Nightmare scrolls used to be a solo affair. Not any more.

Ask for help

Reading a scroll now asks whether to go in alone or call for help — and asking spends nothing. The scroll stays in your backpack until someone actually joins, so you can change your mind and keep it.

Everyone online on your realm is listed; whoever you pick gets a badge at the top of their screen wherever they are, including out on a run. You can wander town while you wait, or start a run — if someone answers, your run is retreated for you and you go straight into the fight.

The fight

Each round the Nightmare strikes first, hitting each of you separately at full force against your own armour, dodge and block — then the host swings, then the guest. Two heroes hit twice as hard, but you take a round of damage before you land one.

The loot

Win and every item it drops is split at random between you, the nightmare crystal included. Both heroes earn the full experience and both roll for the boss soul and for taming.

Retreat and you still keep a share, scaled by how far the fight had got: leave with the Nightmare on half health and each item is a 25% chance for you and 75% for whoever stays.

Nothing is ever forced into a full backpack — co-op loot waits on a chest icon there, one click per item.

Also new

• Travel Provisions — your next run lasts longer before the fight cap ends it: +200 fights at Common, up to +600 at Ancient.
• Scroll of Insight — every kill on your next run grants more experience: +20% at Common, up to +40% at Ancient.

Both activate in town before a run, like Tamer Bait. The merchant stocks them at Common; higher rarities drop.

While co-op is being tested, hardcore deaths are switched off for nightmares — solo ones included. A hardcore character can lose a nightmare without being lost. Dying on a normal run is unchanged and still permanent. This goes back on when the testing period ends, and we will say so.

Season 2 starts Sunday, September 13, 20:00 CEST

The Temporal Realm reopens and everyone starts at level 1 on a fresh leaderboard. This season trades Season 1's double XP for raw speed: fight rounds tick twice as fast, and runs are twice as long — the fight cap goes from 500 to 1000. A full run still takes about three hours; you just get twice the loot out of it.

Rewards are locked in: the Season 2 Champion skin for rank 1 on each board, the Participant skin for everyone who plays, and the Dodgy Chicken — the Lucky Chicken's turquoise cousin, granting Dodge instead of Magic Find. When the season ends your character merges into the Eternal Realm. Nothing is lost.

The Eternal Realm is unchanged — normal speed, 500 fights per run — and co-op nightmares work in both.

See you on the 13th.