While Nightingale has various features that help it stand out from the competition, one feature of the survival game consistently causes issues for players. This is how Nightingale‘s Follower problem hurts gameplay.
What Happened with Followers in Nightingale
Nightingale offers Followers as a way for players to receive aid in combat, collect resources, and carry them back to base. The NPCs have a lot of potential, but there’s one big flaw Followers have: a love for destruction.
Reading through the different threads on Reddit or Discord highlights that Followers often end up destroying some aspect of the base while players are away. If left with an axe, you can bet they’ll cut down all the trees in the area. If your base is any of those, you risk it falling on your structure, destroying the roof, walls, and any items in the path of destruction.
Reddit user Past-Adhesiveness150 posted about the destruction of their base at the hands of a Follower. After a glitch caused trees to respawn inside the structure, the companion proceeded to chop them down. This caused the trunks to fall on the shelves and containers, destroying them and dispersing the contents. Since they couldn’t pick up all resources in time, they ended up losing the Tier 4 and Tier 5 essences, as well as other rare materials they worked so hard to collect.
Nothing is Safe from Followers
Along with Followers causing the destruction of bases, they’re also known to burn rare resources. From Tier 5 woods to Grendel wood to Elder Eotan wood, if it’s flammable, it’ll end up being a crafting fire as fuel. This only occurs if the fire is already going, but it’s easy to forget they’re on if you’re making a large amount of items.
These issues aren’t new. They’ve been happening since Nightingale launched in Early Access. You can find multiple threads on the r/nightingale subreddit describing Followers as a menace, complaining of them wrecking their houses, and more. The first I found was from two months ago, and I counted over 10 other threads devoted to the subject.
The best way to prevent these problems is to remove all items, especially the axe, from your Follower’s inventory. Just in case, you should also check all fires and put them out before you leave your base. Better to be safe than sorry. You also need to make sure that all storage containers have Follower access removed so none of the NPCs can take out resources. Without things to burn or a way to chop trees, the destruction ceases.
Late-game resources are harder to come by, especially those gained from Jana, vault bosses, and Apex creatures. Losing important materials you were saving can sap your desire to continue. If this happened multiple times, I would stop playing during the Early Access period, or at least consider it.
With more players reaching the current endgame, this scenario is likely to occur more frequently. Across various tip forums, guide posts, and general chatter, multiple people state that you have to remove all items from a Follower before leaving them unattended. However, this can seriously impact how many people try Nightingale during Early Access or give the game another chance after they’ve given it up.
In addition, another bug has surfaced concerning Followers. Upon returning to their base, players such as Reddit user attila_bathory have found their companion has doubled. In some cases, up to four of the same NPC were milling about. Imagine four NPCs charging at trees around a base, ready to cause mayhem and destruction.
I personally don’t travel with a Follower since they end up being in my way more often than naught. Improved companion AI is listed on the official roadmap for the future, so we can only hope they’ll no longer have a thirst for destruction or mysteriously obtain twin siblings.
If you want to learn more about the game, check out our Nightingale guide hub and find out how to increase your gear score and what fabled items are.
