Cognition

The brief

 On unlocking your Elder (congratulations!), you gain access to Hall of Elders, which uses [Cognition] like Hall of Deeds uses [Divine Deeds] to give you permanent buffs. "Cog" comes from Directive rewards, completing random invasion missions (Distortions, Training Avatar, Champion Avatar) or "Cog Farming".

 

 The details:

 During Cog Farm, players in an invaded region complete personal quests and two region-wide quests to build "resistance" to 100%, which causes four special bosses to spawn. If all four of those "Final Report" bosses are killed within a few minutes of spawning AND you damage one while in your elder aspect god form (alt-C after you are in divine form) AND you survive, you get a hefty cognition reward. The resistance drops to zero and players can repeat the cycle.

Before you try cog farming in a new the invaded region, go there and
 1) interact with all the map-marked NPC's fully
 2) visit all teleport points to unlock them
 3) find the four allied Camps and enemy Bases that are named on the map  
 4) Find routes to each of them.
 5) Locate at least one of the four boss' spawn points near the camps and how to get there. They are NOT named on the map; their location is only shown when they spawn. 

 Anyone can start a Cog Farm anytime.  It demands coordination, strength and speed from at least three strong speedy players, easier with more. OS runs Cog Farm on Tue and Fri at 5 Pacific time. Every elder god on the server is welcome to join. I'm asking them to put you in SF's Cog Farm channel so you can learn more. They use OS Discord https://discord.gg/nbMHsEpP voice chat rooms for verbal guidance channels to sign up and assign duties to ensure the complicated Farm happens smoothly. 

 Get verbal guidance with your first few cog farms using Discord chat. Pay attention to region chat and cog channel chat, too.  While most of the farm is easy and obvious. the crucial 5 minutes of summons, traveling, assuming Elder form, boss spawning and slaying when everyone plays a part, including you can be bewildering.  The new abilities you must use consume at least 700 faith the first time you try, and up to 2600 in a complete 4 cycle hour cog farm session

Cog Farm leaders (both in OS are named Pickle lately) coordinate three or four cycles in the course of the cog farm hour. Regional quests give 50% resistance (and 30 percent of your regional directive if you have one.  
they can help you with season achievment, they'll rotate you thru the forts to get it.

When you gather enough cog, you gain a [] token.  Spend it right away in your K>Capital>Orbit>Halls of Elders.  First, fill all the spots in the Aspect of Mercy (middle green) tab.  The buffs there discount and lengthen your Elder form, those abilities, and a few buffs for support classes.  On completion, you gain 10 [] each week.

After Aspect of Mercy, then what to fill "Depends".. focus on your main class type (if you have one) or scatter your coin for every-day buffs then fill them

See also:  Elder God abilities