How to unlock the Antiquarian card in Nightingale

If you've been progressing through Nightingale and you're not sure how to unlock the Antiquarian card, I'm here to help you out.

Nightingale gives you tasks to complete in the early goings to teach you the ropes, but some are less clear than others. Unlocking the Antiquarian card is an important step, so here's everything you need to know to achieve this particular goal.

Where is the Antiquarian card?

The Antiquarian card can be retrieved from the Antiquarian Site of Power, which you can visit once you enter your first proper realm.

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Once you complete the tutorial and receive your Abeyance card, you'll have your own realm to explore and begin building your estate in. At this point, the game will most likely be telling you to increase your gear score, and upon reaching a gear score of 20, you'll be told to go and unlock the Antiquarian card.

If you look at your map, you should have a handful of icons dotted around. One of them will be the Antiquarian Site of Power, and it should be right beside some other icons for a merchant and so on. Head there and you will find a giant structure similar to a pyramid, with a door at the top blocked by a forcefield.

How to access the Antiquarian Site of Power

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First and foremost, you need to be prepared. This is why the game forces you to reach a gear score of 20, as the Site of Power is a challenging place to delve into. To hit that gear score, visit the merchant and buy the plans for a sewing table. With this, you can create a full set of simple clothing which will get you to level 20.

This will require a lot of leather and plant fibre; you'll need to hunt enough creatures to get the hide you need or use this method for farming Essence Dust to quickly get the funds to buy what you need from the merchant. Once you have the full set equipped, make sure to equip a weapon as the clothes alone will not get you to the required level.

Speaking of weapons, you'll need to bring a knife for combat, but I'd also recommend crafting a slinger and plenty of ammo to give yourself a ranged attack. All you'll need for that is wood, straps made from hide, and marbles made from stones as your ammunition. Also, be sure to bring a torch as it can get dark and cold in the Site of Power.

Finally, I'd recommend you talk to the NPC Realmwalker outside the pyramid and help them with their task. Once it's done, you can recruit them and they will join you once you enter the Site of Power.

How to unlock the Antiquarian card

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Now that you're prepared, head inside the pyramid. Your goal here is to make it to the very bottom, but along the way, you will be facing many Bound enemies. There are plenty of them throughout the pyramid, and even more can teleport in, so keep an eye out for the red mist that appears when they do.

The main thing to do is just keep moving down. Find the stairs, head down to the next level, and repeat. There are chests throughout the Site of Power so it's worth your while to explore. Take your time, as you don't want to rush through and get overwhelmed by enemies on all sides.

As you progress, it might get darker and your character might start to get cold. This is where you need a torch, which limits you to using your knife, as the slinger is a two-handed weapon.

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At the bottom of the pyramid, you should find a cave entrance which leads further down. This will bring you into a circular room with a pedestal in the middle, and blue light beams around it. Interacting with the glowing blue object on the left will trigger a boss fight, so heal up and get ready before you do so.

The Fabled Automaton Knight is pretty tough and a bit intimidating due to its size. It floats around the room, charging at you (or your NPC companion, another great reason to bring them along) and when it attacks, it can burn you. It's very difficult to hit with a melee weapon, so use the slinger to take it down.

There are pillars around the room as well as the structure in the centre. Use these to put something between you and the boss to prevent it from attacking you, and pepper it with shots from the slinger until it dies.

Once it's dealt with, interact with the pedestal to unlock the Antiquarian card. Now, you can go to the crafting menu and craft an Antiquarian card with one Paper, one Ink, and 25 Essence Dust.