Gear Honing Guide – How to Upgrade your Gear
Gear Upgrading in Lost Ark is simple but RNG-based. To start upgrading your gear you need to get Rare equipment with at least 302 Item Level. You can do this by completing Shushire‘s main storyline or through 
Chaos Dungeons.
Once you’ve met those requirements, you can go to the 
Gear Honing NPC in any major city to begin with the upgrades.
Upgrading Materials
These are the required materials to upgrade your gear.
| MATERIAL | USED FOR | WHERE TO OBTAIN |
|---|---|---|
 Guardian Stone Fragment | Required for upgrading armor. | Chaos Dungeon,  Una Dailies,  Tower, Item dismantling, … |
 Destruction Stone Fragment | Required for upgrading weapons. | Chaos Dungeon, Una Dailies, Tower, Item dismantling, … |
 Harmony Shard | Used to fill the XP bar that allows an item to be upgraded. | Chaos Dungeon,  Guardian Raids, Tower,  Sylmael Exchange NPC,  Field Boss,  Adventure Islands, Una Dailies, item dismantling, … |
 Harmony Leap Stone | Required for upgrading all types of equipment. | Chaos Dungeon, Guardian Raids, Tower, Sylmael Exchange NPC, Field Boss, Adventure Islands, … |
 Star’s Breath | Can be used to increase the probability of success in upgrading equipment. |  Cube,  Treasure Map, Tower,  Ghost Ship, Adventure Island, Field Boss, … |
Upgrading Equipment
Interact with the Gear Honing NPC to open the upgrade window.
Once you open the upgrade window, the first thing you’ll want to do is select the piece of equipment you want to upgrade. To be able to upgrade it you have to fill its XP bar with Harmony Shard, click Upgrade to do so.
Below the upgrade button you’ll see the required resources to try an upgrade. If the upgrade fails you’ll lose those resources.
Click the Gear Honing button to continue.
Each upgrade will have a success rate. You can increase this probability by using auxiliary materials such as Star’s Breath. Click the Gear Honing button and hope for a successful upgrade.
Failing an upgrade will increase your Artisan’s Energy. If it reaches 100%, your next upgrade is guaranteed to succeed.
Each successful upgrade will increase the upgrade level of that item. the max level it can reach is 20. But for most gear, there’s no need to go past level 15.
Transferring an upgrade to another item
The upgrading system allows you to transfer an upgrade to another item. This means that you won’t lose your progress if you get better grade gear. The only downside is that you’ll lose the item you’re transferring from.
To open the transfer window, click the button below the upgrade window.
Just select the piece of gear you want to upgrade and the one you’ll transfer the upgrade from. Take into account that you will lose the equipment you are transferring from.
The same upgrade level will be maintained for the new item unless you are transferring to equipment of another tier.
