I don't get the loot system

[r4in]

Alright, quick question: I am level 13 gunslinger. I have green one pip pistols at level 10 as primary and green one pip shotgun at level 10 as secondary.

1) I got green shotgun with two pips recently. Should I stop leveling my current green one pip shotgun and start leveling the two pips one? Should I use the old one to upgrade the new one, or vice versa?
2) I finished my first story dungeon and got a shotgun with red background and one pip. What am I supposed to do with that?

Very confusing. Also, items always drop at level one and require upgrading? That seems grindy AF.

Thanks.

[Valentine Michael Smith]

the number of pips is random 3 appears to be the highest. I'd stick with upgradeing your 1 pip gear because you will eventually need to fuse to reach the next tier of gear and to do that you need to combine 2 max level items of the same tier. I've never seen red gear I think that's like really high tier.
It's also worth noting there are different modifiers on the gear. a 3 star that gives 3% more healing for example would not be as useful as say a dps stat for dps characters like increased crit damage.

pip = stars
tier = color of gear

[acemkd]

i will recomend you to go to the auction house and buy 3 pip items and lvl them up. If you dont find 3 pip items when you click search, type MK iii (for weapons ) and search Radiant for the oter items

[☠ Asasin ☠]

Red background items are "Extraordinary" items. They have special effects associated with them (for instance, a DPS extraordinary talisman might cause additional damage on critical hits. For pistols there's one that extends the duration of matching chambers, one that causes additional damage when you have a pair of matching chambers, one that gives you more red matches at the expense of blue and white, etc.)

Pip count affects a few things, it just depends on the item in question. I don't remember the exact math, but just imagine that a 1 pip talisman is about 70% as strong as a 3 pip. The difference there is obviously much bigger than between 2 and 3 pips (2 pips is considered fine for the most part, 3 gives you maximum oomph).

On talismans, the pip count affects the Talisman stats itself.
The same applies to glyphs.
For weapons, however, the pip count affects the "suffix"/attachment of the weapon. For instance, a Pistol of Alacrity Mk 1 (1 pip) might give you a 10% speed boost, a mark 2 - 20%, a mark 3 - 30%. The pips on the weapon don't affect the weapon damage itself.

For the most part, 95% of the gear you get is going to be level 1 greens. Starting in, I believe, the Shadowy Forest onward you have a very small chance of getting blue items from mission reward bags, and i think the same applies to chests at certain difficulties in dungeons and whatnot.

[soulhuntermmm]

First thing you should do is decide on a build, either look one up online or figure it out. I'm just figuring it out as I go along, but at least look through your abilities for both weapons and decide what Actives/Passives you want, then pick equipment with stats that would benefit/boost those. At least try to buy Green items with 2 pips for most of your slots early on from the store, takes a long time to make them blues, none of mine are 20 yet but I've been finding some good loot through dungeons (Green Tower Symbol on map, recommend checking your lvl before partying up). The RED equipment I've only gained through dungeon chests and they have special unique abilities that are unnaffected by color/pips. I have a lot of Green one pip reds from dungeons, and they can be farmed and sold in the store (H) to other players for decent amounts. I always check the store before using a 2 pip or Red item for upgrading.

Once an item is upgraded to lvl 20 you will get a free copy of the EXACT SAME item to lvl up to 20 again (only the first time you get a free copy) so you can fuse them to make a next lvl either one more pip or color upgrade. That's the best way to get blues, and I don't think it's worth buying a 3 pip or any blues unless you already have a lvl 20 copy to fuse with or find a really great deal, I usually find better items through random drops or dungeoning than what you can buy. The rarer items are REAALLY rare so they go fast in the store, I practically stole my blue sword for 200 but you have to be checking often to find anything great like that.

I recommend dungeoning or buying reds you want, one or two pips doesn't matter the bonus from being Red is the same, pips just saves time upgrading and finding/upgrading duplicates.

[Simpl31nsane]

this is where pay to win get into the game. Grind or use $$$ .

[Valentine Michael Smith]

yeah, I should mention the xp cost and thus anima shard cost for leveling your gear gets exponentially worse. Not only does the xp to level the gear double but the cost for doing so does too each tier not to mention the fact that you also have to grind out a additional piece of gear of the same type to fuse.

[ledeir]

Originally posted by soulhuntermmm:

Once an item is upgraded to lvl 20 you will get a free copy of the EXACT SAME item to lvl up to 20 again (only the first time you get a free copy) so you can fuse them to make a next lvl either one more pip or color upgrade. That's the best way to get blues, and I don't think it's worth buying a 3 pip or any blues unless you already have a lvl 20 copy to fuse with or find a really great deal, I usually find better items through random drops or dungeoning than what you can buy. The rarer items are REAALLY rare so they go fast in the store, I practically stole my blue sword for 200 but you have to be checking often to find anything great like that.

Seeking clarification on the free copy (although I've almost got my primary weapon there).

Is this a one time thing?
IE - I will only ever get one free clone item no matter how many different items I get to level 20

Or are you saying that the cloned item will not spawn another copy, but if I found and leveled a different item up to 20 I would once again get a clone?

Thanks for the info

[Leogrim]

Originally posted by ledeir:

Originally posted by soulhuntermmm:

Once an item is upgraded to lvl 20 you will get a free copy of the EXACT SAME item to lvl up to 20 again (only the first time you get a free copy) so you can fuse them to make a next lvl either one more pip or color upgrade. That's the best way to get blues, and I don't think it's worth buying a 3 pip or any blues unless you already have a lvl 20 copy to fuse with or find a really great deal, I usually find better items through random drops or dungeoning than what you can buy. The rarer items are REAALLY rare so they go fast in the store, I practically stole my blue sword for 200 but you have to be checking often to find anything great like that.

Seeking clarification on the free copy (although I've almost got my primary weapon there).

Is this a one time thing?
IE - I will only ever get one free clone item no matter how many different items I get to level 20

Or are you saying that the cloned item will not spawn another copy, but if I found and leveled a different item up to 20 I would once again get a clone?

Thanks for the info

you get a freebie fusion weapon once and a freebie talisman once...both can be used to fusion with one maxed out green weapon/talis

[ledeir]

Originally posted by Leogrim:

you get a freebie fusion weapon once and a freebie talisman once...both can be used to fusion with one maxed out green weapon/talis

Thanks for the clarification.
I'll pick up a three pip weapon tonight and start leveling that instead
Fortunately I'm already leveling a 3 pip talisman which dropped so no wasted effort there.