The Forge Essence guide: Every rarity, where to farm it, and what to spend it on

Essence is what quietly decides whether your run in The Forge feels like a grind or a power trip. It’s the bottleneck for upgrades at the Enhancer, a late‑game gold printer when you start selling it, and the main reason to ever put the pickaxe down and go fight things instead of rocks.

All Essence types in The Forge

There are seven essence rarities in the game. Higher tiers are both more valuable to sell and more impactful for upgrades.

Tiny and Small essences are effectively your training wheels: cheap to sell, cheap to spend, and dropped constantly around Stonewake’s Cross. By the time you’re looking at Greater, Epic, and especially Superior Essence, each piece represents a meaningful decision — a chunk of a high‑tier upgrade or a big chunk of cash.

How essence drops work

Essence only drops from enemies, never from rocks or chests. The type you see on the ground tracks pretty closely to how dangerous the enemy is and how deep into the game you are.

• Early‑game enemies (Stonewake’s Cross) – Basic zombies and similar mobs drop Tiny and Small essence, with a mix of all three common sizes (Tiny, Small, occasional Medium) mentioned on their index entries.
• Midgame enemies (Forgotten Kingdom) – Stronger mobs such as Skeleton Rogues have a high chance to drop Medium and Large essence on kill.
• Late‑game elites (Volcanic Depths, Goblin Cave) – Elite Skeleton Rogues, Reapers, Fire Slimes, Death Axes, and other late‑game creatures push into Large, Greater, Epic, and Superior tiers.

Enemy index entries show the essence bands they can drop and any runes or shards tied to them. For example, zombies list Tiny, Small, and Medium Essence, and a specific zombie variant lists the Minor Shard rune as an additional rare drop.

Note: bosses and elite variants are where the money is. They have fewer spawns but a much higher chance to roll the top of their possible essence range.

Best locations to farm each essence tier

Different areas in The Forge line up almost perfectly with different essence tiers. If you know what you’re targeting, you waste far less time.

Early game: Tiny and Small essence (Stonewake’s Cross)

Stonewake’s Cross is where you start building a stockpile and learning how essence fits into your loop.

• Primary enemies: basic zombies and other starter mobs.
• Typical drops: Tiny Essence, Small Essence, and some Medium Essence.
• Use case: feed early Enhancer upgrades, or sell a portion to buy your first pickaxe and armor upgrades.

At this stage, killing zombies is doing double duty: you’re earning essence, clearing repeatable zombie quests, and unlocking enemy index entries for bonus XP and gold when you claim them.

Midgame: Medium and Large essence (Forgotten Kingdom)

Once you unlock the Forgotten Kingdom by hitting level 10 and finishing the early quest line, your essence economy changes pace.

• Key enemies: Skeleton Rogues and stronger mid‑tier mobs.
• Typical drops: Medium and Large Essence with decent consistency.
• Use case: upgrading your main weapon and armor to push through Goblin Cave unlocks and late‑midgame quests.

Medium essence is the workhorse here. Large essence starts to appear often enough that you can think in terms of “a few runs equals one big upgrade” or “a run’s worth equals the next pickaxe bracket.”

Late game: Greater, Epic, and Superior essence (Volcanic Depths and Goblin Cave)

Late‑game essence farming happens in high‑risk pockets rather than across entire regions.

• Volcanic Depths (lava cave off Forgotten Kingdom) – After clearing the Goblin King quest, the lava cave southeast of the Forgotten Kingdom hub opens up into Volcanic Depths. Elite Skeleton Rogues, Reapers, Fire Slimes, and Death Axes here are tuned for Large Essence and beyond, with runs frequently yielding Large Essence in bulk.
• Goblin Cave deeper floors – Once you push through the Goblin King quest line and into the later cave layers, late‑game enemies and axe skeletons can drop Epic Essence, with Superior Essence coming from the very top tiers.

A good Volcanic Depths loop — one pass through the elites clustered around the lava — can clear 20–30 enemies and translate into tens of thousands of gold once you sell everything. This is one of the main reasons late‑game players pivot from ore‑only income to a mix of mining and monster grinding.

How to use essence at the Enhancer

Essence is primarily consumed by the Enhancer NPCs in Stonewake’s Cross and the Forgotten Kingdom. Enhancing does three things over time:

• Boosts base stats on a weapon or armor piece (damage, defense, or health).
• Eventually adds rune slots (commonly around the third upgrade and at some later milestones).
• Increases the gold and essence cost per level, turning high‑end enhancement into a significant resource sink.

Enhancement uses a mix of essence sizes, not just one tier. Early upgrades lean on Tiny, Small, and Medium Essence; as an item’s level climbs, the Enhancer starts asking for Large, Greater, and later Epic or Superior Essence. That’s why Tiny and Small never become completely irrelevant — they cover the low rungs on new pieces you pick up.

Because enhancement costs go up every time, you get the most value from upgrading gear you plan to hold for a while: a pickaxe you know can mine your current biome, a colossal sword with good ore traits, or a heavy armor set you’ve already invested in.

Essence vs. selling for gold: when to do which

Every essence can be sold directly for gold at the vendor NPCs in both hubs, and there’s no tax or hidden penalty. The decision is simple on paper — upgrades vs. gold — but a few rules of thumb make it less fuzzy.

• Early game (Stonewake’s Cross) – Use most Tiny and Small Essence on enhancements so you can kill faster and mine safer. Sell a minority to grab key basics like a better pickaxe, more equipment slots, or a lantern.
• Midgame (Forgotten Kingdom) – Spend Medium and some Large Essence to get one main weapon and one armor set to a comfortable level. Once you’re clearing Forgotten Kingdom mobs cleanly, start selling excess Large Essence for gold to fund pickaxes and rune attachments.
• Late game (Volcanic Depths, Goblin Cave) – Treat Greater, Epic, and Superior Essence as a strategic resource. Use them on endgame builds (final pickaxe, late‑game colossal sword, Dark Knight/Samurai armor variants) and sell the overflow for large infusions of gold when you need big-ticket items.

Tip: if you can already one‑shot or comfortably clear the enemies you’re farming, the marginal benefit of more damage is small. In that situation, selling some high‑tier essence into gold and investing in pickaxe tiers, ore trait builds, or rune slots generally yields more overall progress.

Optimizing essence farming (runes, shards, and timing)

Two systems interact heavily with essence grinding: runes and game‑wide modifiers like night raids.

• Drain Edge Rune – Adds life steal, letting you sustain through long pulls in places like Volcanic Depths without chugging potions. This is especially useful when you’re pulling multiple elites at once.
• Minor Shard – Increases the amount of loot you get per kill or per mine, depending on where you socket it. When attached to the right slot, it directly improves how much essence you walk away with from the same number of enemies.
• Night raids – During night raid windows, essence drops are doubled. Running Volcanic Depths or other elite‑dense areas during this time effectively halves the grind for any target amount of essence.

Because attaching runes costs a non‑trivial amount of gold and often assumes you already have rune slots unlocked via enhancement, it’s smart to hold onto high‑value runes like Minor Shard until you have a late‑game pickaxe or weapon you intend to keep.

Quick path: from starter essence to late‑game income

The broad progression from your first zombie kill to selling Epic Essence looks like this:

Step 1: In Stonewake’s Cross, focus on killing zombies to farm Tiny and Small Essence while completing repeatable zombie quests. Claim index rewards regularly for extra XP and gold, and use essence at the Enhancer to get your first weapon and armor upgrades.

Step 2: Push to level 10, finish the early quest chain, and take the portal to the Forgotten Kingdom. Start targeting Skeleton Rogues and other stronger mobs for consistent Medium and Large Essence.

Step 3: Use your new essence income to boost one primary weapon and one armor set high enough that Goblin Cave and the Goblin King quest are realistic. Avoid over‑investing in sidegrade items during this phase.

Step 4: Unlock Goblin Cave and the Volcanic Depths lava cave. Begin running elite‑dense loops against Skeleton Rogues, Reapers, Fire Slimes, and Death Axes, especially during night raids, using Drain Edge and, when you’re ready, Minor Shard to stabilize and increase drops.

Step 5: At this point, treat essence as both upgrade material and a commodity. Feed Superior and Epic Essence into your final‑form builds and sell excess Large, Greater, and Epic Essence to fund rune attachments, Dark Knight/Samurai armor rolls, and high‑tier pickaxes like the demonic or magma lines.

Handled well, essence turns combat into a parallel economy alongside ore mining. You mine to unlock better tools and ore traits; you fight to spin up your upgrade engine and, later, to bankroll the rest of your build. Once you know what each color crystal means for your wallet and your stat sheet, picking your next farm spot stops being guesswork and starts feeling like strategy.