Top 3 Strategies: Where to Build Your Base in Nightingale

Introduction

One of the most common questions players ask is: where to build my base in Nightingale? Should it be in the starter realm? Is it possible to move to a different realm later on? With the recent Realm Rebuild Update, base-building has become even more flexible, and this guide will help you find the perfect spot to call home.

What is a Base in Nightingale?

In Nightingale, your base is where you keep your main storage, workshop, and portal room—your primary operations hub. This is where you start and end your adventures, storing the valuable loot you’ve gathered.

Since the Realm Rebuild Update increased building limits from 300 elements to 1500, players have more freedom than ever to explore different locations. In my experience and from conversations with other players, there are three common strategies for where to place your base, which are largely defined by the available transportation methods. If you’re unfamiliar with the various teleportation systems, check out my detailed post on fast travel and portals in Nightingale. Or this guide covering topic of hauling all your belongings to a new base location.

Now, let’s go over the most effective strategies for base placement.

Strategy 1: Keep Everything in the Abeyance Realm

The Abeyance Realm is where your journey begins, and it houses the Crossways with eight storyline portals. Many players build their bases in this realm because of the convenience of fast access to the Crossways. Some even choose to construct their base right in the middle of the portal structure.

While you can build anywhere in this realm, even in caves, you can also place Lodestar Teleporters for fast travel between points of interest like fishing docks, gardens, or different levels of your flying base.

Key Advantages

• Freeing up the Estate Cairn: The most significant advantage of this strategy is that your Estate Cairn isn’t tied to your base. This means you can take it with you and place it wherever you’re exploring, making it ideal for building outposts, or other temporary tasks.
• Efficient for Farming: By keeping your base in Abeyance, you can use Cairn and Lodestars to create a farming loop, perfect for farming mobs like Grendels or Harpies without needing a constant portal open.
• Quick Travel: The Estate Cairn works anywhere, even inside deep caves, while Lodestars are only usable when you stand on one. So with Travel to respite you get fast mobility without locking yourself to a specific location.

Downsides

• Lack of Uniqueness: Abeyance is a handcrafted realm, which means it’s the same for every player. While you can modify the environment with minor cards, you won’t achieve the uniqueness offered by other realms.

Strategy 2: Move to a Randomly Generated Realm

If you’re seeking a unique base that no one else has, this is the way to go. By picking any of the 36 Major Realm Cards—like Antiquarian or Astrolabe—you can load new realms, explore them, and search for the perfect base location.

Every realm type has distinct characteristics. For example Herbarium Realms tend to feature more floating rock structures, while Provisioner Realms have more industrial elements like factories, oil rigs, and abandoned villages.

If you don’t like the realm you get, simply reset and open a fresh new one. Repeat until you find a layout you love. Keep in mind that while terrain and structures are permanent, colors and weather can be altered later with a Realmic Transmuter.

Advantages

• Uniqueness: Since realms are procedurally generated, you’ll have a one-of-a-kind base location that no one else in the game will have.
• Diverse Environments: Different realm types offer different environmental features, so you can pick a realm that matches the story or look you want for your base.

Downsides

• Loading Times: Moving your base to a new realm will involve more loading screens, especially if you need to travel to Crossways to reach your base.

Strategy 3: A Combination of Both

You can also combine the two strategies. Build your main base in a random realm and leave a portal to it in Abeyance. Use Lodestars to travel to different points within the realm after teleporting from Crossways.

Advantages

• Best of Both Worlds: You get a unique realm to build base in, but you also free up your Estate Cairn for other activities.

Downsides

• Longer Load Times: You’ll face extended loading times due to the need to load the Crossways, open the portal, and then load your base realm. This can be cumbersome if you’re frequently switching between realms.

While I don’t recommend this approach as a permanent solution, I’ve included it because some players might find it useful as a temporary strategy for tasks like farming rare hides or quickly jumping between two realms (or within the same realm) for more convenient resource gathering.

Base Aesthetics: Making Your Base Stand Out

Finally, your base can be more than just a storage space or workshop. Here are a few tips for designing a visually stunning base:

• Use Unique Structures: From natural caves to floating islands, or even embedding your base into old factories, castle ruins, or zeppelins, Nightingale offers plenty of possibilities to make your base stand out.
• Incorporate Story Elements: Add old portals or even trap an Elder Eoten as part of your beautiful garden design (just be sure to set your companion to passive mode to avoid triggering a fight) to create a unique and dynamic setting.
• Role-play Elements: For those who love role-play or cinematic moments, build scenic spots that can serve as the backdrop for your adventures.

Nightingale’s base-building possibilities are vast, and with more tilesets and features likely to be added in future updates as we move towards a game release, your base can evolve and grow along with the game.

This complete guide should help you decide where to build your base in Nightingale and make your experience both strategic and aesthetically pleasing. Let me know in the comments if you have any other base-building tips or strategies!