The Nature of Shadows is the third quest related to the Elderwood and the mysterious aura that permeates it in Palia. It’s a multipart quest that earns you the ability to collect Infected Essence orbs as well as infected forage. This is how to complete The Nature of Shadows in Palia.
Palia | The Nature of Shadows Quest Walkthrough
The Nature of Shadows triggers once you complete The Elderwood quest. Looking to learn more about the infection seeping into the forest, Subira wants to gather some of the infected plants. However, being able to do that is a problem without a solution. That is, until Tamala shows up. She has a potion that’ll stop the forage from repelling you when you try to gather it, but she needs some times before she’ll hand it over.
After some dialogue with Subira, agree to work with Tamala and she’ll give you a list of ingredients you need to collect. She also gives you thick gloves that you can use to collect the Infected Essence orbs floating around the Elderwood. These don’t take up any space in your inventory and you get to keep them permanently.
- Cave Piksii x1 (Insect)
- Toadstool Floatfish x1 (Fish – No bait)
- Elderwood Orchid x3
- Infected Essence x10
Once collected, return to Tamala at the Elderwood Central Stables. She’ll mix the ingredients and hand over an Elderwood Potion. When ingested it allows you to harvest plants and trees that are infected. She also announces the opening of her potion shop in the stables. You’ll want to give it a visit and get additional Elderwood Potions since each one only lasts for a few minutes.
Tamala’s Potion Store Inventory
Even though it’s called a potion store, the inventory available only has a few potions. There are quite a few important items you’ll want to purchase in the future available, however.
- Elderwood Potion: Allows you to gather infected forage.
- Cost: 15 Infected Essence
- Sacred Flower: Used as an offering for Umbraan Statues found throughout the Elderwood.
- Cost: 350 Infected Essence
- Artifact Mystery Bag: Rewards a random artifact when opened.
- Cost: 500 Infected Essence
- Enchanting Runestone: Used to craft a Relic
- Cost: 600 Infected Essence
- Finishing Runestone: Used to upgrade a Relic to the final tier (Tier IV)
- Cost: 2,500 Infected Essence
- Rockhopper Pumpkin Seed: Grows Rockhopper Pumpkins in nine days.
- Cost: 500 Infected Essence
- Slime Potion: Allows you to ignore the slowing effects of the Ogopuu’s slime. Also works on the swamp scum’s slowing effect. Lasts 10 minutes.
- Cost: 30 Infected Essence
- Unlock Requirements: Complete the Slime Invasion quest.
- Hearth Potion: Allows you to instantly teleport home no matter where you are.
- Cost: 300 Infected Essence
- Unlock Requirements: Complete the Where the Hearth Is quest.
The Nature of Shadows, Part 2
With Tamala out of the way, Subira begins the second part of The Nature of Shadows. Since you’re now able to gather infected forage, she wants you to bring back five samples for her to examine, along with more Infected Essence.
- Gather infected plants from the Elderwood x5
- Gather infected essence from the Elderwood x50
Chug down the Elderwood Potion and look for plants and trees that have the telltale black goop floating around them. Each time you harvest an infected, also known as shadowed, plant you’ll get the regular plant as well as Infected Essence. The rarer the plant, the more essence you get. This is the fastest way to collect essence. Since it’s used as a currency in the Elderwood, you’ll want to collect as much as possible.
Once you have all you need, return to Subira to complete The Nature of Shadows. She’ll mention she needs more samples from living creatures, allowing you to pick which quest you want to undertake next depending on your answer. Pick if you want to learn how to hunt, catch fish, or catch insects that are infected. After you complete the first quest you’ll be able to begin the other two, so you’ll want to choose the activity you enjoy the most.
- Bugging Out: Learn how to catch infected insects
- Something Fishy: Learn how to catch infected fish
- Shot in the Dark: Learn how to hunt infected animals
I personally went with Bugging Out, as many bugs are infected and easy to come across in all areas of the Elderwood. They can also spawn when collecting infected forage. Either way, you’ll want to do all three quests as soon as possible so you can fully explore and take advantage of the resources in the Elderwood. This is especially true since there are different achievements for catching regular and shadowed versions (both stared and normal varieties) of creatures in the region. You’ll also want to have your bag fully upgraded since there are so many new things to accumulate.
