Essence

An essence is part of a complex group of currency items used for crafting equipment. All essences can be used to upgrade a piece of normal rarity equipment to rare and apply one guaranteed affix. Some essences can also be used to reforge the affixes of rare equipment.

Table of essences
The name of an essence consists of three parts: the tier of the essence as a prefix, the word 'Essence', and the type of the essence as a suffix. For example, has the prefix 'Whispering' and the suffix 'of Woe', which means that it is a tier 1 essence of the Woe type. An essence's type determines which guaranteed modifiers it can imbue to equipment, while its tier determines the magnitude of bonuses granted by those modifiers.

Natural essences
Groups A–E include all types of essences that can appear naturally with essence monsters. These essences come in seven tiers, each distinguished by a prefix word. An essence's tier can also be recognized by the number of lines in its 2D art icon. Note that not all types of essences exist for every tier. Lower tiers include fewer types of essences.

Corrupted essences
Group F includes the corrupted essences, which have no prefix word due to the fact that they exist in a tier unto themselves. These do not appear naturally with essence monsters, and can only be obtained by corrupting an essence monster with a. (See for details about this process.)

Obtaining essences
Monsters trapped in essence crystals can occasionally be encountered in most areas. Activating the center essence crystal three times will break the crystals, freeing the trapped monsters. The essence item can be obtained by killing these monsters, which are also enhanced by special monster modifiers on the essence.

Some types of essences only exist at higher tiers. This forms a progression in which more types of essences become available in areas with higher monster level.

Tier 6, 'Shrieking' essences can be obtained by upgrading lower tier essences through the vendor recipe system or by corrupting tier 5 essences using a.

Tier 7, 'Deafening' essences can be obtained by upgrading lower tier essences through the vendor recipe system.

Harvest exchanges
One of the random Harvest crafting options granted by Vivid Watcher upgrades an essence by one tier.

One of the random Harvest crafting options granted by Wild Homunculus changes a stack of essences into a different type of the same tier.

Crafting
All essences can be used to upgrade a piece of normal rarity equipment to rare, similar to an, and apply one guaranteed affix. Essences of tier 5 (Screaming) and above can also be used to reforge the affixes of rare equipment, which is similar to a ; however, in addition to applying one guaranteed affix, using an essence this way will ignore and override any meta-crafting modifiers.

WARNING: Despite the similar wording to, using an essence on an item with a meta-crafting mod ( or ) will ignore that mod and overwrite existing prefixes and suffixes ignoring any restrictions.

Essence possession effects
Essences are encountered in the wild as a monster 'possessed' by an Essence, mechanically similar to possession by a talisman or tormented spirit. Essence can only appear on a rare monster and the monster can have more than one essences possessed. When the monster is killed, the essences will drop as an item.

Vendor recipes
It is possible to upgrade essences in tier through a vendor recipe.

The Essence Stash Tab provides the means to upgrade essences from within the tab itself. This has exactly the same outcome as the vendor recipe, but saves time spent moving items around.

Divination cards
The following divination cards can be exchanged for essences:

Version history

 * Screaming Essences can now be used to reforge rare items, in addition to upgrading normal items to rare. This brings them into line with Shrieking and Deafening Essences.
 * Extensive balance changes to essence modifiers. (See for a complete list of changes.)


 * All corruption only Essence mods (of Delirium, Horror, Hysteria and Insanity) now have a minimum level of 50.


 * The Essence upgrade recipe now returns surplus Essences when you vendor four or more essences.


 * The Essence of Hysteria boots mod now has a level 60 requirement.
 * Fixed some prison rooms where Essences could spawn in bad locations.
 * Fixed a bug where the Energy Locus summoned by Essence of Woe could be hit by skills such as Arc.


 * Introduced to the game in Essence leagues.
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