In this guide I will explain, to the best of my knowledge, the process
of enhancing items using Vulcanus. Please note that this guide is geared
towards all levels of players from newcomers to extreme veterans and
thus contains simple definitions as well as some advanced techniques.

Introduction:

Enhancing is the process where you use one item and the appropriate
number of enhancing stones to increase its grade, which is designated by
a + on the item icon. Any single piece of equipment can have a grade
from +0 to a +10. A +0 is the default value and will not be listed on
the item icon. Enhancing is not the same as Enchanting, enchanting is
where you would use two of the same item to create one item of a higher
grade using enchant stones (i.e. combine two +0’s to make a +1). The
major difference is that Enchanting has a 100% success rate while
enhancing has a 50% success rate.

Before you begin to enhance you must make a choice if you want to use
Vulcanos or Oriharukon Enhance Stones? From personal experience Ori
stones are evil and should not be used for anything more than making
money off of naive players that still think that they have a better
chance of success with an Ori stone then with Vulcanus. Seriously
though, Ori stones seem to be really messed up at the moment and fail a
lot of times so until that gets fixed I don’t recommend using them and
therefore I will focus on Vulcanos. Before we go visit Vulcanus we need
to do some research so he doesn’t take our life savings and gear.

The Basics:

Items Required: A piece of equipment and appropriate number of enhance
stones based on the + you are trying to achieve. (i.e. if you have a +1
item and going for a +2 you need 2 enhance stones). Also the appropriate
level of enhance stones i.e. (beg), (int), (adv), or (pre). Please
refer to another guide for level restrictions for using each level of
stone.

Location: Go to Vulcanus located in the Bazaar in Rome (probably the
laggiest area in the game). Clicking on Vulcanus pulls up the enhance
window in which you can click the auto button to automatically load the
first enhanceable item in your inventory or manually place the desired
item in the enhance window. Clicking the enhance button will start the
enhancing process which takes approximately 7 seconds. You can cancel
the enhancing anytime before the yellow bar reaches the end by closing
the enhance window.

Chances: According to the game help menu the chance of success for
Vulcanos is 50/50 and although some people might argue with that I
believe it is accurate.

Notes: Unlike enchanting, enhancing does not have a chance to skip a level, you can only go up one level per enhance.

Mechanics of Enhancing:

If we stick with the assumption that the enhance chance is 50/50 then it
becomes a purely statistical game. Think of it like flipping a coin,
there is a 50% chance that it will land on heads and a 50% chance that
it will land on tails for EVERY time you flip it. Because of this it is
possible to see several fails or successes in a row. I have had as many
as 10 successes in a row and had 12 failures. But just because you fail
or succeed many times in a row doesn’t mean that it is not a 50/50
chance.

The 50/50 chance is a global value and refers to an infinite number of
rolls, meaning that if you were to enhance an infinite number of items
you will have the same number of fails and successes. If we take a look
at it locally, say 1000 enhances, we will probably see a slight
variation of the amounts of fails and successes but they should still be
fairly close to 50/50. As we look at smaller sections you might start
seeing larger and larger variations of failures and successes.

For example:

You go to Vulcanus, you are all alone, and you enhance 50 items. The
results are listed in the table below. I started another row any time
there was a switch from a success and a failure or vice versa. (see the
spreadsheet below)

Attachment:
File comment: Enhancing Example
Enhancing_Example.xls [18 KiB]
Downloaded 4574 times


From these results you can clearly see that it is not a 50/50 percent
chance. But notice that there are a few rows where we have several
success and also a few rows with several failures. If we continued this
for 1000 enhancing most likely the failure and success totals would be
much closer together.

As another example we can look at only the last three rows. We see that
it is a ratio of 2 successes to 5 failures. If the last three rows is
when you started enhancing you might just get discouraged with Vulcanus
by thinking that the you will get more failures then successes! But fear
not, you are never enhancing alone.

If you enhance a lot, chances are you have noticed that most of the time
you aren’t the only person enhancing. If you keep your “system” chat
checked on you can see all the other people miserably failing with their
gear. Although you might feel some sympathy for these players you
quickly dismiss it knowing that their failures brings you that much
closer to your +10 phoenix sword. Well maybe not quite but still they do
play a big roll in your chance.

We all use the same Vulcanus and therefore every player’s successes and
failures contribute to the overall 50/50 pool. This means that if you
see 12 failures in a row by 6 different players then you can sort of
assume that there should be some successes coming up. This is of course
not guaranteed but using statistics and the 50/50 rate you could draw
that conclusion. The other side is also true that if you see a string of
successes, you might be tempted to throw in your item thinking “oh
everyone is succeeding I guess I will too!” That quickly backfires as
you throw your item in and fail. You get pissed, throw in another item
and fail again, then another item and another and keep failing. After 6
failures and depleting your items you see other players succeed 5 more
times. At this point you throw every curse word you know in every
possible language, plus a few made up ones, and vow you will never use
Vulcanus again, at least not for the next 15 minutes. Yeah you all know
what I am talking about, don’t act like its never happened to you
before.

Basically the best way to attempt to increase your chances in succeeding
is to wait for a string of failures and then enhance your item. Of
course in order to do that you need other players to fail and should
always say thank you.
Obviously, the more players enhancing at the time the better, so that
you get more choices of when to enhance. Again, please realize that this
is not a sure way of getting your success but it does give you a better
chance, or at the very least the comfort that you tried your best.
Also, remember that it takes around 7 seconds to complete the enhancing
process and during that time you may see a string of successes from
other players appear at which point it might be wise to cancel your own
enhance. This again can be done by closing the enhance window using the
“x” in the upper right hand corner.

I would like to make a side note here to mention a technique some people use that I would like to call “spirit sacrifice”. This is where players use spirit gear for sacrifice (fail at enhancing) in order to give them an artificial string of failures to have a better chance of increasing
their main item. If we refer to the example above where you are ALONE at Vulcanus this would probably not be a bad idea since YOU are taking ALL of the failures and successes but if there is other players enhancing with you at the time then this is a stupid idea. Think about it, why
would you attempt to create an artificial string of failures if there are other players enhancing around you? Their successes and failures would be all mixed in with yours making your attempts futile. On the contrary a lot of times people using “spirit sacrifice” inevitably tend to steal the successes from other players failures to + the spirit gear they are trying to sacrifice. I have seen a player enhance a spirit gear to a +8 before failing and then putting in a divine piece of equipment
and blowing that one up too!! Its ridiculous, if your going use the spirit sacrifice use it when no one else is enhancing otherwise just watch the failures and successes of other players. Please remember that we all share the same pool for Vulcanos so in theory you could succeed
every single time assuming there are other players failing.

Another more thing worth mentioning is the rumor that failing a +5 gives
a higher “failure” then a +1 as well as the rumor that failing divine
equipment give a higher “failure” then spirit equipment. Personally I
have not seen any difference and I don’t believe there is one. If anyone
has proof of these phenomena please let me know otherwise I don’t
believe it. (By higher “failure” I mean that it counts for more then one
failure, i.e. failure a +5 item would be like 5 failures of a +0 item.)

Conclusion:

Enhancing is probably the main way of upgrading higher level gear
without extreme costs aside from crafting and praying for a high plus.
Just remember that it is 50/50 chance overall and don’t get discouraged
with a string of failures, your time will come (author not responsible
if time doesn’t come). If you fail a few times in a row, just walk away,
do some quests or FL and come back at a later time. I hope that this
guide shed some light on enhancing and if you have any questions please
do not hesitate to message me.

Thanks,