Elden Ring Nightreign received its first major DLC in early December with The Forsaken Hollows. However, Steam reviews show that the expansion isn’t going down well with players.
On December 4, 2025, The Forsaken Hollows
was released, the first major DLC for Elden Ring’s co-op spin-off Nightreign. Priced at $15, the expansion brings two new characters – the Scholar with his spellbook and the agile, mace-wielding Gravedigger – three new bosses, and a redesign of the familiar Limveld map through the event “The Great Hollow.”
So, actually, it’s a good mix to keep fans happy with The Forsaken Hollows. But the reviews on Steam tell a different story around 24 hours after the DLC’s release: As of December 5, 2025, 11:00 a.m.) only 49 percent of the nearly 2,000 reviews are positive. Steam punishes this with an ugly yellow Mixed
rating.
A successful launch looks different. But what is the reason for this?
Not enough content in the DLC?
In their reviews, fans mainly criticize the limited content of The Forsaken Hollows. Many players find it absurd that the expansion does not introduce a single new weapon to the game apart from the two standard weapons for the new characters. Players are also left empty-handed when it comes to new skins for existing characters. User NightLizard writes on Steam: “If I remember correctly, previous free updates had more content than this DLC.”
The two new nightwalkers, Scholar and Undertaker, are quite successful overall, but there is room for improvement in terms of balancing: the Scholar is currently too weak, while the Undertaker feels overpowered in comparison.
In addition, the gameplay of Nightreign is designed to be played by three players. Fans see it as a missed opportunity that the team at From Software did not include a third new Nightwalker in the package.
There is also criticism of the changed map: For example, Baraho writes that although the map is visually appealing, it offers far too little variety in terms of gameplay. In addition, crossing the map is sometimes impossible due to new, exaggerated differences in height: “You can fall off the map and die anywhere,” warns user Shenron’s 3rd Horn.
Overall, fans had simply hoped for much more from the first expansion. It remains to be seen whether FromSoftware will remedy the situation with a short-term update, at least in terms of balancing, as well as what plans the studio has for further DLCs for Elden Ring Nightreign.
