Must-have (noun) alternatives

The noun 'must-have' is defined in the Cambridge Dictionary as:

Something that many people want to own.

Do you know any alternatives for expressing the same meaning? I would like to use it to make the writing a bit more elegant: 'must-have' sounds so cliché-ish.

I'm open to synonyms (Thesaurus had none) and phrases.

The more it leans to 'vital' to own instead of 'want' to own, the better.

A more proper word is essentials. Dictionary.com defines it as:

a basic, indispensable, or necessary element; chief point:
Concentrate on essentials rather than details.

Lexico says:

A thing that is absolutely necessary.
‘we only had the bare essentials in the way of equipment’