Essence: earning it, spending it, and the Dragon Forge

Ordinary work earns fractions of essence, which is spent mostly on perks. Two similar item names refer to an artifact and a crafted stone.

Where essence comes from

Essence is one pool, shared across every skill, and it accrues in tenths. Ordinary work drops points; ten points make one essence, and the game rolls them up into visible motes as you go.

A normal day of farming and mining generates essence without any special activity, so the total can reach hundreds in the background. Harvesting crops, foraging, cooking and completing quests give none at all. A play style centred on those activities will earn very little essence.

Essence also does not accumulate at all until an early story cutscene about the unusual tree on your farm. Before that the counter is not even shown.

Spending essence

Almost all essence goes toward perks bought at the shrines. Each perk has a one-time cost between 10 and 215 essence. Skill-tree tiers unlock at levels 1, 15, 30, 45 and 60.

Buying every perk in the game costs 15,265 essence for all 167 perks across the ten trees. Treat that as a whole-playthrough total rather than a year-one target.

Perk purchases are permanent. The game has no respec, refund or reset, so purchase order matters. The skills and perks page lists every tree, perk and exact cost.

A little essence also goes on convenience. The shrines and the two house statues teleport you for 10 essence a trip, a misty spot on the map trades 10 for a random rare item, and summoning the Mistmare from its statue costs 100.

Essence Stones and their uses

Essence Stones store essence in solid form. All five are made at the refinery from stone and essence, and each takes twenty minutes. They power a magic machine for a fixed number of days.

Stone	Recipe	Charges	Cracks back into
Tiny Essence Stone	5 Stone + 5 essence	1 day	5 essence
Small Essence Stone	10 Stone + 25 essence	5 days	25 essence
Medium Essence Stone	20 Stone + 50 essence	10 days	50 essence
Large Essence Stone	40 Stone + 100 essence	20 days	100 essence
Giant Essence Stone	80 Stone + 200 essence	40 days	200 essence

Cracking a stone returns exactly the essence used to make it, so crafting one does not change your total. Essence Stones also appear in mine treasure chests at a flat 15% chance per chest, with the stone grade matching the chest grade. Higher town ranks also award them.

Only two devices burn them, and both spend one charge per day they actually do something:

• Water Sprite Statue waters a 5×5 block of soil each morning, and the large version covers 7×7. Outdoors it idles for free on a rainy or snowy day, since the weather has already done the job. The full watering rules are in watering, seasons and sprinklers.
• Animal Sprite Statue pets every animal in its building for you.

One catch: you cannot top a statue up. It only accepts a new stone once the current one has run out completely, so putting a Giant stone into something you will move next week wastes the difference.

Hardened Essence and “essence gems”

Despite its name, Hardened Essence is an archaeology artifact outside the essence currency. It is a rare find in dig sites from floor 80 onward in the Ancient Ruins, the deepest mine biome. Using it gives no benefit. Donating it earns 30 renown and fills a slot in the dragon museum set, while Juniper and Seridia both love it as a gift. Dig in the Ruins to find one, and use the gift finder to check its recipients.

There is no “essence gem” in the game. People searching for a “medium essence gem” want Medium Essence Stone, in the table above.

Lighting the Dragon Forge

The Dragon Forge is a crafting station in the Priestess’ Quarters, deep in the Ruins section of the mines. You can find it before you have the means to light it.

First, break the fire seal to learn Dragon's Breath. During the quest to find the magic key, explore the north-west room, then cast Dragon's Breath directly at the forge in the south-west room. The spell is the only thing needed to light it. Before that quest stage, the forge does not respond, even if you cast at it.

Once lit, it makes five things: Dragon-Forged Sword, the strongest weapon in the game, plus a fang, horn, core and powder. The Final Seal requires one of each of those four materials, so finishing the story requires the Dragon Forge.

Budget for it. Each of the four materials consumes one Medium Essence Stone on top of its other ingredients, so the Final Seal costs 200 essence in stones alone, plus 80 stone to make them. The whole seal line, and the spells each step grants, is mapped in the seal questline guide.