Cultivation

Players can use essence in the cultivation tree to unlock upgrades as they progress through the game. The cultivation tree and the ability unlock system are one of the components of the game that is expected to be heavily reworked prior to launch. Current cultivation upgrades include things like increasing your max HP or max stamina, reducing incoming damage, or healing you each time you block.

Body Upgrades

Body upgrades are generally very simple, usually just increasing stats of the player. These require essence to purchase and upgrade.

Vitality

Increases the player's max health by 6 per level. This can be upgraded up to level 30, giving the player 430 max health. No prerequisites.

Endurance

Increases the player's max stamina my 10 per level. This can be upgraded up to level 30, giving the player 800 max stamina. Requires Vitality level 5.

Thrill of the Hunt

Allows the player to regain 1 stamina per second per level for 3 seconds after damaging an enemy. This can be upgraded to level 6, giving the player 6 stamina per second after hitting an enemy. Requires Endurance level 5.

Strength

Adds 1 damage to every hit dealt by the player. This can be upgraded up to level 10, giving the player's attacks 10 extra damage. Requires Vitality level 5.

Hardened

Reduces all damage taken by the player by 1 per level. This can be upgraded up to level 10, reducing all damage taken by the player by 10. Requires Strength level 1.

Relentless

Increases damage dealt to NPCs on combo attacks by 1% per combo chain per level. (With 5 levels, your third combo attack in the sequence would deal +15% damage to an NPC) This can be upgraded to level 20, giving the player 20% bonus NPC damage on combo attacks per attack in the sequence. Requires Endurance 20 and Thrill of the Hunt 4.

Unyielding

Reduces damage taken from NPCs by 1% per level. This can be upgraded to level 20, reducing damage taken from NPCs by 20%. Requires Hardened 4 and Strength 4.

Resilience

Gives the player an extra 0.5 absorption, restoring 0.5 health to the player every time they successfully block an attack. This can be upgraded to level 6, giving the player 3 absorption. Requires Vitality level 10, Endurance level 10, Strength level 4, Hardened level 4, and Thrill of the Hunt 1.

Soul Upgrades

This tree is currently a work in progress, but it still has some functionality.

Soul Strength

Soul Strength is a stat which gives one bonus second of tower time per soul strength when entering the tower. It also unlocks certain shop purchases at some milestones, and it is strongly hinted that it will be somehow used in the soul tree's upgrades when they are added.
You can gain soul strength by:
- Opening a Unique Chest (+1)
- Activating a Soul Monument for the First Time (+6)
- Finding a New Secret (+12)

Soul Flame

This can be collected by killing some high-profile enemies or another player who has one. If a Player/NPC has one, it will be denoted by a small symbol next to their name. Currently, it does nothing, but it is strongly hinted that it will be used to purchase upgrades in this tree when they are added.

Essence

Almost everything you do in the game gives you essence. To spend your essence on cultivation you must bank the essence by exiting with a white portal. In the tower, you lose half of your unbanked essence upon death.