Nightingale - How To Increase Gear Score

Progression in Nightingale might seem unclear at first. Apart from jumping back and forth mysterious worlds, you still need to boost your character's equipment just to gain access to certain areas. Here's our guide on how to increase gear score in Nightingale.

How to increase gear score in Nightingale

You can increase item level or gear score by upgrading your equipment. We've got all the details for you in our item upgrade and infusion guide, but here's a quick summary nonetheless:

• Your total gear score is calculated based on the following items that you have equipped:
  • Main hand weapon or tool; the off-hand item is not counted.
  • Headgear
  • Gear/coat
  • Backpack/cloak/poncho
  • Shirt
  • Pants
  • Gloves
  • Boots
• The first opportunity you have to upgrade items is when you obtain the Simple Upgrade Bench. This blueprint comes from Essence Traders in an Abeyance Realm (i.e. your home realm).
• This structure requires 4x Lumber, 2x Ingot, and 3x Twine to build.
• Once it's up and running, select an item that you would like to upgrade and pay the corresponding cost in Essence currency.
• Note that some items might have higher gear score by default compared to what you have at the moment. Examples include the Druidic Breeches from NPC recruits and the Spyglass tool.

What happens when you increase an item's gear score in Nightingale

When you increase an item's gear score in Nightingale, you'll see that its stats will be boosted permanently. Here are a couple of examples:

• Weapons/tools - Attributes such as damage, strength, stamina efficiency, critical hit, magic power, and others might increase.
• Clothing - Attributes such as health, stamina, health regeneration, stamina regeneration, and others might increase.

The item's rarity will also rank up. For instance, a common item will become uncommon (green). Uncommon items can then become rares (blue) and, eventually, epic (purple). Likewise, the item in question will gain one infusion slot per rarity tier from uncommon onward. This allows you to add more infusion buffs.

However, the number one reason why you want to continue increasing an item's gear score is because of progression blockers. Simply put, there are main quests that require you to reach a particular gear score before you can access certain areas. For example, the Astrolabe and Provisioner Sites of Power have barriers that prevent you from entering until your item levels reach a certain threshold.

Lastly, bear in mind that the Simple Upgrade Bench is just the first workbench that you use to increase gear score in Nightingale. As you visit other realms, you'll obtain the Refined Upgrade Bench and Excellent Crafting Bench blueprints. Both of these can boost an item's stats further.