Nightingale Guns and Tools Guide

Our Nightingale Guns and Tools Guide will go over how your trusty set of weapons work, and the ways to can upgrade them as you progress through the game.

Early progression in Nightingale can be a little complicated to follow, so make sure to check out our starter guide to go over the basics of survival. You'll also need to make sure to gather lots of resources as you explore, since you'll need them to craft better tools and guns later on.

How Tools Work

Nightingale, there is no distinction made between tools and melee weapons. From wood axes to sickles, each tool also double up as your choice for dealing damage at close range.

Each is categorised as either a mainhand or two-handed tool, and does piercing, slashing, or bludgeoning damage. As the tool's melee damage stat increases, so does its effectiveness when gathering materials.

However, actually being able to gather a material is tied to the current tool's item level. Nightingale tools are given an item level based on their tier and rarity level, with higher level tools needed to gather later resources.

Tools require Essence Dust to repair, the white currency that can be obtained by defeating enemies or selecting the "extract" option after right clicking on an item. The amount needed is determined by item level, not by how damaged the tool is.

Enchantments

Nightingale enchantments function as the game's magic system. Craftable at an Enchanter's Focus, these can be applied to tools to give them extra castable abilities — after making one, right click on it in the inventory to apply it to a tool.

Each tool can have two enchantments at a time. Instead of requiring something like mana, they're cast using your stamina. Some can also be charged for longer to give bigger bonuses, such as increased healing.

How Guns Work

Guns are your ranged option, coming in the form of pistols, rifles, and shotguns. Not only do they still use the same durability system as tools, but they also require ammo.

Instead of being able to equip enchantments, guns can instead make use of different ammo types to apply certain effects to enemies.

Upgrading Tools and guns

Upgrading your collection of tools in Nightingale primarily comes in two forms. The first is by crafting better base versions of tools, which have higher stats by default (i.e. going from Makeshift to Simple tools).

The second is by increasing a tool or gun's rarity at an upgrade bench. By spending the corresponding tier of essence, you can immensely increase the item level and stats of an item. As a general rule of thumb, you'll always want to upgrade any new tool or gun to the highest available rarity right after making it.

Infusions

Compared to rarity upgrades, Nightingale infusions are a little more tricky to make use of. When you upgrade tools and guns, they gain new infusion slots. You can then place infusions into these slots (one per rarity).

However, you can only place infusions that increase stats that are already on that item. For example, an infusion that increases stamina regeneration can only be placed onto an item that already has the stamina regeneration stat on it.

How to Unlock More Guns and Tools

Nightingale guns and tools are unlocked primarily via the essence traders you find in each realm. You'll need to visit multiple realm types to unlock all available recipes.

In addition to unlocking the recipe at a trader, you also need to have the right tier of workbench, and place the correct "augmentation" building nearby.

Nightingale Tools Crafting Recipes and Unlocks List

Simple Tools

• Simple Hunting Knife - Simple Workbench
• Simple Mining Pick - Simple Workbench
• Simple Sickle - Simple Workbench
• Simple Wood Axe - Simple Workbench
• Simple Maul - Abeyance Essence Trader
• Simple Climbing Picks - Abeyance Essence Trader
• Simple Hammer - Abeyance Essence Trader
• Simple Fishing Rod - Abeyance Essence Trader
• Simple Umbrella - Abeyance Essence Trader

Refined Tools

• Refined Hunting Knife - Refined Workbench with a Hunting augmentation
• Refined Mining Pick - Refined Workbench with a Miner augmentation
• Refined Sickle - Refined Workbench with a Agriculture augmentation
• Refined Wood Axe - Refined Workbench with a Woodworking augmentation
• Refined Umbrella Glider - Desert Provisioner Essence Trader
• Refined Climbing Picks - Desert Herbarium Essence Trader
• Refined Hammer - Desert Herbarium Essence Trader
• Refined Fishing Rod - Swamp Herbarium Essence Trader
• Axepick - Desert Gloom Essence Trader
• Refined Maul - Swamp Gloom Essence Trader

Dauntless and Mystic tier tools do not require you to make realms. Instead the recipes for these can be found at The Watch (found during the main story), requiring Tier 3 essence.

Nightingale Guns Crafting Recipes and Unlocks List

• Simple Slingbow - Abeyance Essence Trader
• Chassepot Rifle - Swamp Provisioner Essence Trader
• Smoothbore Shotgun - Desert Provisioner Essence Trader
• Lancaster Pistol - Desert Provisioner Essence Trader
• Lee Metford Rifle - The Watch | Miscellaneous Essence Trader
• Eclair 'Paradox' Shotgun - The Watch | Miscellaneous Essence Trader
• Porter Pistol - The Watch | Miscellaneous Essence Trader
• Webley Revolver - The Watch | Miscellaneous Essence Trader
• Winchester Rifle - The Watch | Miscellaneous Essence Trader

We've reached the end of our Nightingale Weapons and Tools Guide, but there's plenty more to explore — check out our other guides below!