Highlights
- Unlocking Major Cards in Nightingale requires clearing Sites of Power with specific Gear Scores, influencing realm difficulty.
- Start with Abeyance realm for safety, progress to Antiquarian Card to explore new realms with ease before advancing to more dangerous ones.
- Hunt Card, the peak of non-ascended major cards, requires a high Gear Score and features more Fabled Creatures, a tough challenge.
Major Cards in Nightingale are a lot more difficult to unlock the recipes for than their Minor Card counterparts. While players can craft different Biomes and a few Minor Cards at the start of their adventure in Nightingale, they'll have to 'unlock' the ability to craft future Major Cards.
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This is because these Cards are directly tied to influencing the difficulty of a realm and each has a minimum 'gear score' they're expecting from the player. To unlock these Cards, players will need to clear the associated Site of Power in their Abeyance Realm once they've reached the proper Gear Score. So, let's take a look at all of the Major Cards in Nightingale at the moment and go over which ones seem to be the best to explore.
Many players are getting confused by the progression order in Nightingale , so these rankings will simply follow the order in which these Major Cards are unlocked, starting with the Abeyance Card and ending with The Watch Card. Additionally, Ascended Major Cards won't be included here, as it felt redundant and that part of the endgame should be experienced first-hand if possible.
8 Abeyance Card
Where You'll Want Your Home To Be
The Abeyance Realm is by far the safest realm players can travel to in Nightingale and that's by design. These realms are meant to be these little 'pocket dimensions' that the other Fae and the Bound have a hard time tracking through the portals. This is where the game heavily incentivizes players to set up their hub or home base, and it's where they'll return to each and every time they need to clear a new Site of Power.
The Abeyance Realm will end up being a lot of newer players' favorite Realm simply because it's where their home is, though it's obviously not as exciting to explore as many of the other realms influenced by the other Major Cards.
7 Antiquarian Card
The First Real Major Realm Difficulty Modifier Card
The Antiquarian Card will be the first introduction players have to the Sites of Power and the doors barring entry into them until players reach a certain Gear Score. Thankfully, this first roadblock is pretty easy to reach, as players just need a Gear Score of 20 to enter it. After going in and clearing out the enemies and associated Automaton Knight at the top, they'll get the recipe for the Antiquarian Card.
Simply put, this is where players will really start being able to explore other realms, and thankfully they won't be in 'too much' danger as the Antiquarian Card makes enemy encounters rather easy, especially in comparison to all of the other Major Cards on this list.
6 Astrolabe Card
This is Where You'll Start Needing To Keep An Eye on Your Gear Score
As players progress through these Major Cards and unlock more and more of them, they might notice that each one has slightly different properties it influences outside of just the difficulty of a realm. For example, the Antiquarian Card is inhabited by Druid NPCs and has many Fae Ruins that players can explore, as stated in its description. Meanwhile, the Astrolabe Card is populated by Calcularia NPCs and has different, more humanlike ruins in it.
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To get the Astrolabe Card, players will of course have to clear the associated Site of Power in their Abeyance Realm, which should require a Gear Score of 30 to enter. In general, this Major Card is where players will probably want to start being a bit more careful while exploring new realms, as things are getting a bit more dangerous.
5 Gloom Card
For When You're Close To The End-game or Even Post-game
For both the Gloom and Hunt Major Cards, these aren't 'technically' part of the main questline like the rest, but their Sites of Power are found at higher Gear Scores than the Herbarium. Players will need to clear the Gloom Site of Power first in order for the Hunt Site of Power to appear in their Abeyance Realm, so keep that in mind as the progression of the game post-Provisioner Card does get a bit confusing.
While the Hunt Major Card causes more Fabled Creatures to spawn and of course raises the overall level of creatures and items in it just like the other Major Cards, the Gloom Card (which requires a Gear Score of 45 to enter its Site of Power) is a lot darker and scarier with Hermetics found inside and typically more Bound and aggressive creatures.
4 Herbarium Card
Basically The 'Hard' Difficulty Modifier
To enter the Herbarium Realms, it's going to take players quite a while. After unlocking the Astrolabe Card recipe, the main story of Nightingale should progress to a quest objective of 'Entering a Desert Herbarium Realm'. And, while that may make it sound like the Herbarium Major Card is the next unlock, it won't be. Players will need to increase their Gear Score by a hefty 20 in order to enter the Herbarium Site of Power, which will most likely end up taking them through a Provisioner Realm.
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And, once they reach this Realm, the main story should progress and players can follow this quest thread for quite a while afterward. In these Herbarium Realms, players will need to help repair an unstable portal, which should take them to the end-game of Nightingale (at least the current end-game) and beyond.
3 Hunt Card
A 'Beast' of a Major Card That's the Peak of the Non-Ascended Major Cards
The Hunt Major Card is the 'last' Major Card players unlock in Nightingale before getting into Ascended Major Cards, which is basically the post-game of Nightingale that we won't be talking about here. To find and enter the Hunt Card Site of Powers players need to reach a staggering Gear Score of 70, which will typically require them to craft and upgrade gear recipes they found in either the Gloom or Provisioner Realms as well as their weaponry.
After clearing this dungeon and gaining the ability to go to Hunt Realms, players will find that there are a lot more Fabled Creatures here, which can make things a lot easier or harder depending on the person's playstyle and how often they want to be fighting. Typically the most 'difficult' Major Card modifier out there, outside of Ascended Major Cards.
2 Provisioner Card
Same Difficulty as Astrolabe But With Access to Guns
Here's the Provisioner Card, one that a lot of players take a while to find, due to the main quest's next objective after the Astrolabe Card being to enter a 'Desert Herbarium' realm. In any case, this Site of Power is found in a sort of dungeon-esque mine system in the player's Abeyance Realm and requires a Gear Score of 40 to be able to enter.
After unlocking the recipe and crafting this card, players can use it to find a realm of 'moderate' danger, similar to the Astrolabe Card. However, instead of the Calcularia, this newly found realm should be populated by the NTTC and should have more industrial-type locations to explore. This is where players will likely unlock their first gun schematics, as the Essence Trader here typically has those recipes for sale.
1 The Watch Card
The End of the Campaign & Beginning of Nightingale's Post-Game
Entering the Watch is basically entering the end of the campaign for Nightingale, at least currently. The game is in Early Access so who knows how it'll progress in the future, but once players reach the Watch through the series of complicated steps handed to them by Nellie Bly, they'll be able to re-enter this realm at any time through their map instead of through crafting multiple Watch cards (likely to provide carrying newer players to endgame without them completing the proper steps).
The Watch is where players will first encounter the 'Vault' system in Nightingale (basically longer Bastilles), which are endgame dungeons crafted with different Biome tilesets that give all sorts of materials needed for the slew of new recipes players will have access to after reaching this point in their game. The Watch is also where players can enter these Vaults with other people in public lobbies, as this seems to be the intention behind the Vault's design. However, if players would rather do these solo, they'll be able to get recipes that allow them to craft entrances to these Vaults on their own, so there's complete freedom of choice here.
