Plussing Equipment
This blog article relies heavily on atlantica-db‘s database. The purpose here is to provide help for deciding which is better: upgrading your equipment or using equipment of the next tier.
Before we continue: Keep in mind that I don’t do PVP if I can avoid it. All values and conclusions given are purely PVE/TBS, if not noted otherwise. For PVP completely different rules apply – at the end of the article there may be a remark about that subject though.
Most of the equipment is organized in tiers, for example freezing, divine, depraved and so on. Weapons, armors and other equipment can also have grades (“plusses”), for example a +3 divine hat has a grade of 3. A higher grade means that the scaleable attributes of the item increase. Not every attribute of an item is scaleable. For example, a phoenix’s light armor has attributes in dexterity, vitality, physical defense, evasion and magic defense, but only the first three are scaleable. The other two don’t change with the grade.
To increase the grade you can enchant, enhance or power enhance it. Upgrading your items is expensive, sometimes more expensive than to buy an item of the next tier.
To illustrate some points that can help you with these kind of decisions I have included a table with data about guns from divine to evil tier. The numbers before the slash are the attack values, the number after the slash the dexterity bonus. For example a +2 depraved rifle has an attack value of 923 to 1,192 and adds 154 to your dexterity.
| plus | divine | depraved | phoenix | dragon god | evil |
| 0 | 550-710/92 | 660-852/110 | 792-1,022/132 | 950-1,227/158 | 1,235-1,595/205 |
| 1 | 660-852/110 | 792-1,022/132 | 950-1,226/158 | 1,140-1,472/189 | 1,482-1,914/246 |
| 2 | 770-993/128 | 923-1,192/154 | 1,108-1,430/184 | 1,330-1,717/221 | 1,729-2,233/287 |
| 3 | 880-1,136/147 | 1,056-1,363/176 | 1,267-1,635/211 | 1,520-1,963/252 | 1,976-2,522/328 |
| 4 | 990-1,278/165 | 1,188-1,533/198 | 1,425-1,839/237 | 1,710-2,208/284 | 2,223-2,871/369 |
| 5 | 1,155-1,491/193 | 1,386-1,789/231 | 1,663-2,146/277 | 1,995-2,576/331 | 2,593-3,349/430 |
| 6 | 1,320-1,704/220 | 1,584-2,044/264 | 1,900-2,452/316 | 2,280-2,944/379 | 2,964-3,828/492 |
| 7 | 1,540-1,987/257 | 1,847-2,385/308 | 2,217-2,861/369 | 2,660-3,435/442 | 3,458-4,466/574 |
| 8 | 1,760-2,272/294 | 2,112-2,726/352 | 2,534-3,270/422 | 3,040-3,926/505 | 3,952-5,104/656 |
| 9 | 1,980-2,556/331 | 2,376-3,067/396 | 2,851-3,679/475 | 3,420-4,417/568 | 4,446-5,742/738 |
| 10 | 2,200-2,840/368 | 2,640-3,408/440 | 3,168-4,088/528 | 3,800-4,908/632 | 4,940-6,380/820 |
Here are some observations:
a) The attributes of a plain gun are multiplied in every tier with a factor based on the grade (“plus”) which is shown in the following table:
| grade | multiplier |
| 0 | 1.0 |
| +1 | 1.2 |
| +2 | 1.4 |
| +3 | 1.6 |
| +4 | 1.8 |
| +5 | 2.1 |
| +6 | 2.4 |
| +7 | 2.8 |
| +8 | 3.2 |
| +9 | 3.6 |
| +10 | 4.0 |
This makes it particularly valuable to enchant/enhance an item to +5 and then again to +7.
b) A +1 gun of tier “n” has roughly the same values as the plain gun of the next higher tier “n+1”. Evil guns are an exception: They are more like “+1.5” dragon god instead of the expected +1 dragon god. To be more exact: if you compare the attributes of a gun with a gun in the next higher tier but with the same grade, the higher tier-ed gun has 1.2 times the values as the lower one. Evil is an exception. There the multiplier is 1.3.
c) A +10 gun of tier “n” is roughly a deluxe version of the +8 gun of the next higher tier “n+1”. Evil guns are also an exception here: a +10 dragon god’s gun is a bit weaker than a +8 evil gun.
d) Equipment usually has durability and it increases somewhat if you upgrade it enough. But +10 equipment has no durability attribute anymore, meaning you never need to repair it. This is strictly speaking no “observation” because I haven’t included the durability attribute in the table but it is nice to know nevertheless…
You can see from these tables that if you are standing before the choice to upgrade a weapon or to change the tier to next one it is quite often advisable to do the former. If I had the choice between a divine +10 gun or a +3 evil gun, I should choose the +10 divine gun. At least if it is cheaper than the +3 gun. I wouldn’t though because the psychological urge to have a level-appropriate tiered weapon is so mighty even for me…
The tables for other pieces of equipment are structured roughly the same – you can transfer these conclusions to other weapons and to armors/helmets/shoes/pants/gloves. Or so I hope, I have only checked some tables randomly. Rings are a bit special because they are organized in another tier structure.
Now we come to the ugly part: The promised remark about PVP
The multipliers for grades in PVP are different. They are much, much lower. The multiplier is 1 + 0.05 x grade. For example: a +3 gun in PVP has the multiplier of 1 + 0.05 x 3 = 1.15 to the scaleable attributes (attack and dexterity). A +10 item has the multiplier of +1.5. The attributes of plain items are the same as an PVE. That means that a dragon god gun must be +6 (multiplier of 1.3) to reach the value of a plain evil gun. The conclusion is that enhancing/enchanting of items for PVP is much less important than for PVE/TBS. If you stand before the choice to upgrade your current weapon or get a plain weapon of the next tier, you should choose the latter.
secretsofatlantica 
First, i think your page and advices are great, and i read them as soon as you post an upgrade. Second, i think they’re a bit oriented for someone who is toward the end of the game, level 140 players. I’m around level 105 now, about to get divine eq so i don’t feel so identified with the solutions you post (someday soon i hope i will). If you have any piece of advice for players my level, I would greatly apreciate it. Keep the good work!
A guide on the Valkyrie TBS would be nice.
Yeah, I know – it is difficult for me to give valid tips for lvl 105 players now. The main reason is that a lot has changed in this level scope since I was myself lvl 105. If you could specifiy a bit more what do you want to know I will try to help of course.
The core of my blog are the trap maps for TBS missions. It is my goal to have a map for every mission. The valkyrie event makes it easy now to level up alts – I hope I have a lvl 60 character soon with which I will try to conquer the lvl 50 mission the hard way (and after a while the others, too). That would make hints more realistic, I hope.
The valkyrie TBS is pretty straightforward and the in-missions-hints explain what to do quite well. Do you have specific questions regarding the valkyrie mission? The only idea about a small guide would be the strategy how to do A-field fast, that is the one where you have actually more than one way to do it.
Thanks for the reply; The Valkyrie TBS is the first i tried with the TBS system, being 105 i can finish the lvl 80 mission A field in one hour and a half. I think that’s a lot of time. I can’t finish the lvl 100 A field (I get killed). I don’t know if it’s because of my formation, but I followed all your basic TBS advices (use title buff, spread up, use the double turns). Maybe I’m missing something. In the A field, should I split up the group to kill the left and right summon things? I enter this dungeon with Sword main, LK, BT, Oichi, Cannoneer, Exo, Viking and Oracle, and leave out the monk. I know, it’s an awful formation for TBS, but that’s what i got, and I like to do PvP from time to time so there are some chars I don’t want to lose.
Another thing I want to ask, that I haven’t found much on forums are expeditions. Have you tried one?
Ok, I will try to produce an entry about A-field in the next days.
Personally I do split up in lvl 120 A-field (which is 20 levels lower than my main, so comparable to you doing lvl 80 A-field). I leave one mercenary (an artillery man) at the base. I send one cannon (my main) to the left and one (a newly raised cannonneer) to the right, each with one gunner (jani/sheriff) and one healer (oracle/vampire).
You are level 105: why don’t you have a janissary? You should correct that (janissary being the easiest alternative, a sheriff would be even better, and even more better would be both – what I (not so) accidentally have). The gunner (Oichi) is pretty bad compared with a jani or sheriff. But I won’t discuss mercs in depth here – when you have read my general musings about mercenaries you know where my heart lies and where not…
Expeditions: I have done exactly one. There was a quest in Rome which forced me to do it.
Otherwise I dislike the idea very much (like sitting around and getting xp). It gives out rewards for not doing anything.
And as far as I know you can lose out by doing them because the repair of your equipment is more expensive than the loot you get. The reason for this is that you won’t make your expedition to the highest skirmish area possible but to one where your formation survives all battles long. And that area is simply not profitable enough (it would be lvl 115 for me while I usually grind in 135).
So I am pretty sure that I won’t write an article about expeditions.
I read your article about mercs of course, and I took into account that you don’t do PvP almost, and nearly no PvE. So I think your formation is great for TBS, but how does it perform on PvP? That’s the reason I’m keeping the exo. Oichi will go as soon for a Spartan. Which makes me think, it would leave me without any gun in my team. I deeply hate stunning as a pvp tactic, because they get the win just by applying the same tactic no matter what is the enemy formation. Next I’m planning on replacing next my BT for an elementalist. Well, this turned out to be a discussion about formation but as you see…I have my arguments for having this form…You’re right about oichi, it’s the first merc i get aimed to, next to the bt, they die all the time in pvp. I wish I could have a balance between pvp and pve/tbs. About Valk TBS, when I tried leaving my canonneer at base, he died very fast. Anyways, lvl 80 TBS mobs can group up around base and hit it all the time, it will last almost forever without being destroyed…
My autobattle-fl formation at the moment is:
Spartan – NVik – Janissary
Hwarang – Sheriff – Cannonneer
Cannon Main – Vampire – Monk
That works so-so – usually I am oscillating between division 1 and 2. But PVP is not important for me. PVE classic I do now again because of the Ban Chao quest.
TBS without gunner is hard to do. You must have SOMEONE who does the damage.
I have another question: The stats of equipment in TBS is the same as in PvE?
Yes, at least according to atlantica-db. And I have nothing contradictory found in-game.
With my situation (generate ~1b per week, rarely IM, don’t want to risk, tons of merc stuff to upgrade…), getting shiny equipments kinda tough for me =(
Yes, but only the first item. With me it was like you describe it now. I had no +10 weapon (best was +6 dg, and that was very fortunate – and a quite useless axe anyway) and my other equipment was also quite low-plussed dg. No evil piece when I started to get rich. Like you I made about 1 b per week, trioing and duoing. Even Fleeing Betrayer was too difficult to solo at first. But when you get your first dg+10 gun, the fun begins. You will accelerate your money making power because now you can solo missions which you deemed impossible to do alone earlier. You money-making power will jump to 2 and then to 3.5 b quite fast.
While I do IM (BL, Warrior Package, all costumes I can get my hands on and the occasionally Atlas Sale), I don’t do that very extensively now. So you are only behind, not lost :)
I was wondering if i use Wild Cat in Rome for an Osiris sword +8, what will i get? It asks for 3 atlas ore. This sword has similar damage to Ghost Warrior Sword. So i guess i wont get a Ghost +6 at least. And it would be Amon -> Ghost. So what do you think i will get? Gold Dragon?
I think you will get the next ordinary tier (that would be the Ghost Warrior Sword). But I only think that – I would be really interested what your result with Wild Cat is.
I will try soon, because the osiris though it has good damage pve, it’s no use for pvp at this part when i can have a divine +0 with better raw stats. Something else, in the patch notes of empress i think they said that the lowest wild cat will give back is +8, so trying to wildcat a +10 for a +8 wouldnt be pointless? rather wildcat a +7 and you’ll get one more grade guaranteed.
No, that is not true. You get two grades lower than you give. And with a slight chance only 1 grade lower or even no grade lower. That means: When you exchange a +7 phoenix armor you get most probably a +5 dragon god armor (I know because I did exactly that not that long ago).
I was wondering if you have any data on atlas amount for Power Enhancing 105-necklace and 125-necklace. Sounds extremely not-worthy but I just want to know if there any data about it, can’t seems to get anything out from atlantica-db.
It is not possible to enhance necklaces with atlas, neither standard nor safe.
oh?! o.o