There are many worlds to explore in Nightingale, and the main way to explore them is through the Realm Card system. We explained various realm cards and their combinations, how to get these cards and all the details in this guide.
Realm Cards in Nightingale
Nightingale’s Realm Card System stands as the game’s centerpiece, offering a diverse array of experiences as you journey through its worlds. With over 21 unique combinations for crafting realms and procedural generation, along with 50 Minor Cards, players can anticipate a wealth of gameplay possibilities.
At the onset of early access, Nightingale boasts three biome cards and 14 major cards. These major cards influence landmarks, points of interest (POIs), resource tiers, and enemy difficulty. When combined with biome cards, they shape the portals that lead to various realms. Meanwhile, Minor Cards provide modifiers for crafting, exploration, and combat, enhancing gameplay in diverse ways.
List for All Realm Card
| Realm Card Name | Realm Card Type | Description & Effects | How to Unlock |
|---|---|---|---|
| Desert | Biome | Generates a Desert type map | Unlocked via tutorial |
| Forest | Biome | Generates a Forest type map | Unlocked via tutorial |
| Swamp | Biome | Generates a Swamp type map | Unlocked via tutorial |
| Abeyance | Major | Creates a low threat and relatively peaceful map, perfect for settling a base. You also need to set one up to complete the dungeons to unlock major cards. | Unlocked via tutorial quest where Puck asks you to select your starting biome. |
| Antiquarian | Major | Tier 1 card that adds archaeological sites | Defeat the Antiquarian dungeon in your home Abeyance world to learn the recipe for this card. |
| Astrolabe | Major | Tier 1 card that adds astronomical-themed POIs around the map. | Defeat the Astrolabe dungeon in your home Abeyance world to learn the recipe for this card. |
| Provisioner | Major | Tier 1 card that adds industrial buildings and points of interest around the map. | Defeat the Provisioner dungeon in your home Abeyance world to learn the recipe for this card. |
| Herbarium | Major | Tier 2 card that adds more druidic points of interest around the map. | Defeat the Herbarium dungeon in your home Abeyance world to learn the recipe for this card. |
| Gloom | Major | Tier 2 card that adds more Gloom and threatening atmosphere to the map. | Defeat the Gloom dungeon in your home Abeyance world to learn the recipe for this card. |
| Hunt | Major | Tier 3 card that enables players to go on Apex Hunts, and defeat large and powerful boss creatures that belong to the biome. | Defeat the Hunt dungeon in your home Abeyance world to learn the recipe for this card. |
| The Watch | Major | Takes you to the Watch, an End-Game shared coop space. | Unlocked after completing the main questline. |
| Astrolabe Ascended | Major | An End-Game version of Astrolabe, populating it with Calcularia faction NPCs with moderate danger. | An End-Game unlock from the Ascended Forest, Swamp and Desert Antiquarian Essence Trader. |
| Antiquarian Ascended | Major | An End-Game version of the major realm card. populated with Calcularia faction NPCs with moderately high danger. | An End-Game unlock. |
| Provisioner Ascended | Major | An End-Game version of the major realm card. populated with Calcularia faction NPCs with moderately high danger. | An End-Game unlock from the Ascended Astrolabe Essence Traders. |
| Herbarium Ascended | Major | An End-Game version of the major realm card. populated with Calcularia faction NPCs with moderately high danger. | An End-Game unlock. Unlocked at the Ascended Provisioner Essence Traders. |
| Gloom Ascended | Major | An End-Game version of the major realm card. populated with Calcularia faction NPCs with moderately high danger. | An End-Game unlock. Recipe sold at the Ascended Herbarium Essence Traders. |
| Hunt Ascended | Major | An End-Game version of the major realm card. populated with a Calcularia faction NPCs with moderately high danger. | An End-Game unlock. The recipe is sold at the Ascended Gloom Essence Traders. |
| Alchemist | Minor | Increases the yield of crafted potions, increases the chance of finding Essence, and increases the magick power of crafted items. | Recipe sold at the Ascended Swamp Astrolabe Essence Trader. |
| Amphibious | Minor | Increase swimming speed, resistance to disease and ability to recover stamina while in water. | Sold at the Swamp Antiquarian Essence Trader. |
| Angler | Minor | Benefits to being able to fish in the realm. | Recipe sold by the Abeyance Essence Trader |
| Artisan | Minor | Improves crafting stations and augments all crafting stations to the ideal environment. Refinement time is also decreased by 10 seconds and increases comfort rating by 1. | Looted from Fae Chests. The recipe is available from the Swamp Provisioner Essence Trader. |
| Blood Moon Apogean | Minor | Another blood moon card with even better drop chance increases for rare materials from enemies, with worse penalties for max health and regeneration speeds. | Recipe sold at the Ascended Desert Antiquarian Essence Trader and the Ascended Desert Gloom Essence Trader. |
| Blood Moon Eminent | Minor | The sky fills with a blood moon, and further increases the drop chance of rarer items on enemies. It also further lowers your total max health and regeneration rate. | Recipe sold at the Desert Provisioner Essence Trader. |
| Blood Moon | Minor | The sky fills with a blood moon, and it increases the chance that enemies drop rare items, but decreases your maximum health. | Looted from Fae Chests. The recipe is sold at the Desert Antiquarian Essence Trader. |
| Blunderbuss | Minor | Increase the damage you deal with shotguns, the yield when crafting shotgun ammo, and the damage you deal with magickal shotgun ammo. Reduces the damage you deal with other gun types. | Recipe sold at the Swamp Hunt Essence Trader. |
| Bulwark’s Workshop | Minor | The season becomes autumn, and players can now craft tools with better blocking ability and efficiency. All tools crafted while the card is active gain Durability +++, Blocking Efficiency +++, Weight ++, and Stamina Efficiency ++. | Looted from Fae Chests. Recipe sold at the Swamp Astrolabe Essence Trader. |
| Combatant’s Workshop | Minor | Allows you to make tools with increased damage but reduces their yields. Crafted tools while under this effect gain the Damage++ trait. Also reduces crafting time by 10 seconds. The season becomes summer. | Looted from Fae Chests. |
| Deep Fae Wilds | Minor | Decreases the damage you deal, but increases your health, stamina and the rate your health and stamina recover. | The recipe can be unlocked by completing POIs and getting it as a random reward from Puzzle Cores. Recipe is also purchased from the Swamp Provisioner Essence Trader |
| Dragon’s Hoard Apogean | Minor | Ever greatly increases the chance of finding rare gems, and even further decreases your maximum HP. | Recipe sold at the Ascended Forest Antiquarian Essence Trader and the Ascended Forest Gloom Essence Trader. |
| Dragon’s Hoard Eminent | Minor | Further increases the chance of finding rarer gems in chests, which further lowers your damage resistance. | Recipe sold at the Forest Gloom Essence Trader |
| Dragon’s Hoard | Minor | Increases the chances of finding rare gems in Fae and Human Chests and increases your damage taken slightly. | Looted from Fae Chests. Recipe sold at the Forest Astrolabe Essence Trader. |
| Duelist | Minor | Slight increase to the damage you deal and the damage you take. | Looted from Fae Chests. Recipe sold at the Desert Antiquarian Essence Trader. |
| Estate Address Card | Minor | Play this card to go to a specific player’s Abeyance Realm. Gift the card to other players and allow them to visit your estate even when you’re offline. | Can be acquired from POI rewards, and the recipe can be purchased from the Abeyance essence trader. |
| Explorer Eminent | Minor | Increases food duration and decreases damage taken, while decreasing the damage you deal at modest amounts. | Looted from Fae Chests. Recipe purchased from the Forest Provisioner Essence Trader. |
| Explorer | Minor | Weaker version of Explorer Eminent, only offers slight increases to food duration, damage decreases and slightly decreases the damage you deal. | Looted from Fae Chests. Recipe sold via the Abeyance Essence Trader |
| Farm | Minor | Increases the speed of crop growth, improves the yield and increases the chance of finding Essence when Harvesting. | Recipe sold at the Forest Hunt Essence Trader. |
| Feast | Minor | Changes the season to spring and increases the benefits of food buffs, food duration, health regen increase, and decreases hunger rate. | Looted from Fae Chests. Recipe sold via the Abeyance Essence Trader |
| Forge | Minor | Increases ore yield, reduces the time needed to refine ore into products and improves the quality of metal items. Decreases the cost of other material’s effectiveness. | Recipe sold at the Swamp Herbarium Essence Trader. |
| Fortitude | Minor | Increases your resistance to injuries, improves blocking efficiency, and increases the fortitude of your structures. It comes at the cost of tool and clothing durability reductions. | Recipe sold at the Desert Herbarium Essence Trader. |
| Ghost | Minor | Improve your stealth and increase the yield of resources and Essence, while reducing the damage you deal. | Recipe sold at the Ascended Forest Provisioner Essence Trader. |
| Greenhouse | Minor | Increases plant yield, reduces the time needed to refine Refined Fibre into products, and improves the quality of plant-based items. Crafted clothes gain improved cold, fire and rain resistance, and improve stealth. It also increases the weight of the items lightly. | Looted from Fae Chests. Recipe sold at the Swamp Hunt Essence Trader. |
| Harvester’s Workshop | Minor | It changes the realm to spring season, decreases the time to refine tools by 10 seconds, and increases all tools crafted during this time with +3 efficiency, -2 to weight, and +2 to damage. | Looted from Fae Chests. |
| Hearth | Minor | Prolong the effects of meal and rest duration buffs, lower the rate at which you become hungry and tired, and increases health and stamina recovery. | Recipe sold at the Swamp Herbarium Essence Trader. |
| Hunter Eminent | Minor | Further increases to yields from slain creatures, better damage to weak points, and worse damage to hits on other parts of a creature’s body. | Recipe sold at the Ascended Desert Provisioner Essence Trader. |
| Hunter | Minor | Increases the yield of items gathered from skiing creatures, increases the damage you deal to weak points, and decreases your damage dealt elsewhere. | Recipe sold at the Desert Hunt Essence Trader. |
| Industry Card | Minor | Increase the yield of crafted ammunition and ingots and the crafting time of all refinement. The increase yield for ammo and ingots is 2x. | Looted from Fae Chests. Recipe sold at the Desert Provisioner Essence Trader |
| Lumber Mill | Minor | Increase wood yield, reduce the time needed to refine wood products and improve the quality of wooden items, at the cost of the material’s effectiveness. | Recipe sold at the Forest Herbarium Essence Trader. |
| Maleficiate | Minor | Plunges the realm into eternal night and increases the yield of Bound resource drops. | Looted from Fae Chests. Recipe sold at the Desert Gloom Essence Trader. |
| Marksman | Minor | Increases the damage you deal with rifles and pistols and increases the effectiveness of their ammo. Decreases the effectiveness of shotguns. | Looted from Fae Chests. Recipe sold at the Forest Hunt Essence Trader. |
| Might | Minor | Increase your strength and carrying capacity at the cost of tool and clothing durability efficiently decreases. | Recipe Unlocked via the Desert Astrolabe Essence Trader. |
| Outlaw | Minor | Increases the damage you deal with pistols, the yield of crafting pistol ammunition, and the damage you deal with magickal ammunition, while reducing the damage you deal with other guns. | Recipe sold at the Desert hunt Essence Trader. |
| Quarry | Minor | Increases the yield of stone blocks and lowers the time needed to refine stone blocks into useful items. Further improves the quality of stone items and betters the cost efficiency of stone items. | Looted from Fae Chests. Recipe sold at the Desert Herbarium Essence Trader |
| Settler Apogean | Minor | Stronger growing speed card with even better yields. Even worse stamina regeneration debuff though. | Recipe sold at the Ascended Forest Astrolabe Essence Trader. |
| Settler Eminent | Minor | Increases the yield of refined building materials and crops, while increasing the durability of building pieces. Reduces the rate your stamina recovers. The plant growth rate is increased from 33%-75%. | Looted from Fae Chests. Recipe sold at the Forest Herbarium Essence Trader |
| Settler | Minor | Weaker version of Settler Eminent with slightly lower growing speed increase. | Looted from Fae Chests. The recipe is unlocked via the Forest Antiquarian Essence Trader. |
| Tavern | Minor | Increases meal duration, reduces tired rate, and increases stamina regeneration. | Recipe unlocked via the Swamp Astrolabe Essence Trader. |
| Tempest Apogean | Minor | Even further increases to magickal damage, along with perpetual rain. | Recipe sold at the Ascended Swamp Antiquarian Essence Trader. |
| Tempest Eminent | Minor | Further increases your magickal powers at the cost of deadlier rains. | Recipe sold at the Swamp Gloom Essence Trader. |
| Tempest | Minor | Causes the world to rain perpetually but increases the potency of your magick. | Recipe unlocked via the Swamp Astrolabe Essence Trader. |
| Thinned Veil | Minor | Increases movement speed, stamina efficiency and jumping velocity. Comes with a slight durability drain increase. | Looted from Fae Chests. Recipe purchased from Forest Antiquarian Essence Trader |
| Treasury Eminent | Minor | Further increases the chance of finding Essence | Recipe purchased from the Forest Provisioner Essence Trader. |
| Treasury | Minor | Increases the chance of finding Essence | Looted from Fae Chests. Recipe sold at the Forest Astrolabe Essence Trader. |
| Trickster | Minor | Increases jumping height, strength attribute, and lowers injury rate. Decreases damage dealt and resource yields are “not what you expect.” | Looted from Fae Chests. The recipe is sold at the Forest Gloom Essence Trader |
| Utopia Apogean | Minor | Perpetual daylight and you become invisible to enemies. | Recipe sold at the Ascended Swamp Hunt Essence Trader. |
| Utopia | Minor | Sun never sets on the realm you’re in. | Recipe purchased from Forest Antiquarian Essence Trader. |
| Weighted Eminent | Minor | Increases the damage and efficiency of your harvesting tools while altering gravity and lowering your stamina. | Looted from Fae Chests. Recipe sold at the Swamp Gloom Essence Trader. |
| Weighted | Minor | Slightly weaker version of Weighted Eminent. | Looted from Fae Chests. Recipe sold at the Swamp Antiquarian Essence Trader. |
It’s important to note that some minor cards offer multiple tiers, such as Eminent and Apogean, with the latter typically representing late-game versions. Card power scales accordingly, with alphabetical organization aiding in assessment. Card acquisition often involves purchasing recipes, with costs varying based on the world’s essence type.
Trick: Crafting Tier 2 Realm Cards necessitates the Refined Enchanting Table, while Tier 3 requires its higher-tier counterpart.
Certain cards can also be looted from chests or acquired as rewards from completing POIs, with more potential unlocks awaiting discovery.
Each minor card subtly alters the environment, affecting skybox, lighting, and ambiance. While primarily aesthetic, some changes may impact gameplay.
Biome and Major Cards
Biome and Major Cards serve as the foundation for realm creation. Biome cards dictate terrain, weather, resources, and creatures, while Major Cards influence difficulty, resource tiers, and enemy encounters. As players progress and increase their Gear Score, they unlock new major cards by challenging dungeons.
Minor Realm Cards
Minor Realm Cards offer buffs, resource efficiency enhancements, and special crafting opportunities. Tailoring card selection to one’s strategy can optimize gameplay, with production-related cards like Lumber Mill or Quarry ideal for base-building worlds.
By strategically combining cards, players can tailor their Nightingale experience to suit their preferred playstyle, ensuring each journey through its realms is unique and engaging.
