If you’re like me, you are just itching to get ready to jump into the Faewilds, but we don’t have to do it all alone, as we are able to get together with friends and explore the Realms in all their glory. But before we do that, there are a few things that we need to know about partying with others.

Realms come in two flavors: private and public. By default, your realm is set to private, and hence you will not run into any other players in the realm unless your party up co-op style, or you set your realm to public.

There are a few things you must do before you can play with others or make a realm public. First, you must complete the tutorial. That’s the area between the Byway Realms. Then, you will arrive at your Abeyance Realm (home base), and once there, you will have the ability to send and receive party invites and even start a voice chat with people in your party.

Next, you must find an archway, then go to the Realm Card machine and insert your desired combination of Realm Cards that will open up your destination. Inside that machine interface, you will find the option to make a realm public. Activate that, and then boom, everyone can see and join that realm.

Now, a bit of caution before you go and make the realm public. Anyone who joins these public realms can complete encounters independently and interact with structures that others have built. This means that anyone can help build or destroy other players’ estates. You can even choose to party up with any player you encounter.

You might be wondering if it’s possible for a group of players to build a community together, and the answer is yes. Each player will have to place an estate cairn, making this realm their respite realm (home realm). Players can only have one active respite realm at a time. You also get the bonus that any player who has their Respite Realm set in the same realm can return to the realm even if the main player who created the realm is offline.

When out and about traveling with friends, loot chests from completing encounters are per player. Also, if you want to trade or give items to other party members, you can do that by dropping the item you want to share. Maybe later they will have a trade system to streamline trading with strangers.

Quests, though, are tracked per player. Each player will need to complete the various quest steps to progress further. When it comes to encounters like fighting an Apex creature, if the encounter is completed with everyone in the group participating in the encounter, everyone will get the same rewards.

Nightingale is set to release in early access on February 22nd, 2024.

Are you going to play solo, or with a friend? Let me know in the comments below.