Nightingale Survivor NPCs - How To Recruit Companions

Nightingale allows you to play as part of a group of up to six people. Still, even if you feel like being a lone wolf, there's no reason to journey on your own. That's because you can still have a follower join you on your travels. Here's our guide on how to recruit companions in Nightingale.

How to recruit companions in Nightingale

You can recruit companions by completing a particular task. Depending on the type of Realm that you visit, you should see icons pertaining to NPCs that you can help. If you succeed, you can talk to a survivor to recruit them as a follower.

Note: It's important to remember that you're limited to just one follower at any given time. You have to dismiss your current companion if you want to recruit a different one. Then again, at this stage of early access, NPC followers are quite generic and bland anyway.

Aid the survivor objective

Aid-type tasks require you to construct certain buildings or fixtures for the survivor. For instance, in the first Abeyance Forest Realm that we visited, we only had to build three Sleeping Bags and a Campfire so we could recruit an NPC named Mildred. Later, we encountered an NPC that was building a house, which meant having to collect a lot of sticks and wood.

Needless to say, this mission might be a bit time-consuming depending on the requirements. There are cases when you probably have to gather so many resources just to complete the objective.

Defend the survivor objective

This objective requires you to defend an Extraction Device inside a fort. Once you talk to the survivor NPC and start the activity, multiple Bound enemies will appear (up to three total waves). Some will attack you and the NPCs, while others will beeline for the Extraction Device. It's imperative that you defeat all hostiles before they destroy the machine or incapacitate a character.

Another thing of note is that enemies is that it's risky to fight enemies that are already too close to the Extraction Device, as your attacks can also damage the machine. If it's destroyed, then you need to repair it using Wood Bundles and Plant Fiber, and restart the activity anew.

We definitely recommend the "Defend" activities compared to "Aid" ones. That's because it's easier to take out multiple foes, assuming there are other NPCs in the area. Likewise, you could gain more materials and Essence currency, too.

Additional tips when managing and recruiting companions

Here are some additional tips if you plan to recruit companions in Nightingale:

• Completing a survivor activity allows you to open a magic chest that has rewards (i.e. Essence currency).
• A companion will follow you around, and they will teleport when you're further away to catch up.
• Companions will also attack hostiles (though there's a bit of a delay with their AI). If they're incapacitated, go near them and hold the "E" key to get them back on their feet.
• Talk to a follower to manage their inventory--i.e. transfer the heaviest items for them to carry. This is to help you with inventory storage, since they won't be over-encumbered anyway.
• You can right-click on a companion's gear piece in their inventory to equip or unequip the item. They tend to use the tool that they have equipped (i.e. they chop down trees and collect wood bundles if they have a Wood Axe equipped).
• Companions in Nightingale may help If you're building a structure or workbench and you choose the "Auto-Fill" option:
  • The Auto-Fill option causes your companion to add any relevant materials that they have in their inventory.
  • However, if you're attempting to craft something using that workbench, the Auto-Fill option will only include the items that are in your own inventory, not your companion's. You have to manually transfer items from your companion's inventory and add them to the crafting station in this case.
• Dismissing a companion can sometimes cause them to disappear entirely. These are what we've noticed:
  
  • If you dismiss a companion in the same realm where you recruited them, they'll usually remain in place.
  • If you go to another realm and dismiss a companion from a different world, then they might disappear. However, they leave behind a chest with their belongings so you can pick up any loot that you forgot to transfer earlier.
  • We've noticed that a dismissed follower may return to the portal of the realm where you recruited them. For instance, the Forest Abeyance Realm NPC (Mildred) reappeared in that realm's portal after we dismissed her in a different world.

Gallery

These are just some tips in case you want to recruit companions in Nightingale. These NPCs certainly make adventuring more viable even for solo players.