Path of Exile Item Upgrades
Upgrades to items are a frequent and important way to improve the performance of a variety of items in Path of Exile. They can be a fantastic source of damage and more AD or even more attaches.
In most cases, however upgraded Common and Magic gear is often surpassed by Rare-grade gear due to their requirements.
Armor
Armor upgrades are a kind of upgrade that can be used on weapons and armor items. They boost the performance of the item they are attached to. Armor upgrades are found in the game's world and can be purchased from Blacksmiths at any bonfire. They can also be salvaged using a specialist or higher salvage kits to retrieve upgrade components from items.
item upgrading of damage that an armored item or weapon can absorb depends on the degree of upgrades. The absorption of damage by an item of armor will increase when it's upgraded to the highest upgrade level. However, it's important to note that this will also increase its weight, which will cause it to weigh more than before.
There are a variety of armor upgrades available in the game. Each has a different effect. Certain upgrades grant armor an additional number of health points while others make it stronger and lighter. The name of the upgrade will indicate the kind of upgrade an item can receive, as shown below.
Some of the upgrades also require magic or a hybrid technology and magic, as identified by the "Magic" and "Hybrids" entries in the table. Some upgrades also require a fee to use, which are shown by the "Charges" entry in the table below. The charges for these upgrades refresh daily or never expire depending on the upgrade.
Iron Ore is the cheapest option to upgrade your armor. It can be found by exploring and looting small treasure chests. Titanium is more costly, but can be found in the smelters of Orgrimmar and Stormwind City. Certain upgrades, such as the Reforge and the Hot Potato Books, can only be applied to high-level armor pieces. These upgrades can provide a significant improvements in performance and are worth the investment, particularly for one-handed weapons.
The player should be aware that upgrading a piece up to the maximum upgrade level will increase its defense values. However, it will also reduce its agility and speed. It is not recommended to upgrade armor above +9. The defensive boost gained generally isn't worth the weight and power costs of the upgrades.
Weapons
Weapon upgrades allow players to enhance certain aspects of their weapon. For example an upgrade could enhance the damage caused by a shotgun's shells or the accuracy of the rifle sniper. Certain weapons also come with upgrades that improve their innate qualities. These include Frictionless Materials (improves stability and reduces the risk of overheating of the weapon) and Kinetic Coils (increases projectile acceleration for more damage).
Most upgrades for weapons require three Power Dices, a different amount of Minerals and Erons and a whetblade to apply. These can be obtained by doing side quests, or killing a certain amount of monsters or bosses or from the Weapon Upgrade NPC in Central Flarine.
Upgrading a Weapon, Equipment Set piece or Whetblade requires visiting the NPC [Armor] Boboko in Central Flarine and paying her an upgrade price of a certain number of Bars. The more bars you need to complete an upgrade the higher the level. If item upgrader have multiple upgrade materials the cost of upgrading will be lower.
In Chapter 2: Season 5, the method of upgrading your equipment and weapon sets changed a little. Prior to Chapter 2 Season 5 you could upgrade your weapon and equipment by paying a certain number of Bars. You could do this until your weapon or equipment reached its maximum upgrade level and at that point, the upgrades would reset.
You can still do this, but the process is high on RNG and low on agency. Instead, you're better off going to stores and buying equipment with low upgrade levels but excellent base scores and stat distributions. They will also have a chance at gaining you the most prestigious benefits and blessings.
The majority of players will prioritize upgrades to the weapons they are most likely to use to allow them to progress quicker. In addition players, they should think about upgrading the weapons they use with their squadmates to make them more powerful and effective. For instance, Shepard should consider upgrading the M92F to unlock the Beretta M93R to make it more useful when accompanied by biotic specialists like Grunt and Tali.
Jewels
Jewels can be used to boost a stat or provide secondary effects in weapons and armor. Jewelry crafting is a method of making them, where you combine the gemstone with specific reagents in a jewelry table. The higher the tier of the jewel, the better its secondary effect. These reagents can be gotten from Treasure Goblins and World Bosses in the world, or by collecting Legendary Gear. You can also purchase them from The Jeweler for gold and a Scattered Prism.
The Jeweler can boost the quality of a gem in stages ranging from Crude up to Royal. The boosts to stats will differ depending on the tier the jewel is at when it's inserted into jewelry, weapons or other gear.

All levels of jewels are crafted at the Jeweler however, there are some exceptions to this, such as the rare and legendary jewels that require you to be at a certain level to be able to get the privilege of having them. Like other upgrade components jewels are able to be swapped with a jewel of the same type without destroying it. However it is only possible to replace the jewels in an item of equipment once.
It is typical to use more jewels to enhance the appearance of. Apart from improving performance, the jewels also create a surface that is harder than metal, so repeated friction with pivots doesn't damage them as easily.
In addition to the upgrades mentioned above players can also acquire glyphs for their weapons and shields from a Glyphmaster. These glyphs give a slight boost in power and can be swapped, but they are not guaranteed to show up as loot. Glyphs, just like jewelry, can be upgraded by the Jeweler in exchange for gold and Scattered Crystals. Glyphs can also be removed from the inventory, and they are returned to the inventory. Other upgrade components such as aegis or traits cannot be swapped, and can only be found by using an Upgrade extractor, or salvaging with a Black Lion Salvage Kit, or Ascended Salvage tool.
Trinkets
Trinkets can be used to give your character many small, but valuable, advantages. They are available in the starting area as loot or personal story rewards. They can also be obtained from vendors as well as through completing road interaction. They can also be crafted by jewelers, and found or purchased from the Trading Post.
The first trinket a player can unlock is the cloak, which gives an unimportant but beneficial boost in speed of movement and evasion. The player will then be able to acquire rings, amulets and necklaces, in a similar way to how they acquired weapons and armor. Every piece of equipment has a slot for an upgrade that can be either universal or jewel. Universal upgrades offer fewer benefits and can be put into any kind of equipment while jewelry cannot be changed or upgraded, and is only compatible with specific types of trinkets.
These trinkets provide additional buffs and abilities that are active even when the hero isn't engaged in combat. This allows the hero to be more efficient while inactive. It also helps compensate for the lack of a good slot in the talent tree or team which would normally be filled by a hero's top stats.
A good general rule of thumb for trinket upgrades is to prioritize BiS (Best-in-Slot) items that you aren't planning to replace soon, followed by any items with desirable stats that are less important than the iLevel of the item that is being upgraded. This is especially true when an item has multiple stats you'd like to upgrade since it's generally more beneficial to upgrade one important stat than two sub-optimal ones.
At the beginning of the game junglers will usually want to upgrade their trinket into a red one, while top and mid players typically choose a green or pink ward (depending on the game's matchup). These choices will have a significant impact on the hero's map control abilities.
In addition to the items mentioned above, players may also find a number of other trinkets in the game in the form of awards and trophies. These can be earned through completing certain milestones within the story. For instance, completing a chapter’s main quest or defeating the boss. These achievements can be seen by selecting the appropriate achievement from the reward tab of the hero menu.