Summary
FromSoftware’s games have gained a certain notoriety in the gaming community for their difficulty, and not always in the way people expect, butElden Ring Nightreignhas changed one particular aspect dramatically. Alongside hordes of enemies and legendary bosses, a chief way of seeing the “You died” screen in prior titles was by falling from a great height, or just becoming victim to an unusually slippery surface, and countless memes have sprouted about the inevitable nature of FromSoftware’s gravity.
But this has changed dramatically inElden Ring Nightreign. The fast-paced nature of the game leads players to traverse great distances in short timeframes, running from one point of interest to the next. In order to streamline the experience, FromSoftware has had to reset certain expectations, from how climbing is handled, to sprinting, as well as the single most significant change to all of Elden Ring’s traversal: the removal of fall damage.
Gravity Is No Longer Something to Fear in Elden Ring Nightreign, but Something to Embrace
“Take the plunge, you won’t die,” are some words from akindly old man fromDark Souls 3that many FromSoftware fans will remember, and his advice seems to be taken to the extreme inNightreign. Indeed,Nightreign’s philosophy is very reminiscent of those ash piles in the Dreg Heap, as countless players will doubtlessly have discovered when leaping from a cliff face into an enemy camp below. There’s something slightly unnerving and fascinating about the complete lack of fall damage inNightreign, as it goes against all the previously learned wisdom that FromSoftware has drilled into its player base.
While many might consider the enemies placed in aSoulsgame to be the real obstacle, FromSoftware’s older games used to play around with environmental hazards far more, to the point that some have argued that it is the world that is the true enemy inDark Souls 1. It’s easy to see how, as the Chosen Undead must navigate the treacherous buttresses of Anor Londo, the invisible walkways of the Crystal Cave, and most infamously, thehated Bed of Chaos. As the studio’s roster of Soulslike games expanded, gravity hazards became rarer, though no less frustrating; it is a very long fall from the rafters of Shadow of the Erdtree’s Specimen Storehouse.
Falling Long Distances Has Been Made a Feature in Nightreign
This is exactly what makes doing away with fall damage entirely so freeing, and important. The classic moments of being tricked by some strange geometry, or rolling off a ledge, are still there, but all that results in a short sigh and a climb back to the top. But it even goes a step further, as FromSoftware was able to not only remove the penalty for falling, but made it a core part of the design ofNightreign. Instead of a slow climb down from a mountain, many players of Nightreign will have found themselves leaping without a second thought from the highest peak, focused entirely on the next objective. It has been entirely normalized, and while it might not be noticeable at the moment, FromSoftware’s gravity shenanigans are likely to catch more than a few players off-guard the next time they try tojump off Stormveil Castle inElden Ring.
Take the plunge, you won’t die.
The redefined traversal is just one part of the package that makesNightreignfeel so different toElden Ring, despite wearing a lot of the same skin. WithTheDuskbloodsreleasing in 2026, perhaps the studio will play around with some more mechanics, switching up expectations once again. But until that time, Nightfarers everywhere should enjoy the freedom that comes with jumping off a tower to charge toward the next objective - just don’t be surprised when reality hits harder than the Tarnished slamming into the ground if that muscle memory carries back over into the originalElden Ring.
