New player · Essences tab
Identifying essences
A clouded essence is a sealed essence of unknown rarity. Identify turns it into a real one you can equip, keep as a spare, or break down for dust.
Updated ·patch v2.0.5
What this is, and what to do first
You start with a stack of clouded essences. Open the Essences tab, choose the Identify sub-tab, and press Identify x1 or Identify All. Then equip one of the results in your champion’s empty second slot: that is what opens the class picker.
Where clouded essences come from early
What this means for you: you will not run short in the first days. Identification is free: the clouded essence is the only cost.
| Source | Clouded essences |
|---|---|
| Character wizard | 10 if your starting essence was Common, 8 if Uncommon, 5 if Rare. Common and Uncommon starters also get 1 virtued clouded essence. |
| Quest tutorial (First Assignment) | 1 |
| First Steps | 1 for Clear Your First Stage, 5 more for finishing all seven |
| Sage Alaric's Saga | 1 to 3 on every task you claim (26 across the Chapter 0 and 1 tasks) |
| Daily Login | 3 on day 2; day 7 lets you pick 3 as one of its options |
| Quests | Many quest rewards include clouded essences |
The Identify tab
The Essences tab has three sub-tabs: Inventory (what you own), Identify and Flux (covered below). Identify shows one chip per kind of clouded essence you hold: Standard, Refined, Typed, Virtued. Pick a chip (for Typed, also pick an element), then Identify x1 or Identify All.
Identification decides two things: the rarity, rolled from the pool’s odds below, then which essence of that rarity you get, picked at random from the catalog. Everything else about the essence (its stats, its class pull, its abilities) comes from which essence it is.
The odds
Your first Standard identification is Rare (60%) or Epic (40%). It can never be a Common. After that the normal table applies, and until your story reaches Chapter 2 a Standard roll that lands on Legendary is turned into an Epic instead.
| Pool | Common | Uncommon | Rare | Epic | Legendary | Virtue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| StandardOrdinary clouded essences. What you get from quests, First Steps, Alaric and the daily login. | 55.5% | 25.5% | 12% | 6% | 1% | - |
| RefinedRefined clouded essences. Never below Rare. | - | - | 60% | 25% | 15% | - |
| TypedElement-locked clouded essences (Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Void). Same odds as Standard, but the result is always that element. | 55.5% | 25.5% | 12% | 6% | 1% | - |
| VirtuedVirtued clouded essences. The only pool that can roll a Virtue. | 40% | 20% | 15% | 10% | 10% | 5% |
- Identify at night. Between 18:00 and 06:00 on your device clock, a Standard identification has a 15% chance to move up one rarity tier. It costs nothing to wait.
- The Chapter 2 cap only covers Standard. Your starting virtued clouded essence (Common and Uncommon starters get one) uses the Virtued odds and can land a Legendary or a Virtue from day one.
- New essences surface on their own. When a roll lands on a rarity, there is a 25% chance it hands you an essence one tier lower that you have never owned instead. It stops once you have found them all.
- The in-game Identification Rates tooltip quotes a slightly different, rounded table (including a Virtue chance). The figures above are the ones the identification code uses.
Virtued essences and Virtue pity
A Virtue is the rarest essence tier. Only virtued clouded essences can roll one, and they carry pity: a counter of misses shown on the Identify tab as Pity: n / 40. After 30 misses in a row the Virtue chance climbs with each further pull, and once 40 in a row have missed the next one is a guaranteed Virtue. Landing a Virtue resets the counter. When a Virtue has a featured debut, it takes 80% of Virtue results and the other released Virtues share the rest. Courage, Mercy and Hope are the Virtues released at launch; a weekly rotation adds more.
Your essence seed: save-scumming does nothing
What this means for you: identify whenever you like, in any order. Each save is given an essence seed when you create your champion, and every pool keeps its own count. Your fifth Standard identification is always the same result, whether you restore an old save, identify Typed essences first, or reinstall. Only a brand new game gets a new seed. The one thing you control is the night bonus above.
Duplicates are not waste
Do this: keep spare copies of every essence your members have equipped. Identical essences stack in your inventory, and moving a member up an essence rank (the manual “Advance Rank” on their Growth tab) consumes unequipped copies of each essence they have equipped. Copies needed per equipped slot to reach each rank:
Spares of essences nobody uses are the ones to salvage for dust. Details on ranks are on Essence ranks.
Dust and Flux
Essence dust is a currency. You earn it from Proving Grounds, Sage Alaric’s tasks and the daily login, and by salvaging an unequipped essence (open it in Inventory and choose Salvage). Flux spends dust to try to create another copy of an essence you have already discovered, which is how you top up spares for rank-ups. Each attempt spends its dust whether it works or not. For Rare and above, a pity counter raises the success rate after repeated failures (to at most 95%, never a guarantee).
| Rarity | Salvage gives | Flux attempt costs | Base success |
|---|---|---|---|
| Common | 5 | 50 | 75% |
| Uncommon | 10 | 100 | 50% |
| Rare | 15 | 250 | 25% |
| Epic | 30 | 500 | 10% |
| Legendary | 50 | 1000 | 5% |
| Virtue | 250 | 2500 | 3% |
Salvaging is permanent. Early on, dust is better spent fluxing Common and Uncommon spares than chasing a 10% Epic copy.
Essence Tomes
Essence Tomes are not essences: they are items that give a member essence XP (Minor 200, Greater 1,000, Grand 5,000, Supreme 25,000). Open the member, tap Use Essence Tome…, and use them one at a time or ten at a time with ×10. Spend them on whoever is closest to their next sub-level.
What to do with your first identifications
- Give your champion a second essence. Your champion (the founder you created) already has the essence you chose in slot 1. Equip one of your new essences in slot 2. The moment both slots are full the archetype picker opens. Read How your class is chosen first, because the pair of essences decides which classes you are offered.
- Then do the same for your companions. The tutorial already put one essence on a companion. A second one gives them a class too.
- Swap freely while Unbound. A member who has never ranked up is Unbound, and their essences can be taken off for free and returned to your inventory. The lock only comes at their first rank-up. Picking a class is separate: the first pick is free, changing it later costs 500 gold.
- Keep the spares. Hold on to duplicates of anything equipped; salvage the rest only when you need dust.
Where to go next
Odds on this page are the shipped 2.0.7 defaults. Late research (Void Sight, Hollow Bargain) raises the minimum rarity and is not covered here.