Shin Megami Tensei 5: How To Use Essences

Quick Links

• What Are Essences And What Do They Do?

• Where Can You Get Essences?

Essences are a new addition to the Shin Megami Tensei franchise with the fifth entry and they feel like a totally natural addition to the series. They serve multiple functions, and all of them are to do with improving the abilities and statistics of your main character (or Nahobino) and your demons.

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Whenever you find a new Essence, that's a new set of skills and affinities that you can absorb - so take care to check them out and think about whether they could make a big difference or not. They're quite central to forming strategies, especially against tougher bosses.

Updated February 11, 2024, by Sean Murray: Essences can make or break certain boss battles, so it's a good idea to learn about them in Shin Megami Tensei 5. That's why we've updated this guide with improved formatting and more breakout tips to make Essences easier to understand. We've also added more links to other helpful Shin Megami Tensei topics.

What Are Essences And What Do They Do?

Essentially (pun intended), Essences contain the skills and affinities of the demon it came from. In terms of game mechanics, this means their skills, their elemental affinities, and their status resistances. They are used in the Apotheosis function of the World of Shadows, which can be accessed from any Leyline Fount.

There are two things that Essences can be used for:

• Learning skills.
• Inheriting affinities.

How To Learn Essence Skills

Both your character and your demons can learn the skills of a demon by fusing it with the Essence. To do this, you must first pick the party member that you wish to inherit the skills. Then, you will be presented with a list of your currently-owned Essences.

You can see a list of the skills that they can teach through this process with the simple press of a button.

• Some of these skills will be grayed out and unavailable for learning. To unlock these skills, you will need to learn the Art of Essences Miracles.
• Some skills are Unique to a demon and cannot be learned by others - for example, the Mermaid's Stormcaller Song.

Once you have chosen an Essence and a party member to fuse with it, you'll come to the skill selection screen. In the Skill Pool will be all of the party member's currently known skills and all of the skills that the Essence can impart.

Transfer all of your desired skills to the Skills list on the right and press the confirm button when you are done. This will consume the Essence.

How To Inherit Essence Affinities

Firstly, this function must be unlocked bylearning the Divine Amalgamation Miracle, which is made available very early on in the game. Secondly, only the main character can inherit affinities.

This process functions very similarly to the skill-learning process. You simply choose your main character and then the Essence you want to inherit the affinities of, and then pick "Affinities" when presented with a choice.

The confirmation screen will show you what the changes to your elemental affinities and status resistances will be. New weaknesses will show up in red and new resistances will show up in green. This process will also consume the Essence, making it unavailable for learning skills.

Use this feature to your advantage when you know what sorts of elements and status effects upcoming bosses are likely to use.

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Where Can You Get Essences?

There are a few sources of Essences in the game.

• Randomly encountered demons may have a very slim chance of dropping their own Essence.
• Demons in your party may reward you with their Essence upon leveling up.
• Once you have beaten the first boss, Essences will become available for purchase at the Cadaver's Hollow. This selection will expand as the game progresses.
• Some quests will reward you with an Essence.
• Some treasure chests contain Essences.
• Once you have learned the Deathly Aura III Miracle, you may get the chance to demand a demon's Essence from them during conversation.

It's very important to note that you may only carry a single copy of a demon's Essence at once. Once you have used a demon's Essence, their portrait will become darkened in the Essence menu and have an orange "Absent" notice over them. You'll have to find a new copy of that Essence to use it again.

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