Alteration and enhancement notes
I've seen a few questions about alteration and refining lately but haven't seen many people chiming in with experience so I decided to bite the bullet and test around. Here's what I've found from my own experience:
--------
Extraction
You get alteration and refining stones by extracting green or higher gear.
I haven't noticed whether the blacksmith you use matters.
I cannot tell if grade matters in extraction. I have conjecture on how it works but it's not grounded so I'm keeping it out of the post.
I cannot tell if tier (bronze, steel) matters but my initial take is that it does not seem to.
You get one random alteration or refining stone per extract that relates to a stat that was in the item.
The "grade" of the stone (+1-3, +2-4, etc) *seems* to relate to the blessing on the weapon. This is for both alteration and refining stones.
- I've never gotten a +2-4 on a +1 blessing and vice versa so I'm fairly confident about this.
-------
Alteration & Refining
**You can only alter one stat per item**. This was something I tested on a blue just now. Edit: /u/Lluluien said they recall you can alter all but one stat, which I don't have the resources to confirm right now. So you might be able to alter a purple twice. Edit2: I farmed a bit and confirmed you can only alter once.
You *seem* to be able to refine any stat as many times as you want. This is tested on the altered blue and on an unaltered purple. Edit: /u/TacoFacePeople pointed out and I just confirmed that subsequent refining **overwrites** previous refining attempts. You can refine it multiple times but a +3 Eva with a +1-3 refining stone used on it multiple times can never get past +6 Eva.
Refining a stat does not lock that stat in as the altered one. I wasn't worried about this but tested to confirm anyway.
Stars relate to the blessing growth of the equipment when it reaches a +5/10/15 threshold. A 1star with +Mag will get a smaller Mag increase at +5 than a 2star, which will get a smaller increase than a 4star. It does not appear to directly affect stones on extraction or the new value you get from refining
I do not know if there is a stat cap based on stars
-------
What does this mean? (My opinion)
- Grade is more important because you want to limit the number of blessings you don't know and don't want to as close to 1 as possible. This makes it safer to use your 1 alteration on that 1 unknown stat.
- ~~Because you seem to be able to refine as many times as you want: you should not care about the initial stat *values* so much as the *stat*. You can always refine to "catch up".~~ Edit: see above edit, stat values matter because subsequent refining overwrites previous refining with a new roll
- Stars still matter. They mattered anyway because more stars means better stat growth ~~means fewer refining stones needed to catch up.~~ and since you can't catch up through refining (see above edits) the base stat and any growth you get is important
- Greens and blues that aren't upgrades to current gear (don't forget they might be an upgrade when enhanced to +5/10/15) are best extracted for stones
- Beginner junk is probably the fastest way to farm just junk (more chances for green). Use the beginning dispatches as much as you can so you get these passively.
- Rushing port chests are probably the best way to level alt characters, get items to extract, and farm for upgrades all at once