Upgrading gear

Success chances

The chance depends only on the level you are going to: +1 100%, +2 100%, +3 100%, +4 100%, +5 75%, +6 50%, +7 40%, +8 30%, +9 20%, +10 10%, +11 100%, +12 100%. Failing never lowers the item or breaks it, so the only cost of bad luck is another attempt at the same price.

What it costs

An attempt at +n costs item level × 4 × n² gold, twice that for an ancient, plus the rarity's recipe times n². Common and uncommon items use Iron Ore only; legendaries need Iron Ore, Gold Ore and Earth Essence in a 3 : 2 : 1 ratio. Rare, legendary and divine gear also needs one boss material for its slot on the +9 and +10 attempts: weapons take Tidewrath Pincer, helms Cinderlord Horns, and so on.

For a legendary weapon at item level 700, reaching +4 costs 84,000 gold and can't fail. Going from +4 to +8 costs about 1,235,267 on average, and +8 to +10 about 3,934,000, because the 20% and 10% steps take five and ten tries on average. About 75% of the gold spent on the way to +10 goes into its last two levels.

The +11 and +12 steps always succeed but use a different recipe: 2,000,000 gold and 1 Consecration Stone for +11, 4,000,000 gold and 2 for +12, whatever the item. Consecration Stone drops from Mythic Rift bosses.

What an upgrade gives

Each level up to +10 adds 5% of a modifier's rolled value to one modifier on common and uncommon gear and to two on rare and better, going round the item's modifiers in order. The implicit stats come first, so a weapon's speed and damage are the first to grow, then the affixes in the order they rolled. The +11 and +12 levels add 5% to every modifier at once. A legendary weapon has seven modifiers (speed, damage, four primary affixes and one secondary), and at +12 6 of them are up 25% while the secondary is up 20%.

That makes early levels on a weapon unusually good: the first upgrade on a rare or better weapon raises its speed and damage by 5% each, about 10% more DPS for 2,800 gold at item level 700.

Sockets, gems and salvage

Gear with a required level of 30 or more can have sockets added up to the slot's maximum. Each socket costs item level × 400 gold and 100 Earth Essence, and always works. Taking a gem back out costs 10,000 gold and destroys the gem, so socket the gems you mean to keep.

Salvaging breaks equipment into ore by rarity and item level. The result for a given item is fixed (it is worked out from the item itself, not rolled when you salvage), so there is no point reloading to salvage again. Back slot items always give one Iron Ore.

The upgrade calculator adds up the expected gold and materials for any rarity, slot and item level.