Material upgrades and equipment affinage

Two equipment upgrade paths

Use Upgrade in the Forge for eligible ordinary material equipment. Use Affinage for eligible worn legendary equipment, Dragon-Touched trophies and Descent relics. A material upgrade raises the piece by one material tier. Equipment affinage has three steps: Affinaged, Refined and Transcendent. Complete those steps in order.

Material upgrade prices

The four material steps have base costs of 10 gold and 5 Stone, 25 gold and 10 Stone, 50 gold and 20 Stone, then 100 gold and 40 Stone. These move tiers 1 to 2, 2 to 3, 3 to 4 and 4 to 5. A compatible next material is selected from that tier. The Upgrade action does not let you choose the material. The Forge can show a completed piece as max tier.

Which ordinary pieces qualify

A material upgrade needs a generated piece with a recognised material and base type, a compatible next material and at least one positive attribute named by the base type. Legendary, set and artifact pieces do not use this path. The piece can be worn or in your backpack. A backpack piece must be wearable, identified and a single piece. Hand tools with no material, and bands whose base type has no attributes, do not qualify.

What a material upgrade changes

A material upgrade rescales the current totals of the attributes named by the base type. It uses the new material multiplier divided by the old one, rounds the result and gives each affected positive attribute at least 1 more point. An affix contribution on one of those same attributes is part of that current total. Other attribute keys stay unchanged. A negative affected attribute follows the base type’s sign rule and can become a larger penalty. The item keeps its affixes and gets its new material name and value.

Affinage ingredients for each step

Affinaged requires a Curd of Ages, one eligible tier 3 Rare cheese and 50 base gold. Refined requires an Essence of Terroir, one eligible tier 4 Legendary cheese and 100 base gold. Transcendent requires a Heart of the Land, one eligible tier 4 Legendary cheese, one accepted culture and 200 base gold. The accepted cultures are Penicillium Candidum, Penicillium Roqueforti, Riftspore Culture and Abyssal Mold. The per-step pages list the eligible named cheeses. Spell cheeses qualify by their tier. Season wheels are excluded from the named press-cheese list.

Choose the cheese you intend to spend

The Affinage confirmation lets you choose a cheese stack and any required culture from your backpack or quick slots. Protected stacks and a wheel loaded on your own Spell Belt are excluded. A loose duplicate of the same wheel can still qualify. A catalyst can come from your backpack, quick slots or nearby crafting supply. Move the intended cheese or culture into your carried supplies if it is only stored nearby.

Affinage grows standard attributes

Each equipment affinage step grows every positive standard equipment attribute. It multiplies the current value by the next step’s multiplier divided by the previous one, rounds, then gives at least 1 extra point. The nominal multipliers are 1.15, 1.30 and 1.50. Small attributes can gain more than those nominal percentages because of the minimum increase. Zero and negative values stay unchanged. Dedicated fishing power, cast range, bite bonus, lure power and lure rarity bonus are outside this attribute list and do not grow. Damage on non-weapon equipment is also updated in the bonus damage it grants.

Every Forge purchase raises later gold quotes

Rerolls, material upgrades and equipment affinage share one purchase count in the save. Each earlier purchase multiplies the next base gold cost by 1.15, up to 10 times the base cost after 17 purchases. Each quote is rounded to whole gold. Stone and ingredient amounts stay fixed. Switching to another item does not reset this shared count. The live action checks the acting player’s actual item and requirements again before completing the upgrade.