I've been documenting an attempt at brute-forcing the solution to essence
here, since the information on the thread seemed unclear and contradictory.
This is what I know so far:
- Essence-level 1 for the most part requires you to breed in a single stat, that isn't occurring on the variant naturally. For most it needs a rank C, but some early Nephelym only need a D in Aptitude.
- Essence 2 requires you to breed in a rank 2 of a specific trait onto a nephelym. So far, I've found it takes traits that are non-cosmetic, and somehow "
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" with the nephelym, like having a higher rate of appearing. It seems that stats have just about no impact on the second tier.
- Essence level is tracked for each variant individually, including separate categories for male/female.
- The difference from essence is minuscule.
Rank 2 only gives you a minor increase in the chance of one extra stat being higher, and rank 3 allows you to find the trait you bred for in the wild, while giving an equally tiny stat-increase. You will still find plenty of straight E's, even at rank 3. I have not seen it unlock the more powerful breeding traits yet, which is a shame because those really matter now, since most variants don't have B-ranks available in the wild.
Also, for breeding traits, an unannounced change is that now you apparently can strengthen traits by breeding two individuals with the same trait together, but I have only managed to have it happen up to rank 2. With limited sample size, so far I have not made a rank 3 trait in +30 attempts, though there is potential that some mechanic is interfering with it, like for example inbreeding.
EDIT 3: Finally, there is some
strong evidence found on the last two tiers. According to testing, Essence 4-upgrade requires you to simply provide a
High Level Nephelym, 42 according to that post.
Essence 5-upgrade requires a
Third-tier signature trait, same trait as the second rank.