Mistfall Hunter vs Dark and Darker vs Nightreign: Which One Do You Want?
By DayOneFix Editorial · August 7, 2026
These three get compared constantly because they share a look: dark fantasy, deliberate melee, three-player squads. They are not substitutes. One question sorts them almost perfectly — can another human take your stuff?
The one-line version
- Mistfall Hunter — third-person PvPvE extraction. Rival players hunt you and keep what you were carrying. Solo queue exists; a PvE-only mode does not.
- Dark and Darker — first-person PvPvE dungeon extraction. Same stakes, older game, free to start.
- ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN — PvE co-op roguelike. No rival players, no extraction, no losing your gear to a stranger.
If you came here hoping Mistfall Hunter is “Nightreign but cheaper,” it isn’t. Nightreign is the one where nobody is hunting you.
Head to head
All figures below are from the games’ own Steam listings, checked August 7, 2026.
| Mistfall Hunter | Dark and Darker | ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Developer | Bellring Games | IRONMACE | FromSoftware |
| Camera | Third-person | First-person | Third-person |
| Steam price | $24.99 (Deluxe $39.99) | Free to play | $39.99 |
| Steam categories | Multi-player, PvP, Online PvP, Co-op | Multi-player, PvP, Online PvP, Co-op | Single-player, Multi-player, Co-op |
| Rival players in your run | Yes, always | Yes, always | No |
| Can you lose gear to another player | Yes | Yes | No |
| Play entirely alone | Solo queue only — still an online PvP map | No offline mode | Yes, genuinely |
| Party size | Solo or trio | Party-based dungeon runs | Solo, duo or trio |
| Day-one subscription | Xbox Game Pass | n/a (free) | No |
The Steam category rows are the most honest data point on this page, because storefront categories are set by the publisher and are not marketing copy. Nightreign carries Single-player. Mistfall Hunter and Dark and Darker do not.
Mistfall Hunter vs Dark and Darker
Closest match of the three — both are PvPvE extraction games where death costs you what you carried.
Pick Mistfall Hunter if you want third-person Soulslike combat rather than first-person, a class system with two weapon stances each, and a modern console release. It’s on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, and it’s day one on Xbox Game Pass, which makes trying it nearly free if you already subscribe.
Pick Dark and Darker if the price matters or the first-person dungeon-crawl claustrophobia is the part you actually want. It’s free to play on Steam, so the cost of finding out is zero. Its Steam listing dates to June 2024, so it’s further into its live-service life than Mistfall Hunter by years — which cuts both ways: more content, more entrenched players.
The real differentiator is camera, not stakes. First-person makes the tension sharper — you can’t see behind you. Third-person makes Mistfall Hunter’s combat readable in a way Dark and Darker’s isn’t, which matters more when six classes are throwing skills around.
Mistfall Hunter vs Elden Ring Nightreign
Not a close call once you know what you want, because these two are aimed at opposite tolerances for loss.
Nightreign is the co-op Soulslike. You and up to two others fight the world, not each other. FromSoftware added a duo mode in a free patch, so it works at two players as well as three, and it plays solo. There’s no extraction and no loot goblin waiting at the exit — when a run ends badly, you lost the run, not your gear.
Mistfall Hunter is the one with a knife in its pocket. Every good run has a failure mode that Nightreign structurally cannot have: you clear the boss, you’re carrying everything, and a rival squad takes it at the extraction point. Some people find that the most exciting thing in games. Others find it the reason they stop playing.
Note the price gap runs the other way from what you’d expect: Nightreign is $39.99, Mistfall Hunter is $24.99 and free on Game Pass.
The honest caveat about Mistfall Hunter specifically
It launched rough. Steam user reviews sit at “Mixed” — roughly 64% positive across about 8,900 reviews as of August 7, 2026. GamingTrend scored it 70/100 and flagged that it ships with only two maps that “feel visually similar,” and that console versions run at lower resolution with muddier textures and no cross-progression to PC.
Bellring has been patching roughly weekly since launch and confirmed on August 5 that a Brandrgarde Solo Mode is coming in September. The crash complaints have since been addressed in part — the 12 August update lists fixes for client hitching, stuttering and crashes — while Bellring says the intermittent lag investigation is still ongoing. Both are worth reading before you conclude the game is broken on your machine specifically: see fatal error fixes and disconnects and ping before you decide the game is broken on your machine specifically.
Which one, then
- You want to lose sleep over loot you might lose → Mistfall Hunter, or Dark and Darker if you’d rather try it for free first
- You want a Soulslike with friends and no betrayal → Nightreign
- You want to play alone tonight → Nightreign. It’s the only one of the three that genuinely supports it
More on the game we actually track here: the Mistfall Hunter guide hub, and the buy-decision detail in Is Mistfall Hunter PvP or PvE?.
FAQ
Is Mistfall Hunter like Elden Ring Nightreign? Only on the surface. Nightreign is a PvE co-op roguelike with no rival players, no extraction and no losing gear to a stranger. Mistfall Hunter is a PvPvE extraction game where rival players hunt you and keep what you were carrying.
Which of the three is best for playing solo? Nightreign — it is the only one of the three that genuinely supports it, and the only one carrying Steam’s Single-player category. Mistfall Hunter’s solo queue still puts you on an online PvP map, and Dark and Darker has no offline mode.
Is Mistfall Hunter cheaper than Nightreign? Yes, and the price gap runs the other way from what you’d expect: Nightreign is $39.99, Mistfall Hunter is $24.99 — and Mistfall Hunter is day one on Xbox Game Pass, so it’s effectively free if you already subscribe. Dark and Darker is free to play.
Can other players take your loot in Dark and Darker too? Yes. Dark and Darker and Mistfall Hunter are the closest match of the three — both are PvPvE extraction games where death costs you what you carried. The real differentiator between them is camera: first-person versus third-person.
Related
- The buy decision in full: Is Mistfall Hunter PvP or PvE?
- If you buy it and it crashes: fatal error fixes
- Lag and rubberbanding complaints, sorted: disconnects, desync and ping
- Full index: the Mistfall Hunter guide hub
Sources
Every column in the comparison table — developer, perspective, price, Steam categories (Nightreign carries Single-player, the other two do not) and squad size — is taken from each game’s own Steam store page, checked 7 August 2026; this pass added provenance without re-pulling the numbers, and both prices and review states will move. The Mistfall Hunter column links to its Steam page, which is also where the “Mixed” state and the roughly 64% positive across about 8,900 reviews come from, as of that same August 7 snapshot. The 70/100 score, the two launch maps that “feel visually similar”, the lower console resolution with muddier textures, and the absence of cross-progression between PS5 and PC come from GamingTrend’s review. Day-one Xbox Game Pass is confirmed by Xbox Wire. The August 5 confirmation of the September Brandrgarde Solo Mode, and the August 12 update fixing client stutter, frame drops and crashes while intermittent latency stayed under investigation, are Bellring’s official Steam announcements, itemised on the fatal-error page. Dark and Darker being free-to-play with a Steam page traceable to June 2024, and FromSoftware adding a duo mode to Nightreign in a free update, come from those two games’ Steam pages and update histories. Which one you should pick, and the argument that perspective is the real dividing line, are editorial opinion rather than anyone’s official position.