As part of FromSoftware's ongoing post-launch support for Elden Ring Nightreign a new Everdark boss has been tagged [[link]] into the fight. Everdark bosses are a souped-up version of an existing Nightlord, there's been one for Gapping Jaw and Fulghor, and now the latest one to grace us is the bug buddies, Sentient Pest.
Everdark Gaping Jaw set a huge precedent for what players would come to expect in terms of difficulty from Everdark bosses. After fighting it for the first time, staff writer Harvey Randall had just a little existential crisis: "Oh no, I've been playing a tutorial for 55 hours." It was awful in the best way possible, but sadly, the other Everdark bosses haven't been able to live up to Gaping Jaw's legacy.
I usually don't like turning up to a fight which I know I can't win, but after finishing most of the Remembrance quests and having nothing else to do in Nightreign I equipped my big boy greatsword and stepped forth to take on the Sentient Pest, and it's ok.
Sentient Pest isn't a hard Nightlord by any means, it's just a little finicky with you having to fight an airborne moth and a spiky, armoured scorpion at the same time. The moth can be hard to hit if you don't have any projectiles and the scorpion just stomps around a lot, but it's a very doable fight and a good starting point for new players.
But the same goes for Gaping Jaw and that Everdark transformation was deadly, so I was really disappointed when I started the new Everdark-specific third phase for the Sentient Pest and the big twist was FromSoft adding another bug to the fight.
After defeating the moth and the scorpion another, flaming moth turns up out of nowhere and revives the other two and then merges with the first moth, to create a bigger flaming moth—genius.
The fight from there on out is much the same, there are no remarkable new movesets that you have to learn, no raging tornadoes you need to scale, you just have to slowly whittle the health bar down again and put these bugs to rest a second time, and kill the fiery bug before it resurrects the other two. It's quite underwhelming for an Everdark boss fight.
"Everdark Gaping Jaw really made me excited for the Everdark Sovereign system," FeliciaTheFkinStrong says. "Everdark Fulghor and Sentient Pest have been nothing, in comparison. They are really cool and I love the design, but there's almost no challenge… Fulghor is at least a fun and engaging boss to repeat, even if he's easy, but Sentient Pest is kinda boring by comparison. Lovely design, but weak gameplay. Anyone else kinda had the wind blown out of their sails with this?"
The lacklustre fights courtesy of the recent Everdark Nightlords are likely thanks to a couple of things. Firstly, soulsborne players are plain scary. They'll throw themselves head first into the fire, learn its movesets, and then simply stop getting burned. I think Nightreign players have perhaps improved faster than the bosses.
Another explanation is probably that Nightreign is something of an experiment for FromSoft. Director Junya Ishizaki previously explained how Nightreign was an opportunity for him to test himself and "some ideas he'd been cooking". The map and bosses are all reused assets, but Nightreign treads new grounds for FromSoftware into the PvE multiplayer landscape. So I wouldn't be surprised if the Everdark bosses are just another experiment, to see what players vibe with and what they just can't stand.
That's not an excuse for providing underwhelming post-launch content, though. Nightreign doesn't come cheap, and I'd like to see the future Everdark Nightlords come out swinging and not just fluttering around like a pretty, fiery butterfly. Hopefully, FromSoft will learn what it needs from the Everdark Sentient Pest and dial up the pain for future candidates.