Diablo Immortal: How To Unlock Essence Transfer And What It Does
"Diablo Immortal" — the game that nearly got booed off stage during its announcement at BlizzCon 2018 — is finally here, and it's actually pretty fun. It turns out "Diablo" fans have phones and enjoy playing on them, and the reception for the long-running franchise's mobile title has been mostly positive across the board. The real-money microtransactions are primarily limited to cosmetics, the controls are intuitive and rewarding, and there is a PC version available. Despite a few pacing issues, it's worth picking up if you've been itching for a new and true "Diablo" experience.
There are a few newly introduced quality-of-life mechanics as well, such as the Essence Transfer feature. An NPC in Westmarch, the main player hub, lets you transfer the unique traits of one legendary gear piece to another for greater freedom in build and loadout customization. It's not a straight one-to-one transfer, however, and the option isn't available right away. Here's a breakdown of how to unlock Essence Transfer and what it does.
Unlocking, extracting, and inheriting Essence in Diablo Immortal
First, you'll have to get two pieces of legendary equipment that occupy the same gear slot. For example, two shields or two helmets will qualify, but not a shield and a helmet (or any other mismatched combination of gear). Find Zamina at Rakkis Plaza with the two pieces of equipment and you'll unlock the option to ask her to Extract and Inherit legendary Essences for you.
Extracting requires a fee and destroys the extracted piece of equipment. However, the legendary Essence remains in your repertoire of extracted essences forever, meaning that Zamina effectively functions as a permanent bank or library for legendary traits that you've found.
Inheriting, on the other hand, is entirely free and can be applied to any piece of equipment of the same gear slot as the original extracted piece. The inherited gear takes on the name, appearance, and Essence of the extracted piece, overwriting its existing Essence while retaining its stats, upgrades, and slots. This way, you can transfer an Essence from an old piece of gear onto a new one with better stats, giving you more control over your gear progression and customization. Inherited gear is marked with a special icon and can be reverted to its original form at any time, so feel free to experiment with different Essences and builds as much as you'd like.