Elden Ring Nightreign represents several key firsts for developer FromSoftware. As intriguing as it is to watch the studio, known for its single-player games, develop a multiplayer-only title that borrows from roguelikes and battle royale games, one has to stop and consider how the team attempted to solve certain problems.
One of the most interesting aspects of Nightreign’s gameplay is the revive mechanic, a feature that does not exist in any recent title from the studio, but one that is crucial to the co-op game’s core design.
The way this works in Nightreign is that, when a player’s HP reaches zero, they enter a down-but-not-out state. That’s pretty standard for multiplayer games, but how you actually revive a downed player is what sets FromSoftware’s latest apart.
In order to get a teammate back up, you need to attack them! How long you have to do that for depends on how many segments their DBNO bar has, which means you could be standing there swinging at them for a while before they’re back up.
You won’t be surprised to learn that, behind the scenes, there’s a formula that controls how this mechanic works. It is, however, quite revealing to look into the raw numbers and calculations the game makes, and how that affects your ability to revive/be revived.
The latest investigation from Souls expert Zullie the Witch – who recently uncovered the true meaning behind all those letter grades assigned to each characters’ attributes – have turned their gaze to Nightreign’s controversial revive mechanic to try and see how it actually works.
As explained in the video above, once a player enters the DBNO state, a 15-second timer starts. If you played – or watched – any Nightreign, you’ll know that the more times you die, the harder it becomes for teammates to be able to revive you.
The video reveals that the first down comes with revive value of 40, represented by one full bar. What you may not realise, however, is that each subsequent down – and thus, a filled bar – increases that value exponentially. The second time you fall, your bar will have two segments, at 45 each, for a total of 90. The third time fills all three bars, except each now has a value of 80, making the total 240 – nearly twice as much as the first two combined.
What makes that process even more frustrating is that you must continue attacking the downed player in order to maintain momentum and deplete all of their bars. If you stop for exactly 3.5 seconds, the bars will start refiling again. Zullie also discovered that the speed at which bars fill back up increases the more bars (more downs) a player has, starting at 2HP per second and going up to 40.
You can, of course, reverse these harsh penalties by staying alive long enough between revives – though you may not always have the chance, depending on how deep into an Expedition you are. The death penalties, according to the video, decrease by just one for every three minutes you’re alive. Alternatively, resting at Site of Grace will reset the whole thing to its default values.
As for whether your weapon or damage type affect the revive speed, the answer is a little complicated. Yes, more damaging weapons will technically make it faster to revive downed teammates, but buffs don’t affect a weapon’s revive damage.
There’s more in the video; it’s definitely worth watching. Among other things, it also explores how spells, and their varying attack chains, could have some bearing on their revive speeds.
For all your other Nightreign needs, be sure to bookmark our updated Elden Ring Nightreign guide.