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Nightingale multiplayer and how to play with friends

We explain how Nightingale co-op works so you don’t have to take on the eldritch horrors alone, and can work on building a real community.

Nightingale multiplayer: a man dressed in red, holind gn axe, monitoring the construction of a building.

How do you play Nightingale multiplayer with friends? The Victorian gaslight crafting survival game (other descriptors are available) is all about braving the wilds, exploring the unknown, and building a base so you and yours can thrive. While Nightingale can be played solo, there are a fair few advantages to bringing some friends along for the ride.

The Nightingale release date is upon us, and you might think you’re ready to dive head-first into the crafting game. That said, you should consider whether you’re ready to go it alone. We all know that many hands create light work, and, it turns out, that’s especially true in a world filled with monstrous entities. Here’s how Nightingale multiplayer works, and what you need to do to play with friends.

An image of the in-game Nightingale multiplayer menu.

Nightingale co-op with friends

To play Nightingale with up to five friends, you must first pass through the initial portal, guided by Puck. Now, open your menu and go to the party tab, or just press ‘P’, and you can create a party, using the search bar on the left to invite your friends.

You can now embark on adventures with your group, with each person earning loot and completing quests individually, rather than it all being shared. Loot from these encounters drops individually, so it’s worthwhile communicating with your party, seeing who needs what, and dropping items accordingly.

To create a home base for your co-op group, each member of the party needs to place down an Estate Cairn. The Estate Cairn designates that location as your Respite Realm and will ensure that your party will also be able to access your estate.

Nightingale multiplayer: a wooden house set on the edges on a forest.

Nightingale public multiplayer

With or without friends, you can encounter other online players by setting your Realm to public, meaning you are able to see other players occupying that specific realm at the same time as you. To do this, open the party menu by pressing ‘P’, and change your Realm setting from Private to Public. This can be toggled off again at any time.

Nightingale is a PvE-only game, which means that, while you can have other human players in your game, there won’t be any fussing or fighting, and the only threats to your health will be in-game enemies.

Setting your Realm to public will open you to more social opportunities, but be aware that anyone occupying the same Realm as you will be able to interact with your buildings, and can, in theory, destroy what you’ve built. You can choose to party up with these other players and go on adventures together if you want.

Now that you know how Nightingale co-op multiplayer works, it’s up to you whether you open yourself up to the outside world or forge on alone. If you’re after something similar to play, try the best survival games, or for something completely different, our best PC games list has something for every taste.