Shadows

## Overview

Shadows are one of the cornerstone features of the game and a primary drop source to strengthen your character. In-game information can also be found through the in-game command **/myth**, but all of that will also be covered here.

When killing any monster, you have a chance of dropping a shadow, although it's dependent upon the zone parameters. It shares a drop pool with gems, purses, and clan mines - meaning you can only get 1 of these per kill.

### Obtaining Shadows

You need to wear equipment in order to even drop a shadow item.

Ways to obtain shadows include:

* Monster Drops
* Quests

Buying Shop Gear involves heading over The Guilded Anvil and purchasing a gear of your choice and equipping it. Once you're fully geared out, you're ready to start dropping shadows! Keep in mind though, if any of your gear slots do not contain a gear piece, you have a high chance of only dropping Item Class 1 gear.

### How Shadows Work

Shadow drops are based off of your equipped gear. On every monster kill, you have a chance to receive a message such as this:

   A shadow drop randomly picks a piece of your equipment to drop, and what you get is determined by your gears Item Class, but it works different for each type of gear.

#### Gear Drop Table

Before we go over each of the 5 tiers of gear you can possess, it is helpful information to know exactly what piece of gear can drop which shadow type. The table below will cover all possibilities:

Gear you have equipped also has a bonus chance of dropping over the others in the list.

For example, if you trigger the Bow, Arrow, Claw pool and you only have claws equipped, you have an extra chance to receive a claw drop over a bow or arrow drop.

#### Buy Gear + Each Tier

Lets go over the 5 different tiers of gear in the game:

* Shop Tier 1 - These are required to drop the best shadows. The Guilded Anvil is used to buy Weapons and Armor, while The Arcanium is used to buy Spells and enchant gear.
* Shadow Tier 2 - Generally weaker than shop gear on their own, but they always contain two gem slots and lower requirements than their shop counterpart. All tiers of gear can drop shadows.
* Mythic Tier 3 - You can upgrade shadow gear to mythic level at 2,1 in Temple of Shadows for gold.
* Ancestral Tier 4 - You can upgrade mythic using gold and fusion pieces to really give your character extra power, which is far stronger than everything below it.
* Godly Tier 5 (Final) - Lastly, you can upgrade ancestral gear to their mostly powerful form, Godly!

Each Tier will be explained in more detail in their own sections below.

##### Shop Gear (T1)

Shop gear is the basic gear of the game, but also the most important! The two locations you your gear at is at the The Guilded Anvil (Armor/Weapons) and The Arcanium (Spells, Enchant Gear).

Each gear is the next Tier in power level, starting at Item Class 1 and goes all the way to Item Class 25, but displayed as Roman Numerals in the game, while progressively being more expensive. Through examine windows, each tier gets progressively more expensive with higher stats and level requirements to wield.

* IC1 and IC2 gear contain 1 gem slot, while everything else contains 2 gem slots for enhancing your gear.
* Keep in mind though, what shop sells what is determined by the zone you're in. Here are the three zones that contain all gear:
	+ Catacombs - Requiring level 200 to enter. This has all gear up to Item Class 13.
	+ Temple of Ultimate Wisdom - Requiring level 6,000 to enter, this has all gear up to Item Class 20.
	+ Gate of Oblivion - Requiring level 165,000 to enter, this has all gear up to Item Class 25.

Shop gear is what is required to drop the best shadow gear to upgrade later. The way shop gear works is you always drop either the same Item Class or one lower. For example: You drop a shadow off of an Armor IV. This means the shadow will **always** be either a III or IV.

###### Level Requirements

Here is the full level requirements table for all gear in the game. Stat requirements change based on your class and race you're playing, and generally other than the early game you should have no trouble meeting it through natural progression.

##### Shadow Gear (T2)

Shadow gear is the first step to get the most powerful upgrades for your gear. While shop gear is how you get the best shadows, shadows can also drop shadows. The main difference however, is that you **cannot** drop the same Item Class as the equipped shadow.

For example, if you drop off of your Shadow Fire IV, you can only receive a shadow I-III, never IV. The extra shadows can either be sold to other players or (usually) smashed for fusion pieces at the Fusion Machine.

Generally, shadow gear is weaker than shop gear, but also has much lower requirements to equip as well as 2 gem slots for everything (where Shop gear T1 and T2 only have 1 slot).

Here is the list of all shadow type gear in the game:

##### Mythic Gear (T3)

There are only two ways to receive mythic gear: Upgrading shadow gear or finding them through Quests (quite rare). Upgrading shadow gear to mythic gear is located at 2,1 Temple of Shadows. Dropped shadows off mythic gear works the same the regular shadows - Mythic IV can only drop I-III etc.

Simply select what shadow you want to upgrade, and pay the gold cost to upgrade. If you have more than 1 shadow in your inventory, you can also choose the mass-upgrade option to do it all at once, long as you have the gold to pay for it all.

Mythic gear is the best bang for your buck of obtained fusion pieces at the Fusion Machine, as it provides more than shadows will.

With the upgrade to myth, each class gets a varied buff, explained in the table below:

\* Shield armor class does **NOT** work for Vampires

Claw has different buffs, listed here:

Notes: Both claws need to be mythic level to receive the enemy DEX reduction buff.

For spells, we have:

Note: Drain has a different buff, but just applies VIT + HEALTH instead of the NTL buff.

Note2: You multiply the %-entry by the Roman Number of your item to obtain the actual effect of a bonus. For example. IV Fire would provide a 3\*4 = 12% WIS bonus.

**Armor buffs are explained in their own section.**

##### Ancestral Gear (T4)

There are only two ways to receive ancestral gear: Upgrading mythic gear, or finding them through Quests (quite rare). Upgrading mythic gear to ancestral gear is located at 1,0 Fallen Temple.

While ancestral gear also applies the I-(MAX IC-1) rule for dropping compared to shop gear, you have a chance for the shadow to be instant **Mythic** level instead!

To upgrade mythic gear to ancestral gear, it requires more than gold - fusion pieces as well as the gear needs to be VIII or higher! To upgrade, simply select the mythic you want to upgrade and pay the gold cost and fusion pieces required. A pop-up will appear confirming your upgrade - make sure you all meet requirements before proceeding, as ancestral gear contain higher requirements and stats to equip.

While you can certainly smash ancestral gear for fusion pieces at the Fusion Machine, it usually isn't worth it since it cost FP to upgrade, it has higher requirements before you can, and mass-smash is not an option unlike for shadow and mythic gear.

With the upgrade to ancestral, each class gets a varied buff (stacks with mythic buffs!), explained in the table below:

\* Shield armor class does **NOT** work for Vampires

Claw has different buffs, listed here:

Notes: Both claws need to be ancestral level to receive the enemy DEX reduction buff.

For spells, we have:

Note: Drain has a different buff, but just applies VIT + HEALTH instead of the NTL buff.

**Armor buffs are explained in their own section.**

##### Godly Gear (T5)

There are only three ways to receive godly gear: Upgrading ancestral gear, duping your godly gear(explained later), or finding them through Quests (quite rare). Upgrading ancestral gear to godly gear is located at 8,7 Temple of Ultimate Wisdom.

While godly gear still follows the rule of dropping I-(MAX IC-1) rule, there are two additional perks (on top of a big power boost): drops are **always** mythic level, and you have a small chance to **dupe** your godly item. You can fail a dupe though, in which you get an Item Class 1 version of your godly item instead.

To upgrade ancestral gear to godly gear, it has the same requirements as ancestral gear does - gold and fusion pieces as well as the gear needs to be XII or higher! To upgrade, simply select the ancestral piece you want to upgrade and pay the gold cost and fusion pieces required. A pop-up will appear confirming your upgrade - make sure you all meet requirements before proceeding, as godly gear contain much higher requirements and stats to equip.

While you can certainly smash godly gear for fusion pieces at the Fusion Machine, it usually isn't worth it since it cost FP to upgrade, it has higher requirements before you can, and mass-smash is not an option unlike for shadow and mythic gear.

Mythic gear is the best bang for your buck of obtained fusion pieces at the Fusion Machine, as it provides more than shadows will.

With the upgrade to ancestral, each class gets a varied buff (stacks with mythic & ancestral buffs!), explained in the table below:

Note: The buffs are in formula text. For example, "(RH) Hit Chance: 1 \* ( (IC+5) / 100)" explained is:

* Hit Chance - buffs your hit chance for that weapon slot if you have sword equipped
* 1 \* ( (IC+5) / 100) - is the formula to determine your buff. IC is the item class of the sword equipped. If you have IC 15 sword, the formula would be 1 \* ((15+5)/100) = 1.2 = 20% hit chance bonus
* "X-only" indicates you must have that weapon type in your primary weapon or spell slot in order for the buff to work. Basically, dual-wielding the same type of weapon. For Staffs case, it has secondary effects that are active only for earth, drain, or heal classes and do not trigger if staffs are your main way to deal damage.

\* Shield armor class does **NOT** work for Vampires

\*\* Requires both claws to be equipped to gain these buffs.

\*\*\* 12% is the default, but through Estate, this can be increased further.

For Spells, here is their table in the same format:

* "X-only" indicates you must have that weapon type in your primary weapon or spell slot in order for the buff to work. Basically, dual-wielding the same type of spell. For earths case, it has secondary effects that are active only for earth/shield/staff classes and do not trigger if staffs are your main way to deal damage (and in heals case, it uses heal primary and staff for buffs).

##### Armor Modifiers

Now that all the weapon and spells are covered for upgrades, you may be wondering, what about armor? This section will display all the buffs associated with armor now.

Note: All bonuses **do not stack except for Armor**. Helmet, Gauntlets, Leggings, and Boots are only a singular buff.

##### Godly Stat Requirements

Here is the full table of all XII+ gear that you can godly, with their FP cost and stat requirements.

### Shadow Algorithm

TBD - When I feel like writing the behemoth out :P