Summary
Nightingaleoffers a unique take on the survival craft genre with in-depth crafting and material options while filling the multiple realms with interesting creatures, challenges, puzzles, and NPCs. One of the first and most crucial materials you can find is Essence, which fuels most of the progression.
Found at different tiers, Essence is essential for making sure you have items that won’t break or are strong enough to allow you to progress to new realms. While you can find Essence almost everywhere, you can only farm them in large quantities in a handful of ways.
8Bastilles
Each type of Bastille represents a unique challenge that differs in difficulty but always offer the same rewards, including T1 Essence and above. These Bastilles are also usually very simple and can be done quickly enough that it is worth farming.
The Bastille of Agility is the quickest one to complete, especially if you have a Favour of Soaring.
However, there are Bastilles you should either ignore or wait until it is the last thing you have left to do in a realm, just because of how time-consuming they are. You should avoid Bastilles of Intellect and Insight while prioritizing Bastilles of Agility and Might.
7Fae Portal Dungeons
While requiring a little more effort and time, Fae Portals are one of the ways to get the most Essence of T1 or higher in a single run. Acting like dungeons, Fae Portals take you to a small realm that’s more like a linear Fae Tower with more danger but much better rewards.
Depending on the realm you access the portal in, it will usually have crates and barrels littered around which contain low tier items that you can easily extract for Essence Dust. If you don’t mind loading into a new realm every time, this method is the best for gaining large amounts of Essence.
6Occupations
Usually having more than a handful dotting the map in most realms, Occupations are small ruins that contain dangerous creatures. After defeating them, you get rewarded a healthy amount of Essence, with the tier depending on the realm’s type.
What makes Occupations a great option for farming is that they are thequickest way to get T1or higher Essence, especially if you only need a little bit more to buy that next Augmentation.
5Defend Fellow Survivors
One way to get a decent amount of Essence and a handful of potential recruits simultaneously is by helping them defend an Essence Extractor at a Defense location. Here you need to protect it while three to four waves of creatures attack it.
On low level worlds, you’re able to do this without even having to set up traps or additional walls, and it gives significantly more Essence than an Occupation site despite taking about twice as long. Make sure to scour the sites before activating the extractor, as you can sometimes find chests that provide even more Essence.
You can repair the Extractor with a hammer if it gets damaged.
4Sticks, Fiber, and Rocks
Probably the best and quickest method to get Essence Dust is by collecting sticks, fiber, and rocks in the wild. Each item only extracts one Essence Dust each, but can be easily gathered with the right tools.
In forest and swamp locations especially, you can gather up to 100 Essence Dust per minute with a scythe. If you want to gather even more, give your follower a scythe and watch them collect it for you. This method is best for hoarding Essence to repair gear or buying every item at the first Essence Trader.
3Minor Realm Cards
Minor Realm cardscan alter the effects of your character and the realm in ways that don’t necessarily grant you Essence on their own, but make it significantly easier to do so. The main cards you will want to use while Essence farming are Treasury and Alchemist.
With either of these active, anywhere that you will normally find essence will have a higher chance of dropping. This also includes unique interactions like the Charm of Magick Bait, which drops Essencewhile you fish.
2Fae Towers
Every time you enter a new realm there will be a Fae Tower marked on the map, allowing you to reveal every other location once you reach the top. This is a crucial first step when entering a realm, not just for ease of exploration, but because of how much Essence you are awarded.
Each floor acts like a mini Bastille, providing you with a small challenge in return for a decent amount of Essence, which is usually T1 or higher. While there is only one Fae Tower per realm, it always provides a good amount of Essence while leading you to more.
1Challenge Rewards
Something that most players will miss because of how tucked away it is in the menus is the Challenges tab, which gives you specific tasks in return for rewards, usually in the form of Essence. This can be as simple as recruiting a survivor or finishing a number of world encounters.
While most rewards usually hover around 50 Essence Dust, some, like Crude Beginnings, reward 1,000 Essence Dust and are relatively simple to attain. Although most only give Dust, a handful reward you with all the way up to T3 Essence.
