Upgrading and Reforming (armor/weapons)

Metalharpey · Mon Apr 03, 2017 12:24 pm

Enhancing your gear and using sockets are really important in Black Desert. These are the two main factors which will affect your damage and defense. To enhance equipment you will need either a Blackstone (Armor) or a Blackstone (Weapon). These can be bought from the auction house, crafted using a refinery, or farmed as they randomly drop from monsters.
To decide what crystals you want in sockets, I suggest you see for yourself what works best. Some work better than others for your class.

How to enhance

To enhance any piece of equipment, summon your Black Spirit then click “Enhancement”. Right-click your gear and a Blackstone then click “Enhance“. You can also click the Black Stone in your inventory to open up the Enhancement window.

To disenhance a piece of equipment you will need to go to a blacksmith and click “Extraction” then “Blackstone Extraction”. Right-click the gear you want to disenhance then click “Extract”. This will destroy the piece of equipment but you will get Blackstones back.

Disenhancing an item which has not gone past it’s safe enhance will always give you all of the Blackstones back. But after that it is random what amount you will get back. For example: If you disenhance a +4 armor piece (safe enhance is +5) , you will get all 4 Black stones back. If you disenhance a +11 weapon (safe enhance is +7), you may only get 9 Black stones back, despite putting more into the weapon.

Failstacks

When you try to enhance your gear, you will sometimes fail. This is called a fail stack.

Failing enhancements give you a +1 success stack which will give you more chance of an enhancing success next time. These are consumed when you successfully enhance an item.
Fail stacks do not make any difference once you go past +26.
You can use cheaper equipment (such as the Azwell weapons or cheap accessories) to get fail stacks.
Fail stacks are not shared across all characters. If you need to enhance an item and don’t want to use your fail stacks, use an alt.
You can use “safe enhanceing” to guarantee your success, with the cost of max duarbility.

Failstacks are important if you wish to upgrade your gear with succes, instead of wrecking it until you succeed.
Most people use another armor/weapon to failstack on, some use accessoiries. This depends on your own preference, as well as your wealth

You get the maximum enchant success rate when on 25 failstacks or higher.

Repairing max. durability

Each time you fail to enhance an item the max durability will decrease.
It’s important to note that you will never actually lose your weapon by enhancing. If your maximum durability reaches zero, it will just become unusable until you repair the max durability.

To repair the item’s max durability again you will need the exact same item. If you have upgraded the items grade, you do not need the same grade of weapon and can use a green grade instead. They however need the same name. So for example, you won't be able to fix a blue Taritas with a green Grunil!

Go to a blacksmith and click “Repair” then “Maximum Durability Recovery”. Place the item you want to repair in the “Recovery Target Equipment” slot and the item you want to forfeit into the “Materials” slot. Then click “Recover Max Durability” to confirm. This will increase the max durability by 10.

Memory Fragments

You can also repair your max durability using Memory Fragments instead of using the item. Durability recovery amount varies by item’s grade:

White = Recovers 10(Amount increases 3x if used with Artisan’s Memory)
Green = Recovers 5(Amount increases 3x if used with Artisan’s Memory)
Blue = Recovers 2(Amount increases 3x if used with Artisan’s Memory)
Yellow = Recovers 1(Amount increases 3x if used with Artisan’s Memory)

You should only use Memory Fragments on boss armor and boss weapons (Kzarka, Kutum, Nouver, Dandelion). This is because obtaining another of the same item to repair it’s max durability will cost a lot and is hard to do. It is more cost efficient to save any Memory Fragments you get for just those items.

Artisan’s Memory

Artisan’s Memory is a one time use item which can be bought from the Pearl Store or Loyalty Store. Using the item will increase the max durability by x3. So if you use this item with memory fragments on boss armor, it will repair 3 durability. You can also use it with items for 30 durability.

If you are repairing expensive items, such as Liverto weapons or blue grade awakening weapons, I recommend buying an Artisan’s Memory from the Loyalty store to repair 30 durability. It is much cheaper and cost efficient than using Memory Fragments.

Safe enhance

Helmets, armor chest, gloves and shoes can be enhanced using Blackstone (Armor) to increase the defense (DP). The “safe” enhance for armor is +5. This means that there is a 100% chance of success until you reach +5. After this the chance of success becomes less likely and if you fail to enhance the armor, the max durability of the item will decrease by 5.

Primary/secondary/awakening weapons and hunting rifles can be enhanced using Blackstone (Weapon) to increase the damage. The “safe” enhance for weapons are +7. This means that there is a 100% chance of success until you reach +7. After this the chance of success becomes less likely and if you fail to enhance the weapon, the max durability of the weapon will decrease.

You can also choose to “force” enhance after +5 and up to +18. This will guarantee a 100% chance of success but will require extra Black Stones but will decrease the max durability by a set amount.

Force enhancing +16 to +18 is only available on GREEN grade items.

PRI DUO TRI TET PEN

Once you get to +15 you will need to use an item called “Concentrated Magical Black Stone (Armor)” or “Concentrated Magical Black Stone (Weapon)” to enhance your gear to +16 and higher. If you fail to enhance after DUO your enhancement level will be reduced by one. For example: if I have a +18 (TRI) item and fail to enhance when going to +19 (TET), it will go back to +17 (DUO). The maximum you can enhance to is +20 (PEN).

Concentrated Magical Black Stone (Armor)

Recipe: Hard Black Crystal Shard x1, Black Stone (Armor) x2
Press “L” then “Heating” to craft.

Concentrated Magical Black Stone (Weapon)

Recipe: Sharp Black Crystal Shard x1, Black Stone (Weapon) x2
Press “L” then “Heating” to craft.

Hard/Sharp Black Crystal Shards can be obtained through 3 different life professions:

Gathering – Gathering using any tools
Farming – Tending to your farm
Hunting – Hunting the Blue Whale

They can also be bought from the Black Market (Patrigio), obtained from Treasure Chests (with a Gold Key), Treasure Hunting in the desert, or may be offered as a quest reward in life profession quests. The Black spirit also has several quests of which you get these as a reward.

Accessories

Rings, earrings, necklaces and belts do not have a “safe” enhance. In fact they have a high chance of failure and only enhance up to level +5. Enhancing accessories requires two of the same item and if they fail to enhance both of the accessories will be destroyed

Other equipment

You can also enhance horse equipment, wagon parts, ship parts, and other equipment using Blackstone (Armor).

Some fishing rods can be enhanced to give specific benefits, such as increasing the durability or higher the chances of you catching bigger fish. Fishing rods do not have a safe enhance, can be enhanced up to +15, and use Blackstone (Weapon). You can “force safe enhance” which will decrease it’s maximum durability. Repairing maximum durability works the same way as other items.

Cron Stones

To prevent the enhancement count from decreasing if enhancement fails, use a "Cron Stone".

Cron Stones can be bought from a Black Smith for 1 million silver, and are used to prevent a enhancement from decreasing if the enhancement fails.

Cron Stones can be used on:

Weapons which are DUO (+17) or higher
Armor which is DUO (+17) or higher
Accessories that are PRI (+1) or higher

The amount of Cron Stones required depends on the item’s current price. Regardless of whether the enhancement succeeds or fails, the Cron Stones used will be removed.
Cron Stones can be used on accessories to stop them from breaking if unsuccessful. However, it’s enhancement can either remain the same OR decrease.

Reform Stones

There are five item grades in Black Desert. These indicate the rarity of the item by color (ordered lowest to highest):

White Grade
Green Grade
Blue Grade
Yellow Grade
Orange Grade

Right now, the highest you can get your gear to, is Ultimate grade (yellow). To do this, you'll need reform stones.

There are currently 3 levels of Reform Stones for armor and weapons:

Grade 1 Armor Reform Stone

Obtainable from: Refinery Lv 1
Production Materials: Zinc Ore x10, Mud Crystal x1, Bloody Tree Knot x1, Sinner’s Blood x1, Black Stone Powder x10
Use at a level 1 forge workshop
This reform stone has a low chance of making your armor blue grade (I would recommend using Grade 2 reform stones instead).

Grade 1 Weapon Reform Stone

Obtainable from: Refinery Lv 1
Production Materials: Tin Ore x10, Translucent Crystal x1, Red Tree Lump x1, Sinner’s Blood x1, Black Stone Powder x10
Use at a level 1 forge workshop
This reform stone has a low chance of making your weapon blue grade (I would recommend using Grade 2 reform stones instead).

Grade 2 Armor Reform Stone

Obtainable from: Refinery Lv 2
Production Materials: Bronze Ingot x3, Green Crystal x2, Spirit’s Leaf x2, Legendary Beast’s Blood x2, Black Stone Powder x20
Use at a level 2 forge workshop
This reform stone has a higher chance of making your armor blue grade.

Grade 2 Weapon Reform Stone

Obtainable from: Refinery Lv 2
Production Materials: Brass Ingot x3, Red Crystal x2, Monk’s Branch x2, Wise Man’s Blood x2, Black Stone Powder x20
Use at a level 2 forge workshop
This reform stone has a higher chance of making your weapon blue grade.

Grade 3 Armor Reform Stone

Obtainable from: Refinery Lv 3
Production Materials: Steel x4, Melted Platinum Shard x3, Black Crystal x3, Old Tree Bark x2, Tyrant’s Blood x2, Black Stone Powder x40
Use at a level 3 forge workshop
This reform stone has a low chance of making your armor ultimate grade.

Grade 3 Weapon Reform Stone

Obtainable from: Refinery Lv 3
Production Materials: Steel x5, Melted Platinum Shard x3, Black Crystal x3, Red Tree Lump x2, Clown’s Blood x2, Black Stone Powder x40
Use at a level 3 forge workshop
This reform stone has a low chance of making your weapon ultimate grade.

Keep in mind that none of these stones give you a 100% upgrade. There's always a small chance your gear will revert to green, or blue.
There's only a small chance that it actually becomes yellow. This is totally RNG so it's up to you if you try your luck, or not!

If you do want a 100% reform, you can. Ultimate reform stones DO NOT FAIL. Ever.

Ultimate Weapon Reform Stone

Grade 3 Weapon Reform Stone x10
Sharp Black Crystal Shard x1
Open the Processing Window (L) then select “Heating”

Ultimate Armor Reform Stone

Grade 3 Armor Reform Stone x10
Hard Black Crystal Shard x1
Open the Processing Window (L) then select “Heating”