V Rising: How to Get Blood Essence for Castle Heart and Crafting Recipes

There are countless resources to juggle in V Rising, and Blood Essence is arguably one of the most important of them all. It has many uses, from crafting recipes to powering your Castle Heart and keeping your base up and running, so you’re going to want to stock up. The game doesn’t make it clear how you’re supposed to get it though, so many players find themselves stumped in the opening hours of the game while trying to get their bases up and running. Here’s what you need to know about Blood Essence in V Rising.

How to Get Blood Essence in V Rising

Blood Essence can be obtained by slaying creatures and enemies. Everything that you kill will drop some Blood Essence, and larger foes will drop larger amounts. It’s not necessary to feed on enemies to get Blood Essence from them.

Early in the game, the best places to farm Blood Essence are bandit camps that contain huge parties of enemies to defeat. There are also roaming patrols of human enemies that walk the paths of the forest region, so take them out whenever you see them. Also, keep an eye out for bears, which are huge sources of Blood Essence early in the game.

Later in V Rising, you’ll unlock a recipe for the Blood Press, a device that allows you to create Blood Essence from various items like Tainted Hearts and Rats. You won’t be able to build this contraption until you’ve got a decent castle and a steady supply of resources though, so you won’t be able to rely on it until later in your adventure.

How to Get Greater Blood Essence

Greater Blood Essence is used for other, more powerful things when compared to its standard counterpart. It requires the Blood Press to craft. By inserting four Unsullied Hearts into a Blood Press, you’ll receive one Greater Blood Essence. Finding Unsullied Hearts can be difficult since they’re rare drops, but you should be able to come across them by defeating high-level enemies.

V Rising is available now in early access on Steam.