Equipment

## Upgrading Gear

There are two ways to upgrade your equipment in Taichi Panda: Fortification and Refinement.

### Fortify

Fortifying equipment requires two main resources: Gold and Equipment. The exception to this is if there is no equipment available to melt down, in which case a third resource called Siderite, which can be acquired in the world, can serve as a substitute.

All equipment begins at a Fortification level 1 when looted or earned. In the Fortify menu, players can pick from their available equipment to melt-down and Fortify into their selected gear. The higher the Quality of the gear being used, the more experience is gained. With each level of Fortification, the newly fortified equipment will become more powerful. Upon reaching certain thresholds, the equipment will get large stat boosts.

### Refinement

Refining equipment requires two main resources: Gold and Refinement Stones. In addition, at higher levels of refinement, it may also be necessary to have other materials, such as multiple sets of the gear being refined.

Of the two forms of equipment upgrades, Refinement is more potent, offering a larger boost for each level of Refinement. As equipment becomes increasingly Refined, it can unlock special attributes, including boosts to Crit Reduction, Net Damage, Crit Hit Rate, and elemental effects.

### Equipment Surge

As of the Teumessian Update, equipment can be *Surged* by using Surge Seals or Diamonds to awaken latent abilities in the equipment and further increase your might. Each piece of armor/weapon has a few slots available for surging that are unlocked after reaching certain character levels.

To Surge your equipment, first open your backpack and select the equipment you want to surge and choose Upgrade, then select the Surge option on the right side of the upgrade interface.

Select your method of upgrading (either Surge Seals or Diamonds) and then select Surge, followed by selecting Learn, which will unlock a latent ability on the equipment.

You can re-surge equipment several times until you get stats that you're satisfied with. You can also refine the equipment to increase Surge Acumen, which has a chance of improving the power of the Surge.

## Shards

Throughout the world, you may find pieces of gear that aren't quite whole. Don't throw it in the trash! These shards can be collected together, and when you get a enough of the pieces you can combine them into a whole piece of gear!

## Outfits

*Outfits* are a new type of equipment introduced in the Teumessian Update. Outfits allow players to change the appearance of their character without actually changing equipment. Outfits can also be enhanced with Soulstones, which add attributes to outfits on top of the cosmetic changes.

Outfits can be obtained in several ways:

* Through the Warrior Store by trading Warrior Certificates obtained through completing Team Instances.
* Purchasing them from Decathalon Arena Store using seals obtained through participating in Decathalons.
* From participating in the Relic Rumble.

You can find your outfits on your character sheet in the backpack:

Each character gets a unique set of Outfits that enhances their looks. These are some samples of Outfits that you can get for each character:

**Teumessa**

**Lulandore**

**Pan Da**

**Lauren Catcher**