Understanding crafting and Armor

[Ikarius]

My squad is ~ lvl 8 at this point, and I'm starting to see more serious monsters. I've got some questions about gearing though, before I dive in to boosting substantially.

I've seen crafting create items @ base, +1, and +2, so there's clearly some RNG component to crafting results. Anyone got a feel for how frequently you can expect to see +2 results from a craft? +1 at least seems pretty frequent.

Likewise with boosting... I've seen boost add +1, +2, and +3. Similar question- how frequent are the higher level results?

How high can you enhance things?

On armor.... what's good early-ish game armor for samurai? Looking at what I've found so far, I'm leaning towards Musha Form for top and Xth pants alpha for the speed stat- or am I close to some particularly nice armor showing up? I've got a knight with a chainmail torso and plate pants, so he's got pretty good armor (relatively speaking).

It's strange, nearly all the armor I've found is barely (if at all) more protecting than the base Xth armor you start with, and also tends to eat into evade more thoroughly.

Anyhow, just trying to get a sense of how far I should start pushing my gear at this point.

My Sam's are wielding Noble Katana's and Wakazashi's. I presume that's decent, I haven't yet found better.

[The Weak]

The crafting and boosting bonuses are randomized, with +1 being the most frequent. I have never worked out how often you can get the extra points. If you want to save materials you can always save scum until you get a good value. I have never seen above +3, which was a pretty rare occurance in my experience, but it might be possible that it can be more than that.

You can only boost an item as high as its level. For example, a level 15 item can only be boosted to +15. The only way to get equipment beyond its level is to get lucky random loot, which will occasionally come enhanced beyond its level.

You cannot Boost Evasion, so for early gear whatever has the highest defense stat (or extra stats/protections/etc that you need) is the best thing to go with. A low level item with better defense is typically better than a higher level item with lower defense (special attributes aside) unless you take the time to Boost the higher level item. Once you hit mid game you will start to see equipment with more Evasion on it, so once you get something good you can start focusing on that.

I don't know where you are at in the game, but if you are still at the beginning Noble Katana is pretty good and can easily serve you well through a lot of mid game content. There are better weapons available before you hit Second Semester if you want them, but you'd have to grind for them.

[Ikarius]

Thanks a lot! With some experimentation, I was coming to the realization that indeed, items don't boost beyond their itemlevels, so a level 1 item will max out at +1. I have seen some pretty good luck with enhancement, seeing +3 and even +4 on boosting an item, provided it's got sufficient boost levels to go.

I'm only lvl 8 at the moment, so fairly early- but just hitting the point where I'm able to grind a bit, and do it effectively.

Just have to figure out what's "decent" armor for samurais at this point in the game.

[The Weak]

Decent Armor for Samurai is just whatever armor you have with the highest defense until you get Shura Back Style at level 28, and you can't reach that level until the Second Semester level cap increase. After you hit 28 you will want armor with the highest Evasion possible to keep you alive while you use that skill.

As far as any secondary things to look out for, you had the right idea going for equipment that can boost your speed up to 25 for the extra offhand damage. If you don't have an Academic with Brain Spire and are dual wielding, equipment (typically accessories) with UBst can help with refilling your Unity Gauge to keep Unity abilities rolling.

[Raven]

would be nice if this game had a crafting guide. think i messed up because i turned an item into a source data item. I have no clue what this does and I cannot equip it anymore.