[Editor's Note: This guide was contributed by Grapz224.]
Gear Grind
Starting out, between levels 1-10, you'll mostly be focusing on getting higher level gear. Don't worry about improving it much, as you'll eventually be throwing it out. During these levels you should be focused on learning the class and how to effectively speed through Dungeons with them. It's (IMO) one of the most fun parts of the game, as there is nothing to worry about time or RNG wise. You're focused on getting into the Uber Levels.
Sadly, later on in the game, you wont be doing this anymore. You'll find that Dragons and Gear from other Classes will push you instantly into U1, or even U3 if you get far enough. Kinda sucks but gear is the easiest thing to get.
Shadow/Radiant Gear
Once you hit Level 10, you should be strong enough to get into U1. Here, 2 very nice things are going to happen.
- Shadow gear will start to drop rarely
- Shadow Key Fragments will begin to drop from dungeons
It's unlikely you'll get a Radiant/Stellar drop from dungeons or that you have enough Flux to buy Stellar/Radiant Gear. This means you'll have to craft it. Thankfully, Trove makes doing this fairly simple, if not annoying to do. All you need is a lot of shadow gear, and some other, common resources. Like those Eyes that have been dropping from Invaders!
To craft Radiant Gear (The important stuff for now), You'll need to get Forged Souls. These are obtained by deconstructing Shadow Gear of the appropriate level. (I.E - Shadow Level 3 gear will drop Thrice Forged Souls). You need 2 Souls of the current level to upgrade to the next, minus the jump from S1 to S2.
There are a lot more better worded and more in-depth guides out there if you need them.
This means you need a LOT of shadow gear to get one piece to Radiant. Make sure that gear piece has a stat you want as the 2nd stat listed. The first stat will always be the same for that type of gear (Staves will always be Magic Damage, Sword Physical Damage... etc), and the 3rd and 4th stat (you can add a 4th stat at an Enchanted Forge for a Pearl of Wisdom) can be re-rolled at a Chaos Forge.
However, once you get some nice Radiant Gear, you don't ever need to touch this again, as you should be strong enough to start equipping Gems.
Gems
Oh god Gems. Thankfully, you only have to Ladder your way through gems once. After that, getting them on other characters is as simple as waiting for the level unlocks to open up slots.
Gems are seriously the bane of someone like myself, sitting at 3.7k PR and at level 25. Knowing HOW gems work is annoying.
Basically, you need to start paying attention to those gem boxes you're finding from dungeons. They have a ton of nice PR-boosters in them, but to equip gems you need levels.
Gems can bring you to 5k PR by themselves. They're THAT good. They can also push you from 2.0% crit rate to 90%.
There are 2 kinds of gems - Empowered and Lesser. Lesser Gems can e obtained by completing Dungeons. These will have random stats, and sometimes will only have 2 stats on them. To get the best out of your gems, only equip gems that start out with 3 stats on them.
Laddering is what you'll need to do with Lesser Gems. This is going to the Highest Uber you can handle, farming Gem Boxes, then opening them up and equipping/Leveling ones that give you the best stats and PR boost. After long enough, you'll be able to enter an Uber Higher, allowing you to easily find gems of even higher PR and Stat bonuses. This repeats itself in the next Uber.
Upgrading gems is pretty simple - dust and flux. However, when to upgrade is a good question. For the most effective upgrades, look for gems that have 3 stats at level 1, preferably 2-3 stars. These gems will give the most PR. And you almost always want to focus on upgrading the best gems you can get, from the best boxes you can find. If this means you need to leech off people, do it. Honestly most people don't mind (especially if you do things like mine and get glim for them, too), however do be considerate of others.
For Empowered Gems, you'll need to complete Shadow Towers. Defeating Daughter of the Moon on any difficulty will get you Lunar Souls, which can be spent to get Empowered Gem Boxes. These can be opened for Empowered Gems, Guaranteed Radiant/Stellar Gems with MASSIVE stat bonuses. Leveling one of these up can easily net you over 1-2k PR by itself.
Sadly, Empowered gems are gated behind a weekly drop, to stop people from progressing too quickly. With the lowest tier, you'll only be allowed 1 per week. After hitting 2.5k PR you'll be able to get 3 per week, and after hitting (I think) 10k PR you can get 6 per week. As you can imagine, getting from 2.5k PR to 10k requires a massive amount of grinding/waiting.
With all kinds of gems, same as gear, make sure you actually get stats you need. Nothing is more detrimental than leveling gems that have the wrong kind of damage!
Other Things To Increase PR
Dragons
- Dragons can give a nice PR boost, should you hit 100 souls used.
- Your Class Level will give you a small amount of PR.
- You gain +2 PR per Mastery Level. This means you can get (at max) +600 PR from Mastery alone.
- You can gain a small amount of PR from these things, too.
