Starsworn's Enhancives Guide
Overview
Enhancive items provide bonuses to skills and statistics when worn. Building a complete enhancive set can involve 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
- 40 stat base (equivalent to 20 stat bonus)
Note that these caps are independent from the Ascension Skill System.
For more detail on how these caps interact, see Enhancive item.
Skill Ranks and Training
The benefit of skill rank enhancives versus skill bonus enhancives depends heavily on how many ranks a character has trained in the relevant skill. Because the relationship between skill ranks and skill bonus is non-linear — the first 10 ranks each provide 5 bonus, the next 10 provide 4 each, and so on — rank enhancives provide diminishing returns as training increases.
For a completely untrained skill, a rank enhancive provides significantly more benefit than a bonus enhancive of the same value. However, at 40 or more ranks of training in a skill, rank and bonus enhancives provide identical benefit. For most trained skills, bonus enhancives are preferable: they are cheaper to recharge, and the difference in effective benefit over bonus is negligible or nonexistent at typical training levels.
See Enhancive item for a full breakdown of the rank-to-bonus conversion table.
Methods of Acquiring Enhancive Properties
Direct Addition (HESS)
The High End Scrip Shop (HESS), available during Duskruin, 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 a character-attuned enhancive item available from Duskruin. It occupies its own unique worn slot and can be upgraded with additional properties and boosts at each run of Duskruin, Ebon Gate, and Rumor Woods. It is intended as a "slow burn" build, and though the cumulative upgrade costs can be significant, the power ceiling is high.
Duskruin Mania
Duskruin Mania is a live auction event held near the end of each Duskruin run. It is currently the only method that allows enhancive properties from multiple items to be combined onto a single item, and only when this combiner service happens to be offered. The base cost has been at least 1 billion bloodscrip.
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 via HESS.
Orbs are created by the Fusion Shaman at Ebon Gate, using fusion tokens earned from the Arena of the Abyss. The Shaman extracts one enhancive property from a source item, converting it into an orb; all other properties on the item are lost in the process. As a result, source items with a single high-value enhancive property are generally preferred for orb creation.
Orb Types
| Type | Created By | Availability | Degradation |
|---|---|---|---|
| T2 | No longer craftable | Secondary market only | None |
| T3 | Fusion Shaman at Ebon Gate | Ebon Gate or secondary market | 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 The Annex at Duskruin Arena and costs 100,000 Bloodscrip.
Wearable Enhancive Items
The easiest 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
- By purchasing them from other players ont he secondary market
The faenor nugget at The Annex 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 and 1-month) purchased via SimuCoins, via special events, or other players
Swapping Enhancive Properties
Enhancive properties can be swapped between members of defined groups at Ebon Gate via Sylinaar for 10,000 soul shards per swap. The full swap categories from the Sylinaar page are:
- Aura*, Strength, and Wisdom
- Agility, Constitution, Dexterity, and Discipline
- Influence, Intuition, and Logic
- Brawling, One-Handed Blunt, One-Handed Edged, Missile Weapons, Polearms, Thrown Weapons, Two Handed Weapons, and Spell Aiming
- Arcane Symbols and Magic Item Use
- All Mana Controls
- All Lores
- Health Regeneration**, Mana Regeneration, Stamina Regeneration
- Max Health**, Max Mana, Max Stamina
*Aura swaps cost 20,000 soul shards instead of 10,000. **Health Regeneration and Max Health are valued at 50% for conversion purposes — 10 Health Regeneration converts to 5 Mana Regeneration, and vice versa.
Note that swapping two properties from the same category onto a single item will not combine them into one larger bonus; they remain as separate, distinct properties on the item.
Swapping is currently only available at Ebon Gate via Sylinaar.
Premium Enhancives
Premium enhancives are created via the Premium points system through Sadie on the Isle of the Four Winds. This service converts a non-enhancive item the player already owns into a permanent enhancive item with 200 charges. There are four service levels, each allowing 1–2 enhancive properties to be added, with a maximum of +7 to any single property and a combined maximum of +10 if two properties are added.
A few important restrictions apply:
- Items already carrying an enhancive property of any kind are not eligible.
- The resulting item is account-attuned and cannot be used by other accounts.
- Armor concealers are not eligible.
- Level 1-2 services cost 1,800 Premium points; Level 3-4 cost 2,400 Premium points.
Premium enhancives are persistent and start fully charged at 200 charges. They are eligible for property swapping via Sylinaar at Ebon Gate. For the full list of available properties by service level, see Premium enhancive.
Set Building: Recommended Approach
When assembling an enhancive set, individual item value matters significantly. Items with lower point totals create two compounding problems: they require more charging potions to maintain (more items to reach the maximum amount), and they consume inventory slots quickly. Items with at least 20-25 points of a desired property are generally the most practical building blocks.
A practical set-building progression:
- Start small: Begin with one or two of your primary stats or skills, and check player shops less-expensive items with lower bonuses. Even adding 20-30 of your primary attack can be a significant power increase, and it doesn't take many +4-8 items to get there.
- Purchase secondhand items with at least 20-25 bonus to priority statistics or skills. Secondhand purchases are substantially cheaper than building equivalent items from scratch.
- Convert armaments via nugget at the Duskruin Annex to create persistent enhancive jewelry for filling gaps in the set.
- Swap properties at Ebon Gate via Sylinaar to align the set with specific needs.