How to Increase Gear Score in Nightingale

Without your Victorianesque gear, you’re just a shell of a person surrounded by strange creatures and procedurally generated realms in Nightingale.

What you wear and carry in your hot bar defines your strength in Nightingale. And in a world as deadly as Nightingale, a makeshift cutting knife and a poncho can only get you so far. As you level up your character and refine your base, you’ll want to progressively improve your tools and gear as well. However, this aspect of the game isn’t super straightforward, thanks to an equally overinformative and unintuitive user interface. In this guide, I’ll show you how to increase your gear score in Nightingale.

Related: How to Adjust the Height of Structures in Nightingale

How to Unlock the Antiquarian Site of Power in Nightingale

To complete unlock the Antiquarian Site of Power in Nightingale, you’ll first need to reach Gear Power 20. You can increase your gear power by crafting Simple Tools in your Simple Workbench and crafting simple clothes in your Simple Sewing Bench.

The first step is to craft a Simple Workbench. You can access this blueprint from the Build menu (B) under Crafting: Basics and Repairs. The required ingredients are 10x Wood Bundles and 4x Plant Fiber. At this crafting station, you can make a Simple Climbing Pick, Simple Hunting Knife, Simple Mining Pick, Simple Rock Marble, Simple Sickle, Simple Slingbow, and Simple Wood Axe. All these items are an improvement from the regular makeshift tools and will increase your gear score in Nightingale.

The second step is to unlock the Simple Sewing Bench by purchasing it from an Essence Trader. Once unlocked, build the Simple Sewing Bench for 10x Wood Bundles, 15x Plant Fiber, and 1x Bone. At this crafting station, you can make a pair of Simple Boots, a Simple Capelet, a Simple Pack, Simple Gloves, a Simple Headwrap, Simple Breeches, and a Simple Shirt.

TIP: Crafting Simple-level clothing items requires straps, which you can craft in a Tanning Station with enemy hides. Wolves, boars, crickets, and elephants all drop hides, which you can then process into straps.

With an improved toolset and clothing, your gear score will rise to 20 in Nightingale, and you’ll be able to complete the unlock the Antiquarian Site of Power quest. Keep in mind that you don’t need to craft every piece of clothing or tool, but it’ll be a nice boost in durability for the battles to come. After all, those realm cards won’t unlock themselves.