Yesterday, the new patch 1.01.3 went live for Elden Ring Nightreign. It was a seemingly small patch, centered on bugs and quality-of-life tune-ups. It seemed like most players saw it and went about their day. But then, gradually, some started to notice a new option in their Expeditions menu.
A new Gaping Jaw undertaking, dubbed the “Everdark Sovereign,” was appearing on the Expeditions menu. Soon it became clear that FromSoftware had delivered on its promise to add enhanced bosses to Elden Ring Nightreign this month, and it did so without warning, letting players potentially stumble into the new venture. Watching the community piece this together, in the late hours of the night, was truly fantastic.
As confirmed this morning on Bandai Namco’s site, enhanced versions of current Nightlords—duibbed Everdark Sovereigns—will start appearing in Elden Ring Nightreign over the coming weeks. Each week, a new Sovereign will arrive in Limveld, with Gaping Jaw as the current Sovereign and both Sentient Pest and Darkdrift Knight due to get new, more challenging versions as well.
Everdark Sovereigns are only available while online, and each Sovereign will hang around for a week, then leave and get replaced by another one. You have to have beaten the base, original form of the Nightlord to challenge its Everdark Sovereign form.
Early reports from players indicate that this souped-up Gaping Jaw is, truly, enhanced. Videos of the fights show the empowered Adel zipping aruond the field, creating massive storms, and generally wiping the floor with entire trios of players in short order.
While you can tackle the Everdark Sovereign solo, or with friends and/or strangers, it seems like the new fight is truly adding some challenge, even for those who have been putting a lot of hours into Elden Ring Nightreign. To me, it’s reminiscent of Monster Hunter’s upgraded fights that get added post-launch, like Tempered versions of monsters, that seem meant to add extra challenge as players’ knowledge and power rises exponentially over time.
What’s the reward for felling an Everdark Sovereign? Well, a brand-new shop located in the hub area will let you spend all the Sovereign Sigils you’ll earn from a clear, and even this shop is a pretty exciting update. Alongside offering special Relics and other items, the Sigils allow playes to change the Roundtable Hold’s lighting, acquire the currently available skins, and set shifting earth statuses. The latter has been a major request from the community, and it’s great to see it addressed.
So while the patch notes for 1.01.3 were fairly unassuming at first, players now seem to feel like this is a huge update. The roll-out of enhanced bosses has already brought some new life and challenge back to Nightreign, and the promise of more to come is enticing, as are the new short-term pursuits to chase after.
Bandai Namco is also teasing this as the start of something: “This is only the beginning of the Everdark Sovereign cycle. As the power of the Night ebbs and wanes, the Sovereigns will soon return to the abyss they came from.” We already know Elden Ring Nightreign is due to get full updates down the road, so if this is an early indication of what we can expect, the long-term prospects for FromSoft’s new co-op survival action game seem good.
We’ve got plenty of Nightreign tips and tricks to help you take down all the eight Nightlord Bosses, and if you’re wondering how to unlock the two locked Nightfarer Classes, check out How to Unlock the Revenant and How to Unlock the Duchess, plus How to Change Characters.
Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.
