In RPGs, having powerful gear is crucial, and DragonSword: Awakening is no different. After spending countless hours grinding for characters, I’ve realised the gear system can cause a bit of confusion. The idea of level capping, tier, and the bonus system can be jarring at first. Though don’t worry, as this guide will tell you everything you need to know to understand the gear system works within the game.
How Gear Works in DragonSword: Awakening
Dragonsword Awakening has quite a range of options to customize your gear, all with the intention of perfecting your build and getting something that works best with your playstyle. So you can slot Runes, reforge gear, and aim for armor set bonuses. While Nioh veterans, if they happen to be playing this game, will be right at home with the Reforging and Armor Set Bonuses system, let me run you through these key gameplay mechanic in Dragonsword: Awakening
A weapon or gear can be made more powerful by using Runes (acquired from Raids). However, that’s only possible with gear that has a purple rating or above. While some of the lower tier Runes may not look to be that impressive as far as the bonuses are concerned, using synthesis, you can combine lower tier Runes (they need to be of the same type) into a higher tier Rune with a much more potent bonus.
Reforging Gear in Dragonsword Awakening
Once a gear reaches the highest rating, you can even reforge it using the Shape Grinder material (acquired from Dungeons and Raids). While reforging, you can choose which gear traits to keep and which ones to reforge. As it’s easy to imagine, the more gear traits that you want to keep locked, the higher the reforging cost will be. Keep in mind that when you reroll these bonuses, they will be random, so what you get may also be less useful than what you had.
For example – let’s say you are running a Bleed build, and one of the gear bonuses is an increase in Fire buildup % – that’s an easy one to swap out, because its not going to add much to your build. But, there is another bonus of let’s say Attack Power Up, or a Critical Hit Chance – these can be useful for all builds, and you may not want to swap it out right away. Of course, once you accumulate enough gold and Shape Grinder, this will not be an issue and you can experiment to your heart’s content – but early on, my advice will be to pick and choose to swap only that trait which you are absolutely sure of not adding any value or use to your build and playstyle.
Set Bonuses in Dragonsword: Awakening
Equipping more pieces from the same armor set can get you additional bonuses. So if you have three or five gears belonging to the same set, you can get a passive boost. I personally love the Phantom Leather Set because it increases physical critical hit rate by 6%. I’d advise you to grind for your own gears, because there’s something for everyone.
There are 2 ways to go about it – equipping all 5 slots with a single armor set to get all bonuses, or equipping 2 armor sets – 3 slots for one, and 2 for another – that way, you can get the benefits of two different armor sets – though, of course, the benefits will be restricted to the 2-set bonuses and 3-set bonuses. This is a call that you will take depending on which set of benefits works out best for your playstyle.
How to get resources to upgrade and reforge gear
The Merc Guide section is your go-to for grinding, as it helpfully lists out dungeons for farming currency, dungeons for farming gear, for ore and upgrade materials for XP and so on – clearly listing these out. The best dungeon, once you unlock it, after enough story progression is the Residual Worm Cleanup Zone, as it gives you XP books, Karma Cards, and high-tier upgrade materials.
If Runes is what you are looking for, then Raids are where you need to go and farm them. Over here as well, the game helps you out by listing the recommended level, and what you are likely to get as rewards for clearing those raids.
Crafting Gear in Dragonsword: Awakening
I recommend that you give the Crafting system a serious look – because of two key benefits
- There are some armor sets that can only be crafted – they cannot be obtained from anywhere else in the game
- You have a high degree of control over what Traits to focus on – the perfect way to craft armor suited to the strengths of you and your team members.
All tier level gear can be crafted, with each higher tier requiring rarer resources. So a 3-tier gear, for example just needs Red Pyroxene, Binding Crystal, and Low-Grade Amplitude Stone. Like in all systems, once you click on each material, the game will give you details on the best places to get that material. Continuing with the above material list, Binding Crystal is generally found in the wild, while Low-Grade Amplitude Stone can either be obtained from the Exchange or a Trait Dungeon.
Disassembling gear that you are not going to use is also a great way to get a lot of these resources.
