Item Upgrades Explained In Fewer Than 140 Characters

Path of Exile item upgrader kit Upgrades

Upgrades to items are a common and crucial method to enhance the performance of many items in Path of Exile. They can provide extra damage, AD or even affixes.

Often times however upgraded Common and Magic gear is outclassed by Rare-grade gear due to their requirements.

Armor

Armor upgrades are a kind of upgrade that can be used on weapon and armor items. They boost the performance of the item upgrade they're connected to. Armor upgrades are available in the world of the game and purchased from Blacksmiths on bonfires. They can also be salvaged by using a specialist or higher salvage kit to retrieve upgrade components from items.

The level of an armor's or weapon's upgrade determines the amount of damage it can absorb. The damage absorption of an armor piece will increase when it is upgraded to the highest upgrade level. It's important to remember that this will increase the weight of the armor, so it should be heavier.

There are several types of armor upgrades available in the game and they all have different effects. Certain upgrades give armor an extra number of health points while others make it more powerful and lighter. The kind of armor upgrade an item can get will be identified by the name of the upgrade as illustrated in the table below.

Certain upgrades require magic or a combination of technology and magic, which are identified by the "Magic" and "Hybrids" entries in the table below. Furthermore, some upgrades require charges to use, which are shown by an "Charges" entry in the table below. The charges associated with these upgrades are updated daily or never expire depending on the upgrade.

Iron Ore is the cheapest way to upgrade your armor. You can find it by exploring and looting small chests. Titanium is more expensive, however, it is available from the smelters in Orgrimmar and Stormwind City. Certain upgrades, like the Reforge or the Hot Potato Books can only be applied on high-level armor pieces. These upgrades can give a significant boost in stats, and are worth the cost.

The process of upgrading an armor piece to max upgrade level will greatly increase its defense capabilities, but the player should be aware that putting more weight on it will dramatically reduce its speed and agility. Therefore, it is generally not recommended to upgrade the majority of armor pieces that are higher than +9 since the added defense is usually not worth the additional weight and power cost of the upgrades required.

Weapons

Weapon upgrades let players increase the effectiveness of certain aspects of an weapon. For example an upgrade can improve the damage that is caused by a shotgun's shells or the accuracy of the rifle sniper. Certain firearms have upgrades to improve their inherent characteristics. These include Frictionless Materials (improves stability and minimizes overheating of the weapon) and Kinetic Coils (increases the speed of projectiles to cause more damage).

The majority of upgrades to weapons require three Power Dices, a different amount of Minerals and Erons and a whetblade. They can be gained by completing Side Quests or by killing a certain number of monsters and bosses.

To upgrade an equipment set, weapon piece or Whetblade, you must visit the NPC [Armor] Boboko located in Central Flarine, and pay her an upgrade fee of a specific amount of Bars. The more bars you need to complete an upgrade, the higher the level. If you have multiple upgrade materials, the cost of upgrading will be lower.

In Chapter 2: Season 5, the method of upgrading your weapon and equipment sets was a bit different. Prior to Chapter 2 Season 5 you could upgrade your weapon or equipment by paying a certain amount of Bars. You could do this until the weapon or equipment reached its maximum upgrade level, at which point the upgrades would reset.

You can still do this but the process is based on RNG and low on agency. Instead, you're better off going to the stores and buying gear with low upgrade levels, but good base scores and stat distributions. These will then be able to give you the highest tier benefits and blessings.

To level up faster, most players will prioritize upgrading their weapons. Players should also upgrade the weapons that their teammates use to make them stronger. For instance, Shepard should consider upgrading the M92F to unlock the Beretta M93R, which will make it more useful when paired with experts in biotics like Grunt and Tali.

Jewels

Jewels can be used to boost a stat or provide secondary effects in armor and weapons. They can be created through an process known as jewelry crafting, in which you combine a gem and several ingredients at a table for jewelry. The higher the tier of the gem is, the greater its secondary effect. These reagents can be obtained around the world through Treasure Goblins, World Bosses and occasionally by salvaging Legendary equipment. You can also buy them from The Jeweler for gold and a Scattered Prism.

The Jeweler can boost the quality of a gem in stages ranging from Crude up to Royal. The stat boosts can vary depending on the level the jewel is at when it's slotted into weapons, jewelry, or gear.

The Jeweler is able to create all kinds of gems, apart from the rare and legendary ones, which require a certain level to get. Jewels can be replaced with another jewel without damaging the original. However you can only swap out one jewel in a piece of equipment once.

It is common to use more jewelry to enhance the appearance of. The jewels also improve performance and make a harder surface than steel so that repeated friction from pivots do not cause damage to the movement.

In addition to the above upgrades additionally, players can acquire glyphs for their weapons and shields from a Glyphmaster. They offer a small benefit and can be swapped out at any time however they aren't guaranteed to drop as loot. Glyphs, like jewelry, can be upgraded by the Jeweler in exchange for Scattered Crystals and gold. Glyphs may also be removed and returned to the inventory. Other upgrade components, like traits and aegis, are not swappable, and can only be retrieved using an Upgrade Extractor or salvaging them with Black Lion Salvage Kit or Ascended Salvage Tool.

Trinkets

Trinkets can be used to provide your hero with various small, but valuable, advantages. They can be obtained in the starter areas as loot, personal story rewards, from vendors, or by doing road interactions. They can also be made by jewelers, and then found or purchased on the Trading Post.

The first trinkets that a player unlocks will be the cloak. It grants a small, but valuable boost in speed of movement and evasion. After that, they can purchase amulets, rings and necklaces in a similar manner to the way a player obtains weapons and armor. Each piece of equipment comes with an upgrade slot which can be universal or jewel. Universal upgrades are smaller and can be used on any equipment. Jewels are not upgradeable or replaced and are only compatible with certain trinkets.

These trinkets grant additional buffs and abilities that are active when the hero isn't fighting. This lets the hero perform better when they are not active, and can also help to compensate for the absence of a solid team or the absence of any slots from the talent tree that normally are filled with the hero's ideal statistics.

A good guideline for trinket upgrades is to prioritize BiS (Best item upgrader-in-Slot) items that you will not replace soon, followed by any items with desirable stats, but less important than the iLevel of the item level upgrade being upgraded. This is especially true if an Best item upgrader has multiple stats that you wish to upgrade item, since it's generally more beneficial to upgrade one crucial stat than two subpar ones.

Jungle players often upgrade their yellow trinket to a red trinket at the beginning of the game. Mid and top players however will pick a pink or green ward, depending on the matchup. These choices can impact a hero's ability to control the map.

In addition to the items listed above, players will find other trinkets that form trophies and rewards throughout the game. These can be obtained by completing certain milestones in the story. For instance, completing the main quest of a chapter or beating the boss. You can view them by clicking on the achievement in the reward section of the hero's menu.