Legendary modder behind Elden Ring item randomizer brings their talents to Nightreign, adding the kind of weirdness I crave after dozens of familiar runs

If you've been playing a lot of Elden Ring Nightreign since launch, you might have noticed a bit of repetition between your runs, but thankfully, there's now a solution thanks to a new mod from the creator of Elden Ring's legendary Item and Enemy Randomizer.

The thing is, there's a reason for Nightreign's repetition. As documented by modder TheFifthMatt, each Nightlord in the game appears to be assigned a total of 40 map patterns for their respective expeditions, with five of those patterns for each Shifted Earth variation, and 20 for the regular map. Things like the bosses you face and any special events you get during an expedition (like the Demon Merchant curse and Morgott's invasion) are determined by this seed, and if you play a lot, you're going to see some repetition.

Well, that's exactly what this new mod seeks to prevent. Highlighted by Rock Paper Shotgun, TheFifthMatt's Nightreign Randomizer and Derandomizer mod "can replace vanilla map patterns with randomized ones based on the randomizer seed. Each random pattern is generated independent of all other ones."

Although there's "still a limited set of patterns per Nightlord," you can choose options that ensure you can get any Night bosses on the first and second days of expeditions, change the sorts of rewards you get for beating enemy camps, and more, including "added features for more interesting runs, like guaranteeing no repeats for enemy camps and guaranteeing an enemy camp with the Nightlord's weakness."

If you're wondering what the "Derandomizer" part of the mod is, well, that's exactly what it sounds like. The "optional feature" can be used to directly choose your expedition seed, so you know exactly what you're heading into from the start.

It's worth noting that at the time of writing, not everything can be fully randomized, including special events. "Night 1 and 2 bosses are currently distinct, as otherwise progression will softlock," the modder adds. "Also, as a safety measure, encounters (camps and bosses) are only placed in spots if there is a vanilla map pattern which places them there. There are enough vanilla map patterns that this is not noticeable in practice, aside from rare placements like difficult Sorcerer's Rises, which can be addressed with additional testing in the future."

Even with those caveats, the randomizer should be able to spice up your runs if they've been getting samey. Unfortunately, console players like myself are out of luck, but PC players are able to give it a go right now.

While you're here, be sure to check out our Elden Ring Nightreign review and Elden Ring Nightreign tips.