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 also provide additional damage, AD or even affixes.

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

Armor

Armor upgrades can be applied to both armor and weapon items. They boost the performance of the Item upgrade that they're 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 an expert or higher salvage kits to recover upgrade components from other items.

The amount of damage an armored item upgrader mod or weapon will absorb is contingent on the extent of its upgrades. The absorption of damage by a piece armor will increase when it's upgraded to the maximum upgrade level. But, it's important to note that this will also raise its weight, requiring it to weigh more than it was before.

There are a variety of armor upgrades available in the game. Each one has a distinct effect. Certain upgrades give armor an additional number of health points while others make it lighter and more powerful. The name of the armor upgrade will indicate the type of upgrade the item upgrader mod can be given, as illustrated below.

Some of the upgrades also require magic or a combination of technology and magic, as identified by the "Magic" and "Hybrids" entries in the table below. Additionally, some upgrades require a charge to use, and are shown by the "Charges" entry in the table below. The charges for these upgrades change every day or never expire, depending on the upgrade items.

Iron Ore is the cheapest way to improve your armor. It can be found by exploring and looting small chests. Titanium is more expensive but it can be obtained from smelters located in Orgrimmar and Stormwind City. Some upgrades, like the Reforge or the Hot Potato Books can only be used on high-level armor pieces. These upgrades can give significant boost to performance and are worth the cost, especially for single-handed weapons.

The player must be aware, however, that upgrading a piece to the max upgrade level will increase its defense values. However, it can also decrease its agility and speed. This is why it is generally not recommended to upgrade the majority of armor pieces above +9, since the defensive boost gained is typically not worth the weight and power cost of the upgrades needed.

Weapons

Weapon upgrades give players to enhance certain aspects of their weapon. Upgrades can increase the accuracy of a rifle, or the damage that shotgun shells cause. Some weapons have special upgrades that enhance their inherent capabilities. They include Frictionless Materials (improves stability and decreases the chance of overheating of the weapon) and Kinetic Coils (increases the velocity of projectiles for greater damage).

The majority of upgrades for weapons require the use of a whetblade, or one of the three Power Dices and a different amount of Minerals and Erons. These are obtained through either finishing side quests, taking out a certain number of bosses or monsters, or by contacting the Weapon Upgrade NPC located in Central Flarine.

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

In Chapter 2: Season 5, the method of upgrading your equipment and weapon sets was a bit different. In the past, you could seek out an Upgrade Bench and pay for a specific number of Bars to upgrade your weapon or equipment to an increased quality. You could do this until you reached a max upgrade level of the weapon or equipment, after which upgrades would reset.

You can still do this but the process is based on RNG and low on agency. It is better to purchase gear that has minimal upgrade levels and high base scores and stat distributions. These will have a chance at gaining you the highest tier benefits and blessings.

To level up quicker, players usually prioritise upgrading their weapons. Players should also upgrade the weapons that their squadmates use to boost their strength. For instance, Shepard should consider upgrading the M92F to unlock the Beretta M93R to 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 a stat and providing secondary effects. They can be made through a process called jewelry crafting, in which you combine a gemstone and various 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 by salvaging Legendary Gear. You can also buy them from The Jeweler for gold and a Scattered Prism.

The Jeweler can improve the quality of gemstones in stages ranging from Crude up to Royal. The stat boosts will vary depending on the tier the jewel is at when it is inserted into jewelry, weapons, or equipment.

All levels of jewels can be crafted at the Jeweler, with the exception of the rare and legendary jewels that require you to be at a certain level to be able to get them. Unlike other upgrade components, jewels can be swapped by a different identical jewel without damaging it. You are able to replace the jewel only once in a piece of equipment.

Utilizing more jewels in a move will make it feel smoother, and is often performed to enhance the aesthetics of the movement. In addition to enhancing performance, the jewels also create an outer layer that is more durable than steel, so the repeated friction from pivots won't cause damage as easily.

A Glyphmaster can offer glyphs to improve the look of your shields and weapons. These provide a small bonus and can be swapped freely but aren't guaranteed to drop as loot. Glyphs can be upgraded like jewelry, at the Jeweler for gold and scattered Crystal. Glyphs may also be removed and returned to the inventory. Other upgrade components such as traits or aegis cannot be swapped, and can only be retrieved by using an Upgrade extractor, or salvaging with Black Lion Salvage Kit, or Ascended Salvage.

Trinkets

Trinkets can be used to give your character various small, but valuable, benefits. They can be acquired starting in the areas of starting as loot, personal story rewards, from vendors, or by completing road interactions. They can also be made by jewelers, and then found or purchased on the Trading Post.

The first trinkets a player is able to unlock is the cloak, which grants a small but useful bonus in speed of movement and evasion. Then, they can get amulets, rings, and necklaces in the same manner to the way a player acquires armor and weapons. Each piece of equipment has one upgrade slot that accepts either a universal upgrade or a jewel upgrade. 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 provide additional bonuses and abilities that are active when the hero isn't engaged in combat. This allows a hero to become more efficient even when not in combat. It can also make up for the absence of excellent slot in the talent tree or team which are usually filled by a hero's top stats.

As a general rule, trinket upgrades should prioritize BiS (Best item upgrader in Slot) items you won't replace soon. Then, you should consider any items with desirable statistics that aren't as important as the iLevel of the item to be upgraded. This is especially true when an item has multiple stats that you'd like to upgrade, since it's generally better to upgrade a single important stat rather than two sub-optimal ones.

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

In addition to the items listed above, players can also discover other trinkets in form of rewards and trophies throughout the game. These can be obtained by completing certain milestones within the story, like finishing a chapter's main quest or killing a certain boss. You can check them out by selecting the achievement from the reward section of the hero's menu.