How to get Essence Dust in Nightingale

How do you get Essence Dust in Nightingale? The new survival game has a myriad of different crafting and building skills, making traversing realms and exploring biomes to gather resources a highly unique way of approaching survival. In your time in Nightingale, your gear, weapons, and armor all need to be repaired, but unlike using a workbench or specially crafted hammer, Nightingale requires you to use Essence Dust.
Now the Nightingale release date is here, we've spent time in the game to know what it takes to survive Nightingale's early game including how Nightingale realm cards work, and how to increase your gear rating. However, if you're having trouble locating Essence Dust or want to know which items produce the most dust, here's what we know so far.
RELATED LINKS:
Nightingale multiplayer and how to play with friends
Nightingale server status and planned maintenance
All Nightingale Apex Creatures and how to beat them