If you’ve ever spent 20 minutes looping around a steep mountain range just to get to a nearby quest marker, or missed out on a rare legendary chest sitting on an out-of-reach cliff ledge, you already know how limiting it can be to skip movement tools early in Nightingale. Knowing how to use climbing picks Nightingale veteran players rely on will not just cut your travel time in half, it will also unlock access to roughly 70% of the game’s hidden content, per community playthrough data collected earlier this year. A lot of new players write climbing picks off as an optional late-game crafting project, but you can make your first basic iron pick less than two hours into a new playthrough, with materials you can collect right around your starting base.
How to Use Climbing Picks in Nightingale: Basic Controls and First Setup
First, you’ll need to craft your climbing pick at a tier 2 workbench. The recipe unlocks automatically once you collect your first iron ingot, so you don’t have to buy or find a rare scroll to access it. You’ll need 12 pieces of rough wood, 4 iron ingots, and 2 pieces of animal hide, all of which you can get from chopping trees, mining iron nodes near your starting Forest Realm, and hunting the deer that spawn around open meadows.
Once it’s crafted, add it to your tool wheel so you can pull it up with one quick press. You can only climb for as long as your stamina bar lasts, so always check your stamina before starting a long ascent. To use it, equip the pick and walk up to a climbable surface – most rock faces, wooden structures, and even ice walls register as climbable, though some smooth marble surfaces in ancient ruins won’t let you anchor.
Hold left click to plant your pick in the surface, then use W and S to move up and down, A and D to shift left and right between holds. Tap space to jump to a nearby hold up to 5 feet away, and hold shift to slide down quickly if you need to abandon your climb. A common mistake new players make is trying to climb wet rock in Swamp Realms, where moisture cuts your stamina regen by 40% and will almost always leave you stranded halfway up if you don’t bring stamina potions.
Best Climbing Pick Variants and When to Use Each
Not all climbing picks are created equal, and picking the right variant for the Realm you’re exploring will save you a ton of resources and frustration. There are three core variants you can craft as you progress through the game, each built for specific use cases:
- Iron Climbing Pick: Best for early-game Forest and Desert Realms, costs minimal resources, lasts for 20 full climbs before breaking, and can be repaired with just 2 iron ingots at any workbench
- Steel Climbing Pick: Coated in frost repellent that prevents your pick from sticking to ice, cuts stamina usage by 25% in ice and snow zones, and is ideal for Frost Highlands and high-altitude Mountain Realms
- Enchanted Climbing Pick: Infused with wind magic that lets you hang mid-climb for 10 seconds without using stamina, and lets you anchor to otherwise unclimbable ancient marble surfaces, perfect for reaching hidden sky chests in endgame Realms
You’ll unlock the steel pick recipe once you defeat your first Fae Tower boss, and the enchanted pick recipe drops from the endgame Frost Giant world boss. Never waste a rare enchanted climbing pick on low, easy to reach cliffs – save it for high-risk, high-reward ascents in endgame Realms where regular picks won’t work. If you’re traveling between multiple Realm types, it’s a good idea to keep both an iron and a steel pick in your inventory so you don’t get caught off guard by unexpected terrain.
Advanced Climbing Pick Tricks for Hidden Loot and Fast Travel
Once you’ve got the basic controls down, you can use a few advanced climbing pick tricks to access hidden content and move across the map far faster than most players. The most useful trick I’ve found is the anchor jump, where you plant your pick in a surface, then press jump and release the pick at the exact same time to launch yourself 10 to 15 feet horizontally. This is the only way to reach most floating islands that don’t have a clear climb path from the ground, and I’ve used it to get dozens of rare Realm Cards and legendary crafting recipes I never would have found otherwise.
A lot of players also don’t know that climbing picks can be used to break through weak rock walls marked with faint cracks. These walls hide small cave systems that almost always have rare loot inside, from high-tier healing potions to unique armor skins. You can switch to your bow or healing potion mid-climb without dropping your anchor, which is a lifesaver if you get ambushed by flying Shrikes halfway up a cliff. I once had a Shrike knock off 60% of my health while I was climbing a Frost Highlands peak, and being able to chug a healing potion without letting go of my pick saved me from falling to my death and losing all the rare ore I’d just mined.
You can also use your climbing pick to slow your fall if you slip off a ledge – just point it at the nearest surface and click to anchor, as long as you’re not falling faster than 20 feet per second. This trick has saved me from more unnecessary deaths than I can count, especially when I’m exploring high-altitude areas with lots of narrow ledges.
Common Climbing Pick Mistakes to Avoid
Even experienced players make avoidable mistakes with climbing picks that can cost them hours of progress, so it’s worth keeping these common pitfalls in mind before you head out on your next exploration run. First, never go on a long exploration trip without a spare climbing pick. If your pick breaks halfway up a 100-foot mountain, you’re either stuck inching your way down at a snail’s pace with minimal stamina regen, or jumping down and taking enough fall damage to kill you if you don’t have full health. I always keep two spare iron picks in my inventory for long trips, since they take almost no inventory space and cost next to nothing to craft.
Second, don’t try to climb during a storm. Storms make all surfaces slippery, you lose stamina twice as fast, and random wind gusts can knock you off your anchor entirely with no warning. If a storm hits mid-climb, immediately slide down to the nearest safe ledge and wait it out – don’t push through, it’s not worth the risk of losing all your inventory. Most storms only last 2 to 3 minutes, so you won’t lose much time waiting for conditions to clear.
Third, don’t skip stamina upgrades early on. If you only have the base 100 stamina, you can’t climb more than 20 feet before running out, which limits you to only the lowest ledges. Spend your first 3 ability points on stamina upgrades, and you’ll be able to climb 3x higher without needing to stop and regen. You can also carry small stamina potions to top up your bar mid-climb if you’re going for a really tall peak, just make sure you have a safe hold to hang from while you drink it.
Climbing picks might not seem as exciting as a new legendary bow or a fully upgraded base, but they’re easily one of the most useful tools you can craft in Nightingale. Taking the time to learn how to use climbing picks Nightingale players rely on will completely change how you explore the game’s open world, letting you skip long detours around mountains, find hidden loot most players will never see, and cut down on travel time across every Realm type. Even if you prefer focusing on base building over exploration, a climbing pick is one of the most versatile tools you can keep in your inventory at all times. Next time you’re back at your base, grab the materials to craft your first iron pick if you don’t already have one – take it out for a test run around your local area, and you’ll wonder how you ever played the game without it.
