Gear/Resource progression since May 2025 update

Progression jumps too abruptly between Magwytch and The Watch:

• Full T3 progression is unlocked at the after completing the Gloriana's Tears Sights of Power, but materials remain T3 across Magwytch, Gloriana's Tears, and Hollowed Moor and the Gauntlets

• T4 materials only come after arriving at The Watch via Vaults and unlocking Ascended realms, except for luck with chest loot

• T5 materials become available before The Watch, making the new access to certain T4 materials largely pointless

• As soon as players arrive at The Watch the Vault becomes available, but at the same time Boss Rush becomes available, making Vaults mostly obsolete except as convenient low-yield essence and random fabled resource mines; except for the T5 resource reward there is no benefit to doing Vaults beyond getting T4 essence to buy Ascended cards, as Ascended realms of the same difficulty (Balanced) provide less challenge for more yield, and Boss Rush yields more T5 variety than Vaults.

• As soon as players arrive at The Watch they are able to move on to Nightingale City, bypassing all of the Ascended realms entirely

Suggestion:

In order to make progression more smooth and maintain material relevance...

• T4 materials (except for essence) should become available in Hollowed Moor and the Gauntlets so that there is a reason to hunt/mine/gather for them, and so they don't become obsolete just as they are made available

• With the new T4 availability in pre-Watch realms the tool level required to mine T5 should increase so that they can only be mined with tools upgraded at the Upgrade Bench and/or the T5 material rewards from Vaults

• The main quest line should have players complete objectives (such as a set number of POIs, whether total or specifically Aid, since we're trying to bring humanity back from the brink of extinction) in each Ascended realm set (Antiquarian, Astrolabe etc) before Boss Rush and Nightingale City become available

  • In order to get through the Ascended realm sets each next tier should be unlocked only after completing the ones prior to it; to unlock Astrolabe you have to finish Antiquarian, to unlock Provisioner you have to finish Astrolabe, etc

In order to make resource progression more smooth, maintain balance while also keeping them relevant, there should be a complete re-balancing of material diversification, such as suggested here: https://playnightingale.ideas.aha.io/ideas/RRFEEDBACK-I-1283.

There is little point to keeping Predator/Prey materials beyond T1 except for the Glamour textures since they become obsolete almost immediately; Prey gives 5/10/15/20 stamina respective to tier, and Predator 10/20/30/40 health respective to tier, but plant fibres provide a second or tertiary attribute at T3 (Titania's Crown provides 2 attributes at T1, but players can't harvest T1 anymore).

Bound fibres are likewise only really useful for their Glamour textures (which I actually like and use) because, as mentioned in the diversification post, they don't help with survivability; stealth and maleficium resistance are low-demand attributes, so they waste potential in equipment unless the only alternative is Crude fibre (adding the magick attribute starting at T1 rather than T3 would make them vastly more desirable).