Essence

Essence is the currency the item economy runs on. Your balance can be viewed in your inventory. It has no effect on your AP, your rank or your level. It only touches items.

Where it comes from#

Breaking an item down is the reliable way to make essence. It gives whatever that item is worth. Selling something on the market is the other way. When a listing settles the winner's essence lands in your balance. A trade can carry essence on either side too.

What it buys#

Nothing on AccSaber is sold to you for essence. There is no way to turn it into AP, XP or a level either.

That makes the whole economy player to player. It means the price of a thing is whatever somebody else will pay for it on the day.

Breaking items down#

Disintegrating an item destroys it and credits you its worth. Worth follows rarity, which the items page covers. The number never moves for any other reason. Stack a few together and watch what they add up to:

Untradeable items have no essence value at all, which rules out level unlocks, milestone rewards, official campaign rewards and event rewards. Anything currently equipped has to come off first.

None of it comes back. The item is gone and the serial number that came with it is gone.

Held essence#

The market never spends your essence at the moment you bid, it holds it instead. A held amount is still yours and still counted in your balance. It simply cannot be spent twice while the bid stands. Get outbid and the hold lifts immediately with the full amount back in play, win the auction and the hold turns into the payment.

Essence you attach to a trade offer you sent works the same way, held while the offer is open and released the moment it is declined or cancelled.

Market price and essence value#

A Holographic Black Hole and the plainest Black Hole anybody owns disintegrate for exactly the same amount, because essence value is set by the item's rarity and nothing else reads the modifiers.

What the modifiers move is what another player will pay you. A rare modifier on a mythic item can be worth a fortune on the market and it is still worth the same essence in the disintegration chamber.