Guide To Item Upgrades: The Intermediate Guide To Item Upgrades

Path of Exile Item Upgrades

Item upgrades are a common and essential way to boost the performance of many items in Path of Exile. They can cause additional damage, AD or even affixes.

Often times however, upgraded Common and Magic gear is often surpassed by Rare-grade gear due to their high requirements.

Armor

Armor upgrades are a form of upgrade that can be used on armor and weapon items. They improve the stats of the item they are attached to. Upgrades to armor are available in the world of the game and can be purchased from Blacksmiths at any bonfire. They can also be salvaged using an expert or higher salvage kits to recover upgrades from the items.

The level of an armor's or weapon's upgrade item determines the amount of damage it is able to absorb. Upgrading a piece of armor to maximum upgrade level will increase the damage it absorbs. It is important to note that this will increase the weight of the armor, which means it must be heavier.

There are a variety of armor upgrades available in the game. Each has a different impact. For instance, certain upgrades will grant the armor a certain amount of health points while others will make it stronger and lighter. The name of the upgrade will tell you the kind of upgrade the item can be given, as illustrated below.

Some upgrades are magic or a hybrid of magic and technology, which is shown by an "Magic" or "Hybrid" entry in the table below. Additionally, some upgrades require a charge to use, which is indicated by the "Charges" entry in the table below. These charges are continuously updated or never expire based on the upgrade.

The cheapest way to upgrade items armor is to use Iron Ore, which can be obtained by exploring the area and looting small loot chests. Titanium is more expensive but can be found at the smelters in Orgrimmar and Stormwind City. Certain upgrades, like the Reforge and the Hot Potato Books, can only be applied to high-level armor pieces. These upgrades can give significant boost to stats and are a worthwhile investment, especially for 1-handed weapons.

The player should be aware, however, that upgrading a piece to the maximum upgrade level will boost its defense. However, it will also reduce its agility and speed. It is not recommended to upgrade armor past +9. The boost in defense generally isn't worth the weight and power expenses of the upgrades.

Weapons

Weapon upgrades allow players to improve the effectiveness of certain aspects of a weapon. Upgrades can boost the accuracy of a rifle, or the damage that shotgun shells do. Certain firearms also have enhancements that enhance their intrinsic qualities. Frictionless materials (improves stability, and reduces weapon overheating) and Kinetic coils (increases the projectile's speed for greater damage) are two examples.

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

Upgrading a Weapon, Equipment Set piece or Whetblade requires visiting the NPC [Armor] Boboko in Central Flarine and paying her an upgrade fee that is based on a specific number of Bars. The higher the upgrade level, the higher the number of bars required to complete it. The cost of upgrading will be lower if you have more than one of the relevant upgrade materials.

In Chapter 2: Season 5, the method of upgrading your equipment and weapon sets changed a little. Prior to Chapter 2: Season 5 you could upgrade your weapon and equipment by paying a specific amount of Bars. You could do this until your 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 much better off going to stores and purchasing equipment with low upgrade levels but excellent base scores and stat distributions. They will also have a better chance of bringing you the most prestigious perks and blessings.

To increase their level faster, many players prioritize upgrading their weapons. In addition to these players, they should think about upgrading the weapons favored by their teammates to increase their power and effective. For item upgrade instance, Shepard should consider upgrading the M92F to unlock the Beretta M93R, which will make it more useful when paired with biotic specialists like Grunt and Tali.

Jewels

Jewels are utilized in the sockets of armor and weapons, increasing the stats of a weapon and providing additional effects. Jewelry crafting is a method of creating them. You combine gemstones with specific reagents in a jewelry table. The higher the grade of the jewel, the better its secondary effect. These reagents are obtained in the world through Treasure Goblins, World Bosses and occasionally by salvaging Legendary equipment. You can also buy them from The Jeweler in exchange for Scattered Prisms and gold.

The quality of a jewel can be improved upon by the Jeweler in stages that vary from Crude to Royal. Depending on the tier of the jewel it will give different stat boosts when inserted into weapons, gear and jewelry.

The Jeweler is able to create all tiers of gems, apart from the rare and legendary ones that you must attain an appropriate level to obtain. Jewels can be replaced with another one without damaging the original. You can only replace the jewel only once in a piece of equipment.

It is normal to use more gems for aesthetic reasons. Jewels also enhance performance and create a surface harder than metal so that repeated friction from pivots do not cause damage to the movement.

A Glyphmaster can provide glyphs to enhance the look of your shields and weapons. These are a small perk and can be swapped out at any time however they aren't guaranteed to drop as loot. Glyphs, just like jewelry, can be upgraded at the Jeweler in exchange for gold and Scattered Crystals. Glyphs can also be taken out and returned to the inventory. Other upgrade components, like traits and aegis aren't swappable and can only be recovered using an Upgrade Extractor or salvaging them using a Black Lion Salvage Kit or an Ascended Salvage Tool.

Trinkets

Trinkets are items of equipment that bestow many small but useful advantages to your hero. They can be acquired starting in the beginning areas as loot, personal story rewards, from vendors, and by performing road interactions. They can also be crafted by jewelers, and then found or purchased from the Trading Post.

The first trinkets a player unlocks will be the cloak. It grants a small but useful bonus to movement speed and the ability to escape. After that, they can purchase amulets, rings and necklaces in the same manner to the way a player acquires weapons and armor. Each piece of equipment has one upgrade slot that can accommodate either a universal or a jewel upgrade. Universal upgrades are smaller and are able to be used on any device. Jewels cannot be upgraded or replaced, and can only be used with certain trinkets.

These trinkets can provide additional bonuses and abilities that are active when the hero isn't engaged in combat. This lets the hero be more effective when not active, and can also help to compensate for the absence of a strong team or the absence of any slots in the talent tree which would normally be filled with hero's ideal stats.

A good general rule of thumb for trinket upgrades is to prioritize BiS (Best-in-Slot) items that you will not replace in the near future, then any items with desirable stats but less important than the iLevel of the item being upgraded. This is especially true if an item upgrade has multiple stats that you'd like to upgrade, as it's often more beneficial to upgrade one important stat than two sub-optimal ones.

In the beginning of the game junglers will usually want to upgrade their yellow trinket into a red one in the middle and top players will usually opt for either a pink or green ward (depending on the game's matchup). These choices will have a major impact on the hero's map control abilities.

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