Upgrading uniques

Hi - I am new to the game and recently bought a yellow unique axe. I was hoping to upgrade it as I level, but don't see a realistic way to do that. I wanted to know if going to the vendor and choosing upgrade and then using glyphs is the only way to do this? It seems like it would take around 10K+ glyphs of power to get even a few levels out of it.

I also tried to use a refiner stone, but that does not work either, as it won't upgrade it. I am sure it is user error, but any tips on upgrading yellow gear would be great - thanks!

 

There are different types of upgrades. Using glyphs of power will upgrade the level of the item. The cost to do so increases with the rarity and level of the item, with unique items costing the most. This cost increases by orders of magnitude, the higher the level, so be prepared to farm millions upon millions of glyphs. 10k is nothing. One nice thing is that you can get those glyphs back if you decide you no longer want the item, but it will cost you gold to do so.

The other type of upgrade is Tier. Currently their are 6 (0-5) tiers on equipment. These require augment cores, purchased at great cost, for drakens, from Gnob in Kingshill. You also need the appropriate draken core (dropped by event bosses) and elemental core (usually dropped by PW bosses).

 

Thanks - this sounds all but totally unrealistic to accomplish for general item upgrades. Is it just easier to farm a new item?

 

There are several kind of "upgrade"; below lvl 55 the only kind of "upgrade" you will ever use is the item lvl upgrade (the white number you see in the upper left of the item icon when you equip it).
This will increase the BASE stats (not the blue/gold enchantment the item could have).
In order to use this upgrade, anywhere and @ anytime, you can just equip it, left click on the item lvl number (the white number in the upper left icon square of the item) then use the item upgrade GUI to upgrade the item based on your Gliphs of Power disposal (there's no need to go to the blacksmith).

Once you're lvl 55, you'll be able to get uniques from Parallel Worlds and events which are worth to be used for Tier upgrade (via augment cores) as someone alse mentioned, but this is a whole different story which requires you to have a good knowledge of the game before you try it unless you want to waste a large amount of very rare resources.

 

First of all don't waste your andermant on those merchant unique items, especially if you're a small lvl/growing character.
And yes, that's the only option for growing your items' lvls, the GoPs (glyphs of power).
But don't repeat my mistake from when I first started this game. i.e.: I used to spend my ander to lvl up my items every time whenever their lvl numbers turned red . That was how I wasted my ander until I found out about GoPs.
Anyway...
Upgrading uniques requires a huge amount of GoPs. That's why it's smarter to upgrade green, blue, purples... because they require smaller amounts of GoPs and therefore they can be upgraded more than a legendary or an unique item.
Ironically, the best source for GoPs are unique items and since most of the low lvl uniques are worse, stats wise, than possible blue, purple or orange items (heck... even green items pumped up with GoPS). The Durian set and the Norseland set also have old type of stats so they're even more useless, therefore they're just a good source of GoPs.

If you're talking about an equipment refiner, since you're a new player, they're most likely useless to you since they are used for turning old type of unique items (which I'm sure that you don't have) to the new type.
If you're talking about gem refiners that you probably got from a Bonus Code, they're only usable after lvl 50 to turn your gems into Qaizah type gems.

 

Until you reach LVL 55 (Current level cap), there is no reason to worry about uniques. All the uniques you find before the Parallel Worlds (which become accessible much later in the game) are little more than stopgaps to help you progress, but could easily be replaced by even the simplest LVL 55 gear. And that is just the gear you find. I can only think of one item for a DK that is worth buying for andermant in the entire game, but even that is questionable. The rest are varying degrees of useless.

Further, glyphs become much easier to farm at end game. LVL 55 extraordinaries melt for 2805 each and there are maps with mini bosses who are guaranteed to drop at least one 'exo.' It is easy enough for even a relatively new player to farm 100k-200k in an hour at level cap.

 

well I did have my herald bow to max lvl @60.
to craft it I had to remove the GoP's for a cost of 46 gold, I also had to remove the gems 56 gold.

so I did when I went to put the GoP's back I was short on GoP's by 13 million!
is there a cost other than the gold for removing them?
and why?


Orangegeorge

Tegans

 

You must've upgraded it while having deluxe... because it offers a 25% off when using your GoPs.

 

ok thanks for that reminder.
seem a bit nasty to lose them after I had them.

 

It's a Deluxe perk. And quite one of the biggest for it. If they set that to all, sales'd go down... and you know BP xD...

 

You didn't lose any glyphs.

The amount needed for each level is reduced if you are deluxe.

 

Like nova said, you didn't lose glyphs. It simply cost you less to upgrade the bow when you had deluxe.

Wait patiently for the next time they hand out free deluxe and you'll be set. In the meantime, use whatever leftovers you had somewhere else because you can always reallocate them down the road.

 

ok thanks for the response.
I was a member for a couple years but never seen a unique from a cube until the last month of said 2 years.
with that I let the membership expire and i'am unlikely to renew it.

 

Well, now that uniques are almost what I'd call "common." And at T4, T5, and T6, they are actually usable. I have a T5 ring with a gold base crit line. Just need some cores and I'll craft it with a nice place-holder ring for some really nice ring.