Potential & Enhancement System Guide

Editor's Note: I do not claim any credit for this guide. All credit belongs to LiquidSwing, the original author, who has given me permission to recreate this. Any and all edits will be done in good faith to keep this thread factual and up to date.

[SIZE="5"]Explanation of the Item Rating and Enhancement system[/SIZE]

• Item Rating System
  
  1. Required Knowledge
  2. Item Rating process
  3. Item Rating FAQ

• Enhancement System
  
  1. Required Knowledge
  2. Enhancement process
  3. Enhancement FAQ

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Item Rating System

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[SIZE="3"]A. Required Knowledge[/SIZE]
Before I explain how this system works and how to use it, you will need to know about these items and general information;

Potential Scroll;
"Assigns a potential to a normal ranking item without using the upgrade count. Success rate 70%. Item is destroyed upon failure."

That is the current description for this potential scroll in GMS^. This scroll is used to make your item "unidentified", and it can drop from any monster. The only thing potential scrolls do is give your item the "unidentified" status, nothing else. This scroll has a 70% success rate, if it fails will blow up your item, consumes no scroll slots, and is trade able.

Advanced Potential Scroll;
"Assigns a potential to a normal ranking item without using the upgrade count. Success rate 90%. Item is destroyed upon failure."

That is the current description for this potential scroll in GMS^. This scroll is used to make your item "unidentified", and only drops only from Zakum, Horn Tail, and Pink Bean. This scroll does the same thing as the 70%, except at a 90% rate. There is no other difference. This scroll will also blow up your gear at a 100% rate if it fails, consumes no scroll slots, and is trade able.

Magnifying Glass;
This is an item sold by NPCs in game for mesos. What NPC's sell these have not been confirmed yet. This item is used on a "unidentified" item to determine what rank and what bonus stats it will have. The stat bonuses the item can give depends on the type of gear. This consumes no scroll slots, cannot fail, and cannot break your item. Here is a list of the magnifying glasses in the game;

Basic Magnifying Glass - Can identify items with levels up to 30
Average Magnifying Glass - Can Identify items with levels up to 70
Advanced Magnifying Glass - Can identify items with levels up to 120
Premium Magnifying Glass - Can identify all items

Miracle Cube;
This is a Cash Shop item, and it costs 1,200 NX. You use this cube after you have identified your item but want to reset the stat bonuses on it and return your item to unidentified status. This consumes no scroll slots, cannot fail, and cannot break your item.

Item Ranks;
Items come in several different ranks. An "unidentified" item will have a red border around it, this means it is ready to be "identified" with a magnifying glass. After you have identified your item with a magnifying glass, the border color around it will change to reflect the rank it's been assigned. The color of the item name has nothing to do with it's rank. Here is a quick summary of what color corresponds to the item's rank;

Common item: Transparent Border (ie. everything you Maker, or already exists)
Unidentified item: Red border (item drops after patch, or potential scrolled items)
Rare item: Blue border
Epic item: Purple border
Unique item: Yellow border

Item level bonuses;
Now depending on the level of the item you want to identify, you get increased benefits for the higher level your item is. Here is a quick summary of the increased benefits in relation to what rank the item is;

Lvl 1 to 30: Rare = 1%, Epic = 2%, Unique = 3%
Lvl 31 to 70: Rare = 2%, Epic = 4%, Unique = 6%
Lvl 71 or higher: Rare = 3%, Epic = 6%, Unique = 9%

You can gain a higher percent of a certain stat depending on the rank of your item. You can also gain multiple stats depending on the rank of your item.

[SIZE="3"]B. Item Rating upgrading process[/SIZE]
Now that you know about the items and information involved, I will outline the process itself.

• 1. Get a piece of gear you want to scroll using the Item Rating system. If you got the piece of gear from a monster, it has a chance to come unidentified. If your item is not considered unidentified, you will need to use a 90% or 70% potential scroll on it to make it unidentified before you can proceed. If the scroll worked, your item will be outlined in red.
  
  
• 2. Now that you have your unidentified piece of gear, you will need a Magnifying glass to change your item from unidentified to identified, assign it a rank, and assign it some stats. As of now in KMS I believe these are sold by certain NPCs for mesos, but this could change in GMS.
  
  
• 3. Use the magnifying glass like a scroll on a piece of unidentified gear(an item outlined in a red border). The magnifying glass will reveal 2 or 3 stats, and will assign your item a rank. Refer to the above table of rank explanations. You will recieve no less than 2 stats, but no more than 3 on your identified item. Higher leveled pieces of gear have a higher chance of revealing 3 stats and having a higher rank assigned.
  
  
• 4. At this point you will be happy, sad, or going wtp concerning the stats or rank that were identified on your item. If you got a crap stat or rank, fear not! Nexon has offered a solution to reverse the effects via a Cash Shop item called a Miracle cube. The compan-err Miracle Cube will revert the items post-magnifying glass identified status back to unidentified and erase the identified bonuses. When you use the cube, an interface similar to the one viscous hammers use will come up. You place the item in the box, and the bonuses will be erased and rank reset to common.
  
  
• 5. If you're happy with the stats and rank that were identified on your gear, congratulations on your cool new piece of equipment! If you are not satisfied, go back to step 4. I have included a picture to visually illustrate the steps in this process.

As you can see in the first item picture, the item is considered Common, in that it has no colored border yet.
You can also see once it's been unidentified using a scroll, the border outlines in red, meaning it is ready to be identified.
In the final picture the border around the item is blue, meaning it is a rare item.

[SIZE="3"]C. Item Rating FAQ[/SIZE]

Q: OMG IS THIS SYSTEM GUN MAKE MY GEAR USELESS?!?!
A: Not completely useless, no.
Godly higher leveled gear will be more desirable, though. The system places more emphasis on using high leveled class gear, and is shying away from low leveled common class gear. Is this going to kill godly saunas or brown work gloves? No, it wont. A 27 atk BWG is still a 27 atk work glove, a 50 Dex sauna is still a 50 dex sauna, 10 atk stomper is still a 10 atk stomper...and I could go on. All this system does is make sure that you can finally start using your cool looking class gear and not be gimped =]

Q: What gear slots can you scroll with this new system? What stats can you scroll your gear with?
A: Ah, I'm glad you asked. All slots except Medal and shoulder can be scrolled with this new system. I will paste the gear slot and stat list here;

Hats - Stat %, Self-Mystic Door(the skill), Chance of showing an Emotion when hit, Stats(static numerical stats), Accuracy, Avoidability, W.DEF, M.DEF %, Chance of recovering HP/MP), Ignore monster's attack/damage.
Face accessory - Stat %, Accuracy, Avoidability, W.DEF, M.DEF %, Recover HP/MP per second, Max HP/MP
Eye accessory - Stat %, Accuracy, Avoidability, W.DEF, M.DEF %, Max HP/MP
Tops/Bottoms/Overalls - Stat %, Self-Hyper Body(the skill, but for any class), Chance of Invincibility when hit, +1 ~2 of a skill, Chance of recovering HP/MP, W.DEF, M.DEF, Avoidablility, Accuracy %, Chance of Autosteal (No idea what this is though), +% of a potion, Reduction of a curse's duration (Seal, slow, etc.), Max HP/MP
Shoes - Stat %, Self-Haste(the skill, but for all classes), W.DEF, M.DEF, Avoidability, Accuracy %, Chance of avoiding an attack, Max HP/MP
Gloves - Stat %, Self-Sharp Eyes(the skill, but for all classes), W.DEF, M.DEF, Avoidability, Accuracy %, Chance of recovering HP/MP when attacking, +% of a potion, Max HP/MP, Chance of Autosteal
Cape - Stat %, W.DEF, M. DEF, Chance of avoiding an attack, Max HP/MP, +1~2 of all skills
Earrings - Stat %, W.DEF, M.DEF, Avoidability, Accuracy %, Max HP/MP
Belt and Rings - Stat %, W.DEF, M.DEF, Avoidability, Accuracy %, Max HP/MP
Weapons - Stat %, W.ATT, M.ATT, Total W.ATT %, Total damage %, M.ATT %, Ignore monster's W.DEF/M.DEF at a certain percentage, 20%~30% bonus damage when attacking a boss monster, Chance to recover HP/MP, All skills +1~2, Max HP/MP, Critical damage, Chance to freeze/poison/seal/slow/blind monster

Q: WHAT?! You can get skills from potential scrolling your gear?!?!?!
A: Apparently you can, but they only work for you at the moment. The skills will appear under your beginner skill tab, much like Legendary Spirit or Three Snails. However, they are nerfed versions of their cousins, but here are the skills you can get and on what piece of gear;

Haste (Shoes) [Your character must be level 70 or higher to have a chance to get this, and the item must be Epic to receive the skill as an upgrade]
Level 1 - MP -50, For 200 seconds, Speed +20, Jump +10

Mystic Door (Hat) [Your character must be level 70 or higher to have a chance to get this, and the item must be Epic to receive the skill as an upgrade]
Level 1 - MP -120, Consume 2 magic rocks, magic door lasts 120 seconds

Sharp Eyes (Gloves) [Your character must be level 120 or higher to have a chance to get this, and the item must be Unique to receive the skill as an upgrade]
Level 1 - MP -80, For 240 seconds, Critical Chance +10%, Damage +25%

Hyper Body (Top/Bottom/Overall) [Your character must be level 70 or higher to have a chance to get this, and the item must be Unique to receive the skill as an upgrade]
Level 1 - MP -80, For 240 seconds, Increase Max MP +40%, Increase max HP +40%

I'd like to note, that it has been reported that in the Big Bang patch all these skills will be party buffs.

Q: Do the Percent bonuses from gear apply to your base stats (like Maple Warrior), or all stats (stats after maple warrior and gear bonuses)?
A: The percent bonuses from gear apply after Maple Warrior and numerical gear stat bonuses.

Example; You have 100 base luk. You use lvl 20 maple warrior. Now you have 110 luk. 100 base luk and +10 bonus luk. You equip two pieces of gear with 9% luk on each of them. The percents from gear combine to 18% to increase the your stats. So, 18% luk of 110 luk is 19. So you would have 129 luk total.

Q: So can potential scrolls be used on ANY items? Or only items dropped from monsters?
A: Potential scrolls can be used on [I][SIZE="5"]any[/SIZE] piece of equipment (aside from medals/shoulders). It doesn't matter where the piece of gear came from, if it has been scrolled, has 7 slots, 2 slots, or is painted pink with polka dots; potential scrolls don't care.[/I]

Q: What do the "+Skills" on top/bottom/overalls mean?
A: The skill that you have on your gear will act like it had 1 or 2 more points put into it. It will work the same way Combat Orders works, and the two do stack.

Q: Well what should I do about my gear? Should I sell it or keep it? Should I be investing in other stuff?
A: Another good question. With these new systems, more emphasis will be placed on higher level gear. In general, you will want to sell items that are not 70 or higher. 70+ items will yield a much bigger increase in stats than low level gear will, and the worth of godly low level gear will decrease as more people start scrolling godly high lvl pieces.

You may want to start buying godly gear that do not have high level pieces available for their slot. Eye Accessories, Face Accessories, and Rings fall under this category. Because there are no high leveled items of these categories(save for Goggles for eyes, but they only have 3 slots opposed to raccoons 7), the items that are currently released will still hold their value after the patch hits. Plus, the raccoon maskes are lvl 45+ items, so they get a decent bonus from the new system.

If you are the investing merchant type, I suggest scooping up [i]all the White Scrolls, 50% scrolls, 30% scrolls, and above average maker'd equips that you are able. These items will be in extremely high demand when people are beginning to scroll their new gear. This is your chance to make a huge profit.[/I]

If I find anymore good questions, I will put them here =]

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Enhancement System

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[SIZE="3"]A. Required Knowledge[/SIZE]
This system will require a little bit of explaining as well. This system is not the same as the potential system. Each of these methods of upgrading have nothing to do with the others (this includes the classic way of scrolling). The Enhancement system is a bit more simple and straightforward than the potential, so there are only two items you need to know about.

Equip Enhancement Scroll 100%;
This scroll in particular drops only from bosses. It's success rate starts off at 100%, but the chance of success it has decreases depending on the number of stars the item it's scrolling has. This scroll can only be applied to items with 0 scrolling slots left. You can still use this scroll on items with 0 slots even if they have 2 Vicious Hammer slots available. This scroll is trade able.

Equip Enhancement Scroll 80%;
Now this scroll can drop from any monster. It does the exact same thing as the 100% version, except has a smaller chance of succeeding. This scroll is also trade able.

These new scrolls act exactly like a chaos scroll, save for a few things. I have outlined what these scrolls will do and what they dont do;

What these scrolls do;
Can add an entirely new stat to an item
Can increase the amount of stats an item has
Can be used on any piece of equipment (except medals and shoulders)
Chances to work decrease depending on the amount of stars your item has
Blows up your item at 100% rate if it fails

What these scrolls do not do;
Take away item slots
Take away stats

Everytime either of these scrolls work, they add one star to your item. The star only indicates that the scroll worked and doesn't do anything else. If you use another Equip Enhancement Scroll on the item, the chance of success decreases depending on the amount of stars your item has. But, the amount of stars your item has also increases the benefits you get when a scroll works. Here is a picture of the 80% common monster scroll in game outlining the Star to Chance ratio with the amount of stars being on the left and success rate being on the right;


[SIZE="3"]B. Enhancement system upgrading process[/SIZE]
The process itself is very simple.

1. Get an item that has 0 upgrade slots left. Nothing else about the item matters. Even if you have vicious hammer slots available, as long as it says Upgrade Slots Left:0 you can use either of the scrolls on your item.
2. Use the scroll on your item. If it worked, you will see a star above your item's name and some of the item's stats will have increased. If not, your item broke. Here is the process in a picture;



As you can see, a star appeared above the item's name, and the DEX and W. Def increased. Now if he uses another 80% enhancement scroll on this overall, the chances of success goes down to 70%; but the benefits will increase should the scroll work again.

[SIZE="3"]C.Enhancement FAQ[/SIZE]

Q: Where do these scrolls drop from?
A: As far as I know, the 100% enhancement scrolls drop only from bosses. The 80% scrolls drop from all monsters. What are the exact drop rate of these scrolls? Not sure.

Q: Are the stats gained using these scrolls based on the item rank like the Potential System?
A: No, nothing will increase the amount of stats gained or the chance of success of this scroll.

Q: What stats can this scroll grant?
A: It can increase the amount of stats already on your gear, or add an entirely new stat to your gear. I don't believe this scroll can add percentages like the potential system can, but new evidence is springing up all the time. I could be wrong

If I find anymore good questions, I'll post them here =]

[SIZE="4"]Credits[/SIZE]
Pride and Cyanne for posting the gear stat options, and by extension the people of Insoya for putting the list together.
Spadow for shedding more light on both systems and providing pictures that I used in this guide.
The community of southperry for discussing these matters and allowing me to consolidate the knowledge of these systems into one place.
Pretty much all the people in the two Potential/Enhancement threads in the Maple Q/A section. Especially the KMS players that cleared up alot of stuff for me.
Stereo for clarifying what the item rank system is, and helping with other pieces of information
shouri for pointing out inconsistencies in the guide
Kalovale for explaining the Enhancement system better
Fiel for writing his guide on how to write a proper guide, and helping out with information in the guide
Pink Bean. For looking funny

I think each level teir effects extends to the previous teir. Example my weapon has +6% and +4% bonuses.

Also Enhancements cannot be reset by cube (I think).

Also if you enhance for the first time and say get WDEF and MDEF, if you enhance again will it increase the amount of WDEF and MDEF? Or would it be random again, I'm leaning towards random again.

It says face/eye accessory gains, but how come it doesn't list what Pendants give?

Btw, I spy a typo in the title

Glad this is back up!~~

Also if you enhance for the first time and say get WDEF and MDEF, if you enhance again will it increase the amount of WDEF and MDEF? Or would it be random again, I'm leaning towards random again.

I used 2 stars on my grabbe.
1st one: 1 str 5 def 1mdef
2nd: 5 def 1mdef 3 jump •__•
everything already existed on my grabbe except mdef.

Small typo.

When you use the cube, an interface similar to the one viscous hammers use will come up.

Glad to see this back up!

Thanks LiquidSwing for the guide.

EDIT: Oh yeah forgot to ask if enhancement scrolls can add attack to non weapon items. Gloves, capes, etc.

"Sharp Eyes (Gloves) [Your character must be level 120 or higher to have a chance to get this, and the item must be Unique to receive the skill as an upgrade]
Level 1 - MP -80, For 240 seconds, Critical Chance +10%, Damage +25%"

Does this Sharp eyes skill stack with the Original SE of an Archer and does it also stack with the CRIT RING?

"Sharp Eyes (Gloves) [Your character must be level 120 or higher to have a chance to get this, and the item must be Unique to receive the skill as an upgrade]
Level 1 - MP -80, For 240 seconds, Critical Chance +10%, Damage +25%"

Does this Sharp eyes skill stack with the Original SE of an Archer and does it also stack with the CRIT RING?

It counts the same as a low level SE. It stacks with Crit Ring, but not with normal SE.

It counts the same as a low level SE. It stacks with Crit Ring, but not with normal SE.

So yea, then its not good for my BM and my DB i guess..

I think the level requirements to get mini-skills are the items' levels, not character's. Anyone can confirm?

I think the level requirements to get mini-skills are the items' levels, not character's. Anyone can confirm?

Does it make a difference? Really? You have to be at least the level of the item to wear it anyway, so whether it's the level of the item or the level of the character is irrelevant. And you have to be able to wear an item to cube it or magnify it.

And you have to be able to wear an item to cube it or magnify it.

No you don't. It just has to be in your inventory.

If it's the characters level to get the skill, that means only 120+ charActers can get SE. If it's the item level, that means only reverse gloves can grant SE. Pretty big difference, since SE gloves are a huge DO WANT for me and having to use reverse gloves to get it would suck.

Ah, it doesn't have to be equipped then. My bad. I don't know then.

Anyone else noticing a flat 3 attk gain when using normal enhancement scrolls on weapons?

I've had about 8 work so far on weapons and it's the same 3 attk every time.

Of the ones I've used...

Top - 5 def 1 mdef (actually could be 6 def, not sure, I was expecting it to add to str/dex which it did not)
Belt - 1 str 2 def 2 mdef
Weapon - 3 atk 3 acc

I've heard of other people getting 3 atk also.

This is an item sold by NPCs in game for mesos. What NPC's sell these have not been confirmed yet.

I think Magnifying Glasses are available at every potion NPC, at least in areas we share with KMS.

For the Self-skills, this is my theory on it

Any level of the item can get the respective skill, meaning you can have a wg that gives SE. But you can only use the skill SE if you are 120.

This makes some sense taking a look at the levels. Door, HB, haste are all 70+ while SE is 120, due to SE being a 4th job skill. This doesn't exactly explain why HB and Haste are level 70 and not 30, but I think it's relevant to consider.

Anyone else noticing a flat 3 attk gain when using normal enhancement scrolls on weapons?

I've had about 8 work so far on weapons and it's the same 3 attk every time.

3 attack 3 times in a row. Secondary stats started appearing at 2 stars.

For the Self-skills, this is my theory on it

Any level of the item can get the respective skill, meaning you can have a wg that gives SE. But you can only use the skill SE if you are 120.

This makes some sense taking a look at the levels. Door, HB, haste are all 70+ while SE is 120, due to SE being a 4th job skill. This doesn't exactly explain why HB and Haste are level 70 and not 30, but I think it's relevant to consider.

If the items are forced to have certain level requirements, the character will, in turn, have to meet similar criteria. The opposite isn't true.

Though that might be irrelevant:

No you don't. It just has to be in your inventory.

Even so, Work Gloves are tradeable, Reverses aren't. That much makes a huge difference in my opinion.

So... what about Shields?

Got +24 Accuracy, 2% Accuracy on my Dragon Khanjar. Cubed it and turned into +120 MP, +60 MP.