Gear Guide – Basic Mechanics

This is part 1 of a series of guides that aim to tell you everything you need to know about gearing, from the basic mechanics, to progression and endgame builds. Check out Part 2 of this guide where I explain the crafting system from early to mid game progression if you haven’t already.

1. Gear Guide – Basic Mechanics
2. Gear Crafting Guide – Early and Mid Game Progression
3. Gear Guide – Endgame Builds

Gear System: Basics

Each character can equip five pieces of gear, each in a different slot, namely:

• Weapon
• Head
• Body
• Accessory
• Gloves

There are two ways to acquire gear:

• Crafting (Craftable Gear)
• Weapon Banner (Exclusive Gear)

Each piece of gear also comes in rarities and tiers, which determines its stat values, and they have a level:

• Rarities → N < R < SR < UR
• Tiers → I < II < III < IV < EX (Exclusive)
• Level → +0 to +9

Craftable gear come in tiers 1-4, while EX refers to the exclusive gear we get from the weapon banner. Exclusive gear is equivalent to tier 4 gear of the corresponding rarity in stat value, with the added benefit of having an exclusive stat. We will refer to gear with shorthands, such as R4 and UREX.

Each piece of gear has two main stats (Basic Stats), three substats (Options), and an exclusive stat if it is an exclusive equipment.

Exclusive Ability

Only exclusive equipment have exclusive stats, and each character has their own exclusive equipment, which is locked to a specific slot. Exclusive Stats are fixed, and only scale off of the equipment’s rarity.

Basic Stat 1

This stat is always fixed (cannot be rerolled) based on the gear’s name. Furthermore, only specific stats can appear on the gear’s basic stat 1 based on its slot. You will never see any stat besides ATK or MATK on weapon gear, and so on. The value of both basic stats scale off its rarity and tier, while the bonus stats scale off its level and refinement (see refinement below).

Basic Stat 2

This stat is variable (can be rerolled) unless it is crafted UR gear. Furthermore, the possible stats that can appear in this line are based on Basic Stat 1 (refer to the table above).

Substats

Each piece of gear has three substats, which are unlocked when the gear is upgraded to levels 3, 6, and 9. The following stats can appear as substats:

• ATK, ATK%, MATK, MATK%, HP, HP%, DEF, MRES, CR, CDMG

Do keep in mind however that certain substats cannot appear if the gear is physical or magical, which is determined by its Basic Stat 1:

• Physical Gear (ATK, ATK%, DEF) cannot have MATK or MATK% substats.
• Magical Gear (MATK, MATK%, MRES) cannot have ATK or ATK% substats.

Take note that weapons, heads, bodies, and gloves are always either physical or magical, while accessories are always neutral (all substats can appear).

Refinement

Each piece of gear also has three refinement letters, which are also unlocked at levels 3, 6, and 9. These refinement letters determine the bonus stats of the gear (the green values added to the basic stats). You can use refinement powder to reroll the letters, saving them if it’s an upgrade to the gear.

How exactly do refinements work? I won’t get into the gritty math here, but I will explain how to interpret these letters, since they can be really confusing to a new player:

• The order of the letters matter. That is to say, the three positions are weighted, from left to right: ×1, ×2, ×3.
• The letters are valued: C = 1, B = 2, A = 3, S = 4.
• The value of each letter is multiplied with its positional weight, then the three products are added together. The final number is what we call its Grade. For example, BAS would be valued (2×1) + (3×2) + (4×3) = Grade 20. SBA on the other hand would be (4×1) + (2×2) + (3×3) = Grade 17.

Framing refinements into the grade system, gear ranges from Grade 6 (CCC) to Grade 24 (SSS). The bonus stats are linear to grades; the bonus stats gained from Grade 6 is 80% of the basic stats, and 200% from Grade 24.

Closing Remarks

If you were hoping to find tips in crafting gear, stay tuned for part 2 of this series — Gear Progression. That guide will assume that you’ve familiarized yourself with the concepts introduced in this guide.