One of Infinity Nikki's biggest faults at times is that it doesn't tell the player where they can find certain rare crafting materials. Crafting clothing sketches is one of the many ways you can get clothes and expand your wardrobe, but it can require an abundance of materials, one of them being Essence.
Eventually, you'll notice certain clothing sketches require you to gather Essence versions of materials you're familiar with, but how can you come across Essence? You can easily miss out on gathering Essence if you're not looking in the right places, so here's how to get Essence materials in Infinity Nikki.
Where to get Essence in Infinity Nikki
You won't have Essences unlocked from the start of the game. Instead, you can only start to gather Essence materials in Infinity Nikki once you unlock any of the four types of Ability Enhancement nodes in the Heart of Infinity.
Step 1: Press the I key to go to your Heart of Infinity menu. You should make sure that you're past the tutorial section of the game and can unlock the nodes that you'd like.
Step 2: On the bottom-left-hand side of the Heart of Infinity menu, you should find four nodes near each other with icons for collecting, grooming, bug-catching, and fishing, all with arrows pointing up. Unlocking these upgrades will enhance the ability of your choosing so you can start gathering Essences of high-quality materials.
Step 3: Before you can access these nodes, you'll first need to unlock the nodes that came before it. While you just need to unlock one clothing sketch to get the Collection Ability Enhancement, make sure you've unlocked the outfits for grooming, bug-catching, and fishing first, as well as the connected clothing sketches to reach their enhancements.
You'll also need a couple of materials first to unlock each respective node. Every node requires 10,000 Bling, but they also require 1,000 Insight of the specific type. You can earn Insight from doing said activity, such as Fishing Insight from fishing, or Collection Insight from collecting plants. A much easier way to come by Insight is to exchange materials for it in the Realm of Nourishment. Interact with any Warp Spire to enter this realm.
Step 4: Once you've unlocked the respective Ability Enhancement, you'll start to earn Essences whenever you start gathering that material. With every bug catch, you'll also get the Essence of that bug, every time you groom an animal, you'll get an Essence, and so on. As a reminder, you only gain Essences for high-quality materials.
