Elden Ring Nightreign’s Duo Trailer Takes a Jab at Hardcore Gamers

Alright, so here’s me trying to make sense of the chaos that is Elden Ring Nightreign. So, there’s this big shindig happening, right? Duos are finally dropping into Nightreign, and everyone’s all excited about it. They threw together a trailer showing off this two-player mode thing. But, like, the real fun is in this little snippet where they poke fun at hardcore Nightreign fans.

Somewhere around 34 seconds in, there’s this Revenant hangin’ out by this imp statue seal, just kind of waving the other player, the Executor, over. The Executor, bless their heart, walks into the scene all ready to go and… does nothing. Like, nada. It’s that awkward moment where you’re trying to use an item and, oops, you’re holding air. Then bam, the trailer just moves on, but that little moment is pure gold.

So, here’s the skinny on what’s been happening in Nightreign. There’s this whole “evergaol meta” thing going on. Basically, there are these relics that bump up your damage every time you beat an Evergaol — and it stacks. I kid you not. You get eight of these bad boys active, and you’re blasting through foes in no time. Some setups hand you a Stoneword key right at the start, but folks have figured out all these places to farm ’em too. So, yeah, my games lately? Pretty much everyone’s rocking an Evergaol build. Wild, right?

But here’s the kicker. With everyone and their grandma jumping on this Evergaol thing, gameplay got, like, predictable. It’s so everywhere that some players are, honestly, just over it. Saw this thread on Reddit the other day, got a bunch of upvotes:

I try to play initial attack up. My Evergaol setup deals more damage. Blah blah. Same story with grease items and stance breaking. Everyone wants Evergaols. Even random characters like Duchess, Guardian, Recluse — all about the Evergaols.

What you might be thinking is that people are just squeezing the fun out of Nightreign, but it’s, um, kind of more tangled. Folks know Evergaols are the bomb, but that doesn’t mean it turns you into a superstar. Like, some jump at an Evergaol the second they hit the ground — even without upgrading at all. That’s a trap, folks. Low-level Evergaols? Possible, sure, but even the weakest enemies can stomp you at level one. Had this team once that sprinted to an Evergaol right from spawn, and guess what? Total wipeout. Then my teammates just bailed. Cool, right?

Oh, and the comedy doesn’t stop there. The Evergaol obsession leads to this funny bit in the duos footage. All hopped-up on Evergaol adrenaline, everyone zooms to the spot only to remember — no one brought a key. Classic. So after wasting time, someone has to step up and lead the charge elsewhere. And, yeah, I’ve been that person, totally forgetting I changed my loadout. Whoops.

At least I’m not picking fights with my team over who gets to run the Evergaol play. I get the final laugh, though, ‘cause I haven’t been the one with incessant pinging just to annoy everyone into submission. Yet.

Anyway, the little skits in the trailer — like that awkward Executor moment — are FromSoftware’s cheeky nod to its fans. They’re not just making a game here; they’re having a bit of fun with it. And commenters on YouTube are eating it up. Some sharp-eyed fan noticed how they’re playing along with spells not reaching seals. I mean, you’d really have to know the game to catch that. Cool little touches, gotta love ’em.