Meta-Progression Priority

What to spend Ashes, Psyche, Moon Dust, Bones, Nightmare, and Nectar on, in order, so your permanent power grows fast.

Spend order at a glance

Hoard Ashes and Psyche first. They unlock and expand the Arcana Cards, your single biggest source of permanent power.

Priority	Resource	Spend it on	Why first
1	Ashes	Unlock Arcana Cards at the Altar of Ashes	The Arcana grid is the main permanent power system, successor to the Mirror of Night
2	Psyche	Raise your Grasp pool, up to 29	More Grasp means more cards equipped at once
3	Bones	Almost anything at the Wretched Broker	Base currency, easy to earn, fills gaps
4	Moon Dust	Upgrade Arcana Card rarity, up to Epic	Stronger versions of cards you already run
5	Nightmare	Upgrade Weapon Aspects	Only matters once you commit to a weapon
6	Nectar	Gift to characters for Keepsakes	Keepsakes are useful, but unlock at your pace

Ashes unlock cards on the Altar of Ashes. The grid is a 5x5 layout of 25 cards. Unlocking one reveals its neighbors.
Psyche raises Grasp, the budget you spend to equip cards. Each card costs 0 to 5 Grasp, shown top-right. Your pool starts at 10 and rises with Psyche up to 29.
Together they decide how many strong cards you can run at once. That outweighs any single weapon or boon early on. See Arcana Cards.

At Hecate’s Cauldron you spend gathered materials on permanent unlocks. A sensible order:

Consecration of Ashes: unlocks the Arcana Cards. Do this first, it gates priority 1 and 2 above.
Night’s Craftwork: unlocks gathering tool crafting. Needs 1 Moly. Get the Crescent Pick going to bank Silver for weapons.
Reagent Sensing: points you to nearby reagent deposits, so gathering runs are faster.
Soil Plots and the rest, as you need them.

Plan your material gathering around the incantation you want next. See Incantations and gathering.

Each weapon has multiple Aspects, permanent variants bought with materials. Some Aspects change the weapon’s core mechanic, not just its numbers.
Once bought, an Aspect levels up with Nightmare.
Nightmare comes from clearing Testaments in the Oath of the Unseen. So Aspect leveling is endgame work, after base runs feel easy. See Oath of the Unseen.
Do not pour Nightmare into a weapon you have not settled on. Commit to a weapon first.

The surface (Ascent toward Olympus) opens partway through, after you make progress on the descent. Hermes recruits you via a stairway in the Crossroads.
Engage it as soon as it opens. It is the route to Bronze (a weapon reagent), new bosses, and the second half of progression.
Holding off only stalls weapon unlocks like the Argent Skull and Black Coat.

Resource	Where it comes from
Ashes	Run rewards
Psyche	The Tablet of Peace minigame and runs
Moon Dust	The Broker, Charon’s shop in the final region, or Moonlit Essence recipes
Bones	Minor room rewards
Nightmare	Oath of the Unseen Testaments
Nectar	Run rewards, given to characters