One of the more interesting game systems in the upcoming MMO TERA is the enchanting system.
To most gamers that have played other Korean MMOs in the past TERA's enchanting system might seem straight forward but to your typical western MMO player it can be more than a little complicated.
One of the first things you need to do before you attempt to enchant an item is to make sure you can even enchant that item. That nice blue chest piece of awesomesness you are super excited about you just won in Bastion? Yeah... you can't enchant it. While in some MMOs you can enchant any item you come across, the same cannot be said for TERA. You are not even guaranteed to be able to enchant all items that are uncommon (green) or rare (blue) quality items. Some greens items can be enchanted, some blue items can be enchanted. In the item description it will tell you if it is enchantable, extractable, and remodelable. It can be any combination of those 3 or none of them at all. This line will also list what tier the item belongs in.
After you have decided what item you would like to enchant and determined that you can in fact enchant it you will need to go to a vendor and buy Alkahest. Alkahest is the consumable used in the enchanting process. Alkahest is inexpensive and at higher levels appears to be just more of a nuisance than an actual functioning gating mechanic.
You do not have to travel to any special crafting area to enchant your item. All you will need is the Alkahest, the item to be enchanted and the item that you will destroy in the enchanting process. I prefer to do my enchanting in the field away from everyone. No one wants to see a grown Aman cry in case I fail.
After you have found your grassy knoll to craft on you can either open up the enchanting window through the systems navigation menu or you can open it up with the default hot key T... So press T to open up your enchanting window.
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The enchanting window looks like a funky jukebox that has 3 boxes in it, an anvil, and two hammers. In the middle box will go the item you are enchanting. Flanked by the box on the right will go the Alkahest and on the left will go the item you are sacrificing to the +1 gods. After you have placed all the materials in their boxes you will have to click the confirmation window. At this point the two little hammers will beat the heck out of your items. When the hammers are done you will probably have a +1 item and congratulations are in order because you have also earned an achievement: You and Your Plus One.
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At +1 this weapon gained 6 attack, and 13 extra damage. After we enchant this weapon a few more times at +3 it has gained 19 attack, 41 Extra Damage and earned the first enchantment bonus. For this weapon it is 4.5% more damage when attacking small monsters. Also if this is the first time you have enchanted a weapon to +3, congratulations again. You just earned another achievement: On the Plus Side.
This next part is where enchanting can get even more confusing for gamers that have only played western MMOs. You can fail to enchant an item. When this happens your little guy will mope around and cry and kick at the ground. You will lose your Alkahest and the item you sacrificed but the item you attempted to enchant will be ok.
The majority of the items you will want to enchant will have an enigma on them; because of this they are called Enigmatic Lance, Pants, Great Axe, etc. In order to remove these enigmas you will have to use an identification scroll that you can purchase from vendors. These identification scrolls can get to be very expensive. You will want to remove enigmas from enigmatic items because the enigma hides enchant bonuses that can only be activated once the enigma has been removed. These bonuses also vary depending on the item and you will not know what the bonuses are until you remove the enigma. For example one set of superior lancer boots have +1% to movement speed at +3 item enchantment, an additional +1% to movement speed at +6 item enchantment, and an additional +2% to movement speed at +9 item enchantment. The pictured example has at +3 4.5% more damage when you attack small monsters, +6 does 3% more damage when you attack other players, and +9 has a 50% chance to regenerate MP when combat starts.
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There are also some restrictions you need to know about the item to be sacrificed. First, you must use a weapon to enchant a weapon and a piece of armor to enchant armor. You can use an axe to enchant a sword or a sword to enchant a Staff but you cannot use boots to enchant an axe. Likewise you can use gloves to enchant boots and boots to enchant gloves but you cannot use a sword to enchant gloves. Also the items must be in the same tier. Tier 1 items are needed to enchant Tier 1 items and Tier 5 items are needed for Tier 5. You do not have to remove the enigma from an item in order to sacrifice it in an attempt to enchant another item. You can leave the enigma on and still be successful. You can use common items as the sacrificial item. At +1 to +3 you can use white, common quality items in the enchanting process. Any higher than +3 and you will more than likely fail, or critically fail. The higher the level of enchant you are attempting the higher the quality level of the item you are sacrificing should be. This is where enchanting can start to get expensive and why Alkahest is an unnecessary gating mechanic. Also enchanting an item does not bind it to you. You can enchant items to +9 and place them on the Auction House.
I hope this helps answer some of the questions you may have had regarding enchanting. If not please leave questions or comments in the box below.
