Starsworn's Enhancives Guide

Overview

Enhancive items in GemStone IV provide bonuses to skills and statistics when worn. Building a complete enhancive set involves several different systems, each with distinct costs and tradeoffs. This guide covers the primary methods for acquiring, building, and refining an enhancive set.

Enhancive Caps

Worn enhancive items are subject to the following combined caps:

• 50 skill bonus (total across all worn items)
• 40 stat base enhancement (equivalent to 20 stat bonus)

Methods of Acquiring Enhancive Properties

Direct Addition (Hess)

Hess offers the ability to add enhancive properties directly to an item, one point at a time. This method is generally considered cost-prohibitive compared to other options and is rarely used in practice.

Gilded Locus

The Gilded Locus is the fastest method for adding enhancive properties to an item, though it is among the most expensive options available.

Mania

Mania is the only method that allows enhancive properties from multiple items to be combined onto a single item. The base cost is approximately 1 billion silver.

Fusion Scripts

Fusion is a script system in which orbs socketed into a fusion item contribute their enhancive properties to the wearer. Most fusion items begin with two orb slots; a third slot can be added for a significant additional cost.

Orbs are created by converting enhancive items into orb form. Each orb retains only one enhancive property from the source item, with all others lost in conversion. As a result, source items with a single high-value enhancive property are generally preferred for orb creation.

Orb Types

Type	Obtainable	Degradation	Notes
T2	Secondary market only	None	No longer craftable
T3	Ebon Gate	Degrades to ~50% baseline	Can be made permanent via defusion

Defusion

The defusion service converts a scripted fusion item into a standard item with the enhancive properties of its orbs built in permanently, removing the orbs and the script. Defusion is available at Duskruin and costs approximately 250,000 Bloodscrip.

Wearable Enhancive Items

The most common method of building an enhancive set is collecting wearable enhancive pieces. These can be obtained in two ways:

• As random treasure drops
• By converting armaments using a nugget from the Duskruin Annex

The nugget converts an armament (weapon, armor, helm, or greaves) into a piece of jewelry carrying its enhancive properties. The armament's non-enhancive properties are lost in this process, with limited exceptions. All items created via nugget are persistent (see Charges and Persistence below).

Charges and Persistence

Worn enhancive items lose charges over time. There are two types:

• Crumbly — disintegrate when fully depleted
• Persistent — do not disintegrate; can be recharged indefinitely

Items can be recharged in two ways:

• Spending bounty points at the Adventurers' Guild
• Using a charging potion (available in 4-hour, 1-month, and other durations) purchased from the SimuCoin Store or other players

Bonus vs. Ranks and Base vs. Bonus

For skill enhancives, bonus is generally preferable to ranks. Ranks provide equivalent benefit only in skills with substantial point investment, and cost significantly more to keep charged.

For stat enhancives, bonus provides twice as many points as base and is cheaper to recharge per point.

Swapping Enhancive Properties

Enhancive properties can be swapped between members of defined groups at Ebon Gate for 10,000 soul shards per swap. The swap groups are:

• Strength, Wisdom, Aura (note: Aura carries an additional cost surcharge)
• Constitution, Discipline, Dexterity, Agility
• Intuition, Logic, Influence, Aura (confirm grouping)

For example, an item with 10 Agility base and 10 Dexterity base could have its Agility swapped to Dexterity, resulting in an item with 20 Dexterity base.

Swapping is currently only available at Ebon Gate.

Set Building: Recommended Approach

When assembling a complete enhancive set, individual item value matters significantly. Items in the 10–15 point range create two compounding problems: they require more charging potions to maintain, and they consume inventory slots quickly. Items with at least 25 points of a desired property are generally the most practical building blocks.

Items in the 30–35 point range typically command prices of 50 million silver or more on the secondary market.

A practical set-building progression:

1. Purchase secondhand items with at least 25 bonus to priority statistics or skills. Secondhand purchases are substantially cheaper than building equivalent items from scratch.
2. Convert armaments via nugget at Duskruin to create persistent enhancive jewelry for filling gaps in the set.
3. Swap properties at Ebon Gate to align the set with specific needs.

See Also

• Enhancive items
• Ebon Gate
• Duskruin
• Adventurers' Guild