Guide To Item Upgrades: The Intermediate Guide Towards Item Upgrades

Path of Exile Item Upgrades

item upgrade upgrades are a common and essential way to boost the performance of numerous items in Path of Exile. They can provide extra damage, AD or even affixes.

Rare-grade equipment is usually superior to modernized Common or Magic equipment due to their high demands.

Armor

Armor upgrades can be applied to both armor and weapon items. They boost the performance of the item that they're attached to. Armor upgrades can be found in the world of games and purchased from Blacksmiths on bonfires. They can also be salvaged by using a specialist or higher salvage kit to recover upgrade components from other items.

The amount of damage that an armored item upgrading or weapon will absorb is contingent on the extent of its upgrades. A piece of armor upgraded to maximum upgrade level will boost the damage it absorbs. It's important to remember that this will increase the weight of the armor, therefore it should be heavier.

There are a variety of armor upgrades that are available in the game. Each has a different impact. Some upgrades give armor an additional number of health points while others make it more powerful and lighter. The type of armor upgrade that an item upgrade can receive will be identified by the name of the upgrade as indicated in the table below.

A few of the upgrades are also magic or a mix of magic and technology, which is indicated by a "Magic" or "Hybrid" entry in the table below. Certain upgrades also require fees for use. These are identified as "Charges" entries in the table. The charges for these upgrades are updated daily or never expire depending on the upgrade.

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

The player must be aware, however, that upgrading a piece to the max upgrade level will increase its defense values. However, it can also affect the speed and agility of the piece. It is not recommended to upgrade armor past +9. The boost in defense generally isn't worth the weight and power costs of the upgrades.

Weapons

Weapon upgrades let players increase the effectiveness of specific aspects of a weapon. Upgrades can increase the accuracy of a rifle, or the damage that shotgun shells cause. Certain firearms also have upgrades that improve their innate capabilities. These include Frictionless Materials (improves stability and minimizes weapon overheating) and Kinetic Coils (increases the velocity of projectiles for greater damage).

Most upgrades for weapons require three Power Dices, a different amount of Minerals and Erons, and a whetblade for applying. These can be obtained by doing side quests, or killing a certain amount of bosses or monsters, or from the Weapon Upgrade NPC in Central Flarine.

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

In Chapter 2: Season 5 the way you upgrade your weapon and equipment sets has changed. 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 you reached the max upgrade level of the weapon or equipment, after which the upgrades would be reset.

You can still do this but the process is high on RNG and low on agency. It is better to purchase gear with low levels of upgrade but with high base scores and stat distributions. These items will have a higher chance of granting you the most prestigious tier of benefits and blessings.

To level up faster, most players will prioritise upgrading their weapons. In addition players, they should also consider upgrading the weapons favored by their squadmates to make them more powerful and effective. Shepard for instance, should upgrade the M92F so that he can unlock the Beretta M93R. This will increase the effectiveness of the weapon when used with biotic specialists like Grunt and Tali.

Jewels

Jewels can be used to improve a stat or provide secondary effects on weapons and armor. They can be created through an process known as jewelry crafting, where you combine a gem and several ingredients at a table for jewelry. The higher the level of the gemstone is, the greater its secondary effect. These reagents can be found around the world through Treasure Goblins, World Bosses and, sometimes, by salvaging Legendary gear. You can also buy them from The Jeweler in exchange for Scattered Prisms and gold.

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

All tiers of jewels can be crafted at the Jeweler however, there are some exceptions to this, such as the rare and legendary gems that require you to be at a certain level to be able to get them. Jewels can be replaced by another jewel without destroying the original. However, you can only replace the jewels in an item of equipment only once.

It is typical to use more jewelry for aesthetic reasons. Apart from improving performance, the diamonds create an outer layer that is more durable than metal, so repeated friction from pivots won't cause damage as easily.

In addition to the upgrades mentioned above, the player can also acquire glyphs for their shields and weapons from a Glyphmaster. These provide a small bonus and can be swapped out at any time, but are not guaranteed to drop as loot. Glyphs can be upgraded, as jewelry, by visiting the Jeweler for gold and a Scattered Crystal. Glyphs can also be removed and returned to the inventory. Other upgrade components, such as aegis or traits cannot be swapped, and can only be recovered by using an Upgrade extractor, or salvaging with a Black Lion Salvage Kit, or Ascended Salvage tool.

Trinkets

Trinkets are small pieces of equipment that offer many small, but beneficial advantages to your hero. You can find them in the starting area as loot or personal story rewards. They are also available from vendors and by doing road interaction. They can be found on the Trading Post, or crafted by jewelers.

The first trinkets a player can unlock is the cloak, which grants a small, but valuable boost to speed of movement and the ability to escape. After that, they'll be able to purchase amulets, rings and necklaces in a similar fashion to how the player obtains weapons and armor. Each piece of equipment comes with an upgrade slot that is either universal or jewel. Universal upgrades are smaller and can be used on any equipment. Jewels cannot be upgraded or replaced, and can only be used with certain trinkets.

These trinkets can also grant buffs and skills that are active even when the character is not fighting. This enables the hero to perform better when they are not active and also helps fill in the void of a solid team or any talent tree slots that would normally be filled with the hero's ideal stats.

A good guideline for trinket upgrades is to prioritize BiS (Best item upgrader-in-Slot) items that you aren't planning to replace in the near future, then any items with desirable stats that are less important than the iLevel of the item that is being upgraded. This is particularly true if an item upgrader mod has multiple stats you'd like to upgrade as it's usually better to upgrade a single crucial stat than two subpar ones.

At the beginning of the game players who are in the jungle will typically want to upgrade their yellow trinket into a red one, while top and middle players typically choose a green or pink ward (depending on the matchup). These choices will have a significant impact on the hero's ability to control his map.

In addition to the items mentioned above, players will discover other trinkets in form of trophies and rewards throughout the game. They can be earned by completing certain milestones in the story, such as finishing a chapter's main quest or destroying a boss. You can check them out by selecting the achievement in the reward section of the hero's menu.