Guild Wars 2

I love playing around with the Mysitc forge, buying cheap equipment and throwing them in and see what comes out.

Despite being almost completely random, (save specific recipes for legendaries and named exotics) there is a few constants when combining things.

According to wiki the forge follows these rules:

All four items must be same rarity/color.
All must be same type besides some execptions:

Equipment (weapons/armor)
Accesories (rings/backs/amulets/earings(accessory) )
Dyes
Upgrade components: can be interchanged, but must match rarity. (gems,orbs/marks,talismans,crests)
Exceptions: must be the same type and rarity
-Sigils (can’t put superiors into the forge due to an old exploit)
-Runes (can’t put superiors into the forge due to an old exploit)

Level output after throwing stuff in:
WIki states that if all four items are same level, you will get an item that will be 1-12
levels higher.

total level of all 4 / 4 = level of item you get

4 80 fine swords = 320 /4 = 1 lv 80 fine or masterwork sword.

4 random weapons lv 80 will still give you a lv 80 at same rarity as input or one step higher.

Zommaros may even give you an even lower level item if the average between all four is lower than a single item used. So its wise to use four equal level items in the forge.

Example 3: I have four weapons and armor of levels, 14, 78, 80, and 34 all fine rarity. Adding them up gets me a total level of 204. Dividing it out by 4 yields 51.5 and the game probably floors it so it ends up rounding down to 51. You’ll get a fine or masterwork of lv 51 and possibly between lv 57 and 45 +/- 1-12 (thanks lures!) levels.

Rarity of output item:
Its based on RNG but there is a given for what you might get.
Basics are lv 1-80
Fine are lv 1-80
Masterworks are lv 14-80*
Rares are lv 35-80*
Exotics are lv 62-80*

*there is an exception that occurs here for these when combined.

To get a higher rarity (for basics and fine only) the average of all four levels combined must be in the range above for a possible rarity except for Masterwork to rare.

A Upgrade RNG roll is then produced and possibly matched to a threshold range. Wiki said something its a 20% chance for upgrades from masterwork to rare. Yet my tests indicated its somewhere between 5% and 1% using 20 greens and also 100 greens.

If the roll becomes true, you get rarity upgrade, and if the level is too low on the average level of the four items used, the level is multiplied by 4 and then add 1-12 if still too low. (see exception #1).

Exception #1: The exception with masterworks is that it has such a vast range for levels to be found in the wild. If you do combine any level of masterworks you will get a rare no matter what if the RNG says you are getting a rare as long as you match levels.

I took four random lv 14 Masterwork items (dagger armor dagger and focus) and threw them in. I got a Rare lv 53 Mending Norn Spear of Earth. Lucky huh? That’s a whopping +39 levels from the base items used!

What might have happened here is that the game multiplied the level by 4 and added Rnd (1-12), 4 × 14 = 52 + 1 = 53. This can occur probably for rarity promotion on very low level items. I will need to do more research. This seems to happen if you average level of stuff combined is below lv 23 as the minimum level of a rare is 35 and the forge adds on a maximum of 1-12 (median is 6) levels to an item you get after calculation.

The same principle can be used in getting exotics from rares. Yet lowest level returned for level promotion must be 54.

Exception #2: Exotics to named (and possibly precursor) Exotics

The last exception to the rules is promoting exotic to named exotics and also precursors.

Following the above formulas and theories, it is surmised that you must use 4 exotics that average out to be lv 70 or higher. Thus, you will get a lv 70 + 1 to 12 levels exotic possibly a lv 80 and named or precursor.

There you have it folks, the whole mystic forge explained.

Now what happens if You use a donation packaging or nay wild card item like mystic forge stone?

The formula for Lionguard Lynn’s commendations is as follows:

Average level (rounded up) / total items used (3 always) +1-6 = forged level /10 (round up again) then x a rarity multiplier.

Rarity multipliers are as follows: (might need to confirm this from wiki research I found)
basics: x 0.5 (4 80s give 4)
Fine: x 1.0 (4 80s give 8 )
Masterworks: x 1.5 (4 80s give 12)
Rares: x 17.5 (4 80s give 140)
Exotics: x 75 (4 80s give 600)
Ascended: x ? (can you even combine 4 ascended rings/backs/earrings/ or amulets?)

so 4 80s at fine rarity always will give 8 commendations! Not bad for junk.

So, how do mystic forge stones work?

We all know they are used to make a mystic salvage kit using 5 of them but what happens if you use one as a placeholder for combining random junk?

What could happen is that the stone takes the place of the highest level item in your combination to increase your odds of getting a higher item and higher rarity.

This could really help in getting a precursor.

This should be stickied.

If you do say so yourself!

Interesting.

How about using crafted items? I’ve been experimenting with throwing in Crafted items vs Looted items. For me, I’m getting better results with the crafted items. I’m somewhat consistently getting lvl50+ rares with great skins (LB and GS) from blue or green lvl40 crafted items. I don’t have the data that you have, but it’s definitely better using crafted items (in my experience anyways).

It’s actually my understanding that when combining exotics (and I’d need to find my source for this), you get items up to +10 levels. That is, 4 level 70 exotics can produce a precursor.

Reaper.1695:

Interesting.

How about using crafted items? I’ve been experimenting with throwing in Crafted items vs Looted items. For me, I’m getting better results with the crafted items. I’m somewhat consistently getting lvl50+ rares with great skins (LB and GS) from blue or green lvl40 crafted items. I don’t have the data that you have, but it’s definitely better using crafted items (in my experience anyways).

I did notice from my own recent testing they do work better, yet they are more likely to give you exotic crafted skins than anything really good.

As I got a carrion pearl carver with 4 t 5 rare daggers (krait skin) vs. with bought cheap exotic daggers, Legionnaire Dagger Skin which is a dropped skin.

Note: I edited my posts to reflect my mistake that level promotion is actually a random roll of 1 to 12 levels instead of 1-6, as in my own experience, it was more of a median roll of 6 levels added which is actually the average result.

Do expect it to be more along 6 levels increase if you do use four of the same level items and no rarity upgrade occurs.