Equipment

### **The Basics**

Equipment comes in three broad categories: Crit items, Defense items, and Boosters. Defense items are further subdivided into Block items (block chance) and Defensive items (armor and/or health). Boosters are also subdivided into Block boosters and Crit boosters. Each character has three equipment slots that correspond to these categories. All characters can equip a Crit item but the subcategory of Defense item and Booster differs by the character; see the individual character pages for details. The particular items a character can equip within each category also depends on their rarity and their Faction. Characters can only use equipment of their rarity or lower and only characters at Rare or higher can equip a Booster. Some equipment can be equipped by multiple Factions (like Combat Knives) while others are, at present, Faction-specific (like Void Blades for Necrons). You can see which Factions can equip a particular item by clicking on the item in your Inventory. The respective Faction icons will appear at the top.

Equipment, like characters, have levels and rarity. Equipment can be Forged to increase its level and to ascend to an item of higher rarity.

***Note***: Equipment is a completely separate system from Upgrades.

### Crit Items

Crit items are equipped in the first slot. As one would expect, they provide the Crit Chance and Crit Damage for the character. A character who does not have a Crit item equipped CANNOT deal a critical hit (which is particularly important for Adepta Sororitas and their Act of Faith trait).

Crit items usually come in two varieties: a higher crit chance with lower crit damage or a lower crit chance with higher crit damage. For example, the common Crit item choices for the Ultramarines are either a Bolt Pistol (Crit chance 35%, Crit damage +13) or a Combat Knife (Crit chance 20%, Crit damage +22). Some rarities have three choices, with a middle Crit Chance and Damage.

#### Which is better?

On average, assuming a single hit per attack, both items provide about the same amount of bonus damage. But with multi-hit attacks, the math becomes more complicated. Most players prefer the items with high crit chance as critical hits provide some benefits independent of the bonus damage, such as bypassing Mk X Gravis armor reduction or opening the impervious Strong Box in Salvage Run.

### Defense Items

Defense items are equipped in the second slot. Each character is restricted to one of the two subcategories: they will either equip a Block item (gaining a Block chance) or a Defensive item (gaining armor and/or health). You do not get to choose which subcategory to equip; it is inherent to the character.

#### Block Items

Block items, like Crit items, come in two varieties: higher block chance with lower damage reduction and lower block chance with higher damage reduction. For example, the common Block item choices for the Death Guard are either a Force Field (Block chance 30%, Block damage 15) or a Savage Icon (Block chance 20%, Block damage 23).

#### Defensive Items

Defensive items, continuing the trend but with a twist, also come in two general varieties: armor only and health + armor. For example, the common Defensive item choices for the Ultramarines are either a Plated Greaves (Armor +6) or a Mk X Pauldron (Health +7, Armor +4).

##### Which is better?

For Block items, on average, assuming a single hit per attack, both provide about the same amount of damage reduction. But with multi-hit attacks, the math becomes more complicated. Most players prefer the items with high block chance as you do not always get a second chance to reduce damage if the first hit kills you.

For Defensive items, it is highly dependent on a number of factors such as the character's current armor and traits, the enemy's damage and pierce ratio, and more. If a character's armor is higher than the enemy's minimum damage, additional armor accomplishes nothing so health would be more valuable. But if a character's armor is less than the enemy's minimum damage, additional armor would reduce every hit that much more.

### Boosters

Booster items are equipped in the third slot, which does not unlock until a character is Rare. Each character is restricted to one of the two subcategories: they will either equip a Block booster (gaining additional Block chance and Block damage) or a Crit booster (gaining additional Crit chance and Crit Damage). You do not get to choose which subcategory to equip; it is inherent to the character.

***Note***: Kut Skoden gets to equip an extra Defensive items instead of a Booster.

#### Block Boosters

If you guessed that Block Boosters came in two varieties, you would be wrong. As of global launch, it appears all Factions with characters who equip Block items share Forcefield Amplifiers as Block Boosters.

Common Block Booster Items

Uncommon Block Booster Items

Rare Block Booster Items

Epic Block Booster Items

Legendary Block Booster Items

#### Crit Boosters

Crit Boosters differ across Factions but the bonuses provided are the same. For example, the common Crit Booster for Astra Militarum characters is Frag Grenades (Crit Chance +1%, Crit Damage +5) while for Orks it is Stikkbomz (Crit Chance +1%, Crit Damage +5) and for Factions#Necrons it is Disruption Fields (Crit Chance +1%, Crit Damage +5).

#### Which is better?

The highest level one you can equip. You do not really have a choice here.

### **Where to Get Equipment**

Equipment can be obtained a variety of ways:

* Purchased from Daily Deals in the Store for coins or blackstone
* Arena X Victories and end of season crates
* Onslaught XP crates
* Salvage Run crates

You will have a better chance for higher rarity equipment the higher your power level (suspected it influences the offers shown in the Shop), Arena league, Onslaught level, or Salvage Zone. Regardless of which rarity equipment drops, it will always drop at level 1 for that rarity.

## **Forging**

Forging allows you to increase the level of Equipment, thereby increasing its bonuses, and to ascend to an item of a higher rarity (effectively changing it into a new item). Forging levels costs Coins and Salvage while ascension also costs a Forge Badge.

You can access the Forge whenever you select a piece of Equipment, either while equipping it to a character (tap the Forge button on the right) or through your Inventory (which will open the Forge menu directly). Note that if you access the Forge via a character's equipment, Ascension will be limited by what that character is able to equip (i.e., if they are Uncommon, you will not be able to Forge the equipment to Rare as the character is unable to equip Rare items).

### Forge Screen

On the Forge screen, you can see the stats for the current item on the left and the stats for the next level on the right. At the bottom is the Ascend Item track, which shows the how many levels are necessary before you can Ascend to the next rarity. At the very top, you can see your current Coins, Forge Badges (of the rarity needed to ascend the current item), Salvage, and Blackstone. If you do not possess any forge badges of the appropriate rarity, it will not-so-helpfully disappear rather than display 0.

If you are forging levels, right in the middle is the Upgrade button, which will show the cost in Salvage and Coins to upgrade the item. If you are forging an ascension, the Ascend button at the bottom will show the cost in Coins, Salvage, and Forge Badges immediately above it. If the equipped Character is not able to equip the resulting item, the Ascend button will be missing and a message will appear at the bottom telling you why you cannot proceed.

### Levels & Ascension

The most common Forging task is increasing equipment levels. Each level improves the bonuses provided by the item and, when at maximum for the current rarity, allows the item to be ascended.

When you ascend an item to a new rarity, you will be given a choice between two items of the appropriate type and rarity. For example, ascending the Common Crit Booster "Frag Grenades" to Uncommon would give you a choice between "Blessed Frag Grenades" (useable by Imperials) or "Royal Disruption Fields" (useable by Necrons). Each item changes names when ascended but shares a constant name across rarities (e.g., Frag Grenades -> Blessed Frag Grenades -> Sanctified Frag Grenades -> Master-Crafted Frag Grenades -> Relic Frag Grenades).

The chart below shows the cost to upgrade an item when it is at the given level (so the cost listed next to level 1 is the cost to move to level 2). The final two rows show the cost to max the level of an item at that rarity and the cost to max the level and then ascend an item.

To take a piece of Equipment from Common level 1 to Legendary level 11 would be expensive (18,275 Salvage; 297,050 Coins; and one forge badge at each rarity). Compare that cost to simply upgrading an existing Legendary item (15,200 Salvage, 268K Coins, and no forge badges). That is a savings of 3,075 Salvage, 29K Coins, and four Forge badges. See another advantage under Salvaging below.

### Salvage

In order to Forge an item, you need Salvage. You get Salvage by Reclaiming excess Equipment. If you do not have "excess" Equipment, you probably are not ready to Forge.

You can reclaim Equipment for Salvage by clicking the green + next to your Salvage total at the top of the Forge screen or on the top right of your Inventory (accessed via the Home screen). This will open the Reclaiming Items screen. In the window will be all of your equipment, grouped by type (Crit Items, Block Items, etc.) and arranged by descending rarity. The number of each item you have is shown below the icon and the amount of Salvage you get by reclaiming the item is shown in tiny font at the top. Items that are currently equipped to a character are grayed out and have a small yellow helmet icon at the bottom right; you cannot Reclaim items that are equipped.

You reclaim items by selecting them from the window and tapping the green Reclaim button on the bottom right. If you have more than one of a given item, a blue slider will appear allowing you to select how many of that item to reclaim, from 1 to all of them. If you tap on multiple items before tapping Reclaim, each will get a blue check mark on the icon. From testing, only the last selected item will be subject to the slider; previously selected items will reclaim all available, even if you had set the slider to a lower number. So, unless you are comfortable with losing them, it is best to reclaim items one at a time.

In the middle of the screen is a button that says "Select all Common". This will, as one would expect, automatically select all available Common items and allow you to Reclaim them quickly. Losing a bunch of Common items is less an issue than accidentally reclaiming all your Epic Advanced Combat Knives.

Salvage per Item
 Uncommon
 Rare
 Epic
 Legendary

#### Salvaging Forged Equipment

Special mention must be made that when you reclaim an item that you Forged, you will receive Salvage for the item AS WELL AS the Salvage and Coins you spent Forging the item. So if you reclaim a level 5 Uncommon item, you will get the normal 25 Salvage for an Uncommon item as well as the 75 Salvage and 700 Coins you spent upgrading it.

However, remember that ascending an item essentially makes a new item. So, if you later reclaim an ascended item, none of the salvage or coins you spent on the lower rarity will be "in" the item to reclaim. As a general rule, you should feel free to upgrade an item's level but think carefully about spending resources to ascend items. You will likely end up with plenty of a given item over time.