Guide To Item Upgrades: The Intermediate Guide For Item Upgrades

Path of Exile Item Upgrades

Item upgrades are a common and important way to improve the performance of numerous items in Path of Exile. They can be a fantastic source of extra damage, more AD or even more affixes.

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

Armor

Armor upgrades can be applied to both armor and weapon items. They boost the stats of whatever item level upgrade they are connected to. Armor upgrades can be found in the world of the game and can be purchased from Blacksmiths at bonfires. They can also be salvaged using an expert or higher salvage kit to recover upgrades from the items.

The amount of damage that a piece of armor or weapon is able to absorb is dependent on the extent of its upgrades. 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, so it must be more heavy.

There are several types of armor upgrades available in the game, and each one has distinct effects. Some upgrades give armor an extra number of health points while others make it lighter and more powerful. The name of the upgrade will tell you the kind of upgrade that an item will be given, as illustrated below.

Some upgrades also feature magic or a hybrid of technology and magic which is indicated by a "Magic" or "Hybrid" entry in the table below. Some upgrades also require charges for use. They are referred to as "Charges" entries in the table. These charges are either continuously updated or never expire based on the upgrade.

Iron Ore is the cheapest option to improve your armor. You can find it by exploring and looting small loot chests. Titanium is more expensive, but is readily available in the smelters of Orgrimmar and Stormwind City. Some upgrades, like the Reforge or the Hot Potato Books can only be applied on high-level armor pieces. These upgrades can give a significant boost in stats, and are definitely 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 can drastically decrease its speed and agility. It is not recommended to upgrade armor past +9. The added defense generally isn't worth the weight and power costs of the upgrades.

Weapons

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

The majority of weapon upgrades require a whetblade. It's one of three Power Dices and a different amount of Minerals and Erons. These can be obtained by completing Side Quests or killing a certain amount of bosses and monsters.

To upgrade a weapon, equipment set piece or Whetblade, you must visit the NPC [Armor] Boboko located in Central Flarine, and pay her an upgrade fee that is a certain amount of Bars. The more bars required to complete an upgrade, the more advanced the level. 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 has changed a bit. Prior to Chapter 2: Season 5, you could upgrade your weapon and equipment by paying a certain number of Bars. You could do this until your weapon or equipment reached its maximum upgrade level at which point the upgrades would reset.

It's possible, but it is dependent heavily on RNG. Instead, you're much better off going to stores and buying gear with low upgrade levels, but good base scores and stat distributions. These gears have a greater chance of giving you the most prestigious tier of blessings and perks.

Most players will want to prioritize upgrades to the weapons they use most frequently to help them level up quicker. 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, which will make it more useful when paired with biotech specialists such as Grunt and Tali.

Jewels

Jewels can be used to increase the stats of a character or to provide additional effects in armor and weapons. Jewelry crafting is a method for making them, in which you combine a gemstone with a number specific reagents in a jewelry table. The higher the grade of the jewel the better the secondary effect. These reagents can be found around the world from Treasure Goblins, World Bosses and occasionally by salvaging Legendary gear. You can also purchase them from The Jeweler in exchange for gold and Scattered Prisms.

The Jeweler can enhance the quality of a gem in stages ranging from Crude up to Royal. Based on the level of the gem it can provide different stat boosts when it is inserted into gear, weapons and jewelry.

The Jeweler is able to create the highest levels of gems except for the rare and legendary ones which require an appropriate level to obtain. Like other upgrade components jewels can be swapped out with another identical jewel without damaging it. However, you can only replace one jewel in an item of equipment once.

It is normal to use more jewels for aesthetic reasons. The jewels also improve performance and make an outer layer that is more durable than steel so that repeated friction from pivots does not damage them.

A Glyphmaster can offer glyphs to improve the appearance of your weapons and shields. These glyphs offer a small boost in power and can be traded, but they are not guaranteed to appear as loot. Glyphs can be upgraded as jewelry, by visiting the Jeweler for gold, and also a scattered Crystal. Glyphs can also be taken out and returned to the inventory. Other upgrade components like traits or aegis cannot be exchanged and can only be found with an Upgrade extractor or salvaging with a Black Lion Salvage Kit or Ascended Salvage tool.

Trinkets

Trinkets are small pieces of equipment that offer a wide range of small, but beneficial advantages to your hero. They can be obtained in the areas of starting as loot or personal story rewards from vendors, and by performing road interactions. They can be purchased from the Trading Post, or crafted by jewelers.

The first trinkets that a player can unlock is the cloak. It grants a small but useful bonus to movement speed and the ability to escape. Then, they can acquire rings, amulets, and necklaces in the same way to how a player obtains armor and weapons. Every piece of equipment has a slot for an upgrade that can be either universal or jewel. Universal upgrades are smaller and can be utilized on any device. Jewels are not upgradeable or replaced and only work with certain trinkets.

These trinkets can also grant bonuses and abilities that are active whenever the hero is not in combat. This lets a hero be more efficient while inactive. It can also compensate for the absence of good team or talent tree slots that are normally filled by a hero's top stats.

A good general rule of thumb for trinket upgrades is to prioritize BiS (Best item upgrader-in-Slot) items that you will not replace soon, followed by any items with desirable stats but less important than the iLevel of the item to be upgraded. This is especially true when an item level upgrade has multiple stats that you'd like to upgrade since it's generally better to upgrade just one 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 to a red, while top and mid players typically choose either a pink or green ward (depending on the matchup). These choices will have a major impact on the hero's ability to control his map.

Apart from the items listed above, players can also find a number of other trinkets throughout the game in the form of awards and trophies. These can be earned by completing certain milestones in the story, for instance finishing a chapter's main quest or killing a certain boss. These can be viewed by selecting the relevant achievement in the reward tab of the hero menu.