There are three large quadrants to investigate as players fight across rooftops, streets, and sewers before facing the Automaton Queen. Various changes include refined structure rotation and placement (with the option to swap pieces out for different styles) and defensive structures. You can also acquire Tier 5 weapons and tools in the city, though a new currency is required.

These can be equipped with two Charms, with Tier 5 Fabled Charms also available. The latter bring “fantastic changes” to weapons and tools alongside their powers. While you can also buy them with the new currency, they can also drop as rewards.

Check out the full patch notes below. Nightingale is available for PC via Steam Early Access.

Nightingale City Update

Feature Highlights

• Alongside the City, there have been improvements to our building system, as well as, new Gear and Fabled Charms!

Enhanced Building & Customization

• Structure rotation and placement has been refined with more options
• Structure pieces can now be swapped to different styles in build mode
• Outfits, and Furniture: The update adds a Western-themed Frontier Tileset, Wrangler Outfit, and new furniture sets for the Crude and Tudor tilesets.
• Defensive structures can be obtained in the city.

New Furniture available

Powerful Gear & Fabled Charms

• Tier 5 weapons and tools can be purchased with a new currency you can earn in Nightingale City. These weapons and tools have new components and recipes to allow for greater parametric crafting power.
• Tier 5 weapons and tools can now receive 2 charms
• Tier 5 weapons have unique visual treatment options both in crafting and in glamour
• Tier 5 Fabled Charms can be purchased with the new currency.
• Fabled charms will make fantastic changes to the behaviours and powers associated with your weapons and tools. You can earn these as rewards in Nightingale City.

Live Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue in online mode where the incorrect tier of dye was sometimes applied.
• Fixed Tudor Shelf to allow object placement on its shelves.
• Fixed an issue preventing the Porter Pistol from appearing in the glamour station for customization.
• Fixed the Red Cross Knight’s Cuirass Gear to include a customizable shell region.
• Fixed a quest issue where party members retained “Build transept” after passing through another player’s transept to NGC.
• Fixed an issue preventing Boss Rush quest completion when in a party.
• Boosted comfort values for beds.
• Fixed dye previews to ensure consistency with their final appearance.
• Fixed an issue where LB/RB were double-bound on crafting stations.
• Fixed an issue allowing players to use the map to travel to a loadstar.
• Fixed wood harvested from stumps initially appearing with a default texture before correcting itself.
• Fixed the party screen not updating immediately when a player joins.
• Fixed the issue where Immolation and Blast Miners Trap shared the same icons.
• Fixed missing health bars above fish.
• Adjusted aim-down-sights for the Mystic Slingbow to align with projectile trajectory.
• Ensured font styles now meet Steam Deck requirements.
• Added gamepad support for the Essence Trader shop screen.
• Improved gamepad navigation on the map.
• Fixed issues with the consumable radial menu when using a gamepad.
• Fixed an issue where changing Make Up color after using the ‘Reset’ button did not apply the change.
• Fixed an issue where resetting EYES>DETAILS did not reset SCALE and DETAIL sliders properly.
• Fixed defense encounters being startable while the Extraction Device was destroyed.
• Fixed Eyelash Extensions resetting back to 66% regardless of user input.
• Fixed Focal Shards incorrectly being usable in the same slots as cut gems, and Hybrid Stone replacing stone blocks.
• Fixed the Reset button in the Hair Colour menu not functioning correctly.
• Fixed “Reset All” button altering the displayed hair color incorrectly.
• Fixed Eyelash Tip Colour changing unexpectedly after editing in the Appearance menu.

Perhaps the most significant change is the campaign. Players can now explore Storied Realms, which are handcrafted and have unique backgrounds. There are six new bosses to fight and revamped Sites of Power dungeons to explore. Procedurally generated maps are now called Untamed Realms, with new encounters and points of interest to discover.

Players can also use new weapon types like shortbows and longbows, new Dauntless and Mystic weapons, ten new Charms, seven new Minor Cards, eight new pet types, and even transmog. Several gameplay changes, like setting your Respite Point to any Realm and replaying boss encounters by resting, also sound promising.

Nightingale is available for PC via Steam Early Access. Check out our review of the launch version here.

After a short intro by community manager Steph Herdman, the video kicks things off with a message from Flynn, where he talks about not being satisfied with the current state of the game.

“We’ve been spending a lot of our time reading your impressions online, going through Discord, watching your streams and building our plans for the next phase of the game,” Flynn said in the video. “Now that being said, there are some things we are not happy with about the game. Whether it’s network disconnects, some missing quality-of-life improvements that we want to get done, or other things in the game that are missing or not quite where we want them to be, we’re working hard to address those things right now and to make sure that you get the best playable experience possible.”

Flynn goes on to talk about the next patch planned for the game, with which the studio hopes to address what it considers to be one of its biggest concerns—network disconnects. Flynn wraps things up by thanking the player base for its feedback on the current state of Nightingale.

The rest of the video talks about the upcoming update, and then goes on to discuss the planned update cadence for Nightingale. With a daily patch release cadence not being feasible, the studio has instead opted to spread out its patches. This means that, moving forward, Nightingale will instead plan around releasing bigger patches that address more problems with the game rather than smaller updates focusing on only a few fixes.

The studio has also shared details about Nightingale‘s content roadmap. While Inflexion Games is currently focused on releasing patches that fix issues that players are be facing, once the most egregious of these issues have been fixed, the studio will start working on updates with bigger features.

In the medium term, Inflexion is going to work on more advanced features, such as additional weapon types, NPC features, building structure limits, and improvements to creature and monster AI. The studio plans on releasing an offline mode for Nightingale. In the long term, meanwhile, there will be new experiences, biomes, and creatures added to the game over time.

Nightingale was released as an early access title on PC back in February. For more details, check out our review.

“Failed to connect to Nightingale server.”

"With all the established gateways collapsed, you must embrace the Realmwalker life, traveling between worlds and interacting with other survivors while also dealing with the manipulative Puck to reach it."

Try again, and the message says, “A network error occurred.” After trying yet again, it loaded into the instant before I walked through the portal. Granted, I could now venture into this new Realm, but the hype was significantly lessened. Sadly, I was used to these server issues by now, and with Nightingale being online-only, simply traveling between Realms became a coin toss.

Inflexion is aware of the same and will add an offline mode, but it doesn’t make the best first impression, especially when so many of its competitors have it from the get-go. However, even with it, Nightingale isn’t necessarily about wowing you in the first hour (or even the second).

It’s somewhat on the slower side, which works pretty well given the aura of mystery and intrigue surrounding its plot and lore. Unfortunately, as you spend more time hopping through Realms, the various systems responsible for suspending your disbelief start to show cracks.

The story outlines how humanity, now in the Victorian Era, forged a relationship with the Fae. Harnessing their magic has allowed for incredible feats, but unfortunately, it also seemingly attracted the attention of The Pale, who launches a sudden attack. As an Earthen survivor, you take a risk and dive into a Realm Portal, eventually learning about the fabled city of Nightingale. With all the established gateways collapsed, you must embrace the Realmwalker life, traveling between worlds and interacting with other survivors while also dealing with the manipulative Puck to reach it.

"Your overarching goal is to find a way to Nightingale, with several smaller steps necessary to achieve the same, as with any survival crafting game."

The city isn’t currently in early access, so whether it’s truly a haven remains to be seen. Overall, the story starts interesting, as you eventually transition from a fleeing refugee and shaken survivor to a capable Realmwalker. You meet characters like Wilhelmina Sasse, a newspaper reporter with different gossip, and Bass Reeves, a Lawman pursuing a thief across the realms.

Each has made this life their own in different ways, like embracing the joy of wandering or the thrill of adventure. It’s not a large cast, but they’re all distinct (despite the utter lack of facial animations). Of course, in terms of voice acting, Marc Warren is undoubtedly the star as Puck. His poetic words belie a borderline-duplicitous personality, but his delivery and tone are consistently excellent.

The plot can take a bit to get going as you learn the basics of gathering, hunting, crafting, building and venturing to other realms. There are three biomes in early access – Swamp, Desert and Forest. Your overarching goal is to find a way to Nightingale, with several smaller steps necessary to achieve the same, as with any survival crafting game. It can feel a bit restrictive initially, but once you gain more Realm Cards and can craft portals, things start to fall into place.

Realm Cards are essentially a way to craft different realms. You select a biome and then modify it with a Major Card. The Abeyance Card provides a realm with minimal danger and sets a Respite Point, which is where you can teleport back to at any time, even in another realm. It makes the world suitable for building an Estate, but because of its low power level, you’ll need to venture into other more dangerous realms to gather higher-tier Essences and become stronger. Thus begins the journey for an Antiquarian Card, then an Astrolabe Card, followed by a Provisioner Card and finally, a Herbarium Card, each paired with specific biomes depending on the story quest.

"The structure of Nightingale thus plays out as follows. After establishing your Estate and reaching a specific Gear Score, you go to a higher-level realm and repeat the process."

When venturing to a realm, it’s a good idea to seek out the nearest Fae Tower to earn some quick Essence, have nearby points of interest appear on your map and play some Minor Realm Cards. These grant more localized effects, like dealing more damage or causing the sun to never set.

I often went with low gravity to mitigate fall damage and soar across locations easily, but increasing Essence gain, carrying capacity, and more is also great. It’s not so much a game-changing feature as a means to tailor to your particular need at the time, but I like it, especially since some of the Minor cards can have adverse effects (like taking more damage on top of dealing it).

The structure of Nightingale thus plays out as follows. After establishing your Estate and reaching a specific Gear Score, you go to a higher-level realm and repeat the process. There are Sites of Power where you’re tested before receiving other Major Cards, but otherwise, you complete points of interest and gather Essence. Initially, gear is upgraded with Tier 1 Essence and then enchanted. Then you learn about higher tiers of crafting and refining, as better equipment and weapons also increase your Gear Score.

However, it feels like there’s no payoff to the grind – like you’re grinding out Gear Score just to reach the next step of grinding even more Gear Score. On the one hand, I like this idea of shifting between realms, creating this network of portals and exploring everything they offer. Then, you return to your Estate and add to it with new crafting tools or decorations. Sadly, the Realms themselves lack enough to ground you.

"It’s a shame because the overarching lore and settings are very fascinating. Discovering pieces of Hope and reading cards about other survivors or the Fae’s lore is interesting, and their art looks gorgeous."

This is due to their procedurally generated nature. When you encounter a giant mammoth-like skull with structures to explore, it’s awesome, even if there isn’t much practical use. The same goes for clearing out an Occupation and accessing a portal into a small mini-dungeon, where you find lots of Essence and ammo. Over time, these same points of interest keep cropping up with very little to distinguish them. The same goes for the puzzles, which mostly consist of interacting with cores in a specific order or interacting with glowing writing on the walls.

Again, this is early access, and Inflexion will probably add more over time, but besides the mini-dungeons, everything feels a little too straightforward and simplistic. As pretty as some sights can be, they’re ethereal and inconsequential as you load up another realm to see the same kinds and farm even more Essences to upgrade your gear, purchase materials, etc. Even those with characters important to your progression lack much to distinguish them from your standard biomes in terms of content.

It’s a shame because the overarching lore and settings are very fascinating. Discovering pieces of Hope and reading cards about other survivors or the Fae’s lore is interesting, and their art looks gorgeous. The same goes for discovering mysterious architecture and statues and wanting to learn more about their significance.

Compare this to the overarching plot, which starts slow but doesn’t increase the tension. There’s an air of mystery and magic that could be expanded on further; some secrets or things that provide compelling reasons to explore and tell you more about the world (which I hope is coming down the line). At least you can discover new recipes and Realm Cards.

"Resource management could also be better – certain materials like Ingots can come from different resources and thus occupy separate slots in your inventory and storage."

The building in Nightingale is solid – not super remarkable, but it follows the blueprint approach, where you place an outline of a structure and then insert resources to build it. Copying and removing structures you build is seamless.

There’s plenty to unlock, and several players have already begun creating remarkable-looking Estates. It’s mind-boggling that you can’t upgrade your base over time with better materials. A wooden structure will stay that way until you tear it down and replace it with stone, which feels tedious. At least repairing items is quick, and you can pick up all materials on the ground by holding E.

I also found the Grit system interesting, as resting and eating food are mandatory to keep your maximum health and stamina from depleting. Keeping your crafting and cooking benches in roofed structures is also essential to reducing their timers. As annoying as it can be, it emphasizes the importance of building a proper Estate. When you’re away from it, there are structures throughout the realms where you can take temporary shelter, so I didn’t find it too oppressive.

Resource management could also be better – certain materials like Ingots can come from different resources and thus occupy separate slots in your inventory and storage. They do have an impact when used to craft something, but it can be annoying when you run out of space. It would have also been nice to have an option like Palworld where crafting items also accesses your storage, thus cutting down on questioning whether you have the required material in your storage, on top of the additional busywork of fetching it.

"Unfortunately, fights usually boil down to charging head-on and smacking enemies with melee attacks if you’re not firing from afar."

I didn’t find the crafting too complicated otherwise, but more information on the stats and Gear Score of equipment before you craft it would be nice. Some resource streamlining would also be ideal, like converting surplus Essence into higher Tiers to cut down on grinding them out.

As for combat, it’s also very straightforward, with ranged and melee weapons available. Wielding a knife lets you hold another item in your off-hand and dodge, thus avoiding attacks by stepping back or to the side. However, weapons like the axe can deal more damage, even as they consume more stamina and use both hands. Different enemies are vulnerable to different types of damage, so while Automatons won’t flinch from an axe strike, a pickaxe to the face can be effective.

The Pale’s foes have a bit of variety, with the blade-wielding type being more acrobatic while the bombardier hangs back and pelts you from afar. Their AI isn’t too complex, and they can bumble around occasionally. Unfortunately, fights usually boil down to charging head-on and smacking enemies with melee attacks if you’re not firing from afar. Controls feel responsive, especially when weapon switching, but combat lacks that “oomph” or visceral quality to really stand out.

"If it wants to be the video game where fun comes in many forms, be it the call to adventure or the pull of narrative mystery – Nightingale needs a lot more time and work."

It would probably help if the bosses also had more to them. I didn’t dive into the current end-game dungeons at The Watch, so I don’t know if they fare any better there. Overall, combat isn’t bad, but it is simple to a fault and becomes repetitive over time, especially with how much of it there is and how mechanically shallow it feels, even with the Augmentations and Infusions thrown in.

Outside of server issues, Nightingale has its share of bugs. Perhaps the worst is a soft lock, which prevents a portal from fully manifesting early and requires making a new character. Others include materials seemingly clipping through the world, enemies getting stuck on objects, weird physics, and whatnot. There weren’t any hard crashes, so I expect the above to be fixed sooner rather than later (hopefully).

As it currently stands, the potential of Nightingale is immense. Its story and setting are intriguing, and if your computer can handle it, the visuals and art style are incredible. The overall structure is also unique with its realm-hopping, and being able to apply different effects depending on your needs is cool. However, as unconventional and intriguing as it is, several fundamental systems need further tuning and improvements, to say nothing of the sheer quality of life features required.

It isn’t a bad experience, though. There’s this intangible element encouraging the exploration of different realms, even if the combat, Gear Score grind and procedurally generated points of interest start to wear on you. Who knows what the next could hold? Nevertheless, if it wants to be the video game where fun comes in many forms, be it the call to adventure or the pull of narrative mystery – Nightingale needs a lot more time and work.

This game was reviewed on PC.

An offline mode is in the works, with the developer acknowledging frustrations with the online-only approach. “Our vision for the game since inception was to create an interconnected series of Realms, with the idea of allowing for cooperative exploration in mind – a universe bigger than a single Realm or server. That meant we made a choice early in development between supporting co-op from day one or focusing development on an offline mode.

“Co-operative gameplay associated with having party members across multiple Realms was the more technically challenging problem and therefore, the one we chose to tackle first. Looking back on that decision, we misjudged what some of you were looking for in your experience.”

Inflexion will prioritize the mode and release it as “soon as feasible.” It asked players to watch for updates in the “coming weeks” along with news on “other things we’re working on.” It also clarified that work on other updates, like new content, bug fixes and quality-of-life features, is still ongoing, and there will be more details in “the coming days.”

Nightingale’s early access launch consists of three biomes, multiple items and structures to craft, a progression system and dungeons for players to tackle. The main differentiator from other survival crafting games is the Realm Cards, which allows for procedurally generating different worlds with unique modifiers.

The plan is to remain in early access for nine to 12 months, though that could change. Inflexion will add more biomes, items and Realm Cards over time, so stay tuned.

While it features all the tenets of a survival crafting experience, from mining and harvesting resources to building and amassing an arsenal, Nightingale mixes things up with Realm Cards. These allow players to randomize a realm’s elements, including the biome, conditions (including low gravity) and level of challenge.

The early access version offers three biomes, a progression system encompassing all gameplay aspects and co-op for up to six players. Thankfully, solo players can hire AI partners to share some of the load and assist in various activities. Nightingale will receive new story content and biomes throughout the planned nine to 12 months of early access, so stay tuned for further updates.

As for the reason behind the delay, the developer revealed that it not only allows players to start earlier but provides a “head start in addressing any issues at launch before the busy weekend period.” Given the server issues that other survival crafting titles like Palworld faced (though its explosion in popularity is a different matter), it makes sense for Inflexion to iron out any issues as quickly as possible.

The new launch date follows a recently concluded stress test from last Friday. Retailing for $29.99, Nightingale’s early access release will feature several creature types, three biomes, co-op supporting up to six players, a progression system “spanning all aspects of gameplay”, and more. It will spend nine to 12 months in early access, though Inflexion insists it will leave only “when it’s ready.”

There will be new biomes, story content and the addition of the City of Nightingale during early access, so stay tuned. Head here for more details on the lore, characters and the setting.

Players that have signed up for the Nightingale stress test on Steam will be allowed access to the stress test in waves picked at random by Steam’s own systems. The studio will then monitor how well its servers hold up as players take the game for a spin.

The studio has stated that this stress test won’t be the full game, but rather a tailored version of its early game experience. This version will skip the Nightingale tutorial, and will give players access to upgraded tools and equipment, along with a host of unlocked recipes.

This stress test for Nightingale was first announced back in December, with registrations being open since then on through the game’s Steam page. The game is slated to release as an Early Access title on February 22.

As part of the stress test, the studio is looking to test its infrastructure for the game’s impending Early Access launch. According to the announcement of the stress test from back in November, the studio will get valuable information regardless of what happens to players as they try to play the game during the stress test.

The studio hasn’t yet announced proper dates and times for the Nightingale stress test, aside from a January window.

Nightingale is slated to hit Steam Early Access on February 22. The game was originally set for a Fall 2023 release before being delayed into 2024. Originally unveiled back in 2021, Nightingale has seen quite a few videos and trailers, like the studio’s inspiration in making the game.

Alongside the early access date, the trailer also gives us a good look at the title’s gameplay, including crafting elements, combat, and the types of different magical enemies that players will face while jumping through dimensional gates.

The February 22 early access release date for Nightingale is a delay over the previously-planned Fall 2023 release window, which was announced back in May. The game has seen quite a bit of marketing since it was first unveiled back in 2021, including a dev video discussing the studio’s inspiration in making the game, as well as the title’s lore, the Fae, and its various characters.

The game is currently only coming to PC, and the studio has not revealed whether there are any plans for a console release.