Patch 1.03.1 for Elden Ring Nightreign is a broad systems update that touches almost every part of the game. It expands Deep of Night runs for players who own The Forsaken Hollows DLC, refines balance in the Great Hollows Shifting Earth, and fixes a long list of bugs affecting Nightfarers, relics, bosses, and matchmaking.
What patch 1.03.1 adds for Deep of Night and The Forsaken Hollows
The headline change is new Deep of Night content tied to The Forsaken Hollows DLC. If you own the DLC and queue into Deep of Night, you can now encounter:
- New targets that function as additional objectives during an expedition.
- New Landmarks, giving more variation in routing and navigation.
- New raid events that can interrupt your run with extra threats and rewards.
- New Shifting Earth occurrences layered into Deep of Night.
These additions only show up when everyone in the match also owns The Forsaken Hollows. If even one player in the group does not have the DLC, Deep of Night reverts to the non-DLC ruleset for that session.
There’s also a new wrinkle for the final Nightlord. When all Nightfarers in the party own The Forsaken Hollows, Night Aspect gains additional attack types, raising the ceiling on how chaotic that last fight can become.
Balance changes in the Great Hollows Shifting Earth
Several changes target the Great Hollows Shifting Earth, especially the temple areas and raid events.
- Curses in temple runs hit harder. Fire, Magic, Lightning, and Holy-related curse effects applied to weapons and items in temple Shifting Earth are now stronger. These effects define much of the risk–reward inside the Great Hollow, so expect a sharper edge on elemental curse builds.
- Continuous HP Loss and HP Recovery curses were retuned. The ongoing drain and regen curses inside temples have been adjusted so their impact is more in line with the mode’s intended difficulty. The exact numbers aren’t exposed, but the goal is to keep sustained effects threatening without feeling arbitrary.
- Tricephalos wolves were nerfed. The summoned wolves in the Tricephalos raid event now deal less damage. Separate fixes also correct their HP and damage reduction scaling with two or three players and ensure they disappear promptly when the event ends.
- Night’s Tide feedback is clearer. When your character is engulfed in Night’s Tide in the Great Hollow Shifting Earth, their feet now visibly burn. It’s mostly a visual cue, but it makes the threat easier to read in dense fights.
- Clue hunting is less restrictive. The range for discovering clues via the map in the Great Hollow Shifting Earth has been expanded, making map-based investigation less finicky.
- Enemy behavior is cleaned up. Enemy behavior in the Great Hollows Shifting Earth has been adjusted, and several bugs around enemies not dying, spawning in the wrong places, or persisting after bosses are defeated have been fixed.
Scholar and Bagcraft: Deep of Night’s biggest winner
Scholar gets special attention in this patch, particularly around Communion and Bagcraft.
- Bagcraft now exposes stack behavior. When you hit enemies with level 3 Dart-type items created via Bagcraft, the damage negation reduction icon now shows a stack count. That makes it much easier to understand how many hits you’ve landed and how much armor you’ve stripped.
- Dart and Fan Dagger interactions are fixed. The duration of the damage negation reduction from level 3 Darts now extends correctly when you keep hitting enemies, and the same debuff now scales properly with the number of hits when using level 3 Fan Daggers.
- Holy Water Pot behaves correctly. The healing effect added to the level 3 Holy Water Pot now damages Royal Revenants properly, restoring the intended risk–reward profile against that enemy type.
- Communion’s edge cases are cleaned up. Scholar’s Ultimate Art Communion no longer breaks when you transform using Executor's Aspects of the Crucible: Beast, and its effect no longer lingers on the caster when no other targets are affected. Damage and healing propagation to linked enemies and allies during Communion also now works as intended, even if the Scholar is pushed into Near Death during the cast.
- Analyze reliably fuels the art gauge. At maximum charge, the self-inflicted shockwave from Analyze now increases the art gauge. The number of analyzed targets no longer resets when a player uses the “Open door” prompt to enter a boss fight in the Spirit Tree shelter.
- Frozen Needle and Remembrances behave as expected. Bugs with Scholar’s Frozen Needle attack motions and some enemy behavior in Scholar-specific Remembrances have been corrected.
Other class and combat adjustments
Beyond Scholar, several class-specific and combat systems receive important fixes.
- Revenant’s immortality visuals. Revenant's Ultimate Art Immortal March had an issue where the immortality effect was visually overridden by other effects; it now remains properly visible and functional.
- Executor and Cold Mirage. The Cold Mirage special effect now properly applies to Executor's Aspects of the Crucible: Beast. This restores intended synergies between transformations and certain Deep of Night modifiers.
- Power to Balance the World is safer. The special effect Power to Balance the World now plays a new near-death revival animation and no longer leads to the player being defeated immediately after reviving during Solo Expeditions.
- Mists of Slumber and Sword of St. Trina. The extra effect applied by Mists of Slumber to the Sword of St. Trina no longer disappears when the user takes enemy attacks.
- Black Flame Blade and Bloodflame Blade interactions. Bow attacks buffed by these incantations now correctly clear frostbite from enemies, and the Black Flame Blade buff no longer inappropriately influences Frenzyflame Thrust, Wave of Gold, or Thundercloud Form hitboxes.
- Beast Claw and Ancient Death Rancor scaling. Charging these spells via held cast input now correctly boosts their power, and the post-cast delay of Beast Claw can be canceled by chaining into another spell, bringing them in line with other chargeable options.
- Golden Retaliation and Carian Retaliation rescue allies. These skills now reliably rescue allies from Near Death in the situations where they were previously failing.
- Dragon slaying gets a small buff. When the “Communion Grants Anti-Dragon Effect” special effect adds an anti-dragon property to a weapon, the weapon now also gains additional physical damage against dragons.
There are also numerous small corrections to passive effects and relic-triggered bonuses. For example, the Critical Hits Inflict Blood Loss special effect now actually shows its physical attack boost in the UI, and attribute marks generated by Recluse’s Elemental Defense appear properly when using weapons imbued via Order's Blade.
Quality-of-life tweaks and UI improvements
Patch 1.03.1 includes several small changes that add up to a smoother nightly loop:
- Consumable stacks are now smarter. Swapping identical consumable items in the Equipment Menu automatically merges stacks up to their maximum size. This is especially helpful for item-heavy classes like Scholar.
- Status menu clarity improves. Some special effects now have explicit icons and descriptions in the status menu, making it easier to understand what is currently active on your character.
- Pinned item messaging is more readable. When you pin an item, the “You indicated equipment” message now respects the item’s rarity color, giving immediate visual feedback about what tier you just flagged.
- Relic Rites and filters behave correctly. Relic Rites filter behavior has been fixed so it no longer shows effects tied to DLC or Deep of Night unlocks you don’t have, and the [Revenant] “Power up while fighting alongside family” indicator no longer appears active on Scholar or Undertaker.
- Map and UI bugs are reduced. Incorrectly positioned Scarabs, treasures, Sites of Grace, and Spiritstreams on the map have been corrected, stray floor icons no longer linger when switching layers, and the Enemy felled message no longer double-triggers on certain bosses.
- Steam-only profanity filter update. On Steam, the list of prohibited words has been refreshed, which can affect name and message creation.
You can also now remap the Map Display key in the keyboard/mouse settings. Changing this key will also alter navigation in certain menus, such as “Open All Presets” in the Relic Rites menu, so it’s worth double-checking your muscle memory after making adjustments.
Deep of Night: how the mode works today
Deep of Night is Nightreign’s high-difficulty expedition mode. It is unlocked after defeating the Nightlord Night Aspect and is designed for Nightfarers who have already cleared standard expeditions and Nightlords multiple times.
Several core traits define how Deep of Night plays:
- Unknown Nightlord targets. When you start a Deep of Night expedition, the final Nightlord is not shown up front. You learn who you’re facing only once the expedition begins, which forces more generalist builds and coordination than standard expeditions where the target is known.
- No Shifting Earth carryover. Any existing Shifting Earth state in Limveld does not apply during a Deep of Night run. The mode operates on its own ruleset, distinct from whatever is happening in the open world.
- Stronger enemies and red variants. All enemies are stronger than usual, and there are “variant” foes with a red sheen that serve as extra-threat elites. These variants are a primary source of Deep of Night’s exclusive tools.
- Exclusive weapons and Depths Relics. Deep of Night offers weapons with multiple extra effects and new, more powerful properties that always come with drawbacks. Depths Relics, which slot into three special relic slots, also exist only in this mode and combine strong buffs with penalties to stats like Faith or Dexterity.
- Depth rating and matchmaking. Deep of Night uses a Depth rating that rises when you defeat Nightlords and falls when you fail expeditions. Starting at Depth 2, you cannot return to Depth 1. Matchmaking attempts to group players of similar Depth, and higher Depths increase enemy strength and can hide points of interest or even the Nightlord’s identity until the last moments.
Earlier patches added safeguards to this system, including rank-loss protection at Depth 3 and above and the ability to reduce your Depth by one level if you want a less punishing tier. Patch 1.03.1 continues to stabilize rank reflection and matchmaking logic, especially around disconnects and pre-made parties.
Fixes to bosses, raid events, and Expeditions
The patch includes many focused fixes for marquee encounters and world events. Highlights include:
- Sentient Pest fight stability. During the Sentient Pest encounter, the boss now properly loses track of players when Duchess's Finale is active, and previously identified issues that could stall the fight have been addressed.
- Gaping Jaw hit detection. Ground-based attacks from Gaping Jaw now have improved hit detection and effects alignment, reducing off-target hits and unfair whiffs.
- Dreglord encounter logic. In the Dreglord fight, spells and ghosts from Revenant's Summon Spirit now aim correctly, targeted attacks are less likely to jump to the wrong player, players are less prone to getting stuck in geometry, and multiplayer music timing is now aligned with the intended sequence.
- Balancer encounter audio. The sound effect for enemy grab attacks during the Balancers fight now plays reliably.
- Demon in Pain and Demon from Below. Their defeat animation now triggers even when both die at the same time, and arrows targeting their heads correctly deal bonus damage.
- Night bosses and rejoining players. Several bugs where Night bosses could die unexpectedly when a previously disconnected player rejoined have been fixed, and the Curseblade Night variant no longer fires certain attacks at unintended timings.
Raid events in free-roam Limveld also see cleanup:
- Tricephalos raid. Wolves vanish promptly once the event ends, their HP and damage reduction now scale correctly with party size, and the raid no longer drags on when the last enemy spawns inside the Night boss zone.
- Fissure in the Fog raid. The pre-hail blizzard effect now shows even if everyone is inside a mine, fog no longer incorrectly appears indoors in some strongholds, duplicate bosses stop spawning on rejoining players’ screens, and rune rewards consistently apply when the event is cleared.
- Balancer raid. The Balancer is less likely to fail to appear under edge-case conditions.
On the Expedition layer, several key issues are resolved:
- Temple flow in The Great Hollows Shifting Earth. Bugs that could make certain temples impossible to progress, cause additional enemies to spawn pre-emptively, or trap players on chests and terrain are fixed.
- Spiritstream reliability. Players remaining in a session after someone leaves and rejoins can now use temple Spiritstreams correctly, and Raider's Totem Stela no longer spawns underground on certain platforms.
- Enemy and rune rewards. Enemies in The Forsaken Hollows DLC now drop appropriate weapons, temple bosses consistently award runes, and certain repeat-run exploits that re-granted boss runes after rejoining sessions have been closed.
Relics, curses, and shared effects
Relic behavior is critical in Nightreign’s buildcraft, and patch 1.03.1 addresses several inconsistencies:
- Stacking and persistence. Relics that accumulate stacks during an Expedition now retain them after death and revival up to the expected thresholds, instead of dropping stacks once you pass a hidden limit.
- Attack power scaling from Evergaol prisoners. The sixth-stage bonus on the “Attack power increased for each Evergaol prisoner defeated” relic now provides the intended amount of extra attack power.
- Rune acquisition sharing. The “Increased rune acquisition for self and allies” Relic Effect now correctly continues to share its benefit with allies after the holder dies and revives once.
- Crystal Curse edge cases. When dying in areas affected by the Crystal Curse and respawning in non-cursed zones, maximum HP is now fully restored, and exploits that allowed players to become immune to the Crystal Curse by moving between certain locations have been fixed.
- Holy Ground and Black Flame's Protection. Multiple overlapping “Creates Holy Ground at Low HP” effects no longer overwrite each other in odd ways, and Black Flame's Protection now consistently reduces HP recovery from shared Flask healing on allies who are under its effect.
Special interactions between relics and world systems also get attention. Dormant Powers no longer immediately vanish on pickup in rare situations, Newly found Sites of Grace are no longer reset by certain boss transitions while under Traces of Grace-Given Lord, and curses are now cleared correctly when respawning in Spirit Shelters after leaving cursed Great Hollow sessions.
Multiplayer, matching, and crashes
With Nightreign built around online expeditions, the patch spends a lot of effort on stability and matchmaking.
- DLC and Shifting Earth matching. When The Great Hollows Shifting Earth is active, you can now match into Expeditions (other than Balancers or Dreglord) with players who do not own The Forsaken Hollows DLC. Previous restrictions that blocked this have been removed.
- Deep of Night rating consistency. Deep of Night win/loss results are now reflected correctly in the Depth rating even under challenging network conditions. The rating warning dialog now appears properly when leaving a Deep of Night Expedition from the Title Menu with a pre-made team.
- Lock-on and Near Death targeting. It is now possible again to lock onto Near Death allies in cases where the lock-on cursor previously failed, which is critical for precise rescues.
- Crash fixes. Multiple crashes have been resolved, including:
- Crashes when transitioning to the Battle Results or Title screen while targeting allies with Scholar's Analyze.
- Crashes on PS4 and PS5 when opening and closing button configuration from controller settings.
- General performance issues around graphics and sound playback.
On all platforms, online play now requires applying App Ver. 1.03.1 and Regulation Ver. 1.03.2. On console, regulation files are pulled when you log into the game’s servers, and the active regulation is displayed in the lower-right corner of the title screen.
Across Deep of Night, Forsaken Hollows, and the core expedition loop, patch 1.03.1 tightens Nightreign’s systems rather than rewriting them. The mode remains punishing, but enemy behavior is more predictable, relics and passives behave closer to their descriptions, and Deep of Night gains a little more variety for players willing to brave the DLC-enhanced runs.
