Refinement Guide
The following guide is made by server players for server players, any contribution or discussion you can open a mentor ticket.
Overview
Equipment in Ragnarok Online can be 'upgraded' or 'refined' by upgrade NPCs in each major towns to make them more powerful. All equipment has a maximum upgrade level of +10, starting from +0. +0 items do not have any prefixes, but once they are upgraded, the number of upgrade levels will be displayed on the equipment - e.g. +4 Infiltrator.
Upgrade Requirements
Following list shows reagent + money required.
Weapon Lv. 1 - Phracon (200 Z from NPC Shop) + 50 Z Fee Weapon Lv. 2 - Emveretarcon (1,000 Z from NPC Shop) + 200 Z Fee Weapon Lv. 3 - Oridecon (Monster drop) + 5,000 Z Fee Weapon Lv. 4 - Oridecon + 20,000 Z Fee All Armor Types - Elunium (Monster drop) + 2,000 Z Fee
Also, you can turn in (5) Rough Oridecon and Rough Elunium to create single refined Oridecon and Elunium.
Effects Gained
When you successfully upgrade, you gain following effects:
Weapons
- Weapon Lv. 1 - Every +1 upgrade gives +2 ATK (+3 ATK for every overupgrade).
- Weapon Lv. 2 - Every +1 upgrade gives +3 ATK (+5 ATK for every overupgrade).
- Weapon Lv. 3 - Every +1 upgrade gives +5 ATK (+7 ATK for every overupgrade).
- Weapon Lv. 4 - Every +1 upgrade gives +7 ATK (+13(?) ATK for every overupgrade).
Armors
- Every +1 upgrade gives +1 (it's actually only 0.66) Equipment DEF (not VIT DEF).
Upgrades are useful, as for weapon upgrade, it reduces damage range between min - max damage (allowing you to do better average damage), it also increases your damage range. For armors, it reduces damage you take by 0.66% per every upgrade level.
Safety Level
The Safety Level is the maximum level of refinement that can be given to equipment with guaranteed success (0% chance of failure). Anything past the safety level has chance to fail, and failure means your equipment will be permanently destroyed, including any cards and other enchantments it may have had. You won't be refunded Zeny and the ore used to upgrade if it fails. Give careful thought before deciding if you want to upgrade a piece of equipment beyond its safety level.
Premium (subscription) servers offer the following safety levels when upgrading with regular ores:
Weapons Weapon Lv. 1 - Safety Level +7 Weapon Lv. 2 - Safety Level +6 Weapon Lv. 3 - Safety Level +5 Weapon Lv. 4 - Safety Level +4 Armors All armor types have Safety Level +4.
Success chances
There are 3 (4 if we consider HD ores) different ways to refine your equipment.
- Normal Refine (Normal Success rate)
- Special refine or Suhnbi (Enriched Oridecon & Elunium rate)
- Whitesmith refine weapons (10% higher than normal success rate at job 70).
- HD Refine (Same as Normal success rate BUT protects your equipment from breaking if you fail).
| Upgrade | Lv.1 | Lv.2 | Lv.3 | Lv.4 | Armor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| +4>+5 | 100% | 100% | 100% | 60% | 60% |
| +5>+6 | 100% | 100% | 60% | 40% | 40% |
| +6>+7 | 100% | 60% | 50% | 40% | 40% |
| +7>+8 | 60% | 40% | 20% | 20% | 20% |
| +8>+9 | 40% | 20% | 20% | 20% | 20% |
| +9>+10 | 20% | 20% | 20% | 10% | 10% |
| Upgrade | Lv. 1 | Lv. 2 | Lv. 3 | Lv. 4 | Armor |
| +4 -> +5 | 100% | 100% | 100% | 90% | 90% |
| +5 -> +6 | 100% | 100% | 90% | 60% | 60% |
| +6 -> +7 | 100% | 90% | 75% | 60% | 60% |
| +7 -> +8 | 90% | 60% | 30% | 30% | 30% |
| +8 -> +9 | 60% | 30% | 30% | 30% | 30% |
| +9 -> +10 | 20% | 20% | 20% | 10% | 10% |
How to efficiently use your Enriched Oridecon?
First of all, it is important to remember two fundamental facts.
- The ratio of the enriched oridecon.
- Whitesmith at Job Lvl 70 has 10% success rate over the common refinement.
That said.
If we analyze both situations we can reach a conclusion without giving too much overexplanation.
It is NOT worth spending Enriched Oridecon on weapons above a certain level.
The Whitesmith has 10% more ratio than the normal refine, in first levels the enriched oridecon has an absurd refinement advantage, for level 3 and 4 weapons, explained in the following table:
| Upgrade Lvl | Lvl. 3 (E.Oridecon) | Lvl. 4 (E.Oridecon) | Lvl. 3 (J70) | Lvl. 4 (J70) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| +4>+5 | 100% | 90% | 100% | 70% |
| +5>+6 | 90% | 60% | 60% | 40% |
| +6>+7 | 75% | 60% | 70% | 50% |
| +7>+8 | 30% | 30% | 30% | 30% |
| +8>+9 | 30% | 30% | 30% | 30% |
| +9>+10 | 20% | 10% | 30% | 20*% |
In short, for refines lower than +7 (from +4 to +7) it is indisputably better to use enriched oridecons, but for refines higher than +7 it is advisable to use a whitesmith job lvl 70. The improvement is absurdly noticeable.