Elden Ring Nightreign’s relic system could learn a lot from MMOs like World of Warcraft, which figured out pure RNG loot sucks years ago

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Have you experienced a similar situation? After an exceptional run through Elden Ring’s Nightreign, you and your companions (either friends or new acquaintances) performed exceptionally well. There were hardly any deaths, seven flasks in your inventory, level 15 next to your health gauge, and weapons specifically effective against the Nightlord’s vulnerabilities.

After the usual spamming in L1 during the victory screen, you’re met with nothing but trash, stretching out to the horizon. Starting an expedition, a single relic grants you increased damage with three greataxes, enhanced throwing knife damage, and fire pots in your inventory – quite cruelly, it seems like a joke. You decide to sell off all these items, head to the shop with your murk, and try your luck at gambling. But alas, even more trash awaits you there.

Let me make myself clear: I’m not criticizing Elden Ring Nightreign harshly. Instead, it appears to be an ambitious experiment, with FromSoftware trying out various novel concepts. Considering their recent foray into loot progression systems, I don’t expect them to have all the kinks worked out just yet.

As someone with extensive experience in MMOs, I can’t help but clench my teeth due to a familiar pattern that’s repeated numerous times. Unfortunately, Elden Ring Nightreign seems to have stumbled into a widespread issue that many MMOs and live-service games have grappled with: While a touch of randomness (RNG) adds excitement, relying solely on RNG for loot is frustrating.

Slot machines ain’t it

In World of Warcraft, there used to be a system called Titanforging. This meant that any item you received could potentially be enhanced to a higher level – either Warforged or Titanforged – through a random chance. As Blizzard explained in 2019, the intention behind this system was to ensure that decent upgrades from lower-tier content were more accessible.

Players find progression less satisfying since they frequently break down the rewards from defeating a raid boss on higher difficulty for the first time, as they already possess comparable or superior Warforged items from easier difficulties or alternative sources.

Furthermore, the thought that an object might have been enhanced with Warforging and could have been superior can bring about a feeling of discontentment, as if a rewarding moment was missed. Additionally, since these systems are not under the players’ control, achieving a clear objective or sense of completion becomes more challenging.

Does this sound relatable? If you were to change some words here and there, it would perfectly sum up my grievances with Nightreign’s relic system. Obtaining new relics should be thrilling, but I end up selling most of them. Even when I get a relic with two strong passive abilities, knowing it could have had three makes me feel disappointed. And both these issues seem to be beyond my control.

In Diablo 4, despite its heavy reliance on Random Number Generation (RNG), players don’t just sit back and let fate decide everything. They have control too – they can socket items with gems, or significantly, enhance or refine equipment to alter or upgrade the affixes.

Every game featuring a heavy reliance on random number generation (RNG) eventually adjusts its mechanics to favor more player decision-making.

I wouldn’t dream of calling this system perfect, and I’m guessing Diablo 4 players have plenty of complaints they’re eager to share. However, it’s worth noting that Blizzard has made an effort to let you exercise some control. You can still transform an item with just one or two stats into a significant boost in your progression as you hunt for that ideal or unique item.

Diablo 4 may not be an exemplary model for live service design, but there’s a clear rationale behind its mechanics, which many Action Role-Playing Games (ARPGs) like Path of Exile emulate. In the case of Path of Exile 2, they seemingly overlooked the importance of making loot engaging, resulting in negative feedback due to this omission.

As a gamer, I’d say a modern example of this is Darktide. Initially, it had roll-dependent loot where you could only re-roll specific passive abilities a certain number of times before discarding them. But after two years and plenty of player feedback, that system has been overhauled.

In any game featuring random loot drops, there comes a point where the balance shifts towards player control. This is often achieved through items like tokens, tomestones, badges, or gadgets that allow for incremental acquisition, or mechanisms to transform unfortunate items into useful ones. Such a system seems essential for Nightreign as well.

Learn from the past

In simpler terms, my concern about Nightreign is that despite being fun to play, its reward system seems to overlook the errors made by other games, particularly in relation to player feedback during intense conflicts. I’d like to see Nightreign incorporate some of the lessons learned from games like Fatshark and Blizzard, but without necessarily implementing a battle pass or similar features.

Refurbishing an artifact might potentially grant you one of its passive abilities, which can then be transferred onto a different artifact at a high price in the form of murk currency. This seems costly, considering it’s for postgame adjustments, but having a long-term objective should motivate me to continue playing.

Another option is to spend a substantial amount of Limveld money to change the color of an artifact you own. If some passive abilities from your current collection don’t suit your urn anymore, consider investing 20,000 Limveld bux and it will seamlessly integrate with your new setup.

Neither system lessens the thrill of discovering a relic with ideal passives, as that would still spare you significant time, but it prevents some game sessions from feeling like they were a waste of time.

To create an ideal Executor build now that I’ve defeated all the Nightlords, I find myself needing to spend a prolonged period at the merchant jar bazaar slot machine, which seems endless. While I’m willing to grind, I dread getting stuck in a never-ending loop of this process, akin to being trapped in a mountain or purgatory. It doesn’t have to be like this; there must be a better way.

Guides for building Nightreign as Duchess, Executor, Guardian, Ironeye, Revenant, Recluse, Raider, and Wylder

This way, the sentence structure is maintained while making it clear that each guide pertains to a different character within the Nightreign faction.

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2025-06-18 16:32