FromSoftware has always excelled at turning desolation into beauty, but Nightreign: The Forsaken Hollows may be the studio’s most oppressive and atmospheric descent yet. Positioned as the second major expansion to Elden Ring, Nightreign drags players beneath the Lands Between into a sprawling, subterranean nightmare — a world older than the Erdtree, ruled by hunger, shadow, and the remnants of a forgotten age.
Where Shadow of the Erdtree explored mythological melancholy, Nightreign embraces pure dread. It is a DLC built on claustrophobia, decayed grandeur, and unrelenting tension. And despite a few frustrating difficulty spikes, it may be Elden Ring’s most focused and consistently gripping piece of content to date.
A Descent into a Lost Epoch
Your journey begins with a whisper: rumours of the Hollows opening again, pulling Tarnished and commonfolk alike into a pit of endless dark. This new region — accessed through a series of collapsed caverns beneath the Deeproot Depths — is colossal, yet frighteningly intimate.
Gone are the wide-open fields of the Lands Between. The Forsaken Hollows are a labyrinth of petrified forests, bone-riddled ravines, abandoned burial chambers, fungal wastelands, and subterranean citadels carved directly into the stone of the world.
The level design leans heavily into verticality. Massive elevator constructs descend into chasms that feel impossibly deep. Narrow ledges spiral around colossal stalagmites. And almost everywhere, the darkness is alive — pierced only by sickly blue embers drifting in the air like dying stars.
Despite being underground, the art direction is surprisingly varied.
- The Maw of Thorns is a cavern collapsing in on itself, walls serrated with fossilised roots.
- The Citadel of Vanyr is an ancient fortress sealed in obsidian, its architecture a fusion of early Carian designs and something far older.
- The Silent Reef is a flooded, bioluminescent cave system home to spectral aquatic horrors and eerie coral-like growths.
It’s unmistakably Elden Ring, but darker, stranger, and mythologically heavier — as if the player is walking through the abandoned drafts of the world’s creation.
Storytelling Through Ruin and Shadow
Like every FromSoftware narrative, Nightreign reveals itself in fragments — cryptic item descriptions, quiet NPC monologues, and environmental details that reward close attention.
The overarching tale centres on Vanyr the Forsworn, a figure mentioned only in obscure lore from the base game. Once a revered archmage, Vanyr led a sect obsessed with the “First Shadow,” a primordial force predating the Erdtree. The Forsaken Hollows were their sanctuary — and eventually their tomb.
Vanyr’s experiments to channel the First Shadow resulted in the Nightreign: a spreading blight that dissolves light, devours living flesh, and corrupts magic. What remains of his followers now stalk the Hollows as twisted, light-starved horrors.
The new NPCs are compelling — from Callis, a blind swordswoman who senses shadows instead of seeing them, to Thornspeaker Murn, a strange prophet who guides the player while slowly succumbing to the Nightreign. Their overlapping quests paint a picture of desperation and obsession that fits seamlessly into Elden Ring’s tragic tapestry.
Thematically, this DLC is about hubris — not of kings or gods, but of scholars who dug too deeply into forbidden truths. The story may be optional in the traditional FromSoftware sense, but it is one of the richest narrative threads in the entire game.
Brutal, Tense, and Rewardingly Unforgiving Combat
The Forsaken Hollows introduce some of the most challenging enemy types Elden Ring has ever seen. The “Hollowborn” — warped remnants of Vanyr’s disciples — are fast, aggressive, and unpredictable. Many enemies utilise shadow-warping abilities:
- Some vanish and reappear behind you.
- Some distort light to mask their animations.
- Some split into temporary afterimages to confuse your timing.
Shields become less reliable. Dodging and spacing matter more than ever.
Even minor foes can wipe out an unprepared Tarnished.
But the bosses are where the DLC truly asserts its identity.
Highlights include:
• Vanyr’s Echo
A two-phase sorcerer fight where the arena itself reacts to shadow magic, shifting platforms and warping projectiles mid-flight.
• The Gloom-Hoard Matriarch
A grotesque, insectoid creature ruling over a nest of glowing larvae. Its attack patterns evolve dynamically based on how many swarms you’ve eliminated.
• The First Shadow
The final boss is a masterpiece — a towering avatar of darkness whose movements are fluid and unnervingly natural. Its theme, animations, and lore significance place it alongside the greatest FromSoftware finales.
Make no mistake: Nightreign is harder than Shadow of the Erdtree. Not unfair — but punishing, precise, and deeply satisfying.
New Gear and Builds: Darkness Has Never Looked Better
The DLC adds a substantial library of weapons, spells, and armour sets, many of which revolve around shadow and light manipulation.
Some standouts:
- Umbra Blades – Twin daggers that temporarily blind enemies on critical hits.
- Hollowforged Greatsword – A colossal blade that gains damage in darkness.
- Gloamcall Incantations – Faith-based shadow magic that plays beautifully with crowd control and stealth.
- Vanyr’s Grimoire – A sorcery set focused on distortion spells and delayed detonations.
These additions encourage new hybrid builds — especially combinations of Dexterity, Arcane, and Faith — and significantly expand the meta for PvE and PvP alike.
Performance and Technical Polish
FromSoftware’s recent expansions have occasionally struggled with optimisation, but Nightreign arrives impressively stable. Performance in the massive underground chambers is smoother than expected, and lighting effects — crucial to the DLC’s identity — are handled brilliantly.
Enemy tracking can occasionally feel erratic in tight corridors, and a few texture pop-ins occur during rapid vertical transitions, but nothing detracts significantly from the experience.
Verdict: A Masterful Descent Into Darkness
Elden Ring: Nightreign – The Forsaken Hollows is FromSoftware at its most uncompromising and atmospheric. It trades the vastness of the Lands Between for a tighter, more oppressive descent into forgotten history. It’s brutal. It’s beautiful. It’s suffocating in all the right ways. And it stands comfortably beside Artorias of the Abyss, The Old Hunters, and Shadow of the Erdtree as one of the studio’s finest expansions.
A haunting, meticulously crafted DLC that pushes Elden Ring’s combat, worldbuilding, and lore into thrilling new depths.
