How to get T1 Essence in Nightingale

Immediately after making your first real Realmwalk in Nightingale, a mysterious man named Aurelio Acevedo Ortega tasks you with bringing him 25 T1 Essence to prove your worth.

What he doesn’t really do is tell you where to get T1 Essence, outside of mentioning Realmwalker Trials. The quest tracker in your Journal isn’t much help either, as it simply tells you to “complete encounters to earn T1 Essence.” Thankfully, the task isn’t actually as difficult as it seems. Here is how to get T1 Essence in Nightingale.

Where to find T1 Essence in Nightingale

T1 Essence is really just Essence of the next highest rarity tier. That means finding it is actually pretty simple: Any Realm that is augmented with an Antiquarian Card, an Astrolabe Card, or a Provisions Card produces T1 Essence.

In theory, you can get T1 Essence from any place you would have found regular Essence, so long as you’re on your second Realm, including from killing animals, opening chests, defeating Fae, and even occasionally as a little bonus drop from a resource like a tree or a rock.

With that said, Aurelio wants 25 T1 Essence, so going around chopping trees with your fingers crossed isn’t your best option. As the Journal says, Encounters will yield T1 Essence. What the Journal means by “Encounters” is just any marked point of interest on the map—usually accompanied with a small group of Fae you must defeat as part of the challenge.

If you’re in the market for some quick T1 Essence, make your way to the Fae Tower, which will be marked on the map of your Antiquarian Realm—though it may be in a different location for each instance because of procedural generation.

So long as you’re careful, you won’t have any trouble clearing the Fae Tower with the 20 Gear Score that you reached to access this Realm in the first place, and a single run of the Tower will get you over 100 T1 Essence. Just make sure to actually release the Hope Echoes as they spawn after clearing each floor.

If clearing the entire Fae Tower ends up being too challenging, you should still be in good enough shape to earn the T1 Essence for Aurelio’s quest, as the first two floors alone will give you 14 T1 Essence each, and there aren’t any bosses on either of those floors.

If you’re on a harder difficulty or simply are finding the Fae Tower too challenging, you can always resort to hunting wildlife to earn T1 Essence. Just be aware this method relies more on RNG and will certainly take much longer than earning the T1 Essence by clearing the Fae Tower.

Finally, releasing any Hope Echoes you find throughout the Nightingale Realm will give T1 Essence, but that also relies on a bit of blind luck as you have to stumble across those. Encounters, particularly the Fae Tower, really are the way to go.