A little while ago, FromSoftware responded to the generally positive reception of Elden Ring Nightreign following the game’s launch, promising an official duos mode, as well as something the developer referred to as “enhanced fights against existing Nightlords.”
Duo Expeditions have yet to arrive, but we now know exactly what these enhanced Nightlord fights are, because the first one has arrived suddenly in the game.
It is particularly amusing to log off for the day after reporting on the latest Nightreign patch – which was mainly an incremental update – only for the real news to drop hours afterwards, and without even an official announcement to accompany it.
Late yesterday, players discovered that the first enhanced boss has arrived. In a blog post, FromSoft later explained that these are called Everdark Sovereigns, and they’re meant to be much more challenging versions of each Nightlord.
A new Everdark Sovereign will rotate each week, but only those who defeated the original version of that Nightlord can take it on. A Sovereign of Gaping Jaws (Adel) is currently live in the game, to be replaced with Sentient Pest next week, and Darkdrift Knight the week after.
The developer is working on Sovereign versions of other Nightlords – Tricephalos, Augur, Equilibrious Beast and Fissure in the Fog, which will arrive in due course. As for Sovereign Gaping Jaws (Adel), it will be available until Thursday, June 25.
That’s not all, there’s now also a new NPC that serves a couple of key functions. Defeating Sovereign Nightlords will reward you with Sovereign Sigils, which said NPC will take in exchange for special Relics and other useful items. You even get bonus Sovereign Sigils the first time you beat each boss.
That NPC also lets you change Nightreign’s Shifting Earth / Map Events on demand. This requires Sovereign Sigils, too, but it saves you from having to defeat three Nightlords to trigger the next event
There’s likely more that players will discover as they spend a bit more time fighting these ultra-challenging versions of the game’s Nightlords. If you still haven’t beaten them all, we recently put together a weaknesses guide for all of Nightreign’s Nightlords because it really helps to go in prepared.
For all your other questions, a quick glance at our Elden Ring Nightreign guide will always set you on the right path.