Elderwood is the host of many mysterious items. Among them is the Infected Essence. As the name suggests, these are abnormalities that can be spotted on flora and fauna of Elderwood, which can be further collected and used as currency for Tamala’s shop, as well as many other things. This guide will show you how to collect the Infected Essence easily and how to make your Elderwood hunting easier!
How To Find Infected Essence
All across Elderwood, you’ll encounter plants with illuminating purple goo at their base. This is the Infected Essence; you can get it from these plants by chopping them down. It can also be found on bugs, fish, and forageable items. Completing the ‘The Nature of Shadows’ quest also allows you to harvest and kill Infected flora and fauna scattered across Elderwood.
You can also find Infected Essence randomly on the roads when exploring Elderwood. These won’t be nearly enough, as things that require the essence as the currency need a large amount. Species like Ogupuu, Ancient Kois, Cave Piksii, etc., also drop infected essence. The main methods to find Infected Essence is:
- Hunting – Infected Schmole, Infected Oguppu
- Foraging – Infected trees, berries, mushrooms etc.
- Bug Catching – Infected Rockhopper, Batterflies, Cave Piksiis etc.
For catching all these bugs, you need special Elderwood items like Elderwood Arrows, Elderwood Lures and Elderwood Smoke Bombs, which will be enabled to craft after completing certain quests.
A very easy way to obtain the Infected Essence is by using a relic. This ensures that you don’t need any special arrows, bug bombs, or special lures previously mentioned while hunting for the essence. This relic is called ‘Master of Disguise‘, obtained by buying the schematic for Bag of Illusion from the Artifact store in Elderwood. The necessary items for this relic are:
- 12 Muksin
- 15 Elderwood Orchid
- 1 Enchanting Runestone
You can create Muskin from your Fabric Loom. It is a leather alternative made using mushrooms!
Once you’ve bought this recipe, head to the crafting bench in the gazebo of Central Stables and make the Bag of Illusion. After crafting, the relic goes straight to the ‘Accessories’ section of your inventory. The relic acts as a passive ability, helping you pick up the infected essence from the plants.
You can also upgrade the ‘Bag of Illusion I’ to ‘Bag of Illusion II’. Each of the upgrades enables you to interact with more and more things harbouring the infected essence, but each upgrade requires collecting many items that can be found while exploring Elderwood!
There is another relic you can craft called the Brighteye Amulet. This can be crafted by buying the Brighteye Amulet recipe at Elouisa’s shop for 1 Elouisa’s Fun Buck. Equipping this relic increases the drop rate of the essence you gather.
You can also gain 500 Infected Essence by completing the ‘Something Wicked‘ quest in the main story! After completing the quest, once you place the Piksii Grove on your plot, every midnight a loot bag appears that contains various items from Elderwood, including Infected Essence!
