{"schemaVersion":1,"record":{"key":"mechanic/rpg-grind--enhancement-levels","type":"mechanic","id":"rpg-grind--enhancement-levels","lang":"en","title":"Equipment enhancement","summary":"The player spends materials on the next upgrade tier of an item. Cost, limits and risk determine which piece is worth improving now.","updatedAt":"2026-10-21","status":"active","url":"https://gamemechanics.pro/en/knowledge/mechanic/rpg-grind--enhancement-levels/","jsonUrl":"https://gamemechanics.pro/api/v1/knowledge/en/mechanic/rpg-grind--enhancement-levels.json","markdownUrl":"https://gamemechanics.pro/content/knowledge/en/mechanic/rpg-grind--enhancement-levels.md","aliases":["Item upgrade tiers"],"tags":["RPG grinding","Equipment upgrades"],"sourceIds":["source-9f2a915a1ac28603"],"sources":[{"id":"source-9f2a915a1ac28603","title":"Last Epoch","url":"https://store.steampowered.com/app/899770/","verifiedAt":null}],"sections":[{"id":"principle","title":"How it works","body":"Materials are spent on successive enhancement levels of an existing item. Cost and success probability are separate design choices."},{"id":"variants","title":"Variants","body":"### Action → reward\n\n<a id=\"enhancement-levels-loop\"></a>\n\n- Gather materials → raise an item’s enhancement level. <a id=\"enhancement-levels-repeat\"></a>\n- Raise levels with guaranteed results and increasing cost. <a id=\"enhancement-levels-option-2\"></a>\n- Prepare protection materials before a risky upgrade. <a id=\"enhancement-levels-option-3\"></a>"},{"id":"example","title":"Design example","body":"The player gathers crystals and upgrades a sword from enhancement level three to four with guaranteed success."},{"id":"context","title":"Context and limits","body":"A systematic RPG grind reference: 110 mechanics and 330 variants in 18 sections. Four layers answer different questions: what the player repeats, what develops, how rewards arrive and what constrains the loop. It covers single-player RPGs, ARPGs, MMORPGs and adjacent management and accumulation systems. Every mechanic has an explanation, variants and a hypothetical example; coverage, combinations and verified game observations follow the catalog."}],"relations":[],"placements":[{"catalogId":"rpg-grind","id":"enhancement-levels","title":"RPG grinding","url":"https://gamemechanics.pro/en/mechanics/rpg-grind/#enhancement-levels","categoryIds":["equipment-upgrades"]}],"supersededBy":[],"attributes":{"preview":{"updatedAt":"2026-10-21","title":"Item upgrade tiers","description":"The player spends materials on the next upgrade tier of an item. Cost, limits and risk determine which piece is worth improving now.","image":{"src":"images/mechanics/last-epoch-forge.webp","width":1440,"height":810,"crop":{"x":0,"y":0,"width":563,"height":810},"game":"Last Epoch","sourceUrl":"https://store.steampowered.com/app/899770/","originalUrl":"https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/899770/ss_2e36b4ef4b1682679932004ab95540ae2d4456f5.1920x1080.jpg?t=1792426633","credit":"Eleventh Hour Games","rights":"© Eleventh Hour Games. All rights reserved.","caption":"Upgrading an affix on the selected axe","alt":"Last Epoch: the forge shows the axe’s affix tiers, crafting materials and an Upgrade Affix button.","markers":[{"x":8,"y":32,"label":"The affix has its own T4 tier"},{"x":20,"y":82,"label":"The upgrade applies to the chosen affix"}]},"tips":["Show the improvement and every cost before confirmation.","Explain the upgrade cap and any chance of failure separately."],"examples":[{"title":"Last Epoch","url":"https://store.steampowered.com/app/899770/"}]}},"endsAt":null,"provenance":"Original editorial RPG grind taxonomy authored for gamemechanics.pro on 2026-10-20 and expanded to cover activities, progression goals, reward rules and constraints. All original thirty family/branch/variant identities are preserved. Official developer and publisher sources support only the specifically described released-game observations; design variants and scenarios are hypothetical.","license":"CC-BY-4.0","codeLicense":"MIT","attribution":"gamemechanics.pro contributors","catalogKey":"catalog/rpg-grind"}}