Two swords with the same name and the same picture can have different figures. The difference is the tier.
A ladder for every piece
Every piece of equipment has a tier: weapons, shields, armour, hats, boots and everything else you wear. A higher tier makes every figure on the item bigger, so more damage on a weapon and more armour on a suit.
What you start with, and what the shops sell, is the ordinary tier. Everything above it is found.
Where the better tiers come from
Loot, chests and the best of what players make are where a better tier turns up. The higher the tier, the rarer it is. An item's tier is decided when it is made and never changes, so there is no rerolling one into the next.
Tiers and upgrades
A tier and an upgrade are two different things, and they stack. A Charge Dice raises an item's upgrade (see upgrading your gear), and an upgrade is worth just as much on a rare tier as on an ordinary one. The best an item can be is the top tier, pushed as high as the dice go.
How to tell
- On the name. A better tier is printed after the item's name, and the ordinary one prints nothing.
- On the item in your bag, as a small label in the corner of its cell.
- Other players cannot see it. They see your weapon glow when its upgrade is high enough, but not its tier.
A tier and an upgrade both survive a trade, the post and the bank, and two items of a different tier never stack together.
Next: shops, for the ordinary gear to start from.