Ten Things Your Competitors Help You Learn About Item Upgrades

Path of Exile Item Upgrades

Upgrades to items are a frequent and essential way to boost the performance of many items in Path of Exile. They can provide extra damage, AD or even affixes.

Sometimes, however, upgraded Common and Magic gear is often surpassed by Rare-grade gear because of their higher requirements.

Armor

Armor upgrades can be applied to both weapon and armor items. They increase the stats of whatever item they are connected to. Armor upgrades can be found in the game's world and can be purchased from Blacksmiths at any bonfire. They can also be salvaged by using a specialist or higher salvage kits to salvage upgrades from the items.

The level of an armor's or weapon's upgrade determines the amount of damage it can absorb. The upgrade of an armor piece to its highest upgrade level will increase its damage absorption. However, it's important to note that this will also increase its weight, causing it to be heavier than before.

There are several kinds of armor upgrades that are available in the game and they all have distinct effects. For instance, certain upgrades will grant the armor a certain amount of health points while others will make it stronger and lighter. The type of armor upgrade that an item 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 hybrid of magic and technology, which is indicated by a "Magic" or "Hybrid" entry in the table below. Some upgrades also require charges for use. These are indicated as "Charges" entries in the table. These charges are either continuously updated or never expire depending on the upgrade.

The cheapest way to upgrade armor is to use Iron Ore, which can be found by exploring the environment and looting chests of minor loot. Titanium is more expensive but it can be obtained through smelters in Orgrimmar and Stormwind City. Certain upgrades, like the Reforge or the Hot Potato Books can only be used on armor pieces of the highest level. These upgrades can provide significant boost in stats, and are definitely worth the cost.

A piece of armor upgraded to its maximum upgrade level will significantly boost its defense, but the player should be aware that increasing its weight will drastically reduce its speed and agility. For this reason, it is not recommended to upgrade the majority of armor pieces above +9, since the added defense is generally not worth the weight and power costs of the upgrades needed.

Weapons

Weapon upgrades allow players to increase the effectiveness of specific aspects of a weapon. For example, an upgrade may increase the damage dealt by a shotgun's shells or the accuracy of the sniper rifle. Certain firearms have upgrades that enhance their inherent characteristics. Frictionless materials (improves stability, minimizes the possibility of overheating) and Kinetic coils (increases the projectile's speed to cause more damage) are two examples.

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

Upgrading a Weapon, Equipment Set piece or Whetblade requires visiting the NPC [Armor] Boboko in Central Flarine and paying her an upgrade cost of a certain number of Bars. The more bars needed to complete an upgrade, the higher the level. The cost of the upgrades will be lower if you have more than one of the relevant upgrade materials.

In Chapter 2: Season 5, the way you upgrade your equipment and weapon sets was a bit different. Before you could search for an Upgrade Bench and pay a certain amount of Bars to upgrade your equipment or weapon to an increased rarity. You could do this until the weapon or equipment reached its maximum upgrade level and at that point, the upgrades would reset.

You can still do this but the process is based on RNG and low on agency. You're better off buying gear with minimal upgrade levels and high base scores and stat distributions. These will be able to give you the highest tier bonuses and blessings.

To level up faster, many players prioritise upgrading their weapons. Players should also upgrade the weapons that their squadmates use to boost their strength. Shepard for instance, should upgrade the M92F in order to unlock the Beretta M93R. This will make the weapon more effective when used in conjunction with biotic specialists like Grunt and Tali.

Jewels

Jewels can be used to boost the effectiveness of a skill or provide additional effects on weapons and armor. They can be created using the process of jewelry crafting, where you combine a gem with a number of specific chemicals at a table. The higher the quality of the gem, the greater the secondary effect. These reagents can be obtained from Treasure Goblins and World Bosses around the world, or through salvaging Legendary Gear. You can also purchase them from The Jeweler in exchange for Scattered Prisms and gold.

The Jeweler can enhance the quality of a gem in stages ranging from Crude up to Royal. Depending on the tier of the gem, it will provide a different stat boosts when inserted into weapons, equipment and jewelry.

The Jeweler can craft all tiers of gems, except for the rare and legendary ones that you must be at a certain level to get. Jewels can be replaced with another jewel without damaging the original. You can only replace the jewel once within an item of equipment.

It is common to use more jewels to enhance the appearance of. Apart from improving performance, the jewels create an outer layer that is more durable than metal, which means that repeated friction from pivots doesn't cause damage as easily.

In addition to the above-mentioned upgrades additionally, players can get glyphs for their weapons and shields from a Glyphmaster.  item upgrading  provide a small boost and can be traded, but they're not guaranteed to be available as loot. Glyphs, just like jewelry, can be upgraded by the Jeweler in exchange for Scattered Crystals and gold. Glyphs can also be taken out 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 the Black Lion Salvage Kit or an Ascended Salvage Tool.

Trinkets

Trinkets are small pieces of equipment that provide an array of tiny but valuable advantages to your hero. They are available in the starting area as loot or as personal story rewards. They are also available from vendors as well as through the completion of road interactions. They can also be crafted by jewelers and later found or purchased on the Trading Post.

The first trinket a player unlocks will be the cloak, which grants a small, but valuable boost to movement speed and the ability to escape. The player can then collect rings, amulets and necklaces in a similar manner similar to how they obtained weapons and armor. Each piece of equipment has one upgrade slot that accepts either a universal or jewel upgrade. Universal upgrades are smaller and can be utilized on any equipment. Jewels are not upgradeable or replaced and only work with certain trinkets.

These trinkets also provide additional buffs and skills that are active even when the character is not fighting. This enables the hero to be more effective while inactive and also helps fill in the void of a strong team or any slots in the talent tree that normally are filled with the hero's best stats.

As a rule trinket upgrades should be a priority BiS (Best in Slot) items that you aren't likely to replace soon. Then, you should consider any items with desirable stats that are less significant than the iLevel of the item that is to be upgraded. This is particularly true if an item has multiple stats you'd like to upgrade since it's generally better to upgrade a single important stat than two sub-optimal ones.

Jungle players usually upgrade their yellow trinket to a red one prior to the beginning of the game. Mid and top players, on the other hand they will select either a pink or green ward, based on the game's matchup. These choices can affect the hero's ability to manage the map.

In addition to the items mentioned above, players can also find other trinkets that form trophies and rewards throughout the game. These can be obtained by completing certain milestones within the story, such as finishing a chapter's main quest or killing a particular boss. They can be viewed by selecting the appropriate achievement in the reward tab of the hero menu.