erdtree, something that was present in the base game of Elden Ring that is not in Nightreign.

As a reminder, fans have long anticipated the launch of Elden Ring Nightreign, so much so that the game immediately attracted a massive crowd of over 300,000 players on Steam in just the first hour of its presence, overshadowing the total player count of the Dark Souls Trilogy combined.