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Gear upgrades and the damage formula

Enhancing, Soul Binding, transfers and which stats to roll

Updated Oct 24, 2026Region Global
Sections
  1. What an item is made of
  2. Enhancement
  3. Soul Binding
  4. Gear Transfer and Transfer Crafting
  5. What you lose when you upgrade
  6. Manastones and Theostones
  7. Belt and amulet
  8. The damage formula
  9. What each stat is worth
  10. Critical Hit and Accuracy
  11. Lines to roll, per slot
  12. Skill levels: thresholds, not the highest number
  13. Free damage: consumables
  14. Crafted or dungeon gear
  15. Sources

What an item is made of

LayerWhat it isMoves with Gear Transfer?
Enhancement and AmplifyKinah and Enhance Stones. Past +15, Amplify Stones fill the orange linesYes
Base statsFixed per item(the new item's own)
Soul Binding linesRandom lines from the item's pool, including skill levelsYes, except the extra line from Philosopher's Stones
Manastones (weapon, armor), Soulstones (accessories)Random lines, better grade = better oddsNo
Theostone (weapon, guard)A small proc on hitNo
PotentialPvE damage boost (weapon, accessories) or tolerance (armor)No

Any item has a Source button that shows where it drops.

Enhancement

StepOddsNotes
+0 to +10Always succeedsDismantling returns the stones
+10 to +1565%, 50%, 35%, 25%, 20% (item level 86)A fail loses the materials. Each fail raises the next chance
+15 to +20Chance, needs new stonesEach step is +1% attack (weapon, accessories) or +1% HP and defense (armor)

Only item level 86 gear goes past +10. Costs per piece are in Item level 1,400 to 2,800.

Soul Binding

ActionWhat it does
SyncFeed a spare item to reroll one line. About 6% to hit a given stat, then about 0.5% for its best value
Soul Codex: ResetRerolls every line. Save the books for crafted gear
BindRaises a rolled line toward its max with Soul Codex books (30,000 Kinah each)
  • Order: get the right lines first, bind last.
  • Don't reroll an item with nothing useful on it. One reroll gets you one line at best. Wait for a better drop and transfer instead.
  • Never sync with a lower-grade Synch Stone: only a 10% chance to change the line (Kanon).

Gear Transfer and Transfer Crafting

  • Gear Transfer moves enhancement and Soul Binding to another item of the same type and the same or higher item level. It overwrites the new item's lines, so check both first. Transfer Stones come from spare Unique gear in Substance Morph.
  • Gear below +6 isn't worth moving. Dismantle it (Drybear). From +10 Unique, or once a piece has good lines, transfer it.
  • Transfer Crafting raises a crafted item's item level (62 or 70 up to 102). Enhancement, amplification and Soul Binding carry over (game text).

What you lose when you upgrade

Upgrading an item to a new tier removes its Theostone, Manastones and Philosopher's Stone lines (Spid). Philosopher's Stones drop at about 1% in the Hard dungeons and you need two. Spid paid 3,000,000 Kinah for a blue Theostone and lost it. Use green Theostones and mid-grade Manastones until the item is maxed.

Manastones and Theostones

  • Manastones: all lines reroll at once, none can be locked. Aim for at least one gold damage line on gear you keep. Two gold Attack lines are about one gold Damage Boost line (Kanon). Each line also adds item level: grey +1, green +2, blue +3, gold +4.
  • Theostones go in the main weapon and guard only. On Global they come from Shop > Black Cloud Merchants at random (on KR/TW also from Transcendence). The shop is per character, Theostone storage is per account, so alts give you more offers.
    • PvP: they matter. 2% Paralyze first, then Seal, Stun or Root (notXeon).
    • PvE: opinions differ. notXeon takes the rare high-damage proc because fast group fights trigger it often. Grobs and Kanon put Theostone damage under 1% of your total. Don't spend millions on one for PvE.

Belt and amulet

They only come from quests. Take one to +10, unequip it and use Substance Morph > Gear: at +10 the morph to the next grade is free and always works. Green +10 (23) becomes blue (36), blue +10 (46) becomes Unique (65). Belt scrolls come from strongholds, amulet scrolls from the Monolith. The real cost is Enhance Stones, so farm Spacetime Rifts.

The damage formula

Stats sit in groups. Inside a group they add up; the groups multiply each other. Adding 2% to an empty group is a real 2% more damage, adding it to a full group is much less.

GroupStats in it
Base attackAttack from weapon, guard, accessories, lines, manastones and closet. Multiplied by Weapon Damage Boost, then by Multi-Hit and Power Shards
Flat additionsAttack Bonus, Attack Increase %, then PvE, boss, species and front/back attack (not multiplied by Weapon Damage Boost)
Damage boostsDamage Boost, PvE Damage Boost, boss and species damage boosts, all in one group
Critical Damageon its own
Double Chanceon its own
Front/Back Attack Booston its own
Skill specializationon its own
Kanon's full formula (KR, tested with Aion Research Lab)

[[[((Pure Attack x Weapon Damage Boost) x Multi-Hit x Power Shard) + Attack Bonus) x Attack Increase % + PvE Attack + Boss Attack + Species Attack + Front/Back Attack] x Skill Coefficient] + Skill Additional Damage - (Defense - Penetration) x 0.1] x (Damage Boost + PvE Damage Boost + Boss Damage Boost + Species Damage Boost) x Crit Damage x Double x Front/Back Damage Boost x Skill Specialty

0.01 instead of 0.1 in PvP. Multi-Hit's exact place is the one untested part.

What each stat is worth

KR endgame with support buffs (Kanon). Global numbers will be a little different, the order isn't.

StatDamage gain
1% Double Chance0.6 to 0.65% (bosses from Dying Dramata on resist 30%)
1% Front/Back Attack Boost0.57 to 0.65%
1% Weapon Damage Boost0.5 to 0.55%
1% Critical Damage Boost0.4 to 0.6% (less for classes with crit damage passives)
1% Damage Boostabout 0.35%
1% Perfectabout 0.1%
10 Attack / Max Attack / Attack Bonus0.17% / 0.13% / 0.1%
1 Power0.1% attack. Every pet at level 3 gives +1 Power (Moxsy)
  • Front/Back Attack Boost only counts for hits from that side. If you hit from the back half the time, it's worth half (sunnydecree).
  • Perfect: ignore it on Global (sunnydecree).
  • Critical Damage Boost: don't stack it high on classes whose passives and Stigmas already give a lot, like Chanter.
  • Combat Speed is top tier even though the KR stat lists leave it out. On gear it rolls on the weapon, off-hand, gloves and necklace; a Superior Curse scroll adds 10 to 15%. High ping eats it: 150 to 200 ms more ping cost 50 to 70% damage in Kanon's tests.
  • Double Chance doubles a hit. Multi-Hit adds 1 to 4 extra hits at a fraction of the damage, so it's weaker.
  • Bosses have no front/back, weapon or crit boosts, so those tolerances do nothing in PvE.
  • Once you have a lot of one multiplier, the one you have least of gains you more.

Critical Hit and Accuracy

The crit rate cap is 50% at 500 Critical Hit, lowered by the target's crit resist, so bosses need far more. Targets for Ludra, buffs included: Moxsy guesses 1,200 to 1,400 Critical Hit and 1,000 to 1,200 Accuracy, Kanon's KR figure is 1,600 and 1,500.

Lines to roll, per slot

Where Kanon, Moxsy and Soulgrot agree, rarest line first:

SlotLook for
Weapon, guardDamage Boost, Combat Speed, Weapon Damage Boost, Power
HelmetDouble Chance, Attack Increase, Attack, passives
CloakDouble Chance, Attack Increase, Attack, passives
ShouldersDouble Chance, Critical Damage Boost, Attack
ChestDamage Boost, Perfect, Attack
PantsAttack Increase, Perfect, Damage Tolerance, Attack
GlovesCombat Speed, Perfect, Attack
BootsMovement Speed, Perfect, Attack
NecklaceCombat Speed, Power, Attack (Accuracy if short)
EarringsMovement Speed, Power, Attack, passives
RingsActive skill levels (the only accessory with them), then Power and Attack
  • Weapon Damage Boost rolls about twice as often as Damage Boost on weapons. With two equal weapons, build on the one with Damage Boost (Moxsy).
  • Skill lines on the weapon are fine early. Once Arcana and rings carry your skills, swap them for damage lines.
  • PvP sets swap in Status Effect Chance, Status Effect Resist and Weapon Damage Tolerance.

Skill levels: thresholds, not the highest number

The skill coefficient is a multiplier, but levels past a threshold add almost nothing: sunnydecree's Chanter skill at 21 gains next to nothing over 20. What matters is reaching the level that opens a specialization (8, 12, 16) and 20 for the third slot. Know which of your class's skills need 16 and which need 20, and put skill lines there.

Free damage: consumables

Food, a Curse scroll (Combat Speed), a movement speed scroll, Power Shards, and a Benediction scroll or potions if you struggle to survive. Keep them on auto-use in combat.

Crafted or dungeon gear

Crafted gear has 5 Soul Binding lines (dungeon gear 4, Chromatic weapons 3) and reaches item level 102 through Transfer Crafting, so it's best in slot in the end. It only beats dungeon gear once it's upgraded and has good lines, and the first craft can fail. Craft in this order if you craft: weapon, rings, then armor (Soulgrot). Grobs' cheaper route: dungeon gear now, craft when prices drop, transfer the upgrades. See Item level 1,400 to 2,800.

Sources

We wrote this guide from these creators' videos and pages and checked what we could against the game.