Since several people have asked on the forums and in-game, and the upgrading system has changed from what it used to be, here’s a quick and dirty guide to upgrading written by me.

(I’ll go back through here when I have more time and make it look pretty, but for right now, this’ll just be so people can get the info now.)

A. The Basics

To upgrade weapons and armor, you need 3 things:

1. A weapon or piece of armor that you want to upgrade,

2. An upgrade crystal for the level range of weapon or armor you are upgrading, and

3. An upgrade stone for the level range of the weapon you want to upgrade.

You can obtain weapons and armor from the Personal Shops (available at the Personal Shop NPC, and varies from island to island), from monsters that you terminate with extreme prejudice, Weapon and Armor NPCs, or from Arms and Defence exchange tickets (although these have a rather small chance of giving you one).

Upgrade crystals are obtained either via Personal Shops or from breaking other weapons, armor, and accessories at the blacksmith (available in every town). The crystals obtained via this method will give crystals that upgrade level-equivalent gear (i.e. a sword that is for a level 33 character will give an upgrade crystal for equipment levels 31-40).

Upgrade stones are available again in either the Personal Shop or drop from monsters you hunt down. For the most part, these can upgrade any equipment level 11 and up (depending on the rank of the stone). The only exception to this is the rank 9 upgrade stones, which can only upgrade equipment levels 1-10, and are the only stones which can upgrade equipment lower than level 11.

Upgrading:

Head over to the blacksmith and select "Item Upgrade." Once there, right-click on the equipment, a valid stone, and a valid crystal to place them into the upgrade area. Any applicable charges will be listed at the bottom of the selection box, including cost to upgrade. Click on "Upgrade" to begin the proccess.

Things to keep in mind:

– Upgrading a piece of equipment to a bonus of +1 is automatic success.

– Upgrading equipment to +2 or higher can cause a reset of the item (whereupon you lose all previous bonuses, and the item becomes a regular "+0" item).

– Upgrading to +3 or higher has a chance of the item "breaking", where you not only lose your bonuses, but your item will be destroyed and rendered useless, and you will have to buy a new one.

– At a bonus of +4, weapons have a special effect applied to them, where they begin to glow and sparkle.

– Using a higher rank of upgrade stone will not increase the chances of success, only Mithril Powder (available from either the Cash Shop or the Personal Shop) will increase the chance of success.

– Using an Ancient Piece of Slate (again, available in the Cash Shop or from the Personal Shop) will prevent breaking, and will take the Slate Piece instead of the item (unknown if this will prevent a reset also).

– Using a crystal for a higher-level weapon will not work AT ALL. You must use a crystal for level 11-20 to upgrade a piece of equipment between levels 11 and 20.

– Highest possible bonus is +10. However, from what I have heard, it is not possible to use Slate Pieces during the upgrade proccess from +9 to +10.

– The number of crystals needed to upgrade equipment depends on the bonus it will be.
Edit on Oct. 02, 2008 – I think the "official" numbers for crystals needed on the main page is incorrect, since you only use 1 crystal to go to +2. I could be wrong though, but I swear it’s only taking 1 from me…

-1 crystal for +1 and +2
-2 crystals for +3 and +4
-3 crystals for +5 and +6
-4 crystals for +7 and +8
-5 crystals for +9 and +10

Equipment Bonuses:

The bonus you get depends on the equipment you are upgrading.

- 1-handed swords, 2-handed swords, dual guns, and rifles will increase in physical damage.
- Cariads will increase in spell damage.
- Rapiers will increase in both physical and spell damage. I’m not sure if daggers will also or not, some confirmation would help.
- Chest armor will increase in physical defence.
- Leg armor will increase in magical defence.
- Gloves will increase in hit rate.
- Shoes will increase in evasion rate.
- Accessories, such as rings, amulets, and earrings CAN NOT be upgraded.

Please feel free to post here or PM me with any questions, suggestions, anything you feel should be added to this, and I’ll do my dest to keep this updated as best as I can. Thanks!