Ultimate Guide to Upgrading, Enhancing, Refining & Enchanting

There are multiple ways to upgrade your equips in Ragnarok M: Eternal Love to make them more powerful. It may be confusing at first because they all sound similar. This guide will explain the differences between the four methods to help you get the best gear possible for your character!

Overview

1. Enhancing – from your bag using zeny, enhance up to your current level, transferrable to other items
2. Refining – via Hollergrehnn, requires Ori/Elu, adds “+” to the item, gives “Refine” stats like Refine Atk or Refine MAtk
3. Enchanting – via Cat NPC in Geffen, requires zeny or Mora Coins, gives random set of bonuses
4. Upgrading – by clicking the red arrow in your item detail window, requires crafting materials, upgrades the item to higher Tiers (I, II, III, End tier)

For common questions like what happens to refine or slot when I upgrade, etc. check out: FAQs for Upgrading, Enhancing, Refining & Enchanting

Side note: Their names might vary in older guides/YouTube videos due to the lack of translations, but these are the terms currently used in the English (SEA) server.

Enhancing

Requirements: Zeny
Where: inventory window

Enhancing (a.k.a. Strengthening) is the most basic form and it “enhances” the effects of the equipment. For example, it increases the DEF of an armor or the MATK of a Staff.

You can Enhance an item multiple times up to your current level. So if you’re level 50, you can Enhance an item up to 50 times. When you level up to 51, then you can Enhance it one more time.

To Enhance your item simply open your Backpack and click the 2nd tab button on the right. Then select an equipped item and tap “Enhance.” It only costs a few zennies but it will increase for each level.

You should always Enhance your equips as this is the cheapest and easiest form of item improvement. The cool thing about this is you can pass on the Enhance levels to other items . Just equip a different item (of the same type), and you’ll be asked if you want to inherit the Enhancement of the previous item.

Refinement

Requirements: Oridecon for weapons, Elunium for armors, zeny
Where: Hollergrehnn in Prontera

Refining is similar to the item refinement that we all know in the classic version of Ragnarok games. It gives a “+” label to your items indicating the refinement level.

Refining items gives it a “Refined” stat, like Refined Atk or Refined MAtk (see screenshot above). Refined stats are different from your normal stats and do not reflect in your stats screen. Refined Atk and MAtk are pure offensive stats and ignore a target’s normal Def/MDef stats, only Refined Def/MDef stats can reduce them.

Refining your equips requires materials like Oridecons for weapons and Eluniums for armors, so it can get pricey. That’s why it’s better to prioritize Enhancing first before Refining since it’s way cheaper and still gives good bonuses.

To Refine your items simply go to Equipment Refinement blacksmith in Prontera. But be careful. There’s a chance that the refinement will fail beyond +4! Players of the classic RO games know how heartbreaking it feels when your favorite +6 weapon disappears to thin air after attempting to upgrade it to +7.

However, Ragnarok Mobile players are in luck: when the refining fails, the item won’t disappear forever. Instead there are only 2 scenarios when it fails: 1) it goes back to a lower refine level (e.g. from +4 to +3) or 2) it goes down to a lower refine level AND become broken, indicated by a red item name and a red hammer icon.

Here’s the trick though: you can still equip broken items! The only disadvantage of broken items is that you can’t refine it further, that’s all! So, some people actually prefer buying broken items from the Exchange because they are way cheaper. It doesn’t matter if it’s broken if you’re not planning on refining it anyway, right?

So how do you repair broken items? Simple—just acquire a copy of that same item, it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t have the same refine level or number of slots. Then just talk to Hollergrehnn again and Refine the broken item, but instead of refining it the repair window will show instead.

Enchanting

Requirements: Zeny for level 1, Mora Coins for level 2+
Where: Cat NPC, Geffen 12 o’clock
Full Guide: Guide to Enchantment

Enchantment is an expensive method but can give your items a set of random but very powerful bonuses.

There’s multiple types of Enchantments which you can unlock by doing quests for Mora, the Cat NPC. You can already start with Basic Enchantment which only requires 5,000 zeny but it doesn’t give really decent stats. For Advanced Enchantments, you will need Mora Coins.

You can purchase Mora Coins from the Event NPC (near Miu) in Prontera for 50,000 zeny each. Or you can buy them for 10 Friendship Tokens from Mora. You can obtain Friendship Tokens when doing quests and rifts with your partymates, so you should always help your friends as much as possible to save money for Enchanting.

So here’s how it works: Enchanting an item gives it a random set of bonuses. You can check what these random bonuses are by clicking the info icon in the Enchantment window.

You can then Enchant again and again until you are satisfied with the bonuses (or until you run out of cash and Mora Coins /heh). Sometimes the stats will show a Poring icon, which means that the bonus stat is overpowered or above average.

Once you’re done Enchanting the item, you can see the “Enchanted attribute” in your item’s stats. Unlike Enhancements, you cannot pass Enchantments to other items, it will be bound to one item only. And always remember, Enhancement is different from Enchantment!

Here’s a complete list of all possible enchantment stat bonuses you can get.

Upgrading

Requirements: materials depending on item
Where: inventory window

Last but not the least is Upgrading. This is probably the most challenging and it is a long term goal to fully Upgrade your items.

Not all items are upgradable. You can check it by tapping on your item and see if there’s a red up arrow icon next to the icon, that’s the Upgrade button. You can also check other items in your Adventure Handbook (it’s the last tab on the bottom).

You can Upgrade items into 4 tiers: I, II, III and End Form. You can check the bonuses per Upgrade level and the required materials on the item’s detail window.

When Upgrading to End tier the following will happen:

• it will transform into a completely new powerful item
• refinement level is reduced by -2 (e.g. from +4 to +2)
• extra card slot is removed if it has 2 card slots (if it only has 1 slot, it will stay)
• enchantments will not be removed

To Upgrade the item, click on the red up arrow button and it will show you the materials required to upgrade. You can Quick Buy the materials from the market if you have the zeny. Otherwise you have to farm them yourself. Heads up though, it can get really difficult at higher Upgrade levels!

In the example below, my Mage Coat is in Upgrade Level III and will transform into Robe of Cast on the next upgrade, which gives amazing bonuses such as reduced cast time. Take note though that sometimes well-carded and refined Tier 3 items are better than End tier items if the End tier requirements are very difficult to obtain

Now that we understand the basics, the most common question is:

Should I enhance, refine, enchant, or upgrade first?

Here are some important notes to consider:

• Enhancements are transferrable between items
• When Upgrading to End tier, refine level will be reduced by -2 and 2nd card slot is removed. Enchantments will stay.

So, Enhance and Enchant as much as you want, but do not refine and add the extra card slot before Upgrading to End tier if you cannot afford to lose the -2 refine and the extra card slot. Therefore the best path is:

Enhance/Enchant anytime —> Upgrade to End tier —> Refine and Add Slot

But as I mentioned earlier, some people prefer to have their equips at Tier 3 with good refine, enchants and cards while the End form materials are still impossible to obtain. I will leave that decision up to you.

Important notes

(Related: FAQs for Upgrading, Enhancing, Refining & Enchanting )

• Adding Card Slots
  • All Enhancements/Refines/Enchantments/Upgrades will not be affected when adding a card slot
  • The 10 equipment materials used to add a slot must be +0 Refine
• Broken items
  • You can still Enhance and Enchant broken items (thanks to /u/Gaezilla!) (not sure yet about Upgrading)
  • You can use broken items to repair another broken item
  • You cannot use broken items to add a slot
• Shared Storage (thanks to /u/eggy_CBK!)
  • You can’t put Enhanced items to your Shared Storage, you need to transfer the enhancements first to another item
  • You can share Refined/Upgraded/Enchanted items with no problems
• Selling on Exchange (thanks to /u/RandomBrigade!)
  • When selling an Upgraded item on the Exchange, you will be asked to remove the Upgrades first with a zeny refund
  • When selling an Enhanced item on the Exchange, the Enhancements will be removed
  • You can sell Enchanted items on the Exchange
  • You can sell broken items to the Exchange
• You can also buy materials from the Lucky Shop if you’re feeling lucky! (thanks to /u/stepncbsg!)

Conclusion

Remember, a low-level but well-equipped character is much better than a high-level character with low-tier unenhanced, unrefined, unenchanted gear. So take your time to research on the best equips for your class, gather materials and save up on zeny to strengthen your gear!

Good luck and happy grinding!