Avowed is here and so is your opportunity to be the best spellcaster in the Living Lands. If you’re having fun wielding your wand against your foes you’ve probably already noticed early game that the Essence to cast spells runs out pretty fast.
As someone playing through as a pure spellcaster of ice and electricity, I have to manage my essence carefully, though as you get to around level 15 you’ll rarely need to drain your Essence flask as you have a number of tips and tricks under your belt and in your build.
Here’s everything you need to know about Essence in Avowed.
What is Essence?
This is a very simplistic explanation, but it’s all you need to know at this stage, the game will give a fantastic explanation through its story.
All living things have Essence, it is another term for souls in Eora, the land in which Avowed takes place, and a philosophy already familiar to players of Pillars of Eternity, Avowed’s other franchise. When we die, our Essence returns to “the wheel” for another turn.
Essence is also a mana-like resource for spellcasting, you’ll need to draw upon Essence to perform magic.
The Essence bar sits under your health bar, and you drink from flasks to refill
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You’ll come across bottles of Essence littered around the world, and you can purchase it from Merchants, but in the early game you’ll want to save your gold to buy important upgrades. Once your Essence depletes you’ll no longer be able to cast spells until you refill (by pressing down on the D-pad or corresponding button on mouse and keyboard).
Craft and consume food and drink
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You can consume food and drink in Avowed to restore both health and essence, but to make even better meals with more potent effects I’d advise cooking up your own recipes at camp. The cooking area is right next to Kai.
Some items like Arrack give instance 100 Essence regeneration, and you can use all consumables during combat while the game is paused. Other consumables like Murkbrew increase the % of Essence you can stack. Don’t underestimate the power of food and drink in Avowed!
Defeated enemies drop essence
As mentions, Essence comes from living beings, so when you lay waste to your enemies you can also loot their Essence. Sounds delightful right? Essence shows as a purple orb above corpses, don’t forget to run around and grab it all when in the thick of battle to refill your Essence meter.
Put points into Intellect
There are a number of attributes you can put points into when building your character, and when levelling up. If you are particularly interested in a spellcasting build you’ll want to put some points in Intellect,
The maximum points you can place in Intellect is 15, and doing so will increase the capacity of Essence you can carry before having to refill, in addition to increasing your resistance to elemental damage.
Take the ‘Harvest Essence’ passive on the Wizard tree
When building and levelling your character, there are a number of abilities to choose from. If you want to harvest Essence more efficiently you’ll want to look out for the ‘Harvest Essence’ passive on the Wizard skill tree. Rank 1 unlocks the ability to gather double the amount of Essence from your defeated enemies, and if you continue to put points into it you can get quadruple the amount!
Equip gear that helps with essence cost and regeneration
As you explore the Living Lands you’ll find new equipment whether in treasure chests or from merchants you meet on your travels. Look out for equipment that has specific benefits for either decreasing your Essence use from spellcasting or even passively increasing your Essence without the use of flasks.
Avowed launches on Feb. 18, 2025 across Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC via Steam, the Xbox App, and Battle.net. As an Xbox first-party game, the standard edition is included day one in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. Anyone preordering the Premium Edition of the game can start playing early on February 13. For our verdict, check out our full Avowed Review.
