Path of Exile Item Upgrades

The performance of many Path of Exile items can be enhanced by upgrading them. They can be a good source of additional damage or more AD or even more attaches.

Rare-grade equipment is often superior to modernized Common or Magic gear due to their higher requirements.

Armor

Armor upgrades can be applied to both armor and weapon items. They boost the stats of whatever item upgrader they are connected to. Armor upgrades are found in the game's world and can be purchased from Blacksmiths at any bonfire. Alternatively, they can also be salvaged from items that have upgrade components inside them, using an expert or greater salvage kit.

The level of an armor's or weapon's upgrade determines the amount of damage it will take on. Upgrading a piece of armor to the highest upgrade level will boost the damage it absorbs. However, it's important to be aware that this upgrade will raise its weight, requiring it to weigh more than before.

There are several types of armor upgrades available in the game, and they all have different effects. For instance, some upgrades give the armor a certain amount of health points while others make it stronger and lighter. The name of the armor upgrade will indicate the kind of upgrade an item upgrader mod can receive, as shown below.

A few upgrades are magic or a mix of magic and technology, which is indicated by a "Magic" or "Hybrid" entry in the table below. Some upgrades also require a charge to use, which is shown by the "Charges" entry in the table below. The charges associated with these upgrades refresh every day or never expire, according to the upgrade.

Iron Ore is the cheapest option to upgrade your armor. You can locate it by exploring and looting small chests. Titanium is more expensive however, it is available 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 investment, especially for 1-handed weapons.

Upgrading a piece of armor to max upgrade level will dramatically boost its defense but the wearer must be aware that increasing its weight will drastically reduce its agility and speed. It is not recommended to upgrade armor beyond +9. The boost in defense usually isn't worth the weight and power expenses of the upgrades.

Weapons

Weapon upgrades allow players to improve the effectiveness of certain aspects of an weapon. For instance, an upgrade may improve the damage that is caused by a shotgun's shells or the accuracy of the sniper rifle. Certain firearms have upgrades to improve their inherent characteristics. Frictionless materials (improves stability, and reduces the possibility of overheating), and Kinetic coils (increases the projectile's speed for greater damage) are two examples.

The majority of upgrades to weapons require a whetblade, one of three Power Dices and a different amount of Minerals and Erons. These can be gained by completing Side Quests or by killing a certain amount of monsters and bosses.

Upgrading a Weapon, Equipment Set piece, or Whetblade requires visiting the NPC [Armor] Boboko in Central Flarine and paying her an upgrade fee that is based on a specific number of Bars. The more bars needed to complete an upgrade, the more expensive the upgrade. If you have multiple upgrade materials The cost of upgrading will be less.

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 still possible, but it depends heavily on RNG. Instead, you're better off visiting stores and buying gear that has low upgrade levels but good base scores and stat distributions. These items have a higher chance of giving you the highest tier blessings and perks.

To level up quicker, players usually prioritise upgrading their weapons. Players should also upgrade the weapons their teammates use to make them stronger. Shepard, for example should upgrade his M92F in order to unlock the Beretta M93R. This will increase the effectiveness of the weapon when used in conjunction with biotic specialists like Grunt and Tali.

Jewels

Jewels can be used to boost the stats of a character or to provide additional effects in weapons and armor. They can be made through the process of jewelry crafting, in which you combine a gem and a number of specific reagents at a jewelry table. The higher the level of the jewel the better the secondary effect. These reagents can be found around the world through Treasure Goblins, World Bosses and sometimes by salvaging Legendary equipment. You can also buy them from The Jeweler in exchange for gold and Scattered Prisms.

The quality of a jewel can be improved at the Jeweler, with stages that range from Crude to Royal. Based on the level of the gem it will give different stat boost when slotted into weapons, equipment and jewelry.

All tiers of jewels are crafted at the Jeweler however, there are some exceptions to this, such as the rare and legendary jewels which require you to be at a high enough level to obtain the privilege of having them. Jewels can be replaced with another one without damaging the original. You can only replace the gem only once in a piece of equipment.

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

In addition to the above upgrades additionally, players can get glyphs for their shields and weapons from a Glyphmaster. These glyphs give a slight boost and can be swapped, but they're not guaranteed to show up as loot. Glyphs can be upgraded as jewelry, by visiting the Jeweler for gold, and also scattered Crystal. Glyphs can also be removed and returned to the inventory. Other upgrade items components like aegis or traits cannot be swapped, and can only be retrieved through an upgrade extractor or salvaging with a Black Lion Salvage Kit or Ascended Salvage tool.

Trinkets

Trinkets are a great way to give your character a variety of small, but beneficial advantages. They can be acquired starting in the starter areas as loot, personal story rewards, from vendors, and through performing road interactions. They can be found on the Trading Post, or crafted by jewelers.

The first trinket players will be able to unlock is the cloak. It grants a small, but useful bonus in speed of movement and the ability to evade. After that, they'll be able to get amulets, rings, and necklaces in a similar way to how a player acquires weapons and armor. Each piece of equipment has an upgrade slot which can be universal or jewel. Universal upgrades are smaller and are able to be used on any equipment. Jewels cannot be upgraded or replaced and only work with certain trinkets.

These trinkets can provide additional bonuses and abilities that are active even when the hero isn't in combat. This allows a hero to become more efficient even when not in combat. It can also compensate for the absence of excellent team or talent tree slots that are normally filled by the hero's best stats.

A good guideline for trinket upgrades is to prioritize BiS (Best-in-Slot) items that you won't be replacing soon, followed by any items with desirable stats that are less important than the iLevel of the item upgrader Mod that is being upgraded. This is particularly true if an item upgrader mod has multiple stats that you'd like to upgrade as it's usually better to upgrade a single important stat rather than two sub-optimal ones.

In the beginning of the game junglers will usually want to upgrade their trinket to a red in the middle and top players usually choose the pink or green ward (depending on the game's matchup). These choices can impact a hero's ability to control the map.

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