While survival games likeNightingaleare filled with animals to hunt and hostile creatures to defend against, they rarely present players with friendly faces.Nightingalesubverts this trend by emphasizing friendly NPCs, both as quest givers or merchants and as recruitable buddies that can make several of the game’s systems much easier to manage.
In an interview with Game Rant,Inflexion Games CEO Aaryn Flynnalong with art director and head of studio Neil Thompson weighed in on howNightingale’s recruitable NPCs will help make life easier for the Realmwalkers in combat, resource gathering, and even base construction. In addition to being a huge help around the camp, the presence of these NPCs throughout the realms also serves as a way to make the realms feel more alive, and their recruitment conditions give players some focused gameplay goals during a session.
NPC Recruitment Encounters in Nightingale Shake Up Its Gameplay
Many of the realms inNightingaleare inhabited by static NPCs who act as merchants or quest-givers, but players will also occasionally happen across NPCs in need of some immediate assistance. For example, an NPC in a camp might need some help finishing up the construction of a crafting workshop building. If players take the time to gather the necessary materials and complete the blueprint, the NPC will become available for recruitment. Thesedynamic side questscan take other forms as well: another NPC might need some assistance fending off hostile creatures.
For our initial release, players may recruit a single NPC at a time. Any encounter that features NPCs, once you complete the encounter, you have the option to recruit that NPC. Once you have them, you may change their clothing, and equipped item. They will then follow you, reviving you when necessary, fighting enemies, repairing structures, harvesting trees and ore, and generally just being your friend in the realms.
It’s an engaging method of recruitment that livens up a gameplay session where players might otherwise be unsure of what to do.Recruiting an NPC companionis a clear-cut goal that can be worked on in reasonably short order, and the construction assistance jobs are also a handy way of previewing structures and layouts that players may want to incorporate into their own base building back home. Although only one companion can be recruited at a time, the game makes it painless to transfer a companion’s inventory over to a new one if players choose to pair up with somebody else.
NPC Companions in Nightingale Help With Gathering, Combat, and Construction
The companions themselves are a tremendous help inall ofNightingale’s content. When equipped with resource-gathering tools like axes or pickaxes, companions will automatically gather resources in the surrounding area. Similarly, their weaponry and equipment can all be managed by players to make them more efficient at resource gathering or combat. In addition to gathering resources, they’ll even help out with any blueprinted construction tasks around the player’s base.
You’ll be able to recruit an NPC who will help you gather resources and help build your blueprints, which is a huge boost especially when you’re playing solo. We don’t want base building to be overwhelming to players who don’t want to focus on that, so we offer ample gameplay opportunities to players to find resources and build into existing structures. That said, players will still need to invest in their crafting benches and stations by gathering more resources.
Naturally, the NPC companions can make a serious difference in combat, especially in some ofNightingale’ssurprisingly tough boss fights. Having an NPC buddy around to take attention off of the player and to dish out some extra damage will be an especially welcome boon to solo players.
Nightingale
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Nightingale is a PVE open-world survival crafting game played solo (offline or online), or cooperatively with friends. Build, craft, fight and explore as you venture through mystical portals into a variety of amazing and fantastical realms.You are stranded beyond our world, cut off by the collapse of the arcane portalnetwork. This catastrophe has left you fighting to survive in a labyrinth of beautiful and dangerous Fae realms.Your goal: become a skilled Realmwalker, and navigate the web of transdimensional portals. Only then can you discover your way to the magical city of Nightingale, the last known bastion of humanity.Prepare to make your way through Faewild forests, harrowing swamps, and shimmering deserts as you unlock the portals leading deeper into the lands of Fae. Cook meals, build shelter and muster the spirit to persevere in the face of adversity.
