Emberforged gear and the Forge

Emberforged gear is a drop with an ember border and name, one extra line, and every line rolled in the top quarter of its range. It also carries Forging Potential (FP), 20 to 40 points, rolled when it drops. At Smithy level 6 the Forge spends that potential, line by line. When it runs out you simply can't forge the item any further: nothing ever breaks.

Where it drops

• Chart bosses at Tier 6 and up drop one Emberforged piece (epic or better, for your class).
• Breach Wardens drop one Emberforged piece, legendary or better.
• Survey Shards at the Merchant roll one in the slot you choose.
• An Emberforged unique gets no extra line, but its random line rolls in the top quarter.
• The uniques that drop Emberforged are the Deep uniques (Breach Wardens, chart bosses of tier 8 and up, Survey Shards). A campaign unique found in the world is never Emberforged; only a Survey Shard roll or the Curio Cart can hand you one.

The three actions

Each action spends a random 3–8 Forging Potential. The range is shown before you pay and the roll after. Once an item has fewer than 3 left it is spent.

• Reforge keeps the higher of the old and new value, so it can never make a line worse.
• Temper shows three new affixes from different families, and at least one fits your class. Keeping the current line is free, and you can come back later: your options wait for you. An item can have one tempered line (a second ✦), never the line enchanted at the Smithy.
• Hone can be done once per item. The honed line's ceiling opens 15% higher, one tier up where its stat has a higher tier, and the line rolls again, keeping the higher.

Survey Shards

A Survey Shard comes from a Pristine chart clear at Tier 8 or deeper (25% base chance, raised by the Survey) or from a Breach Warden (10%). At the Merchant, spend 1 to roll one Emberforged item in the slot you pick, optionally from one set (a chosen set always rolls a legendary set piece). It is rolled like a Mystery Cache, from epic up, with legendary odds ×3; the exact odds are printed before you spend.

Masterwork

Once an Emberforged item is forged you can keep climbing: Masterwork has 12 ranks, bought at the Forge with gold and Emberglass (Starshards too for the last four ranks). Every rank adds 4% to every magic line's rolled value, so rank 12 is +48%. It is separate from Forging Potential: Reforge, Temper and Hone spend potential, Masterwork spends Emberglass, and neither runs the other dry.

• Great Work. Ranks 4, 8, 12 offer 3 of the item's lines to choose from. The one you pick gains ×1.25 on top of the rank bonus and a ✧ mark. It is always your choice, never a roll, and the options wait until you decide.
• A unique's fixed ◆ lines don't scale; only its ◇ lines do.
• Unmake resets the item's Masterwork and any Great Work lines, and hands back 50% of the Emberglass you spent (rounded down). Gold and Starshards are not returned. The item is never harmed.

Emberglass

Emberglass is cooled breach-glass, a material of its own. It has no exchange: you cannot trade it up or break it down.

Seals: enchant more than one line

Any item, not just Emberforged. Once an item has its enchanted ✦ line, every other line is sealed. At Smithy level 5 you can break an item's first seal, and from level 6 every seal after: that line can then be enchanted just like the ✦ line (marked ☆). The normal enchant price still applies on top. Each seal on the same item costs more, there is no luck involved, and nothing is ever destroyed. A Forge-tempered line already counts as open.

Line ceilings

Every percentage line now has a ceiling: the most one line can ever show, whatever its item level, world tier, Reforge, Hone, Masterwork or Smithy upgrade. A line at its ceiling carries a ⌃. Reforge won't spend potential on it, and a Great Work never offers it. See Line ceilings for every number.

See also

• Forge, Masterwork & Emberglass
• Smithy Seals
• Line ceilings (changelog)
• Deep gear
• The Deep: the endgame