Once you finish Elden Ring Nightreign and get to see the ending, you may wonder what it all means. Here’s what we think is going on in the Elden Ring Nightreign ending.
In typical FromSoftware style, the ending of Elden Ring Nightreign is cryptic and open to interpretation. However, there are some clear takeaways from that we can decipher after finishing the game. While each of the game’s eight classes has its own ending that serves as a conclusion to their story arcs, the game has a “main” or standard ending that applies to everyone and has no bearing on their journeys.
However, there’s also a secret final scene that needs to be unlocked. So below, we’ll focus on the main and secret endings, breaking down what happens and what it could all mean. We’ll also reveal how to unlock the hidden ending.
Naturally, spoilers lurk below.
Nightreign Standard Ending Explained
Nightreign is set in a parallel world to the original Elden Ring, and rather than collecting shards to become the next Elden Lord, the Tarnished warriors find themselves in a new conflict where they need to save the world from the mysterious Night Lord who has cast it into shadow.
The standard ending is unlocked after going on multiple expeditions and slaying the seven lesser Night Lords. Then, players will need to fight and kill Heolstor the Night Lord, the final boss, the one who drowns Limveld in shadow.
Once Heolstor falls to your blade, he drops two items, the Night of the Lord relic and the Primordial Nightlord’s Rune, both of which offer clues to his identity. The Tarnished then returns to the Roundtable Hold and gives the Nightlord’s Rune to a feminine-looking corpse before walking over to the cliffside.
From there, the protagonist notices golden strands of “Grace” chasing away the shadow and freeing it from the Night Lord’s curse. This implies that the land is now back under the control of the Erdtree and the Golden Order – something the secret ending also supports.
The identity of the corpse is a mystery, but it’s likely somebody important and connected to the Erdtree and the power of Grace. This leads us to believe it’s the body of the goddess Marika, although it could also be Melina, who was implied to be one of her daughters in the original Elden Ring. Melina was also “the maiden” of the chosen Tarnished, so she could now be serving a similar role (albeit in death) to the protagonist of Nightreign.
As for Heolstor the Night Lord, his items heavily imply that he once was the chosen Tarnished himself, the protagonist of the original Elden Ring, or at least a parallel variant of this figure. His moveset and equipped items, such as the Dark Moon Greatsword, also support this theory.
They also suggest that this version of the last Elden Lord sided with Marika’s daughter Ranni from Elden Ring and did indeed become her consort and usher in an age of dark and moonlight. However, he ultimately became corrupted and turned into the Primordial Night Lord in this continuity.
This is all very FromSoftware, nobody ever gets to live happily ever after. Quite how the Elden Lord became corrupted, though, is left ambiguous. However, his items state that he was eventually slain and “cursed the world” before resurrecting into the entity he became.
Battling a version of a former hero isn’t new to the Souls series either. Heolstor the Night Lord shares a lot of similarities with the final boss from Dark Souls 3, the Soul of Cinder. This enemy represented all the various heroes who gave their lives to link the First Flame, and used moves and items that were an amalgamation of various builds and playstyles.
As Elden Ring Nightreign represents a crossover between Elden Ring and Dark Souls, the final boss mirroring the Soul of Cinder is likely no accident.
How to Unlock Nightreign Secret Ending Explained
You can unlock the secret ending by completing all of the Remembrances for your class, equipping the skin this offers, then killing Heolstor the Night Lord. Once he’s been defeated, approach him to trigger the scene.
In this ending, the Erdtree can be seen across the water, with the other landmarks of the Lands Between also visible in the distance. The tree is whole, unburned, and uncorrupted, like it was at the start of the original game.
Those who’ve played Elden Ring will remember that the tree was burned close to the end of the game, and can also become shrivelled and corrupted, depending on the ending. Here, however, the Erdtree looks as good as new.
During the scene, one of its petals flies across the sea and over to what’s presumably Limveld, landing on a huge mass of branches which animates into a hulking humanoid tree colossus.
This entity seems shrouded by shadow, possibly connected to the Night Lord, as it stands and stares at the Erdtree in the distance. The giant then turns its back on the Erdtree and slowly walks into the sea, either to its doom or to parts unknown.
The reason this ending is shocking is that it was previously believed that Limveld was a parallel version of Limgrave, a region of the Lands Between. However, the secret ending shows that the original Lands Between exist alongside Limveld, across the water, suggesting that Nightreign is set sometime after the original game.
Of course, this is all speculation; the game could still be set in an alternate version of the Lands Between. However, as the Heolstor is heavily implied to be the Tarnished from the first game, it’s possible that Nightreign could signify a new age of the Erdtree, one after Ranni’s age of the moon.
The huge tree-man turning his back on the Erdtree and walking away could be a physical representation of the Night Lord submitting to the Erdtree, once again accepting its dominance. Or it could represent a rejection, with the tree taking its power elsewhere, far away from the Erdtree’s influence.
This could all be setting up future DLC, a sequel, or more tantalizingly, more crossovers with Dark Souls. Could this massive tree giant be heading to a land far away, a land like Lordran?
What did you make of the ending of Elden Ring Nightreign? Share your thoughts with other players in the Insider Gaming forum.
For more on Elden Ring Nightreign, check out our guide explaining the Leave Penalty, everything you need to know about the tricky tutorial boss, and if you need to have played the original game first.
