# Re-implementing the rarity-improving mechanic -- now with TL;DR **URL:** \ **Category:** Game Feedback & Ideas\ **Created:** [April 14, 2024, 11:06pm UTC](https://community.puzzlequest3.com/t/re-implementing-the-rarity-improving-mechanic-now-with-tl-dr/4599 "2024-04-14T23:06:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 15
**Author:** ![Switch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee59a6/32.png) [@Switch](https://community.puzzlequest3.com/u/Switch)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2024, 1:42am UTC](https://community.puzzlequest3.com/t/re-implementing-the-rarity-improving-mechanic-now-with-tl-dr/4599/15 "2024-04-16T01:42:24Z")
TL;DR Summary , as requested. For fuller discussion of the below, see the more discursive original post in the thread. (Slight improvements in suggestions made below as compared to OP.) @Jeto maybe this will prove more useful to you? 😃 . **I) GOALS** - Implement gear-quality-improving mechanic, integrated into 3.0 gear and follower system - Make this mechanic optional – players may advance this way or strictly through gacha style - Thus make the game appeal to a wider customer base - Some quality-improving mechanic must be available immediately to new players (to attract those customers) - Mechanic must retain appeal even to end-game customers, which will help with … - Mechanic must give more opportunities and motivation for microtransactions. . **II) IMPLEMENTATION** **A) New Honing Stage** - Add a new, final stage of honing for rare / epic / legendary equipment. - This stage would cost aether to improve the item to an unhoned version of next quality - This would be the version of quality-improving immediately available to new players - This would make aether have more value to players - To consider: _should honing materials be consumed when this is done?_ - … Pro: would increase demand for those resources, and thus microtransactions - … Con: This would make such honing **prohibitively** expensive, worse than before 3.0, dissuading player engagement, especially new players. - … NB: There is a _lot_ of gear to improve. No need to further inflate demand. - … SUGGESTION: Refund relics and runes, not gold/ore/aether. . **B) Follower Crafting** - This should provide an alternate route, more attractive to mid- and end-game players, to encourage buying follower crystals - This should _not_ be the _only_ way to improve quality, as it needs to be available to new players (see above) - Follower-crafting to interest gacha players should be retained too. . **B1) Rework existing crafting to fit 3.0** - Should have options (at increasing follower level) to make increasingly specific gear, all the way up to fully specified. - These would be unhoned versions. Honing would then add the relic/rune/etc costs - Gear up to _legendary_ should be created this way. Not mythic … provided there is another follower-based avenue to produce mythic. (See B3 below) - Rarity of gear thus crafted should depend upon the follower’s level: Level 50 follower produces legendary version, whether it be crafting ‘random’ or crafting ‘fully specified’ - If it’s a _range_ of rarities produced (randomly), there should be a substantive probability of getting top option. Don’t further discourage your customer base! . **B2) Adjust making random item for aether** - Reduce the follower level for “make random item for aether” options - This appeals only to the “gacha” players, but it gives them something do do with aether. - Top tier for this - make random mythic - would remain at follower level 50 . **B3) Add Follower-based Improve Item Rarity option** - This would add new functionality that honing doesn’t offer, designed especially to appeal to end-game players, as follows: - In this crafter version of quality-updating, aether is spent, but the ‘honing’ costs of at item are _not_ returned. - However, even an _unhoned_ or not-fully-honed item may have its rarity improved this way. - The base quality of the new-rarity-version produced **will be based on the quality of the upgraded item at the time it’s improved** - Thus, e.g., a fully honed epic item will produce the corresponding unhoned legendary item with a _higher base quality value_ than would an unhoned epic item that was improved - To improve a legendary item to unhoned mythic this way (the final stage) a follower crystal is required, in addition to aether. Only at this stage. - By fully honing and then follower-improving an item from rare up to mythic, a very high-base-quality mythic would be produced. It would also be very expensive (as honing mats at each level are consumed). - This will create _abundant_ new demand by very-committed (and thus likely to spend $) players for all sorts of materials, as they work to get the best possible versions of their gear through crafting (should they so choose). And they will have a _lot_ of gear to pursue. - This is designed as an _optional_, high-end possibility for end-gamers with lots of resources who want to invest significant materials to get a guaranteed top-quality mythic by crafting rather than gacha luck. --- _[View the full topic](https://community.puzzlequest3.com/t/re-implementing-the-rarity-improving-mechanic-now-with-tl-dr/4599)._