If you’ve been cruising through Night Reign for a while, the Forsaken Hollows DLC probably feels like someone just dropped a whole new layer of toys in your lap and said go wild. After spending a good amount of time digging through the new content, I’d say the DLC leans pretty hard into fresh systems, new progression paths, and a surprisingly deep new area that plays almost like its own mini‑campaign. If you’re trying to figure out where to start, what matters most, or which features are worth prioritizing, here’s a breakdown that should save you a few headaches along the way.

Patch 1.03 Sets the Stage

Before you even step foot into the DLC, patch 1.03 quietly reshuffles more pieces than the patch notes make obvious. A bunch of passives and relic effects got buffed, and several Deep of Night‑exclusive relic effects are now part of the standard relic pool. For anyone who loves experimenting with builds, this is a sneaky big deal. The game is basically saying go ahead, try weird stuff, we won’t stop you.

One of the biggest hidden upgrades is the new relic category that lets caster characters swap out their starting spell. Revenant mains get the biggest glow‑up here since they can now open a run with staples like Lightning Spear or Beast Claw. It doesn’t sound huge on paper, but in practice, it really changes early routing for caster‑focused builds.

Two New Nightfarers: Scholar and Undertaker

If you’ve cleared the Triceos expedition, the DLC kicks off with a short event that unlocks two new Nightfarers: Scholar and Undertaker. They play extremely differently, which is part of what makes them so fun to pick apart.

Scholar is a support‑leaning specialist who revolves around consumables. The more you use a specific item type, the more that category levels up, unlocking bonus effects—think Lightning Pots double‑hitting or Greases lasting way longer. His kit rewards players who enjoy planning loadouts and coordinating debuffs, especially in co‑op. A setup‑heavy style like this also makes farming elden ring runes feel more flexible since you can scale your damage output in unconventional ways even before your weapons catch up.

Undertaker sits at the opposite end of the spectrum. She’s fast, aggressive, and leans heavily on thrusting swords and hammers. Her passive lets her fire off her ultimate for free when another Nightfarer uses theirs, which creates some borderline silly synergy in groups. She’s basically the classy version of a raid boss crasher: one good window, and she melts health bars.

Early Unlocks and What to Do With Them

Along with the new characters, you immediately gain access to new vessels, new relic options, and the first of the DLC’s night bosses, now labeled Abominations. More importantly, you unlock the Great Hollow shifting earth—an alternate map that’s huge. It’s not just a remix of existing content; it’s genuinely a whole new environment with its own routes, bosses, and enemy types.

It’s awesome. It’s also pretty overwhelming the first time through. If your priority is grabbing the DLC rewards quickly, I’d suggest saving the Great Hollow for later and running the new expeditions in their normal form first. The knowledge gap alone makes the Great Hollow more punishing than it needs to be early on.

Expedition Rewards Worth Chasing

The first expedition boss, the Balancer, drops one of the best relics added in the DLC. It boosts melee and skill attack power across the board while giving you passive FP recovery. If your build leans on Ashes of War, this thing is absurdly efficient. Clearing the Balancer also unlocks new skins, new character‑specific relics for Scholar and Undertaker, and access to the final expedition.

The second big fight is the Dreglord, the DLC’s headliner. His relic introduces a cool mix of offensive and defensive triggers: take damage and gain Scarlet Rot on your attacks, trigger Scarlet Rot near enemies and get continuous HP regen. Once players figure out how strong the attack‑power‑per‑status‑build‑up effect truly is, this might end up being one of the DLC’s sleeper relics.

You also unlock more skins, a full red‑slot vessel (Scadutri Grail), and the new stat‑shifting relics that let you completely alter a Nightfarer’s scaling. These relics are huge: for the first time, you can turn a character meant for one archetype into something totally different, even outside Deep of Night runs.

New Bosses, New Areas, and New Events

The DLC also adds new Night 1 and Night 2 bosses—some pulled straight from Shadow of the Erdtree, like the Divine Beast Warrior and Mesmer soldiers—and a couple of nasty multi‑boss encounters. They’re primarily tied to the new expeditions and the Great Hollow, so don’t expect them in your standard map rotation just yet.

Outside of combat, the world gets new points of interest: forges and swamps. Forges let you reroll Ashes of War on certain weapons (and undo them if you’re not happy). Swamps are exactly what they sound like: hazard zones with a guaranteed boss. They feel very old‑school Souls in the best and worst ways.

There are also two new invasions—Gladius and Caliggo—each with unique map‑wide effects and new powers you receive after completing them. They’re short but memorable, and definitely worth doing at least once.

No New Weapons… For Now

One of the stranger parts of the DLC is what isn’t in it: new weapon classes. Aside from the starter weapons for the new Nightfarers, there are no new armaments to collect. The developers did mention in an interview that future weapon additions are coming, though the translation was rough. Still, the implication is clear: this DLC isn’t the last major update.

A Few Practical Tips for Smoother Progression

If you’re a newer player or simply trying to move through the DLC at a steady clip, pacing your resources still matters a lot. The DLC throws a ton of new systems at you, and you’ll probably want to test multiple builds. This is where having a reliable way to boost your rune supply can take the edge off the early experimentation curve. Sites like U4GM remain a popular community reference for discussions around gear progression, especially for players comparing farming routes or debating how to buy elden ring runes safe without derailing their runs.

Forsaken Hollows is one of those DLCs that feels modest on the surface and surprisingly rich once you start pulling it apart. The new Nightfarers, the Great Hollow, the stat‑swap relics, and the new expedition rewards all open up ways to play that didn’t exist before. It’s not a drop‑everything expansion, but it’s a content pack with serious staying power, especially if you enjoy tinkering with builds or running co‑op.

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