Essence in Avowed is a Resource that’s used to fuel your Abilities and Spells, represented below your Health Bar with a purple meter. Though you can get some Essence back after killing enemies by walking over the purple orb floating above corpses, there are some much more effective ways to restore Essence faster, or reduce the amount you use.
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This guide explains how to restore Essence in Avowed, including tips on how to get and use Essence Potions from the start of the game, what the best Drinks and Foods for restoring Essence are, and some Ability recommendations that can restore Essence. This guide also explains methods to increase Max Essence in Avowed, both temporarily and permanently.
How To Use Essence Potions
The primary method to restore Essence is with Essence Potions, which Avowed players are given at the very start of the game. You don’t need to level up an Essence Potion to restore more Essence later in the game, Avowed players will always restore 70% of their Max Essence when it is consumed.
You can get Essence Potions from Apothecary and some general Vendors in the world, as well as from ground loot while exploring. Keep an eye out for a glowing purple flask while adventuring, especially inside of breakable containers.
To use an Essence Potion, PC players simply need to press the X key, which can be rebound as needed for easier access – for example, to one of the side buttons on a gaming mouse. Console players, or players using an Xbox controller on PC, must open up the radial menu with the left bumper (LB) and select the Essence Potion from there to consume it.
Prepared Food & Drinks Can Restore Essence
After unlocking the ability to Cook Food at camp, you may notice some prepared foods with a purple icon next to their name. These Prepared Foods will restore Essence when consumed, but at a slower rate than an Essence Potion.
When you consume a Food or Drink that restores Essence, you will restore Essence quickly when out of combat, but very slowly while in combat (just like with Health Food items). Additionally, Essence Restoration from Food is a flat value instead of a percentage of Max Essence.
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Some Ingredients can restore a little bit of Essence in a pinch, but it’s almost always worth turning these into Prepared Foods and Drinks. Some great Foods and Drinks that restore Essence include:
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Mariner’s Porridge, which requires 1x Cooked animal product and 1x Vegetable or Produce item.
- Restores 70 Health and Essence
- Arrack, a Drink that requires 1x Fruit and 1x Vegetable.
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All’s-Leaf-Tea, which requires 1x Mushroom, 1x Fruit, and 1x Vegetable.
- Restores 150 Essence and grants +20% Max Essence
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Stew, which requires 1x any Cooked or Raw meat, 1x any Vegetable, and 1x any meat, fish, or other animal product
- Restores 50 Health and 50 Essence
Abilities That Restore Essence
In Avowed, Essence can also be restored directly and indirectly with certain Abilities. The Wizard Class Ability Tree contains the most ways to heal Essence, or reduce its consumption, but because Avowed makes it so easy to multiclass, Rangers and Fighters who struggle to get more Essence can spec into the Wizard tree with few issues.
Some Essence restoration abilities you should consider speccing into, if you run out of Essence a lot, include:
- Parasitic Strike (Wizard): Restores Essence to the wielder of the summoned Staff every time they hit with it
- Harvest Essence (Wizard): Essence drops restore 2x/3x/4x Essence than normal after killing enemies
- Blood Magic (Wizard): After running out of Essence, you can still cast spells using Health as a resource
- Arcane Seal (Wizard): Conjures a circle that restores Essence if you stand within the AoE
- Grimoire Mastery (Wizard): Significantly reduces the cost of Grimoire spells with each Rank
- Built to Destroy (Fighter): Passive ability that restores Health and Essence when you break objects
Unfortunately, there are no Companion abilities that increase or restore Essence in Avowed.
How To Increase Max Essence in Avowed
There are a few ways to increase Max Essence. The first, and perhaps most obvious, way to get more Essence in Avowed is to increase the Intellect attribute. This stat grants +5 Maximum Essence and +6% to all Elemental Resistances for each point. The Court Augur Background starts with a 3 in Intelligence, boosting Max Essence by 15%.
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Armor has a part to play when it comes to Max Essence, too. Avowed armor reduces your maximum Essence and Stamina the heavier it is, so if you are wearing Heavy Armor as a Wizard, consider swapping it out for something less defensive to have more Essence to cast spells with instead. The Armored Essence (Wizard) Perk will reduce the Essence Penalty for Light and Medium armor further.
The Remembrance of Enhekala Godlike Ability will passively increase your Essence by 10%, though like all Godlike abilities, this can’t be unlocked until you reach a specific story beat.
You can increase Max Essence by drinking certain Foods and Drinks, though these only work temporarily. All’s-Leaf-Tea will boost Max Essence by 20% temporarily, Fine Aedyran Mead only needs 1x Honey and 1x Rotten Food to grant 10% Max Essence and +2 Perception.
These buffs don’t last too long, but they can make all the difference and grant you enough Essence to cast more of your most powerful spells. Plus, because Essence Potions scale based on your Max Essence, you’ll be able to restore more Essence than normal while under these effects.
- Released
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February 18, 2025
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Violence
- Franchise
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Pillars of Eternity
- Publisher(s)
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Xbox Game Studios