I guess I don't understand how trinkets work

[FroBodine]

Whenever I pick up a trinket, it says 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, etc. Then below that are various mastery bonuses at higher levels of the trinket.

I suck at this game, and have only ever made it to the first caverns after the two forests. But, how do you upgrade these trinkets to get 2/3, 3/3, etc. and the higher mastery levels?

How do these trinkets work, please?

Also - are all the trinket bonuses passive abilities? Or do I have to do something to activate them?

[Muffinslop]

so the trinkets can have set bonuses and the numbers like 1/3 or 2/3 is how many you've collected out of the 3-piece set of trinkets. Hope that clears it up

[BootBoot]

Some trinkets are part of a set, you get the extra bonuses when you hit the required number of set pieces.

[FroBodine]

Thank you. I kind of figured that, but how do you get the sets? Do you have to collect all three pieces in one run, for example? Or are they collected between all your runs, so you just have to find the same trinket in any run to upgrade them? That is what I'm confused about.

Every trinket I've found so far is just at level one, so I'm thinking they need to be collected all in one run, which seems pretty impossible. I hope I'm wrong about this.

[Muffinslop]

you just need to be lucky with rng

[FroBodine]

Ok. So am I right that you have to collect the trinket sets in a single run in order to get the set bonuses? If so, yikes!!

[Muffinslop]

you get so many trinkets I wouldn't concern myself too much on it, but it can influence your decision when it comes to picking or purchasing trinkets

[jerseyp19]

You've only gotten to the forests and cavern. As you upgrade and get better, you will complete a lot more levels in the same run, and there are npc's you will meet in these levels that let you buy a random assortment of trinkets, or let you choose from an assortment for free. Having randomly found pieces of a set could affect your decision in these situations. This is good because it makes each run unique instead of choosing the same powerful trinket each time.

[FroBodine]

Thank you, jerseyp19!! Very helpful. And thank you too, Muffinslop, but you were being vague in your answers and not explaining everything or answering my questions.

In my last run I finally made it to the second caverns, and started seeing the shops that sell me trinkets and such. I had no idea. Very cool.