Equipment and Loot

Overview

Loot is the lifeblood of Delve. It’s the primary tangible reward for dungeon runs, the fuel for crafting, the currency of the marketplace, and the core of character power expression. The loot system is built on three principles:

1. No loot is ever worthless. Every drop can be equipped, sold, or salvaged into useful crafting materials — regardless of level.
2. Endgame loot is unique to YOU. Rare+ items roll randomized bonus properties, so no two legendaries are identical. The chase is finding (or reforging) the perfect combination.
3. Transparency and fairness. All item properties are fully visible. No hidden stats, no loot boxes, no mystery. What you see is what you get — on the marketplace or in a dungeon.

Gear Slots

Each character has the following equipment slots:

Quick Slots (Belt)

The belt provides 3 quick slots for consumable items (potions, scrolls) that the skill queue can access during encounters without consuming a queue action. Items not in quick slots require spending a queue action to use.

Rarity Tiers

Key Design: Fixed Base + Random Bonuses

This is the core of the loot system for Rare+ items:

• Fixed base: The item always has specific stats (Evasion for armor, damage for weapons, etc.) determined by its type and level.
• Signature effect: A defining property that makes this specific named item what it is. A “Flamebrand Longsword” ALWAYS has fire damage. A “Frostweave Robe” ALWAYS has cold resistance. The signature is part of the item’s identity.
• Random bonuses: 1-3 additional properties rolled from a pool when the item drops. Both the property type AND the potency are randomized. This is what makes every drop unique.

Example: Two Flamebrand Longswords

FLAMEBRAND LONGSWORD (Legendary)
─────────────────────────────────
Type: Sword | Level 40 | Weapon Damage: 45-62
Signature: Fire Blade — All sword skills deal +15% bonus fire damage.
            Hits have a 20% chance to apply Burning (2 rounds).

Player A's drop:                    Player B's drop:
  Random Bonus 1:                     Random Bonus 1:
    +8% critical hit chance             +12% accuracy
  Random Bonus 2:                     Random Bonus 2:
    +4 Speed                            +6 Might

  Gear Skill: Flame Burst              Gear Skill: Flame Burst
    (Init 5, AoE fire around target)    (Init 5, AoE fire around target)

Both are Flamebrand Longswords with the same signature effect and gear skill. But Player A’s is a crit-focused speed build weapon, while Player B’s is a raw accuracy/power weapon. Both are excellent — just different.

Random Bonus Pools

When a Rare+ item drops, its random bonuses are rolled from this pool:

Offensive Bonuses:

Defensive Bonuses:

Attribute Bonuses:

Resource Bonuses:

Utility Bonuses:

Potency Tiers

When a bonus rolls, its potency is determined by a quality roll (d100):

A fully “god-rolled” legendary (all bonuses at perfect potency) is extremely rare — roughly 1 in 8,000 chance for a 2-bonus item. This creates the long-term chase.

Artifact Rarity

Artifacts are server-unique — only one copy of each exists at a time on the server.

• If the holder goes inactive for 30+ days, the artifact returns to the loot pool
• Artifacts are soulbound (cannot be traded) — you must earn them
• Artifacts have 3 random bonuses + a guaranteed powerful gear skill
• Artifacts are designed to be prestigious but not required — a well-rolled legendary can compete

Weapons

Weapon Types and Base Stats

Weapons are categorized by type, which determines which proficiency track they use (see 04-combat-system.md for the full proficiency system). Base damage scales with item level.

Base Damage Scaling

Weapon base damage scales with item level, not character level. A level 30 longsword does more base damage than a level 10 longsword, period.

Weapon Properties

• Finesse: Use Might or Speed for accuracy/damage calculation (whichever is higher)
• Light: Can dual-wield with another light weapon (enables off-hand skill slot)
• Heavy: Small species (Glimkin) have -15% accuracy. Deals +10% damage as compensation for the restriction.
• Two-Handed: Occupies both Main Hand and Off Hand. Higher base damage than one-handed equivalents.
• Ammunition: Requires arrows/bolts (tracked as a supply, not per-arrow)

Weapon Proficiency

Each character has a weapon proficiency score (0-100) per weapon type. Using a weapon in combat increases proficiency, unlocking new weapon skills for the skill queue at milestones (every 10 levels). Full details in 04-combat-system.md.

Gear Skills on Weapons

Legendary and Artifact weapons can grant a gear skill — a bonus skill that can be placed in the skill queue while the weapon is equipped. Gear skills are part of the item’s signature (not randomized — every Flamebrand has Flame Burst).

Examples:

Armor

Armor Types and Evasion

Base Evasion values are for common versions. Higher rarity armors of the same type get +1 (Uncommon), +2 (Rare), +3 (Very Rare), +4 (Legendary) to base Evasion, plus their signature effects and random bonuses.

Armor and Class Synergy

• Light armor: Full Speed bonus to Evasion. No stealth penalty (usually). Best for Shades, Pathfinders, Hexbinders.
• Medium armor: Speed bonus capped at +2. Balanced. Best for Songweavers, Wardens, Pathfinders.
• Heavy armor: No Speed bonus. Highest flat Evasion. Best for Vanguards, Oathblades, Berserkers (though Berserkers can opt for unarmored — Fortitude replaces Evasion from armor).

Item Level and Why Old Loot Still Matters

The Problem with Traditional MMO Loot

In most games, a Rare sword from level 10 is vendored the moment you hit level 15. Hours of dungeon running produce gear that’s worthless within days. This feels bad.

Delve’s Solution: Rarity-Scaled Salvage

Every item, regardless of level, salvages into the same materials based on its rarity. A level 5 Rare longsword and a level 45 Rare longsword both produce the same Rare-tier crafting materials.

This means:

• A level 5 Rare drop is never worthless — it salvages into materials you need for endgame crafting
• Revisiting low-level dungeons to farm specific enemies or materials is always viable
• New players can sell Rare drops on the marketplace to endgame crafters who want the salvage materials
• The economy stays healthy because supply comes from all level ranges, not just endgame

Salvage Table

Material uses:

• Common Fragments: Basic crafting, leveling crafting professions
• Uncommon Shards: Mid-tier crafting, gear enhancement (+1)
• Rare Cores: Advanced crafting, gear enhancement (+2), reforging
• Prismatic Essence: High-tier crafting, enchanting, gear enhancement (+3)
• Legendary Spark: Reforging legendary items, crafting legendary recipes

Disenchanting (Magical Items Only)

Uncommon+ items can be disenchanted instead of salvaged. Disenchanting extracts Magical Essence — a separate material used specifically for enchanting and adding magical properties to crafted gear.

Salvage vs. Disenchant is a meaningful choice — you can do one or the other, not both. Do you need crafting materials or enchanting materials?

The Reforging System

Reforging is the primary endgame resource sink and the answer to “I got a Legendary drop but the random bonuses are bad.”

How Reforging Works

1. Take a Rare+ item to a Reforger NPC (available in major hub cities)
2. Select one random bonus to reforge (you choose which bonus slot to re-roll)
3. Pay the reforging cost (materials + gold)
4. The selected bonus is replaced with a new random bonus from the full pool, with a new random potency

Reforging Costs

Reforging Rules

• You choose WHICH bonus to reforge. The other bonuses remain untouched.
• The signature effect is never reforged — it’s permanent.
• The new bonus is fully random — it could be the same type you just had, or completely different.
• There is no guarantee of improvement. You might reforge a +8% accuracy into a +3% gold find. This is the gamble.
• Cooldown: Each item can only be reforged once per day (prevents mindless spam-reforging in a single session)
• No destruction risk. The item is never damaged or destroyed by reforging.

Why Reforging Works

• Resource sink: Rare Cores and Prismatic Essences are consumed in large quantities, keeping salvage materials in demand at all times
• Gold sink: 500-5,000 gold per attempt adds up fast when chasing perfect rolls
• Endless endgame: A player with a “good” legendary can always chase a “perfect” one through reforging
• Marketplace interaction: Players who don’t want to gamble on reforging can buy pre-rolled items on the marketplace instead. Players who enjoy the chase can reforge and sell the results.
• Salvage demand: Since reforging consumes materials from salvaging, EVERY item in the game has value as salvage fuel — even level 1 drops

Location-Specific and Dungeon-Specific Loot

Philosophy

Regular loot (Common through Rare) drops everywhere and has no location restrictions. But Very Rare and Legendary items are often tied to specific dungeons, raids, or regions. This gives endgame players a reason to target specific content.

How It Works

Generic loot (Common-Rare): Drops from any content of appropriate level. Generic swords, armor, accessories with random names and properties.

Named loot (Very Rare-Legendary): Specific named items that only drop from specific sources. These are the items with signature effects and gear skills.

Named Item Registry

The game maintains a Named Item Registry — a catalog of all named Very Rare+ items showing:

• Where they drop
• Their signature effect
• Their gear skill (if any)
• What random bonus slots they have
• Player-reported “best rolls” for each item

This registry is viewable in-game and helps players plan which dungeons to target.

Consumables

Consumables are single-use items critical to dungeon preparation. They plug directly into the skill queue and condition systems.

Potions

Scrolls

• Scrolls grant a one-time skill usable in the skill queue for one encounter
• Any class can use any scroll, but off-class scrolls have -15% accuracy
• Scrolls are consumed when the encounter starts (whether the skill fires or not)
• Can be crafted by Arcanists (see 07-crafting-and-gathering.md)
• Examples: Scroll of Fireball (AoE fire), Scroll of Healing Wave (party heal), Scroll of Haste (grant Hasted)

Supplies

Gear Enhancement

Enhancement Levels (+1 to +5)

Any weapon or armor can be enhanced at a blacksmith NPC, increasing its base stats.

Failure does NOT destroy or downgrade the item. It just consumes the materials and gold. You can try again immediately.

Enhancement level is preserved when reforging — a +3 Flamebrand stays +3 after reforging a random bonus.

Enchanting

Enchanting adds or modifies magical properties on gear. This is a crafting profession (see 07-crafting-and-gathering.md) — player Enchanters perform this service.

• Common/Uncommon items: Can have 1 enchantment added (effectively giving them a signature-like effect)
• Rare+ items: Cannot be enchanted (they already have signature effects and random bonuses)
• Enchanting uses Magical Essence (from disenchanting unwanted magic items)

Loot Tables and Drops

How Loot Works

Each dungeon encounter has a loot table influenced by:

1. Encounter difficulty — Harder enemies roll on better loot tables
2. Dungeon tier — Higher-level dungeons have better base pools
3. Enemy type — Specific enemies drop thematic items (fire enemies → fire gear, undead → necrotic gear)
4. Luck attribute — Higher LCK improves the quality roll on drops (see Potency Tiers above)
5. Bad luck protection — Hidden counter that boosts drop rates after dry streaks

Drop Rate Guidelines

These are per-encounter rates for the “bonus drop” slot (beyond guaranteed gold + common item).

Bad Luck Protection

• A hidden counter tracks encounters since your last Rare+ drop
• Every encounter without a Rare+ drop increases the next encounter’s drop rate by +1%
• Counter resets when a Rare+ item drops
• This ensures even the unluckiest player will eventually get upgrades
• LCK attribute makes this counter increase slightly faster

Boss Drops

• Dungeon bosses always drop at least one item of the dungeon’s highest tier
• Raid bosses always drop 2-3 items, with at least one Very Rare+
• World bosses always drop 1-2 items for EACH participant, at least Rare quality

Loot Distribution (Party Play)

After a party run completes, shared loot enters a Need/Greed window:

1. Need — “I want this for my build.” Only available if the item is usable by your class/weapon proficiency.
2. Greed — “I want this for selling/salvage.” Always available.
3. Pass — “I don’t want it.”

• Need rolls take priority over Greed rolls (d100 roll-off for ties)
• Personal loot (gold, consumables, materials) is NOT shared — each player gets their own
• Loot window: 24 hours after run completion. Unclaimed items are distributed randomly among Greed rollers.
• Transparent: All players can see who rolled Need on what. No hidden rolls.

Trading and the Marketplace

What’s Tradeable

Marketplace Value Factors

A Rare+ item’s marketplace value depends on:

1. Signature effect — Is it from a desirable dungeon? Is the signature useful?
2. Random bonus types — Are the bonuses synergistic? (e.g., +accuracy AND +crit on a weapon = high value)
3. Random bonus potency — How close to “perfect” are the rolls?
4. Enhancement level — A +3 item is worth significantly more than a +0
5. Demand — Is this weapon type or armor type popular for current meta builds?

See 08-economy-and-trading.md for full marketplace details.

Inventory Management

Carrying Capacity

• Base capacity: 20 item slots (not weight-based — simplicity over simulation)
• Equipped gear does NOT count against inventory
• Stackable items (potions, rations, materials) stack up to 20 per slot
• Belt quick slots are separate (3 slots for combat consumables)

Bank Storage

• Characters have a bank in town with 50 slots (base)
• Additional bank space available as a permanent purchase ($1 per +25 slots — see 14-monetization.md)
• Bank is accessible between runs, not during them
• Material bank is separate — 100 slots for crafting materials only (see 07-crafting-and-gathering.md)

Inventory Overflow

• If a dungeon run yields more loot than inventory can hold, excess goes to temporary overflow (persists 48 hours)
• Players must clear overflow before starting a new run
• After 48 hours, overflow items are auto-sold at vendor price (with notification)
• Overflow items CAN be salvaged/disenchanted directly from the overflow screen

Item Comparison UI

When viewing any item, the UI shows a side-by-side comparison with currently equipped gear:

┌─ CURRENTLY EQUIPPED ──────────┐  ┌─ NEW DROP ─────────────────────┐
│ Steel Longsword +1 (Uncommon) │  │ Flamebrand Longsword (Legend.) │
│ Damage: 22-35                 │  │ Damage: 48-65                  │
│ +5% accuracy (fixed)          │  │ Signature: Fire Blade          │
│                               │  │   +15% fire damage on skills   │
│                               │  │   20% chance to Burn           │
│                               │  │ Bonus: +8% crit chance  ▲ NEW │
│                               │  │ Bonus: +4 Speed         ▲ NEW │
│                               │  │ Gear Skill: Flame Burst  ▲ NEW│
├───────────────────────────────┤  ├────────────────────────────────┤
│ Overall: ▼ SIGNIFICANT        │  │ Overall: ▲ SIGNIFICANT         │
│          DOWNGRADE            │  │          UPGRADE               │
└───────────────────────────────┘  └────────────────────────────────┘

  Estimated DPS change: +45% ▲
  Evasion change: 0 (same armor)
  New conditions available: Burning (via Fire Blade + Flame Burst)

Key features:

• Green ▲ for improvements, Red ▼ for downgrades
• DPS estimate calculated from accuracy × damage × crit chance × skills-per-round
• Condition availability highlighted when new gear enables applying or resisting conditions
• Gear skill preview showing what the skill does and its initiative value
• One-click “Equip” or “Salvage” or “Send to Bank” from the comparison screen

Loot Design Principles

1. Every drop has value. Equip it, sell it, or salvage it. Nothing goes to waste.
2. The signature makes the item. Named items have a clear identity. You know what a Flamebrand does before you see its random rolls.
3. Random bonuses create the chase. Two players with the same named item will have different builds because their bonuses rolled differently.
4. Reforging is the endgame. Once you find the item you want, the long-term goal is perfecting its random bonuses through reforging.
5. Transparency builds trust. All stats visible, all rolls visible, no hidden mechanics. The marketplace works because buyers know exactly what they’re getting.
6. Level doesn’t kill value. A level 10 Rare is worth the same salvage as a level 40 Rare. Low-level content stays relevant.