Gear Progression: What to Upgrade First
A practical F2P guide to upgrade priority, with real numbers from the game data. Stop dumping ingots into the wrong slots.
Buy Winter's Dominion first — above everything else
The general upgrade order below still holds for most slots, but 1.31 has one overriding exception. With the Cryomancer ultimate rework making frost the dominant meta, Winter's Dominion is the single highest-impact purchase in the game right now. You get it from the Winter's Dominion chapter offer; if you do one thing this patch, it's this: get the ring, then pour your upgrade materials into it.
Why it's worth breaking the usual "rings last" rule: Winter's Dominion makes Cryomancer skills appear more often and level up faster, so the reworked Glacial Storm ultimate comes online far sooner — and at Artifact it removes off-expertise penalties entirely, turning your skill picks almost pure Cryomancer. Rush it to Epic for the +25% ATK and the acceleration, then keep advancing toward Legendary/Artifact as materials allow. Pair it with the Frost Prince Ring (Freeze chance, +25% ATK, Ice-weakens-ATK) as your companion ring.
The One Rule
Upgrade order: Weapon → Chest → Rings → Accessory.
This isn't about cost — all four slots cost the same 14,825 materials to go 1→100. It's about which stat the slot multiplies. Your weapon adds raw ATK, which multiplies every damage source in your build. Your chest adds HP, which is a linear survival buffer. Rings and accessories add smaller secondary stats.
A level 50 weapon with a level 1 chest outperforms a level 25 weapon with a level 25 chest in almost every fight.
The Upgrade Cost Curve
Enhancement (leveling) cost per level follows a stepped curve:
| Level Band | Per-Level Cost | Cumulative | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1–10 | 2, 4, 6… (+2) | 110 | Cheap warmup; do this on every piece. |
| 11–40 | 30 → 117 (+3) | ~2,200 | Your main weapon first, nothing else yet. |
| 41–70 | 120 → 207 (+3) | ~4,900 | Weapon mid-game target. Chest second-priority. |
| 71–100 | 210 → 297 (+3) | ~7,600 | Endgame. Only worth it on your capped build's main slots. |
Total 1→100: 14,825 Enhancement materials per piece. Going from level 70 to level 100 costs nearly as much as getting a fresh piece to level 70.
Advancement (Rarity) Costs
Rarity advancement is a separate track from leveling. Each advancement step unlocks a new passive ability on the gear piece (see your gear item pages). These use Advancement materials, not Enhancement materials.
| Rarity Step | Cost | What You Unlock |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (Common → Uncommon) | 20 | First passive ability. Do this immediately. |
| 2 (→ Rare) | 40 | Second passive. Most builds want Rare minimum. |
| 3 (→ Epic) | 75 | CRITICAL: Expertise-tag skill unlocks here. See our gear-tag guide. |
| 4 (→ Epic+) | 150 | Stat multiplier jump. |
| 5 (→ Legendary) | 300 | Big stat jump. Target rarity for raid-ready gear. |
| 6 (→ Legendary+) | 500 | Diminishing returns start here. |
| 7 (→ Artifact) | 700 | Artifact passive unlocks (top weapons only). |
| 8 (→ Artifact+) | 900 | Endgame push only. |
| 9 (max) | 1,200 | Only for your single best weapon. |
Total 0→9: 3,885 Advancement materials per piece.
The Epic Breakpoint
Rush every gear piece to Epic rarity before leveling anything past 40.
Why: Epic rarity is where the hidden expertise-tag skill activates on each piece (see our gear-tag mechanic guide). A level 40 Epic piece contributes more to your effective build than a level 80 Rare piece, because it's seeding the bundle generator with expertise tags that your adventure skill picks will compound.
This is the single biggest misallocation trap new players fall into: pouring Enhancement materials into high levels on Rare-tier pieces when they should be spending Advancement materials to hit Epic first.
De-leveling
You can refund Enhancement materials from any gear piece by de-leveling it. Upgrade materials used for Advancement (rarity) are not refundable.
Practical implication: commit carefully to Advancement, but don't worry about over-leveling — you can pull materials back if you change builds. This makes it safer to test builds at level 60–70 before committing to level 100 on your final gear set.
Realistic F2P Targets
Main weapon to Level 40, Epic rarity. Chest to Level 20, Rare rarity. Everything else Common/Uncommon. Goal: clear chapter content.
Weapon to Level 60, Legendary. Chest to Level 40, Epic. Rings/accessory to Epic. Goal: clear Labyrinth floor 10–15, place in guild top 20.
Weapon to Level 70+, Legendary+ or Artifact. Full set at Epic or better. Relic set 4pc completed. Goal: clear Labyrinth floor 18+, top 5 guild placement.
Second build gear set. Weapon at max. Relic substat tuning. This is where to spend excess materials on secondary pieces.
What NOT to Upgrade
- Off-build gear past Epic. Keep backup pieces at Epic for the expertise tag, but don't level them.
- Basic (non-set) pieces once you've found their set equivalent. Basic rings are progression pit stops, not endgame slots.
- Relics before you've identified your main relic set. See the relic sets tier list — committing to the wrong 4pc is the most expensive mistake in the game.
- Accessories past Epic until weapon is capped. Accessory stat gains are the smallest; they're the last slot to invest in.