If you’ve spent hours scouring misty Fae Realms for hidden scrolls, looting chests, and chatting with quirky NPCs, you’ve probably asked how many pages does the Nightingale have at some point. First, let’s clear up any confusion: this guide covers the in-game codex for the open world survival game Nightingale developed by Inflexion Games. If you’re looking for the page count of Kristin Hannah’s novel The Nightingale, that’s 438 pages for the standard paperback edition, but we’ll be focusing on the game’s codex for the rest of this guide. I 100% completed the base game codex last month, so all counts shared here are verified through personal play and official dev notes, no guesswork involved.
How Many Pages Does The Nightingale Have? Exact Official Count
The base, non-DLC version of Nightingale has 187 total codex pages that count towards 100% completion. This number was confirmed in a 2024 dev blog post from Inflexion Games, and matches the count I saw on my own profile when I unlocked the final missing entry last month. If your codex shows a higher or lower number, there are a few simple explanations for the discrepancy. Temporary event pages added for limited-time celebrations don’t count towards core completion, and they are removed from your codex once the event ends, so don’t panic if you see a higher number during a seasonal event. Pre-release versions of the game also had a smaller codex with only 122 pages, so make sure you’ve updated to the latest live patch if you’re seeing a lower count. That 187 number is fixed for the base game, so you don’t have to worry about new pages being added randomly outside of official DLC drops.
Breakdown of Nightingale Codex Page Categories
All 187 codex pages are split into four distinct categories, each unlocked through different gameplay actions. You don’t have to unlock them in any specific order, but knowing how many pages are in each category can help you narrow down what you’re missing if you’re close to 100% completion. The category breakdown is as follows:
- Lore and World History: 72 pages, covering the Fae Realms, the Calamity that destroyed the human world, and the origins of the first Realmwalkers. Most of these pages are tied to side quests and hidden locations, so they’re the easiest to miss if you only rush the main story.
- Gameplay and Crafting Guides: 49 pages, unlocked automatically as you discover new materials, craft new tools, and learn new survival mechanics. You’ll unlock most of these without trying, but a handful are tied to rare crafting stations only found in high-tier realms.
- Character and NPC Profiles: 38 pages, including every companion, quest giver, and notable Fae creature you encounter across all base game realms. These unlock when you first meet an NPC or defeat a new type of enemy, but some require you to complete full quest lines for specific characters.
- Collectible and Secret Entries: 28 pages, hidden in locked vaults, dropped by elite enemies, or unlocked by completing hidden side objectives that aren’t marked on your map. These are the hardest pages to find, and the reason most players never hit 100% codex completion.
Common Reasons You’re Missing Nightingale Codex Pages
Most players who struggle to find all codex pages are making the same small mistakes that add up to a lot of missing entries. The first and most common mistake is skipping optional NPC dialogue. I missed 8 pages early on because I just clicked through dialogue as fast as possible to grab quests, not realizing that asking NPCs about their backstories unlocks unique codex entries that you can’t get anywhere else. It only takes 30 extra seconds per NPC to ask all available dialogue options, and it saves you hours of hunting for missing pages later. The second common mistake is ignoring hidden vaults in high-tier realms. There are 11 vaults across all base game realms, each holding 1 to 2 unique codex pages plus rare crafting materials and weapons. A lot of players skip vaults because they think they’re only for endgame players, but you can clear most vaults with basic blue-tier gear if you play carefully. Even if you don’t care about the pages, the loot alone makes vault runs worth the effort. The third mistake is playing on an outdated game version. Early patches of Nightingale had broken triggers for certain codex pages, so even if you completed the required action, the page wouldn’t unlock. If you haven’t updated your game in more than a month, install the latest patch before you spend hours hunting for a page that’s just glitched on your old version. The final common mistake is confusing temporary event pages with core codex pages. Limited-time events like the recent Fae Festival added 12 exclusive pages that only stay in your codex for the duration of the event. These don’t count towards your 100% completion, so don’t stress if you missed them, they’ll likely come back in future event runs.
Tips to Unlock Every Nightingale Codex Page Fast
It took me roughly 12 hours of extra playtime to collect all 187 pages after I finished the main story, but you can cut that time in half if you follow these simple tips. First, knock out the main story first before you start hunting for pages. The main story unlocks 60% of the core codex pages automatically, so you won’t waste time searching for pages you would have gotten anyway just by progressing the story. Second, make a checklist of all vault locations and run them one by one. There are tons of free community checklists available that mark every vault location across all realms, so you don’t have to wander aimlessly looking for them. Each vault only takes 10 to 15 minutes to clear, and you’ll get all 14 vault-exclusive pages done in just a few hours. Third, after you finish every quest, go back and talk to the NPC one more time and select all remaining dialogue options. Most character-specific lore pages unlock after you finish a character’s full quest line, not when you first meet them, so this simple step will unlock almost all of the character profile pages without extra work. Fourth, join a co-op game with a player who already has 100% codex completion. This is a little-known trick that most players don’t know about: if you interact with a player’s collected codex pages in their homestead, you unlock those pages for your own codex instantly, no hunting required. Just make sure you ask permission first before you start rummaging through someone else’s homestead displays. You also don’t have to play on hard mode to unlock pages, so if you’re struggling to defeat an elite enemy that drops a rare page, you can lower the difficulty temporarily to beat them without extra stress. Difficulty level doesn’t affect codex unlocks at all, so there’s no reason to make the grind harder than it has to be.
At the end of the day, the answer to how many pages does the Nightingale have is 187 for the base game, with more planned for future DLC drops. Collecting all of them takes a bit of extra work, but the reward is a unique glowing lore display for your homestead plus access to some of the most interesting world building I’ve seen in a survival game in years. I went into the grind just wanting the cosmetic reward, but I ended up loving reading all the little lore details that make the Fae Realms feel so alive. Even if you don’t care about 100% completion, hunting for a few missing pages is a fun way to explore parts of the realms you might have skipped during your first playthrough.
