Reinforcing raises an item's grade from +0 to +10, which is the hard ceiling. It is the only gear system in the game that can take the item away from you.
Every attempt has four outcomes
Not two. The table gives each grade a split across:
- Success - the grade goes up
- No change - the stone is consumed and nothing happens
- Destroyed - the item is gone
- Grade drops - the item survives at a lower grade than it had
Success chance by target grade:
| Target | Success |
|---|---|
| +1 | 100% |
| +2 | 90% |
| +3 | 75% |
| +4 | 60% |
| +5 | 50% |
| +6 | 35% |
| +7 | 20% |
| +8 | 15% |
| +9 | 10% |
| +10 | 6% |
From +4 the grade-drop outcome starts taking over, and from +6 the item can be destroyed outright. At the +10 attempt the split is roughly 6% success, 16% nothing, 18% destroyed and 60% grade drop.
What a grade really costs
Because a failure can send you backwards - and a destruction sends you back to a fresh item at +0 - the success percentage badly understates the cost. Counting the whole chain, the expected number of attempts to reach a grade from scratch is:
| Grade | Attempts | Items consumed |
|---|---|---|
| +5 | about 8 | 1 |
| +7 | about 47 | a few |
| +8 | about 194 | a handful |
| +9 | about 1,300 | dozens |
| +10 | about 16,000 | about 700 |
Reading the success column alone understates +10 by a factor of roughly a thousand. Plan for the chain, not for the row.
Materials and safety nets
- Enhance stones come in weapon and armour versions, in five tiers (I-V). Each tier works on items up to a maximum item level: tier I up to level 19, II up to 39, III up to 59, IV up to 79 and V up to 139. The tooltip states the exact range.
- Monsters drop them in the open world, by the monster's level: 1-19 drop tier I, 20-30 tiers I and II, 31-39 tier II, 41-50 tiers II and III, and the levels above 50 tier III. The chance per kill is 2% for tier I, 1.2% for tier II and 0.6% for tier III, rolled separately for the weapon and the armour stone. Bosses, elites and treasure boxes do not drop them. - The Enchanter crafts them - see Enchanter - and some merchants sell the lower tiers.
- Upgrade Success Crystals add +5 points to the odds of an attempt. A non-cash version also drops from every ore seam at 2.5%, so mining supplies them.
- Upgrade Protection Crystals (also sold as manastones) guard against the bad outcomes.
Both crystal types are genuinely optional - an attempt without one is accepted normally.
The smith trades help
A Blacksmith, Weaver or Handicrafter reinforcing an item that their own trade makes gets +1 point of success per trade level, up to +10 - at the NPC or away from it. Those three trades also get a Reinforce skill in the Skills tab that opens this window anywhere. See Professions.
Level bands
Reinforcing works on gear up to level 80. Items above that cannot currently be refined at all - the attempt is refused rather than being merely expensive.
Where to go next
- Enchanting - the system that cannot break your gear
- Professions - the smith trades that live around this
Reviewed 2026-10-10