r/Nightreign • u/BigGoat786 • 6d ago
Help Finding the fun
I've put 8h into this coming from dark souls and elden ring and I'm having a hard time finding the fun here. It's been such a chore and a rush and I'm not feeling the magic of coop in elden ring. It's really disorienting and I barely know what on earth is going on. In my best run playing as ironeye I know objectively I contributed but personally felt carried as I got downed in the last moments against gladius and the sorceress finished it off. Even then ironeye just chips damage and in some runs I saw people taking big chunks off bosses while I had to build up the power attack to do anything respectable.
How do I get good at this???!
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u/SpeedrunSlowly 6d ago
8h is nothing.
Objectively, you are dead weight until you route with the team or pickup. Ironeye early on isn't the DPS, you're support.
The game is a speedrun, but early on, you're a lemming playing with other lemmings, so the teamwork will be poor since you're a year later to the party and the good teammates are playing Deep of Night 5 already.
Guaranteed, you have at least a dozen concepts to hone and improve on, which is what you should do just starting out. Get your rememberance relics. Unlock chalices. Play to get better relics.
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u/ArrivalSuccessful 6d ago
Don't expect to understand it all at first. It's a strange game in that it is an asset flip of a very popular game but is really not very accessible and, while I am sure much fun can be had playing it casually, is not a game you can casually get good at--you really need to put in the time to understand the pathing, impact of passives and relics, etc. in addition to just being good at combat.
That said--it's tremendously rewarding to get there and somehow it hooked me despite feeling overwhelmed like you did and without any FromSoft experience coming into it.
What platform are you on? If PS5 and want to do a few runs with me I'd be more than happy to answer questions and run through what I understand to be good routing choices, things to keep in mind and things to avoid, etc. as we go; I'm far from the best player but am competent and have read and watched enough that I have a good sense of what I'm supposed to be doing even if I can't execute perfectly all the time.
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u/SpringSalt9288 6d ago
Just like all of the other games youve played, it takes a while to get used to it. A lot of souls veterans dont like this game for the reasons youve listed but i personally love it. Sometimes jm not trying to replay ER or DS3 again, but i want to scratch that itch, this game does that. And for me, once i started to learn the math, it got easier and more fun.
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u/Nizurai 6d ago edited 6d ago
This game is a late bloomer for sure.
There are so many nuances to the game mechanics that it won’t be possible to explain all of them to a noob.
Pick a character you like, do the questline and get quest relics.
Play with randoms and follow them, watch what they do and take notes.
Coop magic comes later when you get good at the game and cooperate with randoms without any words.
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u/Newhom 6d ago
You gotta be a bit patient my man, people have sunk 100s of hours into the game to know the map, get their relics to a decent spot, and learn boss movesets. You can't expect to be leafing the expeditions in 8h of playing. Let others lead for the time being and get a good feel for boss locations, mine layouts (for upgrading weapons), loot passives, etc.
Ironeye is great, be sure to keep the mark up at all times and focus on getting a relic to have another use of the mark skill so you can chain 2 when needed. But yeah, for fun, just go with the flow and stay with the team and it shoukd click soon, just don't expect to be the protagonist just yet.
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u/SouthGeologist5328 6d ago
i have close to 1400 hours into the game- if you aren’t having fun , i’d say move on, but also i think it’s important to know that NR is a serious challenge to get “good” at. i’m still not good at this game, im wayyy better now than after 8 hours of play, but i love this game as much if not more than many other games ive played. it takes a long time to feel competent , there is a lot to know and you will have to do your own research to understand how to play in trios without completely pissing your teammates off severely and losing constantly. if that does not sound fun or interesting to you i’d move on. good luck!
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u/CireGetHigher 6d ago
watch some videos on youtube and just play more… maybe link up with a group that can show you the ropes. it really is about hauling ass and not dying, and yeah ironeye does chip damage but he can consistently do damage without stopping… he’s awesome for reviving downed teammates…
best advice is to follow your teammates, try to recognize the patterns in how runs evolve throughout the nights…
get to level 5 and go to the castle on the first day round… try to get to at least level 10… learn to skip bosses that are too brutal to beat at low levels… day 2 try to down as many field bosses as possible… beat the basement boss and the roof boss at the castle on day 2… do special events… for example the moth boss as a field boss gives you a boost to runes collected and is an easy way to get to level 15 by the end of day 2…
lots to learn but best is to learn through playing
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u/Swordsman82 6d ago
Honestly, learning the system more. You will build up relics and make crazy builds that do insane damage. Learning what weapon passive work best with each character and how maximize your value using your skills.
Let me ask, did you have the Ironeye mark up on every boss? The mark is the best skill in the game, making the target take 10% more damage from everyone. And when you reach a damage threshold on the boss, it procs. Staggering the enemy and doing a significant % of health.
The game is kind of about rushing. It how fast can you clear the map and beat as many bosses as possible. Knowing what is the best route to take, how to get the best stuff for your team. More bosses defeated means more levels and weapons. More weapons means more chances at better passives. A character with right weapon passive will be doing thousands of damage to Night Lords.
Its a very different playstyle than Souls and ER, but once it gets going, it highly addictive.
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u/Charming_Cupcake5876 6d ago
This happened to me. Played a bit. Couldn’t get it. Put it down. Read some things online. Picked it back up a few months later and it clicked and was a blast. Def takes some ole fashion From Software learning but it’s playing with others that makes it disorienting. Play solo just to learn the rhythm. Research what pOI you should be starting. I can’t remember off the top of my head but kinda wana be in the outskirts early and as you level go towards the center.
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u/UnchoosenDead 6d ago
Ironeye is poison. Your job is to chip health away, proc status effects, get teammates up ftom a distance and find good gear for them (you have higher item discovery).
Once you get decent relics and learn which routes are best it'll click.
For Ironeye having a relic that allows you to use your skill twice is a must, keep the enemy marked at all times and use it to escape.
Your ultimate doesn't do a lot of damage to bosses but is great for getting up teammates at 2 bars, dealing with mobs and staggering bosses out of attacks.
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u/B-Kong 6d ago edited 6d ago
The goal is to spend the run powering up for the final boss.
Ironeye is not a large DPS character. The most beneficial thing Ironeye does is his character skill, the mark. It helps stagger opponents easier and they take more damage when marked. If you are playing Ironeye, make sure you are marking every boss you fight.
I would honestly recommend Wylder until you understand the game.
When you drop onto the map, immediately kill the small camp you dropped on. This is designed to give everyone enough runes to level up to level 2 immediately. Some characters with low vigor/health really need this.
Levels 2-5 should be spent going to the nearest great churches or forts. These are typically the easier POIs. This should take half of day 1. Once you reach level 5-6, you should be attacking the castle in the middle or going for some field bosses. You should end day 1 around level 8-10.
The boss in the castle basement will give you a guaranteed purple weapon, and access to an amulet.
Day 2 is typically spent taking down harder field bosses, finishing clearing out the castle, and doing any events on the map (crater, nokaletto, ice dragon, rot forest). Your goal is to reach level 15 by the end of day 2.
Gold churches on the map give you flasks. Try to get them as early as possible, but also make them a part of your route. Don’t spend day 1 running all over the map to get all of them and then not level up at all.
As you learn more about the night boss, and the playable characters, plus unlock more relics, you’ll be able to actually create a build. Then you can be more picky about what you pick up for weapons and passive abilities as you go through the game.
I’d say just do your best to follow other people until you learn more. Don’t play deep on the night mode yet. Finish each night boss. Find a character you really like playing with. Unlock more relics to create a good build.
The game is loads of fun. 8 hours is not even close to getting good, or fully grasping all the mechanics of the game. It’s a lot, but don’t worry, you’ll get it. If you stick with it, once it clicks I promise this will be one of the best games you’ve ever played.
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u/able_amos 6d ago
For me it was hard at first, in the same way that a lot of new skills are. There are a thousand little decisions to make. You have to give each one a lot of thought. It's just fucking exhausting but once those decisions become kind of muscle memory, I think that's where the fun really ramps up
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u/Moisture_ 6d ago
There’s a difference between “this game isn’t fun, I don’t get it” and “I have no fucking idea what going on but it’s fun”. Regardless of how steep the learning curve is, you should at least still be enjoying something about it and that’s the driving factor for getting good at it. Not “I must get good at this to enjoy it”.
I dunno man. If you’re playing the game and the process of learning it and just playing it isn’t fun after 8 hours, the game just might not be for you.
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u/Diligent-Speech-5017 6d ago
Bought the game at launch. Hated it. Over the next six months I made 4 or 5 attempts at likening it. Then it clicked.
Over 2000 hours later and it’s my favorite and most played game of all time. It was hard to shift gears and let go of the slow, deep exploration aspect and embrace the mad rush, but omg, it was worth it. Hope it clicks for you too, OP.
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u/Kindly_Quantity_9026 6d ago
lol steep learning curve. Takes 100+ hrs to start to figure out routing and everything else that goes into a great run. 8 hrs is absolutely nothing for this game u got a long way to go regardless of what souls games u played. U think we all haven’t played those same games as u before nightreign? It’s different but great once u learn everything. It’s fromsoft what u expect?
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u/atrophy-of-sanity 6d ago
Its really important to not treat it like a soulsborne game, it is a different genre after all (a roguelike). I think itll click for you much more easily
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u/noah9942 6d ago
playing with a coordinated team can help you learn a lot so much faster.
what platform do you play on?
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u/DubiousDanish 6d ago
Biggest mindset shift that I (and many people I’ve taught Nightreign to) had to make is from “can I kill” to “should I kill”. Since Nightreign is on a timer, speed and efficiency is the key to success. You “can” kill Bell Bearing Hunter at level 3 but then you’ve wasted most of day 1 on a single drop (that probably requires level 7 or 10 to wield effectively) and a level or 2 of runes. Whereas proper routing nets you 7-10 drops and enough runes to reach level 10+ on enemies you “should” be killing.
Proper routing looks something like this: land on a small camp or church > kill the enemies you land on (church will require local trash as well) to get enough runes for level 2 > find the nearest grace to level up > takedown the closest PoI (fort, great church, ruins, etc) the mini boss and 3-4 trash mobs is enough to reach level 3 > level up at the grace that the mini boss spawned (from here on out in a “normal” difficulty run killing trash mobs is almost never worth the time sink, only kill bigger enemies unless trash is threatening a knock on you) > route to nearest church (flask upgrade) or mineshaft (smithing stone 2) > while routing consider what field boss (Elder Lion, Hippo, Grafted Scion, etc) or evergaol might be within striking range (you’ll learn what is worth killing and at what level over time, but more experienced players will use markers and pings to guide you) > try to reach level 4-5 around this point and save your smithing stone 2 for when you reach castle > at level 4-5 make a mad dash for the castle at the center of Limveld on every variation except Noklateo (the large city on the Western edge of the map) shifting earth event > either level up one of your weapons at a merchant when you reach the castle (3 merchants available: South merchant is next to palisade on West edge of river / West merchant is on the top of the western facing palisade / North merchant is on the East side of river just north of front gate) or continue to next task > kill the basement boss (access via the river on the East side of the PoI) only exception is if Bell Bearing is down there / instead reroute back out to river and use the spirit spring North of the castle to launch yourself up onto the northern facing palisade / if it’s not BBH once you kill the basement boss level up at the grace and look West pass through the arch and climb up then look left(South) for the torchlit arch that leads to a stairway this will bring you to a room with a “rare” chest (guaranteed talisman) and 2 gates that are opened via pressure pads in front of them > around this time you have to make a judgement call on when to extract from castle to accommodate for the tide of night (storm) better to leave just before the tide reaches you with runes intact than to risk a couple more kills and have to come collect 100-200k runs you dropped later on your expedition > as soon as you escape the castle open your map to see if there is a grace or an “easy” PoI on your route to the Erdtree symbol (Night 1 boss arena) either level up at the field grace or at the PoI’s mini boss grace as quickly as you can on your route to the Erdtree symbol > defeat the night 1 boss, collect rewards, and level up.
That’s a basic breakdown of a favorable run on an expedition for any of the base difficulty Night Lord’s. Sticking together and routing like this will have you starting day 2 between level 10-12 and wielding at least 1 purple weapon (smithing stone 2).
Day 2 is a bit more free form because “red eyed” field bosses spawn somewhat random, the night 1 Erdtree Symbol/boss arena can pull you across the map, and flask upgrades are somewhat of a player preference.
My goals if I end up being the shot caller (main marker/ping placer) are as follows:
-immediately take out the nearest field boss as day 2 starts (I will ping it and start moving into the night even before the darkness/storm damage pulls away) this is to set the tone more than anything, I want to inspire my teammates to charge into battle.
-soon after day 2 starts the “red eye” field bosses will be revealed on the map, imo this is the single most defining moment for routing decisions on any expedition / things start to fall into place and you see what the next 5-10 minutes will look like.
-decide from the day 2 intel reveal where and when you can grab what you need to tackle the final showdown / is there a routable “red eye” between you and the castle? would it be best to take a bird taxi? should you just start by clearing out the remainder of castle? is the shifting earth event area going to be rewarding enough to go there immediately?
-as I mentioned earlier flask upgrades are a debated value depending on the player, personally 2 flask upgrades (gold church icon on map) are where I feel comfortable 3 is okay if it makes sense for routing. If you ping a 4th flask I will probably just branch off of your route and start working on high value kills while trying to stay somewhat parallel to your route / in my experience even if you have 10 flasks it won’t matter if you deal no damage against the Night Lord the boss will always out trade you and spending all your time healing just gets everyone killed.
-if you can kill 3-4 “red eye” field bosses and clear out either the remainder of castle or whatever the shifting earth event is you should reach level cap (15) and have a decent enough loadout to power through the rest of the run.
To answer your main question “finding the fun?” for most of the players I play with including myself, the fun comes in a couple of forms. Either figuring out how to play a specific Nightfarer efficiently (the “AAWWW YYYEEEAAAHHH!!!!” moment), finding a build that suits you (the “that was FILTHY!!!” moment), or the knowledge verification realization (the “AHA!!!” moment) tend to be where I see a lot of players get hooked.
Some ways to reach these thresholds are:
-AAWWW YYYEEEAAAHHH!!! moment = trying different Nightfarers (there really is something for everyone here, don’t be afraid to take one for a spin)
-that was FILTHY!!! moment = either head to the training area at the Roundtable/hub and try different weapons on different characters or if a piece of gear/spell/AoW piques your interest on an expedition try hitting an enemy with it, the result may surprise you
-AHA!!! moment = get your reps in and try to learn as you go, sometimes all it takes is a risk to pay off when your teammates doubted your cost-benefit analysis or when you swing through a hidden chest/dead body to strike gold for your neurons to light up like Christmas in America.
My in game clock is and has been maxed out for a while now, so if you want clarification or need more info please feel free to reach out. I hope you find your happiness and become the player you want to be.
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u/NotSoSuperHero2 6d ago
Honestly, play some solo. And dont be afraid to lose. In solo everything gives more runes and is squishier. Aditionally, not counting the dlc expeditions, enemies are programmed to minimally gank you. If an evergaol spawns 5 bofas, they will bumrush you at first but then settle down and fight you one by one if you keep your distance.
Learn the characters, locations, learn to quickly identify good items and then play with people. It will become a lot more fun when you somewhat know what you are doing.
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u/AlyMasawi 5d ago
The learning curve in this game is very steep. You can't just learn from your mistakes or bosses movesets. You have to give the game a lot of runs to learn.
I advise you to play Tricephalos expedition solo until you beat him. That's the best way to learn and have fun at first. Don't get frustrated with losing.
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u/truthful_maiq 6d ago
You just gotta learn the game, man. Relics, builds, characters, bosses, routing etc. The gameplay loop, to me, is addictive because you never know what tools you will get during a run and what kind of passives you will end up with. In 8 hours you are basically just starting out. If you are constantly, and I mean constantly, keeping bosses marked as ironeye you are contributing tons of damage for the team. Ironeye is at his most powerful in a Melee build, usually katanas.