Soul Essence

Soul Essence is one of the workhorse items of the game's economy. Its primary role is as a crafting ingredient - it appears in many recipes, most visibly Spirit Alloy, which takes 2 Soul Essences and 1 Dark Essence at Level 13+ and feeds into further crafts like the Invasion Bell.

It can also be consumed directly for Soul Tokens, but the math says don't: consumption grants a variable 25-35 tokens, while selling pays a guaranteed 35. Community documentation is explicit that if you want the tokens, selling is the right move - the consumption roll can only match the sale price, never beat it.

In practice, the decision tree is: keep a working stock for crafting first (Spirit Alloy and its downstream recipes eat them steadily), then sell the surplus. Its bigger sibling, the Great Soul Essence, follows the same sell-over-use logic at higher values (~150 on use versus 175 guaranteed from selling).