Wielders of the Essence launches today: PC and Mac requirements, GPU check

Wielders of the Essence, the game Lavapotion is publishing with Coffee Stain Publishing, unlocks today, November 5, on Steam for Windows and macOS. It mixes horde-blasting bullet heaven combat with incremental town building: eight-minute runs and about eight hours to finish, according to the store page. It costs $5.99 USD, with regional variations. The studio says it will not follow Steam’s standard regional pricing recommendations. If you play on a modest PC, the key detail is that the minimum asks for nothing more than integrated graphics.

Wielders of the Essence PC requirements

These are the requirements from the Steam store page. The recommended spec only lists a graphics card:

	Minimum	Recommended
GPU	Integrated graphics	GTX 970, RX 570 or similar
CPU	i5 Dual Core or Ryzen 5	Not listed
RAM	8 GB	Not listed
Storage	4 GB	Not listed
OS	Windows 10	Not listed

The minimum also calls for DirectX 11.

Mac requirements

The game also launches on macOS. The store page only lists a minimum spec:

OS: macOS 12.0 Monterey
Processor: M1 or Intel 2.6 GHz
RAM: 8 GB
Graphics: M1 or Radeon Pro 450 with 2 GB or better, with OpenGL 3.3
Storage: 4 GB

The store page does not list a Linux version. If you play on a Mac, our list of Mac games has more options.

Which GPUs run it

With integrated graphics as the minimum, every card we checked clears it. The difference shows up against the recommended. Grades are measured against the recommended requirement, assuming 16 GB of RAM:

GTX 1650: clears the minimum but sits between the minimum and the recommended, grading C (Tight). See what else the GTX 1650 runs.
GTX 1060 6GB and RX 580: meet the recommended, grading B (Solid). Here is the GTX 1060 6GB list.
RTX 3050: runs it with room to spare, grading A (Smooth). Check what else the RTX 3050 runs.

If your rig is on the low end, our low-end PC games list has more titles that ask for little.

What about Steam Deck?

On October 8, Lavapotion announced that Valve approved Wielders of the Essence as Steam Deck Verified. The details are on the game’s Steam Deck page, and our Steam Deck list has more games for the handheld.