Gear Score in Nightingale is one of the most important aspects of the game. It makes sure a player is capable and equipped enough of entering a Realm. Simply put, it can be increased by making better equipment. However, if you’re somehow stuck, and don’t how to increase your Gear Score further, here’s a guide which covers 20 to 100+!
Complete Gear Score Progression Guide (20-100)
I’ve divided the guide into 5 parts of Gear Score progression – From 20 to 100+. Also, I’ve provided a Table of Contents below, so you can easily navigate on whichever Gear Score you’re stuck in.
How to Level Up Your Gear Early & Fast
As you progress through the game, you will eventually reach your first Abeyance Realm, which is also where you will meet your first Essence trader.
In addition to that, you will run into your first Site of Power (the Antiquarian one). This is the reason you need to level up fast, as it requires you to have a gear score of 20 before it lets you in.
If you follow our guide about the best first base location in Nightingale, then you will find yourself set up close to both of these things right off the bat.
As you make your way to wherever you are going to set your base up, gather resources and kill animals along the way. You will need a lot of animal hide, plant fiber, stone blocks, bundles of wood, and rocks.
Once you have a decent little shelter, even just a Stick tent, you will need to construct the following workbenches (preferably indoors, as this will affect crafting speeds):
- Simple Sewing Bench
- Simple Tanning Station
- Simple Workbench
If you don’t have the recipes for some of them, they will be available at the essence trader. If you are struggling to afford the essence trader’s offerings, check out our guide on how to get essence dust fast.
Also, you can recruit your first companion by completing a very easy quest from the NPC beside the essence trader. All you have to do is finish building the bedrolls and campfire right beside them.
Quick & Easy Gear Score Boost
Now that you have all of the necessary recipes, start crafting leather and two straps at the simple tanning station. If you need more animal hide, the essence trader sells them at a very low price.
With a handful of plant fibre and around 10-12 leather, you can craft an entire set of simple clothing. At the workbench, craft a simple mining pick or simple wood axe using the following materials:
- 1x Stone Block
- 1x Wood Bundle
- 2x Straps
After that, just equip all of these armor pieces and the simple weapon/tool. Once you do that, voila! You now have a gear score of at least 20, and it really only took you a few minutes of work!
And that is how you level up your equipment as fast as possible in the early in the early game of Nightingale.
How To Get Gear Score 20
To get a Gear Score of 20 in Nightingale, you’ll need to do the following:
- Craft a Simple Workbench and Tanning Station
- Craft a Simple Tool or Item (like Simple Mining Pick)
- Craft a Simple Sewing Station
- Craft the Simple Armor Set
- Equip all the Simple Tools and Armor Set to get Gear Score 20.
Gear Score 20 Explained
Starting off, we will be explaining what a Gear Score 20 actually is. Basically, every item whether it be a tool or an armor, has a Gear Score attached to it. You can actually see this score by hovering your cursor over any item that you have.
Additionally, you can also see an overall Gear Score in your inventory too. This Gear Score is calculated by the game by taking an average of all the armors and items that you have equipped. So, your goal is to have items and tools that will take your Gear Score to 20.
When you’re playing Nightingale, you’ll be asked to achieve this as part of the Antiquarian Site of Power quest objective. We will show you exactly how you can achieve this next.
Craft a Simple Workbench & Tanning Station
To get a Gear Score of 20, you will need to start by building a Simple Workbench. You can find the Simple Workbench in the Crafting: Basics and Repair Section of your Recipes Menu. After you find it, select Place so that you can put the blueprint down.
Once you have the blueprint down, you’ll need to put in the resources required to build it. The Simple Workbench will require the following resources:
- x10 Wood Bundles
- x4 Plant Fibre
If you’re having trouble with the first requirement, check out our How To Get Wood Bundle guide.
After that, you’ll need another crafting station which is the Simple Tanning Station. It can also be found in the Crafting: Basics and Repair section of your Recipes Menu. Select it and place the blueprint down wherever you need to.
Again, you’ll need resources to actually build it. You can do so by getting the following resources:
- x6 Sticks
- x10 Plant Fibre
Craft a Simple Item (Simple Mining Pick Recommended)
Now that we have our crafting stations ready, we can move onto making a simple item. To get your Gear Score to 20, you can technically make any item. However, we recommend getting a Simple Mining Pick as it will actually help you with the other materials or crafting stations you need.
First up, you want to interact with the Simple Tanning Station. Here, you want to craft at least x2 Straps from any Hide you have. You can purchase Hide with Essence Dust from an Essence Trader.
Our How To Get Straps guide goes into more detail with this part.
Once you have the required number of straps, you can now move onto the Simple Workbench. Here, you’ll find an assortment of Simple Items that you can craft with the Straps you made. Craft any one of them and you’re one step closer to getting Gear Score 20.
Craft a Simple Sewing Station
Next up, you’ll need to make yet another crafting station, which is the Simple Sewing Station. We have a detailed guide on getting a Simple Sewing Station, if you want to get one.
In essence, to get a Simple Sewing Station you will need to first unlock the Schematic for it. You can do this easily by visiting an Essence Trader that can be found in the Respite area of the Nightingale map.
Interact with him and you’ll see a menu that shows all sorts of schematics that you can purchase with Essence Dust. In the Crafting: Basics & Repair section, you can purchase the Simple Sewing Station Recipe for 55 Essence Dust.
After that, you can open your Recipes Menu and navigate to the Crafting: Basics & Repair section. Here, you’ll find the Simple Sewing Station and you can place the blueprint down.
You’ll need the following resources to actually build it:
- x10 Wood Bundles
- x15 Fiber
- x1 Bone(s).
Craft Simple Armor Set using Simple Sewing Station
Now you are finally close to actually fulfilling the main requirements for the Gear Score 20. Interact with the Simple Sewing Station and you’ll see all sorts of clothing or armors that you can craft. You’ll need to craft all of them, or at least enough to cover every equipable clothing type.
For this part, you’ll be using quite a bit of leather. So, we recommend checking out our How To Get Leather guide. In essence, you’ll be using the Simple Tanning Station to convert Hide into Leather.
Once you have the tools and Armor Set, you’ll need to equip all of them. You can even see that each of them has a Gear Score of 20. After you equip all of them, your Gear Score will reach 20.
Sometimes it can glitch out, even after you’ve equipped everything. Just give it a minute and you’ll see that the game will update the score and you’ll have achieved your objective of getting Gear Score 20!
That’s everything you need to know about getting a Gear Score of 20. Now, you can move onto your other objectives in Nightingale.
How To Get Gear Score 40
In Nightingale, you’ll be able to craft all sorts of stuff like different gear to help you through your journey. Each piece of gear increases your Gear Score and the higher the tier of the items the more gear score you have.
Gear score is used in some quests in the game to let you know how to progress through it. Reaching the gear score of 40 is one of the earliest quests you’ll do. The best way to do this is to upgrade your existing gear!
If you place a Simple Upgrade Bench on your base and interact with it, you can then upgrade your gear. Just select the common items that you have like a simple Shirt and then combine it with a T1 Essence. If you don’t know how essences work, check out our complete Essence guide for more information!
Upgrading the Simple Gear (Gear Score 20) with a T1 Essence will change it to Gear Score 40. When you’ve built yourself some Infusions, you can increase the gear score of the upgraded Simple Gear further by adding them.
All you need to do is make sure that all of your Simple Gear is upgraded to Gear Score 40 and above and you’ll reach it in no time!
That’s how you can increase your Gear Score to 40 in Nightingale. Now, go out there and try it out yourself!
How to Get From Gear Score 50 to Gear Score 70
By now, you should be very familiar with the concept of building realm portals and crafting cards, otherwise you wouldn’t have made it to this gear score to begin with.
With this knowledge, your next step is to enter a Provisioner realm. In order to do that, you will need to find a Provisioner site of power in order to get the card needed to open up a portal to get there.
Also, you will need to stock up on some Tier 1 essence, as you will be buying some new crafting stations and upgrading gear in a bit.
Finding an Essence Trader
Once you enter a Provisioner realm, your next step is to find the essence trader. We can’t give you exact directions for this one, as his location (and even name) will be randomized, but he should be easy to spot due to his large wagon/cart.
From here, purchase all of the crafting station schematics (the ones with the “Refined” prefix). This will cost you quite a bit of tier 1 essence, which is why you should be ready with a decent amount.
Crafting New Gear
Once you have all of the refined crafting stations unlocked, construct all of them in your base. Ideally, you should do this indoors on top of foundations. Not doing so will affect your crafting efficiency.
At this point, all you need to do now is start gathering the necessary materials and begin crafting the best gear that you can get. Keep upgrading stuff until you reach gear score 70.
How To Get Gear Score 70 Up To 100+
Gear Score in Nightingale is important because there is a lot of content locked behind it. You can’t do certain quests without reaching the right gear score first so it’s important to know how to increase it.
At earlier levels, you’ll learn that upgrading your gear score to 40 is one of the earliest quests that require you to do so. When you reach the gear score of 70, the process to level up to 100+ is pretty similar, you’ll just need to upgrade your upgrade bench!
You’ll want to upgrade your gear using an Upgrade Bench, this time with the Refined Upgrade Bench. You can find the recipe for this building by going to a realm with a Gloom card. If you don’t have that card yet check out our guide on how to unlock the Gloom card for more information!
Once you’ve done, that all you need to do is use the bench and upgrade your gear with it. Upgrading your gear score 70 items should increase its tier to Rare using the right essence.
That’s how you can upgrade your gear score from 70 to 100+ in Nightingale. Now, go out there and try it out yourself!
Summing things up
The more you increase your Gear Score – the more content you’re able to access in Nightingale. That makes it one of the most important aspects of the game. I hope I was able to help you out with this guide. If you’d like us to cover a different topic for Nightingale, even another game or if you have questions or concerns, feel free to contact us in the comments section below!
