[Tips & Tricks] How To, Questions & More

[RadLonghammer]

...and is snakeskins the only way for fast armor leveling? i only have 3 armorsmiths

The idea that farming Snakeskins is the only way to quickly level armor is one of the most commonly held beliefs of K&D players, and is not entirely accurate. Up to a certain point, Snakeskin as enhancement material is absolutely the most GOLD EFFICIENT means, but is absolutely NOT the most time efficient, nor is it the fastest.

In order to understand, in detail, the effectiveness of an armor when enhancing another armor, it's critical to understand the concept of Enhancement Points. The more EP you throw at an armor, the more it will level.

All armors have two EP values; one when it is used to enhance an armor with at least one matching elements, and another that is approximately 20% lower when used to enhance an armor with NO matching elements. Here are some basics:

*Basic Armors (Basic Fire, Spirit, Earth, Air, Water) Give 6 points if matching, 5 points if not.

*Uncommon Monos (Seafoam, Dragonflame, Mystic, Wing Warrior, Stonescale, and Nemesis armors) give 10 points if matching, 8 if not.

*Rare, Single Star Duals (Snakeskin, Atlantean, Crius, Chimera, Hydra, Livingflame, Flamestorm) give 24 points if matching at least one element, 20 points if matching none.

**Super Rare, Two Star Duals (Embersteel, Monks, Exorcists, Flowstone, Forgemasters, etc.) give 50 points if matching at least one element, 40 points if not.

Furthermore, if an armor has been enhanced itself, it gives additional Enhancement Points equal to every level beyond level one. For example, your maxed nemesis that might no longer once the boss is gone gives 10 matching element points, plus 29 (Level 30-1) for a total of 39 enhancement points.

Now that you know what an armor gives, let's take a look at what it costs. As with everything in K&D, cost must be looked at as both a function of gold and a function of time.

All Basic armors feature the same cost to craft (300 gold) and the same time to craft (5 minutes). Knowing that, we can calculate an Ehancement Point (EP) payoff per gold spent, and per minute spent.

With matching elements: 50 gold/EP, and .833 minutes/EP
Without matching elements: 60 gold/EP and 1 minute/EP

The Uncommon Monos cost 500 gold and 30 minutes to craft, so:

With matching elements: 50 gold/EP, and 3 minutes/EP
Without matching elements: 62.5 gold/EP and 3.75 minutes/EP

The Rare, Single Star Duals have varying crafting costs, and Snakeskin is by far the cheapest at 3000 gold. Like all armors of this class, crafting time is 2 hours, or 120 minutes. Snakeskin costs:

With matching elements: 125 gold/EP, and 5 minutes/EP
Without matching elements: 150 gold/EP, and 6 minutes/EP

SNAKESKIN ALTERNATIVE #1

Suppose you're using Snakeskin to level an armor with neither the Earth nor the Water element, such as Livingflame (Fire/Spirit) or Rocfeather (wind/spirit). An alternative to the Snake might be to craft Wing Warriors or Mystics, and level them up to L11, where they will pay the same 20 (10 = L11-1) EP as the non-matching Snakeskin. To do so, you will need 500 gold for the Mono, and 300 gold each for 8 basics. You will also pay enhancement costs of 150 each slot x 4 slots to level your mono from L1-L6, and 400 each slot x 4 slots to level it from L6-L11. (Note the increase in enhancement cost as the level of the armor to be enhanced rises. This is a very important cost component to be considered later.)

Anyhow, our L11 mono cost us 500 for the mono, 2400 for the 8 basics used to enhance it, and 2200 in total enhancement costs, for a total gold cost of 5100. This is obviously more expensive than the 3000 for the Snakeskin.

Timewise, we've spent 30 minutes to craft our mono, and 5 minutes each for the 8 basics (40 minutes) for a total of 70 minutes, far less than the 120 minutes the snake took. Let's look at our payoff vs. the Snakeskin:

Unmatched Snake: 150 gold/EP, and 6 minutes/EP
Matched L11 Mono: 255 gold/EP, and 3.5 minutes/EP

It should be clear that while the Snakeskin gives us our 20 EP cheaper, does NOT give it faster!

VERY IMPORTANT POINT

Crafting time ceases to match up with real life time once you have multiple armories. Let's suppose you have four armories, and look at the same example again, but using real life time to craft either 4 Snakeskins or 4 L11 Matching Monos, to exploit all 4 enhancement slots.

With 4 armories, you will craft your 4 Snakeskins in 2 hours of real life time, and your 4 L11 monos in 70 minutes of real life time. Same amount of real life time as the example above, but with FOUR TIMES THE PAYOUT, 80 EP vs. only 20. Hence:

Unmatched Snake x4: 150 gold/EP, and 1.5 minutes/EP
Matched L11 Mono x4: 255 gold/EP, and .875 minutes (52 1/2 seconds)/EP!!!

Not only should this demonstrate that Snakeskin is NOT the fastest way to level armor, but it should also underscore the importance of having multiple armories at work when leveling armors is a high priority!

If you can afford the additional gold cost, and want to level an armor more quickly, you might well consider this alternative to Snakeskin.

SNAKESKIN ALTERNATIVE #2

Let's look at the Snakeskin vs. the Super Rare (2 Star) Dual Elements. Let's say you're leveling a Spirit/Wind Armor such as Roc Feather or Sky Guardian. In this case, Exorcist's Vestments would be a good choice of enhancement armor. Like all of the 2 Star Duals, however, it can not be crafted and is only available through chests, possible event rewards, and fusion.

Fortunately, it is an extremely reliable result of fusing Wing Warrior (Slot 1) with Mystic (Slot 2). Although we can't assign a time/gold cost to the required fusion stones, we can consider the cost of the Base Armors and the Cost of the Fusion.

Wing Warrior (500) + Mystic (500) + Fusion (25,000) =26,000 gold. Time is 30 minutes each for Wing and Mystic, and instantaneous for the fusion, so 60 minutes is the crafting time. The Payoff is 50 EP. Therefore:

Unmatched Snake: 150 gold/EP, and 6 minutes/EP ( 20 total EP for 3000 total gold, and 120 min. total crafting time)
Matching Exorcist: 520 gold/EP, and 1.2 minutes/EP (50 total EP for 26,000 total gold, and 60 min total. crafting time)

Same example with 4 armories, considering REAL TIME:

Unmatched Snake x4: 150 gold/EP, and 1.5 minutes/EP (80 total EP for 12,000 total gold, and 120 min. total REAL time)
Matching Exorcist x4: 520 gold/EP, and 0.3 minutes/EP (200 total EP for 104,000 total gold, 60 min. total REAL time)

Snake loses the speed battle again, and by a TON!

ANOTHER IMPORTANT POINT

The cost of enhancing armor rises dramatically with the level of the armor to be enhanced. Here's a glimpse at the rising cost scale, by the amount of gold it takes to fill all 4 enhancement slots at various levels of the target armor (I'm giving this in increments of 5 levels. The comprehensive chart may be seen in the spreadsheet):

L1: 600
L6: 1600
L11: 2800
L16: 5200
L21: 7200
L26: 11,000
L31: 16,000
L36: 24,000
L41: 34,000
L46: 44,000
L51: 54,000
L56: 64,000
L61: 74,000
L66: 84,000
L69: 90,000

Obviously, the higher the level of the armor you're enhancing, the bigger component of the cost the enhancement itself becomes. That's a third component that we've not yet considered. Let's look at 4x Unmatched Snake vs. 4x Matching Exorcists when enhancing a Level 51 Roc Feather or Sky Guardian.

4x Unmatched Snake =12,000 in Crafting Cost + 54,000 in Enhancement Cost = 66,000 for 80 EP, or 825 gold/EP
4x Matching Exorcists =4000 Crafting + 100,000 Fusion + 54,000 Enhancement = 158,000 for 200 EP, or 790 gold/EP

While up to this point, we've accepted that Snakeskin is the Slower, but Cheaper alternative, we see that at some point, Snakeskin fails even to be the cheapest alternative!

YET ANOTHER IMPORTANT POINT If you look at the cost progression above as a road on which you have to make a certain number of stops, and pay at a certain number of toll booths, it should become obvious that the fewer stops you have to make, the less total gold you will spend along the way. Simply put, the MORE EP you can add to your target armor per enhancement, the fewer times you'll have to pay the enhancement cost. This isn't a terribly big deal when you're enhancing a Nemesis armor to it's maximum level of 30. When you're enhancing an armor that maxes at L70, however, it becomes a significant cost component, further devaluing Snakeskin vs. the alternative.

In conclusion: Snakeskin is a very valuable component of a proper armor enhancement strategy, but it should never be seen as the only component. When it's time to start leveling those L70 armors to the max, it's time to lessen your reliance on Snake. When Snake is non-matching, and you have more gold than time, consider those L11 Monos!

***Edited to add***

When your "real time" is going to be spent away from the game, Snakeskins are still great to craft. I have my armories churning them out any time I know I'm going to be away from the game for at least 2 hours!

[Harvey Guo]

Interesting data. Proved that snakeskin should work perfectly before lv50.
For high level players, time is really important, farm snakeskin is quite boring, use fusion to instead of waiting is quite a good choice.
My Regalia+ reach to lv50 now, should upgrade it by fusion.
Gold is always needed, even 11 top level training fields cannot satisfy my need.... can someone give me some golds

The idea that farming Snakeskins is the only way to quickly level armor is one of the most commonly held beliefs of K&D players, and is not entirely accurate. Up to a certain point, Snakeskin as enhancement material is absolutely the most GOLD EFFICIENT means, but is absolutely NOT the most time efficient, nor is it the fastest.

In order to understand, in detail, the effectiveness of an armor when enhancing another armor, it's critical to understand the concept of Enhancement Points. The more EP you throw at an armor, the more it will level.

All armors have two EP values; one when it is used to enhance an armor with at least one matching elements, and another that is approximately 20% lower when used to enhance an armor with NO matching elements. Here are some basics:

*Basic Armors (Basic Fire, Spirit, Earth, Air, Water) Give 6 points if matching, 5 points if not.

*Uncommon Monos (Seafoam, Dragonflame, Mystic, Wing Warrior, Stonescale, and Nemesis armors) give 10 points if matching, 8 if not.

*Rare, Single Star Duals (Snakeskin, Atlantean, Crius, Chimera, Hydra, Livingflame, Flamestorm) give 24 points if matching at least one element, 20 points if matching none.

**Super Rare, Two Star Duals (Embersteel, Monks, Exorcists, Flowstone, Forgemasters, etc.) give 50 points if matching at least one element, 40 points if not.

Furthermore, if an armor has been enhanced itself, it gives additional Enhancement Points equal to every level beyond level one. For example, your maxed nemesis that might no longer once the boss is gone gives 10 matching element points, plus 29 (Level 30-1) for a total of 39 enhancement points.

Now that you know what an armor gives, let's take a look at what it costs. As with everything in K&D, cost must be looked at as both a function of gold and a function of time.

All Basic armors feature the same cost to craft (300 gold) and the same time to craft (5 minutes). Knowing that, we can calculate an Ehancement Point (EP) payoff per gold spent, and per minute spent.

With matching elements: 50 gold/EP, and .833 minutes/EP
Without matching elements: 60 gold/EP and 1 minute/EP

The Uncommon Monos cost 500 gold and 30 minutes to craft, so:

With matching elements: 50 gold/EP, and 3 minutes/EP
Without matching elements: 62.5 gold/EP and 3.75 minutes/EP

The Rare, Single Star Duals have varying crafting costs, and Snakeskin is by far the cheapest at 3000 gold. Like all armors of this class, crafting time is 2 hours, or 120 minutes. Snakeskin costs:

With matching elements: 125 gold/EP, and 5 minutes/EP
Without matching elements: 150 gold/EP, and 6 minutes/EP

SNAKESKIN ALTERNATIVE #1

Suppose you're using Snakeskin to level an armor with neither the Earth nor the Water element, such as Livingflame (Fire/Spirit) or Rocfeather (wind/spirit). An alternative to the Snake might be to craft Wing Warriors or Mystics, and level them up to L11, where they will pay the same 20 (10 = L11-1) EP as the non-matching Snakeskin. To do so, you will need 500 gold for the Mono, and 300 gold each for 8 basics. You will also pay enhancement costs of 150 each slot x 4 slots to level your mono from L1-L6, and 400 each slot x 4 slots to level it from L6-L11. (Note the increase in enhancement cost as the level of the armor to be enhanced rises. This is a very important cost component to be considered later.)

Anyhow, our L11 mono cost us 500 for the mono, 2400 for the 8 basics used to enhance it, and 2200 in total enhancement costs, for a total gold cost of 5100. This is obviously more expensive than the 3000 for the Snakeskin.

Timewise, we've spent 30 minutes to craft our mono, and 5 minutes each for the 8 basics (40 minutes) for a total of 70 minutes, far less than the 120 minutes the snake took. Let's look at our payoff vs. the Snakeskin:

Unmatched Snake: 150 gold/EP, and 6 minutes/EP
Matched L11 Mono: 255 gold/EP, and 3.5 minutes/EP

It should be clear that while the Snakeskin gives us our 20 EP cheaper, does NOT give it faster!

VERY IMPORTANT POINT

Crafting time ceases to match up with real life time once you have multiple armories. Let's suppose you have four armories, and look at the same example again, but using real life time to craft either 4 Snakeskins or 4 L11 Matching Monos, to exploit all 4 enhancement slots.

With 4 armories, you will craft your 4 Snakeskins in 2 hours of real life time, and your 4 L11 monos in 70 minutes of real life time. Same amount of real life time as the example above, but with FOUR TIMES THE PAYOUT, 80 EP vs. only 20. Hence:

Unmatched Snake x4: 150 gold/EP, and 1.5 minutes/EP
Matched L11 Mono x4: 255 gold/EP, and .875 minutes (52 1/2 seconds)/EP!!!

Not only should this demonstrate that Snakeskin is NOT the fastest way to level armor, but it should also underscore the importance of having multiple armories at work when leveling armors is a high priority!

If you can afford the additional gold cost, and want to level an armor more quickly, you might well consider this alternative to Snakeskin.

SNAKESKIN ALTERNATIVE #2

Let's look at the Snakeskin vs. the Super Rare (2 Star) Dual Elements. Let's say you're leveling a Spirit/Wind Armor such as Roc Feather or Sky Guardian. In this case, Exorcist's Vestments would be a good choice of enhancement armor. Like all of the 2 Star Duals, however, it can not be crafted and is only available through chests, possible event rewards, and fusion.

Fortunately, it is an extremely reliable result of fusing Wing Warrior (Slot 1) with Mystic (Slot 2). Although we can't assign a time/gold cost to the required fusion stones, we can consider the cost of the Base Armors and the Cost of the Fusion.

Wing Warrior (500) + Mystic (500) + Fusion (25,000) =26,000 gold. Time is 30 minutes each for Wing and Mystic, and instantaneous for the fusion, so 60 minutes is the crafting time. The Payoff is 50 EP. Therefore:

Unmatched Snake: 150 gold/EP, and 6 minutes/EP ( 20 total EP for 3000 total gold, and 120 min. total crafting time)
Matching Exorcist: 520 gold/EP, and 1.2 minutes/EP (50 total EP for 26,000 total gold, and 60 min total. crafting time)

Same example with 4 armories, considering REAL TIME:

Unmatched Snake x4: 150 gold/EP, and 1.5 minutes/EP (80 total EP for 12,000 total gold, and 120 min. total REAL time)
Matching Exorcist x4: 520 gold/EP, and 0.3 minutes/EP (200 total EP for 104,000 total gold, 60 min. total REAL time)

Snake loses the speed battle again, and by a TON!

ANOTHER IMPORTANT POINT

The cost of enhancing armor rises dramatically with the level of the armor to be enhanced. Here's a glimpse at the rising cost scale, by the amount of gold it takes to fill all 4 enhancement slots at various levels of the target armor (I'm giving this in increments of 5 levels. The comprehensive chart may be seen in the spreadsheet):

L1: 600
L6: 1600
L11: 2800
L16: 5200
L21: 7200
L26: 11,000
L31: 16,000
L36: 24,000
L41: 34,000
L46: 44,000
L51: 54,000
L56: 64,000
L61: 74,000
L66: 84,000
L69: 90,000

Obviously, the higher the level of the armor you're enhancing, the bigger component of the cost the enhancement itself becomes. That's a third component that we've not yet considered. Let's look at 4x Unmatched Snake vs. 4x Matching Exorcists when enhancing a Level 51 Roc Feather or Sky Guardian.

4x Unmatched Snake =12,000 in Crafting Cost + 54,000 in Enhancement Cost = 66,000 for 80 EP, or 825 gold/EP
4x Matching Exorcists =4000 Crafting + 100,000 Fusion + 54,000 Enhancement = 158,000 for 200 EP, or 790 gold/EP

While up to this point, we've accepted that Snakeskin is the Slower, but Cheaper alternative, we see that at some point, Snakeskin fails even to be the cheapest alternative!

YET ANOTHER IMPORTANT POINT If you look at the cost progression above as a road on which you have to make a certain number of stops, and pay at a certain number of toll booths, it should become obvious that the fewer stops you have to make, the less total gold you will spend along the way. Simply put, the MORE EP you can add to your target armor per enhancement, the fewer times you'll have to pay the enhancement cost. This isn't a terribly big deal when you're enhancing a Nemesis armor to it's maximum level of 30. When you're enhancing an armor that maxes at L70, however, it becomes a significant cost component, further devaluing Snakeskin vs. the alternative.

In conclusion: Snakeskin is a very valuable component of a proper armor enhancement strategy, but it should never be seen as the only component. When it's time to start leveling those L70 armors to the max, it's time to lessen your reliance on Snake. When Snake is non-matching, and you have more gold than time, consider those L11 Monos!

***Edited to add***

When your "real time" is going to be spent away from the game, Snakeskins are still great to craft. I have my armories churning them out any time I know I'm going to be away from the game for at least 2 hours!

[Wackyboy357]

Hi guys there is this fire and water armour which looks like a red knight. I was wandering how to make it, the stats of it and is it good. It looked good so I was wandering.

[Harvey Guo]

lv30 Seafoam +/lvl 30 Dragonflame + = lvl 30/50 Rageborne Raiment. (someone's successful example)
You can have a try, but no guarantee, depends on your luck.

This one does look good, but from the stat, it is dominated by the Hydra+ armor.
Rageborne Raiment. ATK 704 DEF 706
Hydra Hunter's Mail+ ATK 777 DEF 795

Hi guys there is this fire and water armour which looks like a red knight. I was wandering how to make it, the stats of it and is it good. It looked good so I was wandering.

[Catastr0phy]

@radLonghammer

Interesting data. Sure that higher lvl players could try to get this to an effective use. Tho most efficient and easy is snakeskin in my eyes, as its not only less effort and low on gold cost, but also wont cost fusion stones, is easy to farm when you watch tv or something, levels you up slowly etc. Indeed its not the only way, but its the most efficient when combined with time, needed other materials, and easyness to farm as you can farm it any time you have the time for it while watching tv or playing a computer game.

[Raistmar]

Has anyone compiled how many points is needed to level an armor.
Like a lvl 30 armor, how much point is needed to get from lvl 1 - 2 up to 30 and for lvl 50 and 70?

[Harvey Guo]

Most of people would not count that because we just need to know which material suit different level enhancement.

Has anyone compiled how many points is needed to level an armor.
Like a lvl 30 armor, how much point is needed to get from lvl 1 - 2 up to 30 and for lvl 50 and 70?

[RadLonghammer]

Has anyone compiled how many points is needed to level an armor.
Like a lvl 30 armor, how much point is needed to get from lvl 1 - 2 up to 30 and for lvl 50 and 70?

It takes 194 EP to take either a Basic Armor or a Mono (L30) to it's maximum level of 30. This is not a linear progression, however. Fewer points are needed to get from level 1-10 than from 11-20 and so forth.

There are two types of L50 armors, the one-star craftable kind, and the two star uncraftable kind. It's been suggested that they might level at different rates. Someone should test this. Someone should take, for example, the L50 (single star) Hydra Hunter, or one of the other "Big Four" and keep a journal of enhancement activities.

As for the L50 (two star) armors, since they're not as good as the "big four" one stars, I don't think it's important to know.

When I begin leveling my first L70 armor, I'll keep a log and figure out how much EP it takes.

[Harvey Guo]

194 points, got it.

I may wanna try to use 4 2stars armors to max out a nemesis by only use one time, that must be interesting

It takes 194 EP to take either a Basic Armor or a Mono (L30) to it's maximum level of 30. This is not a linear progression, however. Fewer points are needed to get from level 1-10 than from 11-20 and so forth.

There are two types of L50 armors, the one-star craftable kind, and the two star uncraftable kind. It's been suggested that they might level at different rates. Someone should test this. Someone should take, for example, the L50 (single star) Hydra Hunter, or one of the other "Big Four" and keep a journal of enhancement activities.

As for the L50 (two star) armors, since they're not as good as the "big four" one stars, I don't think it's important to know.

When I begin leveling my first L70 armor, I'll keep a log and figure out how much EP it takes.

[YawNeD]

Is there a difference in EP when fusing with +versions of an armor? Ie, should i unlock snakeskin+ for more EP?

[RadLonghammer]

194 points, got it.

I may wanna try to use 4 2stars armors to max out a nemesis by only use one time, that must be interesting

If Nemesis armors are back to leveling at the same rate as Uncommon L30 Monos (which I believe they are), then you're right, 4 matching element 2 Star Rares should allow you to max the Nemesis armor in one shot.

As cool as it would be to see that Nemesis jump from level 1-30 in one shot, I'm not 100% sure I'd use the 4 2-Stars that way. To me, they're just too valuable elsewhere, such 3 and 4 star Rares that are MUCH tougher to level.

[RadLonghammer]

No. Snakeskin + has the same EP value as Snakeskin. Same with all other + versions.

[Harvey Guo]

The nemesis back to usual, easy to upgrade now. Next time I will try this and post picture on the forum

If Nemesis armors are back to leveling at the same rate as Uncommon L30 Monos (which I believe they are), then you're right, 4 matching element 2 Star Rares should allow you to max the Nemesis armor in one shot.

As cool as it would be to see that Nemesis jump from level 1-30 in one shot, I'm not 100% sure I'd use the 4 2-Stars that way. To me, they're just too valuable elsewhere, such 3 and 4 star Rares that are MUCH tougher to level.

[Raistmar]

Is it advisable to use 4 2 stars lvl 50 to enhance a lvl 70 lvl 1 armor? Cause I'd gain more lvls on my armor for jut 600 gold.

[RadLonghammer]

Is it advisable to use 4 2 stars lvl 50 to enhance a lvl 70 lvl 1 armor? Cause I'd gain more lvls on my armor for jut 600 gold.

Technically, yes. If you have an endless supply of 2-Star rares with which to enhance, you'd always want to use them. It would save you money in the long run.

However, since they don't come in unlimited supply, you want to save them for the later stages of Leveling those big L70 armors, as the money you save on enhancement costs will be far more substantial.