Equipment Upgrade
A shortcut system that let paying players skip the gear grind. Feed items and cash shop materials into an NPC, get stronger equipment out. Two flavors: guaranteed upgrades for whales, gambling for everyone else.
The Two-Track System
Standard Upgrade (Pay to Skip)
100% success rate - if you had the materials. Those materials? Sold in the L-Coin shop or gated behind premium content.
| Source Item | Required Materials | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Dragon Pendant Lv.1 +5 | 200 Premium Scrolls + 2M Adena | Dragon Pendant Lv.2 |
| Phoenix Ring +10 | Rare Token + 10M Adena | Queen Ant’s Ring Lv.4 |
Skip entire tiers of content. Why farm bosses when you can swipe?
Normal Upgrade (Gambling)
The version for players who couldn’t afford guaranteed paths:
| Item | Success Rate | On Failure |
|---|---|---|
| Queen Ant’s Ring | 50% | Consolation scroll |
| Ring of Core | 20% | Consolation scroll |
Materials consumed regardless of outcome. Roll the dice, lose your investment.
The Progression Problem
Equipment Upgrade bypassed the intended gear loop:
- Kill monsters → Get drops → Upgrade naturally → Feel progression
Became:
- Buy materials → Click NPC → Skip content → Wonder why the game feels empty
Players who engaged with the system had no reason to run dungeons for intermediate gear. The journey was purchasable.
Redundant Complexity
Between enchanting, Ensoul, Augmentation, and attribute enhancement, players already had four ways to improve gear. Equipment Upgrade added a fifth that overlapped with all of them while funneling toward cash shop materials.
More systems doesn’t mean more depth. It means more confusion and more opportunities to sell shortcuts.
The Preservation Trick
“Your enchants transfer!” The system preserved enchant levels, ensouls, and augmentations through upgrades. This sounds player-friendly until you realize it meant whales kept compounding advantages. Heavily invested gear could leapfrog to higher tiers without losing anything.
On L2Cruma, gear comes from playing. Drops, crafting, boss kills. No shortcuts. Progress is the journey.
See Enchanting and Crystallized Items for fair gear progression.