There are a lot of different things to spend Soul Essence on in Gunfire Reborn. For those that aren't familiar with the game, Soul Essence is essentially this game's version of currency that players spend to unlock different abilities and talents across all the playable characters.
And, while there is a Talent Tree that all characters share progress on, each of the 10 playable characters in Gunfire Reborn also has their own individual Talent Tree. So, to help make this process of gathering Soul Essence just a bit easier, let's go over a few of the best farming methods
Soul Essence Usage In-Game
First, let's go a bit more into what Soul Essence is used for in-game. While this currency is primarily used for leveling Talents, there are a few other places it can be used, such as:
- Spirit Blessings from the Spiritual Remnant NPC.
- Used to buy Weapons and Occult Scrolls from the Phantom Peddler.
- Red Chests in certain areas and the Spiritual Assault Mode especially.
- A once-per-run instant-revive cost for a character who has been downed.
Most of these other avenues for using Soul Essence are meant for players who have already maxed out all their Talent Trees (or at least the ones they care about) and are now just sitting on a dragon's hoard of this Essence. But, it's still good to keep these other options in mind for players farming Soul Essence as it means they may want to farm a good chunk more than they originally expected if they were farming a currency of some sort in any other game.
Where To Get Soul Essence & The Best Method For Farming It
Now that everyone is clear on what exactly Soul Essence is and what it does in Gunfire Reborn, let's go over where players can actually find the stuff. Well, Soul Essence can be found:
- Inside breakable objects across the 4 different 'Worlds' such as in pots, barrels, and vases.
- Dropped from enemies when they're defeated.
- Rewarded from all types of Chests.
- Launched from the boss of each area after they're defeated.
- Gathered passively from progress in the Spiritual Assault Mode.
- Spawned alongside the Occult Scrolls and Weapons that can spawn after unlocking them through achievements for the first time.
So, this is all to say that there are plenty of methods to gather Soul Essence in Gunfire Reborn that most players don't know about. But what's the overall best method?
Best Souls Essence Farming Method
In short, the best method for farming Soul Essence in Gunfire Reborn is just playing the game and getting as far into the campaign as possible.
To be a bit more precise, players will want to repeatedly play through the game on the Elite difficulty mode, and should either restart after defeating the Boss of the first zone or try to take it as far as they can and start a new run after.
The reason it's 'recommended' to play on Elite difficulty and not one lower like Normal or higher like Nightmare or the Reincarnation difficulties is simply that Elite is the difficulty option that nets the highest Soul Essence in a run while being the most 'survivable' on average.
Players who don't necessarily care about 'making progress' in their Weapon and Occult Scroll unlocks and are just trying to farm Soul Essence as quickly as possible will want to utilize the speedrun and reset method of rushing through Longling Tomb at a breakneck pace. Then, after defeating either Lu Wu or the Golem at the end of Longling Tomb, they'll want to enter the second zone, called the Anxi Desert, and intentionally die to restart their run.
This whole process should take around 7-15 minutes on average and nets a few hundred Soul Essence each time. However, if they happen to find the Hidden Treasure Occult Scroll during a run, it's recommended to keep going with that run as far as possible, as the Essence gathered from this Scroll while breaking objects in each map is well worth the extra time investment.
Spiritual Assault Mode Farming Alternative
Outside of this method, players can also try using Spiritual Assault, one of the newer modes in Gunfire Reborn, to farm Soul Essence. While it's not as efficient in terms of Essence for time invested, it's a big departure from the standard roguelike setup of the base game, so it's great for a bit of variety.
That said, Spiritual Assault is a mode meant for players with tons and tons of experience on the harder difficulties of the game, so it's also pretty difficult to last long enough in this mode for the Essence gained to actually be worth it.
Gunfire Reborn is available now for Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, PlayStation 4, Android, Nintendo Switch, and Microsoft Windows.