Gear Score is a feature of Nightingale which requires players to gradually improve their Gear Score to take on new dungeons in the player’s Abeyance starting biome realm. The better your Gear Score gets, the better time you will have taking on any realms where you modify the difficulty or fancy taking on higher challenges. To help progress the early game questlines and take on more challenges, here’s everything you need to know about getting higher Gear Score in Nightingale, and how the feature works.
Nightingale’s Gear Score feature determines an average item level used to determine if you’re ready to take on certain quests or gameplay features. We teach you how to increase it further and how the system works. Image via Inflexion.
What is Gear Score in Nightingale?¶
Gear Score is a feature in Nightingale that averages out the item level of all currently equipped items. This considers all of your equipped clothing and armor, alongside the items you currently equip in your main and off-hand. Your Gear Score can fluctuate if you swap between weapons and off-hand items with a lower item level value, which you must consider as you track the progress of your quests to Unlock Major Cards in your Abeyance Realm.
With that said, you now have the task of upgrading Gear Score.
How to Improve Gear Score and Item Levels in Nightingale¶
So, Gear Score is something that you will be working on throughout the course of the game. In general, the better items you get, the more Gear Score you will get. It is lightly affected by enchantments and infusions to grant more Gear Score, alongside crafting items with better base tier materials.
How to Get 20 Gear Score¶
In the early game, when you’re working through towards the Unlock the Antiquarian Site of Power quest, you will need 20 Gear Score. To get 20 Gear Score, you must craft new armor at the Spinning Wheel, using base fiber to create your clothing and Hide from the Tanning Rack. Once you get your gear and start crafting simple tools from the Crafting Station, you will get to Gear Score 20.
From then on, you will need to increase your Gear Score further to unlock other Major Cards. This ranges from 20-45 Gear Score in the early game. To reach that point, you must increase your gear through crafting, upgrades and more.
(1 of 2) Upgrading items grants a large 20 Item Level Upgrade on your items.
Upgrading items grants a large 20 Item Level Upgrade on your items. (left), Enchantments and Infusions further increase your Item Level and, therefore, your average Gear Score. (right)
Upgrading Stations - Quest¶
Upgrading Stations is a quest unlocked once you enter the Antiquarian Realm. You will need to use T1 Essence to upgrade gear, a recurring theme as you go through the higher map tiers and get more refined Upgrading Stations. This will greatly increase the Item Level of your gear, and thus contribute to the Gear Score. You’ll be using 40 T1 Essence per early game upgrade, meaning you need to farm some POIs in the Antiquarian Realm to upgrade all your tools and armor.
In addition, when upgrading an item to uncommon quality, you can apply enchantments and infusions. These grant new perks, passives and spells which you can benefit from by using them on the tools. But more importantly, depending on the quality of the spell or infusion, you will get a few item levels on the item you applied them to. These add up over time across all items, and the more you upgrade the item, the more buffs you can apply to those items. You’ll go from 10 Gear Score to onwards of 40 Gear Score in the long haul, which is huge all things considered.
Furthermore, players will start using new higher-tier items to craft base material needed for tools, armor and weapons. Using better-tier materials will grant more item level to crafted items. For example, some of the Etched Ore and Ingots can turn a tool from its base 20-item level into a 60-item level tool. The deeper you go into the various higher-tier worlds, you will find more and more of these resources and recipes to create powerful base materials, which you can then use to turn into stronger tools, weapons and armor. Sure, you’ll need to farm upgrades again, but it’s certainly worth it as you try to reach that desirable 150 Gear Score to start end game activities.
This concludes everything you need to know on how to get Gear Score in Nightingale. Good luck with progressing through the game and crafting your desired build and playstyle.
More Nightingale Guides:¶
If you’re looking for more help in the early game, check out our pages below for the best 10 Nightingale tips, information on starting biomes, and how to get essence dust.
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