GuidesAwakening & evolution

Awakening & evolution

Nothing on the Elite ladder is ever thrown away. Awakening sharpens the piece you already own in nine steps, and evolution turns a finished piece into the same slot one tier up. Both succeed every time. What each one costs, what survives the jump, and where the ladder really ends today is below.

awakening steps per piece

100%

every step, both systems

heim either window charges

E-4

top of the ladder today

Step by step

Awakening a piece

Awakening adds a flat bonus to one piece of Elite gear, one level at a time, up to +9 — defence on armour, attack on a weapon. It is done at the Enhancement NPC, the same one that enchants, under Equipment Awakening.

1
Take the piece off
Both the awakening and the evolution window only work on items in your bag. Unequip whatever you are about to improve.
2
Talk to the Enhancement NPC
Every town has one — Wilot and Anse in Belthen, Isloge in Tringel, Hanen, Helbarm and Shuttleworth in Etherain, Kalidas in Aukra, Hank in Kortok, Hancell in Old Esmara. Pick Equipment Awakening from their menu.
3
Put in the piece, one material and the additives
The material is either a stack of crystals or a single Hephasto piece — one or the other, not both. The additive is the Awakening Additive, and the number wanted climbs with the tier. Each has to be one stack holding the full count.
4
Press it — there is nothing to lose
Every awakening on every Elite piece succeeds. There is no roll you can fail and no heim fee. The material and additives are used up and the piece goes up a level.
5
Repeat to +9
Crystals move a piece up one level per attempt, so +9 the long way is nine attempts. Nine is the cap, and it is also the price of evolving — see further down.

Materials

What each attempt costs

One material and a handful of Awakening Additives, every time. The material changes every two tiers and doubles at the half tiers; the additive count climbs by one or two per tier.

Awakening Additive

every tier

The one thing every attempt on every piece needs. One at Elite 1, seven at Elite 4.

Crystal of Protection

armour

The armour material, in four grades. Lv 1 for Elite 1, Lv 2 for Elite 2, and so on up.

Crystal of Destruction

weapons

The weapon equivalent, same grades, same counts. A weapon pays what a chest pays.

[E-1] Hephasto's Armor+9

shortcut

A single-item material that takes a fresh piece straight to +9. Explained in the box below.

Tier	A chest takes	A weapon takes	Awakening Additives
E-1	22 Crystal of Protection Lv 1	22 Crystal of Destruction Lv 1	1
E-1.5	44 Crystal of Protection Lv 1	44 Crystal of Destruction Lv 1	1
E-2	22 Crystal of Protection Lv 2	22 Crystal of Destruction Lv 2	3
E-2.5	44 Crystal of Protection Lv 2	44 Crystal of Destruction Lv 2	4
E-3	22 Crystals of Protection Lv 3	22 Crystals of Destruction Lv 3	5
E-3.5	44 Crystals of Protection Lv 3	44 Crystals of Destruction Lv 3	6
E-4	22 Crystals of Protection Lv 4	22 Crystals of Destruction Lv 4	7

Per attempt. The chest is the dearest armour slot and the other seven take a fixed share of it at every tier: out of the chest’s 22 crystals the protector takes 6, the helmet 14, the pants 18, boots and gloves 10 each, the belt 4 and the shirt 2 — doubled at the half tiers. The additive count is the same on every slot.

The +9 shortcut at Elite 1 and 1.5

The Crafter makes a Hephasto piece for every Elite 1 and Elite 1.5 armour slot, and one for Elite 1 weapons, that awakens a piece by nine levels in a single attempt. The chest version costs 110 Crystals of Protection Lv 1 and 1,000,000 heim and never fails — against 198 crystals over nine attempts the long way, and it spends the additives once instead of nine times. Every slot works out at roughly half the crystals. The Elite 1.5 versions cost 220 for the chest and 1,500,000 heim.

It always adds nine, stopping at the cap, so use it on an unawakened piece: put it on a +5 and four of those levels are simply lost. You will find it at the Crafter under Awakening/Evolution Material Item. The names are spelled exactly as the client prints them.

Worked example

One chest, +0 to +9

The Berserker’s Elite 1 chest, the Apollo Armor, starts at 233 defence. This is what awakening does to it. Every other piece and class follows the same curve at its own scale — the armour guide has the full-set totals for all of them.

Awakening	Defence added	Chest total
+0	—	233
+1	+56	289
+2	+67	300
+3	+80	313
+4	+97	330
+5	+116	349
+6	+140	373
+7	+168	401
+8	+200	433
+9	+241	474

The added figure is the total at that level, not a step on top of the one before. At +9 it is worth 241 — slightly more than the piece’s own base, so a fully awakened piece is roughly double an unawakened one. It is added after enchanting, so the two never compete.

Weapons

Exactly the same, on attack instead of defence. The Elite 1 Niebelung Two-Handed Axe hits for 378–535 out of the box and gains 431 weapon attack at +9.

In the tooltip

Hover any Elite piece and you will see Awakening Level (3/9) beside a row of nine stars, one lit gold for each level. Once it is awakened, a green line under it says what that is worth — Defense Increase on armour, Weapon Attack Increase on a weapon.

Supply

Where the materials come from

The additive you make yourself. The crystals you mostly earn — and the higher the grade, the thinner the supply gets. All of them trade freely between players.

Material	Where it comes from
Awakening Additive	The Crafter makes one from 100 Photons, 50 Packing Photons, 5 Trans Photons or a single Extra Photon, plus 3,000,000 heim, every time. The monthly attendance calendar also pays one on your 19th check-in of the month and another on your 21st.
Crystals, Lv 1	Crystals of Protection drop from the Temple of Blood lucky monsters, among others; Crystals of Destruction from a few other monsters. The 90% mark on the Area Conquest bar pays both outright in the Valley of the Dragonkin (5 Protection, 3 Destruction), the Aiort Graveyard (20 and 10) and Helron’s Castle (60 and 30).
Crystals, Lv 2	Protection again off the Temple of Blood lucky monsters, Destruction off a couple of other monsters, and both from the 90% mark in Green Earth (30 and 15) and the Shelter for Spirits (60 and 30).
Crystals, Lv 3	The 90% mark in the Boreas Mountains — 20 Protection and 10 Destruction, once per character. That is the only source we can point you to.
Crystals, Lv 4	No source we can point you to yet. They are the only material an Elite 4 piece accepts, so for now an Elite 4 piece cannot be awakened.

Area Conquest pays each mark once per character; the Area Conquest guide has the rest of what those marks hand over. Photons are covered on the enchanting page — repeat mission clears are the steady source.

Evolution

The same slot, one tier up

Once a piece is at +9 it can be evolved: one Elite Evolution Additive for that exact step turns it into its counterpart a tier higher — same class, same slot, new name, higher base. Same NPC, under Equipment Evolution. It always succeeds and costs no heim.

It must be +9

The window will not take a piece below full awakening. That is the real cost of evolving: a full run of awakening on the tier you are leaving.

The tag is the step

Each additive has the step it is for in square brackets at the front of its name. It only works on that step — the E-1 one does nothing for an E-1.5 piece.

No level check

You can evolve before you can wear the result. The new piece keeps its own level requirement, so it will sit in your bag until you catch up.

On the old piece	On the new piece
Awakening +9	Back to +0. The new tier awakens from scratch.
Sockets and the Zards in them	Gone with the old piece. Nothing socketed comes across.
Enchant +0 to +7	+0
Enchant +8 to +12	+7
Enchant +13, +14, +15	+11, +12, +13

Evolution does not upgrade your item so much as replace it: the old piece is deleted and a new one is made. Awakening and sockets never survive. Enchant partly does, on the schedule above.

A +7 piece evolves to +0. A +8 piece evolves to +7. Everything from +0 to +7 comes out at +0, so enchanting a piece you are about to evolve is wasted unless you take it to at least +8 — and at +12 the Crafter route below does better still. Pull out any Zard you care about first, too; the jewels guide covers sockets.

Two routes

The additive, or the Crafter

Every step up has the evolution window. Three of them also have a Crafter recipe that takes the piece itself — no awakening needed — and hands back the next tier already enchanted.

E-1 → 1.5

E-1.5 → 2

E-2 → 2.5

E-2.5 → 3

E-3 → 3.5

E-3.5 → 4

E-4 → 4.5

Additive	Made from	Or from	Heim
E-1 → E-1.5	5 Lv.2 Mayan Jewel + 5 Lv.2 Mayan Metal	30 Crystal of Protection Lv 1	5,000,000
E-1.5 → E-2	15 + 15 Lv.2 Mayan	200 Crystal of Protection Lv 1	10,000,000
E-2 → E-2.5	10 + 10 Lv.3 Mayan	30 Crystal of Protection Lv 2	10,000,000
E-2.5 → E-3	5 + 5 Lv.4 Mayan	200 Crystal of Protection Lv 2 + 5 artifacts	20,000,000
E-3 → E-3.5	10 + 10 Lv.4 Mayan	30 Crystals of Protection Lv 3 + 5 artifacts	20,000,000
E-3.5 → E-4	—	100 Crystals of Protection Lv 3 + 5 Dark Dyed artifacts	30,000,000

All at the Crafter, under Awakening/Evolution Material Item, at 100%, one additive per craft. “Artifacts” means five of any one of Luke’s, Eysher’s, Rhodile’s, Karin’s, Helron’s, Mio’s or Sharad’s Artifact, or HEL-P7’s Confidential Document. The Dark Dyed versions are Crafter-made too, at 20%, from ten of the plain artifact and ten Crystals of Fallen Power — which come from clearing either of the two Dark Death Dragon raid missions. There is no recipe for the E-4 → E-4.5 additive.

Step	Bring	Plus	You get
E-1 → E-1.5	The E-1 piece at +12 or higher	Lv.3 Mayan Metal and Jewel — the same counts the E-1 recipe took. No heim.	E-1.5 at +10
E-2 → E-2.5	The E-2 piece at +12 or higher	Lv.4 Mayan Metal and Jewel, the same counts. No heim.	E-2.5 at +10
E-3 → E-3.5	The E-3 piece at +12 or higher	Spirit Stones of Crimson, a Dark Dyed artifact for your class and Lv.4 Mayan Metal, plus 60–150 million heim	E-3.5 at +12
E-3 → E-3.5	The E-3 piece at +15	The same, plus Lv.4 Mayan Jewel	E-3.5 at +15

Under Elite Item at the Crafter, all at 100%. The “(+12)” and “(+15)” in the tab names are the enchant the piece has to have already, not what it comes out at. The Crafter wipes awakening and sockets exactly as the window does — but it keeps far more of the enchant.

Which one to use

If your piece is +12 or better and the step has a recipe, use the Crafter. The window would hand a +12 piece back at +7; the Crafter hands it back at +10 (+12 at Elite 3), and you do not have to awaken it to +9 first. Below +12 the Crafter will not accept it, and the window is the only door.

The steps with no recipe

E-1.5 → E-2, E-2.5 → E-3 and E-3.5 → E-4 are window-only. Two tiers can also be made from nothing: the Crafter builds E-2 pieces outright from Lv 1 crystals, Spirit Stones of Crimson and your class material, at 100%, and E-3 pieces from Lv 2 crystals, Spirit Stones and an artifact — but those only succeed 5% of the time, and a failed attempt still uses up everything you put in.

The ladder

Seven rungs, and where it stops

One chest, all the way up. The name and the art change at every rung; underneath it is the same piece, converted seven times.

Tier	The chest	Wear at	Base defence	+9 adds	Next rung by
E-1	Apollo Armor	73	233	+241	Window, or the Crafter from +12
E-1.5	Destroyer Apollo Armor	84	263	+271	Window
E-2	Trones Armor	94	292	+301	Window, or the Crafter from +12
E-2.5	Blood-stained Trones Armor	115	321	+332	Window
E-3	Thor Armor	126	351	+362	Window, or the Crafter from +12 or +15
E-3.5	Dark Dyed Thor Armor	136	380	+392	Window
E-4	Blainn Armor	146	409	+423	Nothing — see below

The Berserker’s chest line. Every class and every slot climbs the same seven rungs — the armour guide lists them all.

Elite 4.5 to Elite 6.5 cannot be reached yet. Five more tiers exist in the game’s item data, and their armour and weapon art shipped in September — which is why you may have seen them named. None of them can be obtained today. The additive for E-4 → E-4.5 exists as an item, but no recipe makes it and nothing drops it, rewards it or sells it; the steps after that have no additive at all. None of the pieces drop, and no recipe makes them directly.

Even Elite 4 is hard going

The last rung needs Lv 3 crystals twice over: 44 per attempt to take an E-3.5 chest to +9, and another 100 in the E-3.5 → E-4 additive. The one source we can point you to pays twenty per character. And once you are there, an Elite 4 piece takes Lv 4 crystals to awaken, which nothing hands out yet. Plan on Elite 3.5 as the tier you finish, and treat Elite 4 as a long project.

Set auras

Wear all eight armour pieces of one Elite set — same tier, same set — and your character carries that set’s aura, a different one at every tier. The weapon is not part of the set. It is purely a look: Elite sets carry no stat bonus. Evolving a set one piece at a time breaks the aura until the other seven have caught up.

Reference