Elden Ring Nightreign’s long-awaited duos mode delayed due to tsunami warning in Japan

Posted on July 30, 2025

A long-awaited balance patch for FromSoftware’s Elden Ring Nightreign has been delayed at the last minute. The cause of this delay has been confirmed as the recently-announced 8.8 magnitude earthquake near the Kamchatka Peninsula, which has sparked tsunami warnings across Japan, where the development studio is based.

“Due to the tsunami warning following the earthquake near the Kamchatka Peninsula, we have decided to postpone the distribution of the Elden Ring Nightreign patch 1.02,” FromSoftware has announced on the game’s X account. “Additionally, the second cycle of Everdark Sovereign, which was scheduled to start at 03:00 CEST / 18:00 PDT tomorrow, will also be delayed until after the update file has been distributed. Thank you for your understanding.”

Elden Ring Nightreign is a co-op focused spinoff of 2022’s Elden Ring, primarily designed around teams of three players taking on bosses cooperatively. With reviews remarking on some of the challenges with this setup, from lengthy matchmaking queues to a party of three just being kind of an awkward number to assemble for a lot of people, it wasn’t long before player-made mods which scaled the game’s difficulty for teams of two players started gaining popularity. As such, FromSoftware swiftly responded and announced an official update enabling teams of two to take on Elden Ring Nightreign’s challenges.

That said, this delay is perfectly understandable given the circumstances. According to The Guardian a shallow magnitude 8.8 quake has occurred near Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, with Russia, Japan and parts of the US (among others) announcing warnings of potential tsunamis. With the horrors of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami still fresh in the memory of many in Japan, which ultimately claimed over 19,000 lives, one can hardly blame FromSoftware for being cautious and delaying the 1.02 patch of Elden Ring Nightreign until it is clearer how much of a risk this earthquake may pose to its employees.

In addition to adding a duos mode, the 1.02 patch for Elden Ring Nightreign was set to introduce Everdark Sovereign Sentient Augur, a tougher version of the Nightlord boss fight. It is unclear when a new release date for the patch will be announced at this stage. It is understandable that FromSoftware is prioritising the safety of its employees, and hopefully they (and everyone else at potential risk of tsunami at this stage) will remain unharmed.