Summary
WhileNightingalewas only recently released in early access, the current scope of the game combined with the developer’s ambitious visions for its future development are on track to make it quite a unique game. Overall,Nightingaleis arguably shaping up to be a revolutionary game within the survival-crafting genre already. One feature highlightingNightingale’s depth and complexityis the game’s crafting system.
Nightingale’s crafting system has several layers of upgrades that allow players to apply various unique improvements to their gear. Ultimately, the different ways that players can invest in their gear to support different playstyles add a surprising amount of depth to the game that may well go on to influence future survival-crafting games.
What Makes Nightingale’s Crafting System So Special
Crafting and Upgrading Gear in Nightingale
What mainly makesNightingale’s crafting systems so unique is that the quality of materials that players use to craft gear will affect the gear’s overall stats. Naturally, at the beginning of the game players won’t have much of a choice but to use the ingredients and resources that are immediately available to them. However, by the late game ofNightingale, players can invest in gear that significantly enhances their preferred playstyle.
This is whereNightingale’s Apex Creaturesare most useful because these creatures will reward resources with some of the best stats inNightingale’s endgame.
On top of howNightingalefactors in the specific resources that players use to craft gear, there are several other layers of upgrades that further improve the gear that players craft. One of the most direct gear upgrades that players have access to inNightingaleis exactly that - upgrades. Upgrades are a fairly straightforward system, where players take any tools, armor, or weapons inNightingaleand directly improve all of their base stats, also increasing the amount of Charms, Enchantments, and Infusions that a piece of gear can utilize.
How Nightingale’s Minor Realm Cards Affect Players’ Gear
There are currently two types of minorRealm Cards inNightingalethat further affect the stats and performance of the player’s gear. The first type of minor Realm Cards that affect a player’s gear are crafting-specific cards, and the other type are universal modifiers.
Crafting-specific minor Realm Cards will influence the stats of any gear crafted while this type of Card is active, and these stats are permanent. For example, certain minor Realm Cards can allow players to craft gear that is more efficient at gathering resources, with a potential tradeoff being that this gear would have decreased effectiveness in combat, or vice versa.
The universal modifiers, the other type of minor Realm Cards that affect players’ gear, provide traits to every player’s gear within a specific Realm. After players craft gear influenced by a crafting-specific card, activating a universal modifier-type card that synergizes with the players’ gear can provide extreme stat boosts.
Nightingale’s Charms, Enchantments, And Infusions Explained
While this is already a relatively complex crafting system to master, there are even more ways for players to upgrade their gear through Charms, Enchantments, and Infusions. Unlike Realm Cards, these types of upgrades will be affected by the quality of resources used to craft them.
With all ofNightingale’s layered crafting systems combined, it can be overwhelming for new players to get into. However, for players who can master their way throughNightingale’s progression systems, it can be one of the most satisfyingly complex crafting systems for the genre. So much so that other survival-crafting games should arguably start taking notes fromNightingale’s unique crafting systems.
