Guide
Upgrading without tears
How to upgrade items without losing your nerve: the chance of every step, what a failure does, when to use a Scroll of Protection and what it costs.
Game data: ef65e2f · 2026-10-09
How it works
You upgrade at the blacksmith. Every attempt costs gold and essences, and the chance drops with every level: from a certain +1 to 20% for the last step. Every upgrade level raises the item’s base stats.
| Step | Chance | Failure | Failure with scroll | Avg. attempts from +0 | …with scroll |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| +0 → +1 | 100% | — | — | 1 | 1 |
| +1 → +2 | 90% | +0 | no change | 2.2 | 2.1 |
| +2 → +3 | 80% | +1 | no change | 3.8 | 3.4 |
| +3 → +4 | 70% | +2 | no change | 5.9 | 4.8 |
| +4 → +5 | 60% | +3 | no change | 8.9 | 6.5 |
| +5 → +6 | 50% | +4 | no change | 14 | 8.5 |
| +6 → +7 | 40% | +5 | no change | 24.1 | 11 |
| +7 → +8 | 30% | +6 | no change | 51 | 14.3 |
| +8 → +9 | 20% | +7 | no change | 163.5 | 19.3 |
Data: Logic/Upgrade · commit ef65e2f · 2026-10-09
Failure
A failed attempt moves the item back one level: +6 becomes +5. The item does not disappear and keeps its bonuses. A 
Scroll of Protection guards against that drop for one attempt: on a failure the item stays at its level and the scroll is used up.
Materials
Low levels cost 
Essence Dust, middle ones 
Essence Shard and the highest 
Essence Crystal. Legendary and mythic items also need a 
Legend Core on the highest levels. You get essences from dismantling items, from quests and contracts (see Crafting).
A simple plan
- On low levels the chance is high and a drop costs little: upgrade without a scroll, roughly up to +4.
- Higher up every failure takes away an expensive step. Compare the average attempts without and with a scroll in the table: from that point on the scroll saves gold and essences.
- Do the last levels on an item you will keep for a long time.
The upgrade calculator works out the exact cost for any item, with a scroll from the level you choose.