Destiny 2 Essence of Desire farming guide

Metastasized Essentia in Dreadnaught (Image via Bungie)

Essence of Desire is one of the currencies used to sustain Destiny 2 Episode Heresy loot. It is required by the Tome of Want, an item where players can attune seasonal weapons and armor pieces in the hopes of getting them as drops. However, more often than not, players will run out of the Essence currency and might need to stock up while playing the season.

This article lists the best ways to get Essence of Desire in Episode Heresy.

How to get Essence of Desire in Destiny 2 Heresy

In Destiny 2, Essence of Desire can be obtained from either a random encounter within The Nether activity or by exchanging Metastasized Essentia in Eris' apartment. Let us go over the latter, as it is the most effective way of earning Essence of Desire steadily.

Exchanging Metastasized Essentia

Metastasized Essentia are collectibles found within The Nether activity of Dreadnaught. They look like Taken orbs with spikes on them and can be found lying around in a random corner of the Dreadnaught.

Essentia in Dreadnaught (Image via Bungie)

If you pick up one of these Essentia during your run, you will receive a "Fleeting Metastasized Essentia" in your inventory, which will be of the white rarity.

White Essentia in Destiny 2 (Image via Bungie)

If you leave The Nether now with the "Fleeting Metastasized Essentia," you will lose the materials. Hence, your task is to convert these Essentia into a green rarity. To do so, complete the objectives of the area you picked up the Fleeting Essentia from and defeat the final boss.

Green Essentia from white after completing the encounter (Image via Bungie)

For example, if you are in the "Hall of Souls" area and have picked up the Essentia from that region, you must clear out all encounters in the Hall of Souls and defeat the final boss to convert the white Essentia into green. However, there is a way to bypass this process as a solo player.

Instead of going to the final boss and converting white Essentia to green ones, a solo player can just collect one Essentia at the very start, restart the activity, repeat the process, and have an Essentia in the inventory.

To do this, simply purchase the Runic Investment upgrade from the Shaping Slab, called Essentia Rune. This upgrade lets a player keep the picked-up Essentia after a failed activity. Hence, you can enter The Nether, get one white Essentia, return to Orbit, and the white Essentia will turn green.