Yes, you read that right – the time has come for the official Puzzle Quest 3 Gear Rework!
Quick note before we get started though- while we would’ve loved to have gone into as much detail as our Spell Rework blog, given that the release of 3.0 is right around the corner, we wanted to focus on getting the information out to you folks in a timely manner.
So, this blog will give you the details, the FAQ, and a bit of a light explainer of where we were coming from, with the rest of the 3.0 Patch Notes to follow later in the week!
What are we trying to do?
In a nutshell, we’re trying to both simplify things, and make sure it always feels fun to get Gear no matter where you are in your journey!
Our goals were:
- Reduce the complexity of the Gear System (in the early-game there can be quite a lot of cognitive-load tied up in choosing what to upgrade or not upgrade)
- Reduce the investment required for specific pieces of Gear to allow for more flexibility
- Not change too much about the inner workings of the Gear itself
- Try and ensure that getting Gear is always fun no matter whether you’re a beginner or an old-hand
What is the Gear Rework
The basic idea should be pretty straightforward:
You get Gear → You replace it as you find better Gear
- Gear is no longer Leveled Up or Evolved
- You may improve any Gear from Uncommon and above via “Honing” (see ‘Honing’ below)
- Each piece of Gear is, effectively, unique
- Not change too much about the inner workings of the Gear itself
- Gear will now drop with Core Stats (Armor, Block, Resistance, Attack, Mastery) and Attributes determined by the Rarity of the Gear
Quality
Stats and Attributes will fall within a range based on an item’s Rarity. This is referred to as “Quality.”
This is not so much a change to the types of numbers you’d see associated with Gear, just a more visible gauge of how good the number on the stat/attribute is within the possible range.
- Higher Rarity items will have a higher floor and ceiling on their Quality ranges
- The overall Quality of an item is summarized in its Quality value
- Higher Quality Mythic items also have an accompanying word to describe their Quality:
- < 600: Mythic
- 600 - 749: “Divine” Mythic
- 750 - 849: “Sacred” Mythic
- 850 - 949: “Exalted” Mythic
- 950+: “Immortal” Mythic
Note: This does not have any impact on gameplay.
They are just words that are used as shorthand for the upper range of Mythics due to the size of the range.
Battle Scrolls
Much like Spells, we’ve removed the need to Level-up specific items by essentially transferring those Levels over to 3 new Battle Scrolls:
Item levels have been consolidated into 3 Battle Scrolls per Hero:
- Offense - Affects Weapons and Shields
- Defense - Affects your Helm, Shoulders, Chest, Legs, Gloves, and Boots
- Utility - Affects your Necklace, Belt, and Rings
- Leveling up each scroll improves all of the relevant item’s Attributes
- Leveling up a scroll uses Gold, Shards and then Glyphs at the higher levels
- Battle Scroll levels are capped at your Hero level
Honing
Individual items can now be Honed! Honing an item uses Runes and Relics to improve the core stat and all the attributes on an item by a small amount.
Think of Honing as though you are sharpening your blade or polishing your shield!
Items of different rarities can be honed different amounts:
- Common: N/A
- Uncommon: Up to Tier I
- Rare: Up to Tier II
- Epic: Up to Tier III
- Legendary: Up to Tier IV
- Mythic: Up to Tier X
- The costs for Honing each Tier are the same, regardless of the rarity of the item
- Honing Tier is represented by pips on the left side of the item display
- Any resources used in Honing are returned if the item is Salvaged
Items of different rarities can be honed different amounts:
TIER | Runes | Relics |
I | 1 Uncommon | – |
II | 2 Rare | 1 Rare |
III | 3 Epic | 2 Epic |
IV | 4 Legendary | 3 Legendary |
V | 4 Mythic | 4 Mythic |
VI | 4 Mythic | 4 Mythic |
VII | 4 Mythic | 4 Mythic |
VIII | 4 Mythic | 4 Mythic |
IX | 4 Mythic | 4 Mythic |
X | 4 Mythic | 4 Mythic |
New Resource: Aether
Aether is a new crafting resource and is collected from Salvaging Rare or better items
- Rare: 1 Aether
- Epic: 4 Aether
- Legendary: 20 Aether
- Mythic: 100 Aether
Follower Updates
Toragon, Gemka, and Soulchaser have all had 3 crafting options added.
Follower Crafting will be updated further in Update 3.1
| Follower Level | Ability | Cost |
| 30 | Craft Random Epic Weapon or Shield/Accessory/Armor | 20 Aether |
| 40 | Craft Random Legendary Weapon or Shield/Accessory/Armor | 100 Aether |
| 50 | Craft Random Mythic Weapon or Shield/Accessory/Armor | 500 Aether |
Salvaging Updates
With the removal of Levels from Gear pieces, the chance of getting the Rune or Relic from a salvaged item is now based on the item’s primary stat, Quality, taking into account the Rarity of the item.
Generally, the better an item is in comparison to other items of its rarity, the better the chance of salvaging the Rune or Relic
- e.g. An Epic Buccaneer’s Charm with 258 Resistance (the Primary stat for Accessories) has a 4.6% chance of getting a Rune and 4.6% chance for a Legendary Relic vs an Epic Buccaneer’s Charm with 301 Resistance (%6 for a Rune, %6 for a Legendary Relic)
A set amount of Aether is Salvaged from Rare or better items
Salvaging a Honed item will return the materials used in Honing that item.
Gear Vault
The Items in the Gear Vault have had their display updated to reflect the system changes
- The different tabs in the vault are now named, rather than using icons
- Items & Minions can now be quickly equipped without opening the full info screen (similar to Spells)
Compensation/Transition
All of your Gear will be converted straight to the new system.
- All Rarities will remain the same
- No Gear pieces will be removed
- All Gear will be converted to keep the existing stats as similar as possible. Everything converted should end up similar if not better than what they are currently.
- You will receive 4 Tier IV Relics per Mythic in your Inventory.
- Your Battle Scroll Levels will be set based on the highest level Gear piece in each Battle Scroll category, capped at each Hero’s Level.
Example:
I have…
A Level 47 Savior’s Locket
A Berserker at Level 50
A Shaman at Level 35
My Berserker will have a Level 47 Utility Scroll, and my Shaman will have a Level 35 Utility Scroll.
FAQ
- But how will my Gear be affected? Will my Hero be weaker after the update since there is more ways to upgrade Gear with Honing and Battle Scrolls?
- All your gear will remain the at least the same, if not improved. In some instances you may even see your Power score greatly improved.
- Is anything changing with Gear drops in Chests?
- Yes. We are making changes to the drop rates for Chests to better support the new system, such as reducing the chances of seeing Common and Uncommon Gear at higher player/Chest levels with the chance being 0% at Level 100 in Ruby and Diamond Chests. As of right now, these are still being adjusted in the lead-up to the release of 3.0.
- Has anything changed in rerolling Attributes? Or is it the same as before, just now there are the Honing and Battle Scroll bonuses on top?
- This is the same as before - the Quality of an Attribute will stay the same, but the Attribute itself can change.
- Are there any more details about the Follower changes coming in 3.1?
- There are limited details we can share for the moment, however, this is what we’re aiming for with our beloved Toragon, Gemka, and Soulchaser:
- Ensure that their abilities are integrated better with the new system
- Open up some of their abilities earlier so newer players can benefit from them earlier
- Allow more flexibility for players in how their abilities are used
- Preferably move away from having one giant horizontal list with every possible option for each of them (i.e. we’d like to streamline the UI and crafting flow)
- Will Seasonal Caches continue to drop only Legendary versions of the Season 3.X items?
- They can drop at Mythic or Legendary now. In 3.0 you may notice it will have multiple of the same rarity piece of Gear with various percentage chances. This is to show the chance for the different Quality ranges. In 3.1 we will update how this information is displayed so it is easier to understand at a glance.
- How is Gear Score and “perceived strength” determined after these changes?
- The calculations for perceived strength are based on actual stats, so the calculation is unaffected. The final value will change based on the character’s new stats. The Gear Score calculation does not take an item’s Quality into account.