Guide To Item Upgrades: The Intermediate Guide For Item Upgrades

Path of Exile Item Upgrades

Item upgrades are a common and crucial method to enhance the performance of numerous items in Path of Exile. They can cause additional damage, AD or even affixes.

In most cases, however upgraded Common and Magic gear is often surpassed by Rare-grade gear due to their requirements.

Armor

Armor upgrades can be applied to both weapon and armor items. They improve the stats of the item level upgrade that they are connected to. Armor upgrades can be found in the world of the game and can be purchased from Blacksmiths at any bonfire. They can also be salvaged by using an expert or higher salvage kits to recover upgrade components from items.

The level of an armor's or weapon's upgrade determines the amount of damage it will absorb. A piece of armor upgraded to the highest upgrade level will increase its damage absorption. It is important to keep in mind that this will increase the weight of the armor, therefore it must be heavier.

There are several kinds of armor upgrades available in the game, and they all have distinct effects. For instance, certain upgrades will give the armor a certain amount of additional health points, while others will make it stronger and lighter. The name of the upgrade will indicate the kind of upgrade the item upgrader kit can be given, as illustrated below.

Some upgrades are magical or a combination of technology and magic which is identified by an "Magic" or "Hybrid" entry in the table below. Certain upgrades also require fees in order to be used. These are identified as "Charges" entries in the table. The charges for these upgrades change daily or never expire dependent on the upgrade.

The cheapest way to upgrade armor is to use Iron Ore, which can be gathered through exploring the surroundings and looting chests of minor loot. Titanium is more expensive however, it is available from smelters located in Orgrimmar and Stormwind City. Some upgrades, such as the Reforge and the Hot Potato Books, can only be applied to higher level armor pieces. These upgrades can give players a significant increases in stats and are worth the investment.

The process of upgrading an armor piece to its maximum upgrade level will significantly increase its defense values, but the player should be aware that putting on weight will drastically reduce its speed and agility. It is not recommended to upgrade armor past +9. The added defense usually isn't worth the weight and power cost of the upgrades.

Weapons

Weapon upgrades allow players to increase the effectiveness of specific aspects of the weapon. Upgrades can improve the accuracy of a rifle, or the damage that shotgun shells cause. Certain weapons come with special enhancements to enhance their intrinsic capabilities. Frictionless materials (improves stability, minimizes the possibility of overheating), and Kinetic coils (increases the projectile's speed to cause more damage) are two examples.

Most upgrades for weapons require one of three Power Dices, a different amount of Minerals and Erons, and a whetblade to apply. These can be obtained by completing side quests or killing a certain amount of bosses and monsters.

Upgrades to a weapon, equipment Set piece, or Whetblade requires visiting the NPC [Armor] Boboko in Central Flarine and paying her an upgrade cost of a set number of Bars. The higher the upgrade level, the higher the number of bars required to complete it. If you have multiple upgrade materials the cost of upgrading will be lower.

In Chapter 2: Season 5 the way you upgrade your weapon and equipment sets has changed a bit. Previously, you could seek out an upgrade item Bench and pay a certain amount of Bars to upgrade items your equipment or weapon to a higher level of rarity. You could do this until the weapon or equipment reached its maximum upgrade level at which point the upgrades would reset.

This is still possible, but it relies heavily on RNG. Instead, you're much better off going to the stores and buying gear with low upgrade levels but excellent base scores and stat distributions. These will then have a chance at gaining you the best tier of benefits and blessings.

Most players will want to prioritize weapon upgrades for the weapons they most often use to allow them to progress faster. In addition players, they should also consider upgrading the weapons that are most popular with their squadmates to make them more powerful and effective. Shepard for instance, should upgrade the M92F to unlock the Beretta M93R. This will increase the effectiveness of the weapon when used in conjunction by biotic specialists like Grunt and Tali.

Jewels

Jewels are utilized in the armor's sockets and weapons, increasing the stats of a weapon and providing additional effects. They can be created through the process of jewelry crafting, which is where you combine a gem and a number of specific chemicals at a table. The higher the grade of the gem is, the greater its secondary effect. These reagents are available from Treasure Goblins and World Bosses in the world, or by finding Legendary Gear. You can also buy them from The Jeweler in exchange for gold and Scattered Prisms.

The quality of a diamond can be improved at the Jeweler, in stages that range from Crude to Royal. The stat boosts can vary according to the tier that the jewel is in when it is inserted into jewelry, weapons or gear.

The Jeweler can craft all tiers of gems, with the exception of rare and legendary ones that you must be at certain levels to gain. In contrast to other upgrade components, jewels can be swapped out with another jewel of the same kind without destroying it. You are able to replace the jewel only once in a piece of equipment.

Using more jewels in a movement can make it feel more comfortable and is typically done for aesthetic reasons. In addition to improving performance, the jewels create an area that is stronger than metal, so repeated friction from pivots won't cause harm as easily.

In addition to the above-mentioned upgrades, the player can also obtain glyphs for their shields and weapons from a Glyphmaster. These glyphs give a slight boost and can be freely exchanged, however they are not guaranteed to be available as loot. Glyphs can be upgraded, as jewelry, by visiting the Jeweler for gold and a Scattered Crystal. Glyphs can also be taken out and returned to the inventory. Other upgrade components, such as traits and aegis are not swappable, and are only recoverable by using an Upgrade Extractor, or by salvaging them using Black Lion Salvage Kit or an Ascended Salvage Tool.

Trinkets

Trinkets are pieces of equipment that offer a wide range of tiny but valuable benefits to your hero. They are available in the start-up area as loot or personal story rewards. They are also available through vendors and after completing road interaction. They may also be crafted by jewelers and later found or purchased on the Trading Post.

The first trinkets that a player unlocks will be the cloak, which gives a small but useful bonus in speed of movement and the ability to escape. After that, they'll be able to purchase amulets, rings and necklaces in a similar manner to the way a player obtains armor and weapons. Each piece of equipment comes with an upgrade slot which can be universal or jewel. Universal upgrades offer smaller bonuses and can be placed in any type of equipment, while jewelry cannot be replaced or upgraded, and is only compatible with certain types of trinkets.

These trinkets grant additional buffs and abilities that are active when the hero isn't engaged in combat. This enables the hero to perform better when they are not active and may also help fill in the void of a solid team or any talent tree slots that normally are filled with the hero's ideal stats.

A good general rule of thumb for trinket upgrades is to prioritize BiS (Best-in-Slot) items that you aren't planning to replace soon, followed by items with desirable stats, but less important than the iLevel of the item being upgraded. This is especially true when an item has multiple stats that you'd like to upgrade as it's often more beneficial to upgrade one important stat rather than two sub-optimal ones.

At the beginning of the game junglers will usually want to upgrade their yellow trinket to a red, while top and mid players will usually opt for either a pink or green ward (depending on the matchup). These choices can impact the hero's ability to manage the map.

In addition to the items mentioned above, players can find other items in the form of trophies and awards. These can be obtained by completing certain milestones within the story, for instance the main quest of a chapter or killing a certain boss. These achievements can be seen by selecting the appropriate achievement in the reward tab of the hero menu.