Decide by function before rarity
Check weapon damage, the class’s main attribute, the damage type of your selected skills and the shortfall in the current fight. If an item has a named skill effect, check its trigger separately from its ordinary affix values. A higher-rarity item has more affixes, but an irrelevant conditional bonus or lost recovery can make it a worse choice for the complete loop.
| Rarity | Main affixes | Secondary affixes |
|---|---|---|
| Common | 1 | 0 |
| Uncommon | 2 | 0 |
| Rare | 3 | 1 |
| Legendary | 4 | 1 |
| Divine | 4 | 1 |
Ancient is a Legendary variant with maximum affix rolls in the current reference data. Black Mist is a separate level-70 customizable Legendary system. Neither label substitutes for matching the item to your attacks.
Keep and lock the useful pieces
Open Character & Inventory (I). Compare a candidate with the equipped item and retain gear that solves damage, mana or survival. Use L while the pointer is over an inventory, equipment or storage item to lock or unlock it. Bulk selling skips locked items; individual destructive actions can still ask for confirmation.
Do not drag an item outside the panels to make room: the item-action documentation describes that as destruction of the stack. Keep trade candidates and alternate builds locked while evaluating them.
Sell for gold or salvage for materials
With a shop open, right-clicking an inventory item sells it. Check the shop’s bulk-sale rarity/type toggles before using Sell. Auto-Sell in Carriage Settings acts on the selected equipment rarity as it is collected; keep useful rarities on Pick Up until you have compared their upgrades.
The Aldenreach Blacksmith unlock requires level 10, 800 gold and five Iron Ore. Use the Blacksmith’s salvage service for unwanted equipment when you need its materials. Salvaging destroys the equipment; a locked-item confirmation is not a promise that it can be recovered later. Legendary and Divine salvage can supply Earth Essence for later sockets and upgrades.
Upgrade an item you intend to keep
The Blacksmith upgrades equipment to +10. Attempts to reach +1 through +4 have a 100% listed success chance; later attempts are less reliable. Failure spends resources without downgrading the item. Higher steps cost progressively more, and Rare-or-higher +9/+10 attempts need the relevant boss material.
Compare an upgrade with replacing an under-leveled weapon first. Upgrading or adding a gem socket makes that item permanently untradable. Check Tradable and decide whether to keep it before paying for either action.
Use the right defensive and conditional attributes
Armor reduces physical damage; Magic Resist reduces the other five damage types. Distant damage needs more than six ground units; Injured damage needs target health below 30%; Healthy needs more than 80%. A large conditional value does not mean it applies throughout every fight.
After a change, compare the same repeatable map. Revert if the new item creates frequent deaths, empty mana or a weaker full loop despite a higher tooltip damage number.