Elden Ring Nightreign Steam Deck Impressions – Recommended Settings, PC Port Features, & ROG Ally Performance
Elden Ring Nightreign releases this week for consoles and PC (Steam) as a standalone experience in the Elden Ring universe blending elements of different genres together with the core gameplay from the original game. The end result so far has been pleasantly surprising and challenging in a good way, and ahead of the game's launch, I've been playing Elden Ring Nightreign on Steam Deck and ROG Ally to test how it plays online in multiplayer, to see if the PC port is better than the original game, Steam Deck recommended settings for multiplayer, and more.
For this feature, I've tested Elden Ring Nightreign on my Steam Deck OLED updated to the latest public OS build, Steam Deck LCD on the Steam preview channel, and ROG Ally. I was also able to test the game solo, with online matchmaking, and with a private lobby to verify that the multiplayer works as it should on Steam Deck.
Elden Ring Nightreign PC graphics options and port features
After spending a bit of time with Elden Ring Nightreign, I realized the PC version is very similar to the original game in terms of platform-specific features, which sadly was not great. It seems to only support the 16:9 aspect ratio, has no in-game frame limiter, is capped to 60fps, and has no upscaling options that I can see. It also seems to only have Xbox button prompt options when using a controller.
The display options let you toggle subtitles and also enable HDR on supported displays, but you can't do much beyond that. The actual resolution and screen mode (fullscreen, windowed, borderless) are under graphics options. The Elden Ring Nightreign PC graphics options menu has an option to auto-detect graphics options (when performance suffers), use presets (low, medium, high, maximum), or customize the individual advanced settings as per your liking.
The advanced settings are texture quality (low, medium, high, maximum), anti-aliasing quality (low, high, off), SSAO, depth of field, motion blur, shadow quality, lighting quality, effects quality, volumetric lighting quality, reflection quality, water surface quality, shader quality, global illumination quality, and grass quality. The settings above can be adjusted across low, medium, high, maximum unless otherwise specified. It is worth noting that in the original Elden Ring PC release, low anti-aliasing was FXAA and high anti-aliasing was TAA.
The lack of basic features like a frame limiter or any upscaling options are both disappointing given the massive success Elden Ring had on PC. I also would've liked an option to have PlayStation controller prompts. Hopefully this can improve in future updates.
Elden Ring Nightreign Steam Deck gameplay impressions
Whenever a game has some form of anti-cheat included or is online-focused, I worry whether it will run on Steam Deck or fully support the online modes. Not only does Elden Ring Nightreign boot up fine, but it also plays well even in multiplayer sessions. Before getting to recommended settings, I set the game to the low preset to see how much performance I could get out of it at 720p. In the four hours I've spent on Steam Deck with it in multiplayer and a bit more playing solo, the former is definitely more demanding. I had a few instances where it dropped to the mid 20s in very particle-heavy moments, but it otherwise held a frame rate of above 30fps very well.
I also ended up setting the resolution to 800x500 and using the low preset which is the absolute lowest possible settings you can use on Steam Deck just to see how much higher I could push the frame rate. Even with this, a locked 60fps experience is not possible right now. I had drops from 50 to 40fps even when playing solo at the beginning of a run. I stuck to 720p/800p for the rest of my testing on Steam Deck because it ended up being the best experience right now.
Elden Ring Nightreign doesn't do any shader compiling on initial launch, but I didn't run into any hitching related to that on Steam Deck. It was a consistent experience like the base game. The only oddity right now is the game running into some hitching on the title screen when it finishes logging in. I had this happen on both my Steam Decks, but not the ROG Ally. It almost feels like some processing is happening in the background for about 10-15 seconds that settles down. This doesn't happen every single time, but I can confirm I never had anything like this happen during actual gameplay.
I also tested booting up the game when offline on Steam Deck and it worked fine for solo runs. Note that I did the initial boot up online since I wasn't sure if the game required it or not, but I was able to play with my Steam Deck offline the three times I tested it since getting review code.
Note: The recent SteamOS update for me changed the system setting that allows the performance overlay to be captured in screenshots. Because of this, the screenshots in the gallery don't have frame rate and other metrics. I didn't realize this until it was too late and I had finished all my multiplayer testing across different sessions.
Elden Ring Nightreign multiplayer on Steam Deck
Given the multiplayer focus of Elden Ring Nightreign, I wanted to specifically test setting up a game with a friend, random matchmaking, and basically ensure the game can handle a full round without issues on SteamOS on Steam Deck. Thankfully, everything works fine on both my Steam Deck OLED running the updated public SteamOS and my Steam Deck LCD on the preview channel. Out of the many hours I tested online, I only had one instance where my internet disconnected for a second, and the game actually gave me a popup to join my last session when I tried logging in to the server again from the title screen.
I also was able to invite a friend who was also reviewing the game using the Steam friends list with the game bringing up the keyboard as it should. Elden Ring Nightreign's gameplay loop promotes pick up and play for a run once in a while, and I'm glad that it is playable on Steam Deck without any major issues.
Elden Ring Nightreign Steam Deck recommended settings
I decided to tweak my settings to provide the best possible experience in multiplayer since more playable characters resulted in a more visually demanding experience especially with multiple bosses in a closed arena, and I found that playing with the medium preset and shadows turned to low delivers a mostly solid 30fps with some drops. If you want even less drops, the low preset is the way to go for multiplayer. The major visual issue you will run into is shadow flickering during movement. I had this even on the ROG Ally when using the higher shadow options. I hope the shadow quality in general can be improved because it feels quite lacking right now even on its highest setting.
When playing on 720p/800p and low where the frame rate can go well above 30fps, I wasn't happy with a variable experience. Since Elden Ring Nightreign has no in-game frame limiter, you will need to use the quick access menu to cap the game to 30fps at 60hz on the LCD model or 30fps at 90hzon the OLED model. This introduces some input lag, but I prefer a more consistent experience that stays within the 27 to 30 fps range during busy moments rather than one that can go from 27 to 50fps and back to 30fps within seconds. I'll leave that decision to you.
If you play on the Steam Deck OLED model, make sure you enable HDR since it needs to be done manually in-game rather than something you are prompted to enable when launching the game for the first time.
Elden Ring Nightreign ROG Ally impressions and settings
I tested Elden Ring Nightreign using the 25W turbo mode and have my device set to 5GB memory for graphics. When playing in multiplayer on the low preset and at 720p, Elden Ring Nightreign runs a lot better than Steam Deck throughout, but there seemed to be some hitching regardless of the settings I used. A good compromise between visuals and performance is aiming for around 30fps at 900p. Playing at 1080p saw regular dips below 30fps. I was not able to get a 60fps experience on ROG Ally in the game's current state. Overall, Elden Ring Nightreign is definitely more playable on the ROG Ally since it can hit higher frame rates, but don't expect a locked 60fps experience right now.
I fully expect Elden Ring Nightreign to get Steam Deck Verified if it hasn't already been done by the time you read this article. The in-game text can be small on the handheld screen, but it is the same as the base game which is Steam Deck Verified. Performance is closer to what I experienced in the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC than the base game which ran better. Elden Ring Nightreign is very playable on Steam Deck and ROG Ally both in multiplayer and solo modes. Just keep in mind that this is more of a 30fps handheld experience in its current state unless you are ok with a variable experience that fluctuates quite a bit.
Elden Ring Nightreign Launches on May 30 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC (Steam).