I've made this as a personal reference, as well as to help you guys out with a small helpful process to get 1337 gear!

I keep the faq by Marcus Majarra at hand when I do most of my tempering and altering since it's darn near perfect for learning the process.

You can find the Faq here: http://neoseeker.com/resourcelink.html?rlid=31256&rid=29607

From what I understand, Glow Crystals and Chaos Crystals play a key role in the process for both weapons and armor. These can be attained from just about any gem shop, Lumina, Geo.. Or if you're low on money, you can just kill polter boxes on the SS Buccaneer.

I'm sure everyone who has experimented with it has different methods, but to break down the Essence conflicts, all you have to do is remember which one combats the other. Simple to break down of course, since there's basically only two sides. I referred to these essence sides as 'X' and 'O'.


Wisp-----Shade-----Dryad-----Aura
---X---------O-------------X---------O
Sala-----Gnome-----Jinn-----Undine

The sides with 'O' symbols will allow eachother to be in place on the piece of armor you are altering. Same thing with the 'X' symbols. Mixing them conflicts.

Placing coins in increments of 3 and following those up with a Glow Crystal assures that you will have the base essence level you placed permanently, provided you don't add an opposing Element.

However, When you find that you would like these other elements as well, you simply have to hammer in a Chaos Crystal after a few Glow Crystals to change over to the other side.

My method looks like this:

*Glow Crystal |The extra glow crystals are for
*Glow Crystal |adding energy to the weapon, so it
*Glow Crystal |can support the large amount of Essence
*Glow Crystal |Markers. The energy requirement gets higher
*Shade Silver |as they increase.
*Gnome Silver
*Aura Silver
*Undine Silver
*Glow Crystal
*Shade Silver
*Gnome Silver
*Etc...

I'm sure you get the basic Idea, Each material has essence resistances, sometimes the same, sometimes different. So some essences may rise slower or faster than you think.

When you're ready to switch to the opposing Essence side, first, Rinse your work. Simply put, just throw 3 Lilipods into it. This will clear your pallett and leave the Essence levels where they are. After that follow it up like so:

Edit: for more info.

*Glow Crystal
*Glow Crystal
*Glow Crystal
*Glow Crystal
*Chaos Crystal|Ancient Moon is active in the
*Wisp Silver|weapon/armor from when you pound it in
*Sala Silver |to when it leaves the item, so don't
*Dryad Silver|freak out when you see it leave, just
*Jinn Silver|add another one afterwards and continue.
*Chaos Crystal
*Wisp Silver
*Sala Silver
*Dryad Silver
*Jinn Silver
*Chaos Crystal
*Glow Crystal
*Glow Crystal
*Glow Crystal
*Glow Crystal

Edit: I've now discovered the use of four coins instead of 3, and found out why my shade essence kept going back to 0.

After you're finished with all the altering, you can add different cards that will now be unlocked thanks to adding the full spectrum of Essences. I myself prefer adding 3 Needles (Bed of Thorns) followed by a Glow Crystal to boost the protection of my armor by 50% per Needle.

Edit: Needles can't be placed if salamander's essence level is above 0.

I hope this helps you guys out, I know it does for me.


This message was edited by Occasus on May 02 2008.

This's why I called it a 'personal' reference, you didn't have to read it.

Awesome dude, pretty sure you covered all the annoying ailments. If you plan on going for nightmare or no future though, I'd suggest dragonscales or Isheplatinum gear to bring it up a bit. Tropicallo is...evil..