Nightingale Realm Cards explained

A player finds a mysterious statue in NightingaleInflexion Games

As arguably the central mechanic in open-world survival Nightingale, it’s important to understand how realms work. A big part of that is Realm Cards. Here’s everything you need to know about how they work.

Developed by Inflexion Games, Nightingale is a crafting-focused survival game that leans into its alternative Victorian aesthetic. Players are known as Realmwalkers, and they are able to travel between Realms using one of a number of Arcane Portals.

Realm Cards are a major part of setting up those inter-realm traversals, and they dictate a lot about how the game functions. They can also be used to control more specific facets between realms, depending on the priorities of the player.

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Read on for everything we know about Realm Cards in Nightingale.

Complete guide to Nightingale Realm Cards

Aggressive people run at a player in NightingaleInflexion Games

So what are Realm Cards? Essentially, the developer describes them as craftable items imbued with powerful arcane magic. When used in Arcane Portals, they decide several important factors, altering the procedurally generated realms that follow.

At the time of writing, there are three distinct types of Realm Cards for players to craft:

  • Biome Cards
  • Major Realm Cards
  • Minor Realm Cards

Biome Cards: As the name suggests, Biome Cards dictate what the next realm will look like in terms of environment. These can be anything from Forests to Swamps or Deserts, and they alter the experience when setting up a new realm to explore.

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Major Realm Cards: Major Realm Cards decide the most important features of a new exploration realm. This can include friendly civilizations, ancient technology or unique magic.

Minor Realm Cards: Minor Realm Cards are much more subtle, but they arguably have the potential to be the most interesting in the game. These can do a lot, from modifying the aesthetic to entirely altering how the game plays.

All of that results in procedurally generated realms essentially macro-designed by the player. The idea is that it will greatly increase the potential for customization and replayability. Biome and Major cards are necessary to successfully create a realm in a portal machine, but the Minor cards can be used at the players’ discretion.

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The game has just launched worldwide and it won’t be long before the community is sharing their discoveries. Whether this new survival will have the staying power to thrive, remains to be seen.