Diablo 4 is the newest entry in the much-celebrated Diablo series. It’s been ten long years since the last game, and players are diving into Diablo 4 with the determination only a decade of waiting could inspire. Diablo fans have a lot to sink their teeth into with a host of new, robust systems that have added new layers of customization and complexity to the game.
Few of the systems in Diablo 4 are more complex than that of improving gear. There are multiple ways for players to improve their gear, each offered by different merchants in the major outposts. From enchanting to jewels, upgrades to aspects, this guide will cover everything players need to know about improving their gear in Diablo 4.
How to Improve Gear in Diablo 4
Diablo 4 offers players a wide selection of ways to improve their gear, much more than in previous Diablo games. The following merchants offer services that can improve players’ gear:
- Blacksmith: Can Repair and Upgrade weapons and armor.
- Occultist: Can extract and imprint Aspects as well as perform Enchantments.
- Jeweler: Can Upgrade jewelry, add sockets to gear, and craft and unsocket Gems.
Upgrades
The simplest way to improve gear is to perform an Upgrade on it, which is simply using parts and paying gold to improve the stats of an item. Each item can only be upgraded a certain number of times based on its rarity. The upgrades also become increasingly costly in parts and gold.
Upgrading is a great way to improve a piece of gear players plan to keep around indefinitely. However, the cost of resources and gold makes it wasteful to use it on any piece that might be replaced soon.
Enchantments
The various stat bonuses offered by gear are called affixes in Diablo 4. If players are unhappy with an affix on a piece of gear, they can visit the Occultist to Enchant it. They’ll get to select from three randomly-determined affixes to replace it with. Sometimes, the third option is to keep the original affix. Once an affix on a piece of gear has been enchanted, it becomes the only one that can be changed.
The higher the rarity of the item, the more it costs to enchant it. If players are planning on adding an Aspect to an item to make it legendary, they should first complete any enchantments that piece needs. This will save them from having to spend rarer materials unnecessarily.
Aspects
Another service offered by the Occultist is the extraction and imprinting of Aspects. These are incredible enchantments with an enormous range of uses. They can be extracted from legendary gear or unlocked in the Codex of Power. The ones extracted from gear are one-use items, but those from the Codex of Power can be used repeatedly on any character.
Each Aspect is only compatible with specific item types of gear. Many can be imprinted onto a variety of gear, but a few can only be imprinted onto select items like weapons or jewelry. They vary wildly in power, so it is possible to find two versions of the same Aspect with vastly different values.
Players should be mindful that extracting an Aspect destroys the item it came from. Imprinting an Aspect not only upgrades the item to legendary status but also significantly alters its appearance to fit its newly-minted awesomeness. There is a cost to these services, but it’s relatively inexpensive in resources and gold.
Gems
The Gem system in Diablo 4 is very similar to previous Diablo games. The Jeweler can put together weaker gems to make stronger ones. They can also add sockets to gear and unsocket gems as needed. Neither operation changes the gear. It costs a bit in resources, but nothing gets destroyed.
Each piece of gear can only have one socket added to it, whether it already had one. Even a single gem can make a huge impact though. The Chipped Skull, for example, adds +13 Life on Kill, +5% Healing Received, or +170 Armor when it’s slotted into weapons, armor, or jewelry, respectively.
Diablo 4 is available on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, and PS5.