When you upgrade with Heaven Stones, there are special ways to do this to ensure a good success.

When you upgrade a weapon you should try to use smelts to upgrade your item to +3. You can still find it cheaper to buy a weapon and get two smelts, at the lower levels. Weapons are cheap to use for smelts up to level 25. Another possibility too, if you can sell a HS to get the money to say buy level 33 weapons to get smelts to level your level 33 weapon. On Sarissa a HS sells for about 500k, more or less. Now you could buy 8 - Level 33 weapons to get 16 smelts from them. Now I do not think it would take 16 smelts to get +3, but then buy 2 weapons at a time. And again, depending if you have a reliable ride back and fourth from Egeha. So many factors now. The extra weapons you have, you can usually sell them for more then 55k as a lot of people do not know that level 33 weapons are sold in Egeha.

Once you have gotten your weapon/armor to +3, you may use a Lucky Stone which will ensure you an upgrade up to +6. One LS per upgrade now so from +3 to +6 that would be 3 lucky stones. You could use a heaven stone instead if you do not have a Lucky Stone, as the Lucky Stones may run 3-4 times higher then an HS. Of course, at higher levels of armor or weapons, I use the heaven stone from the very beginning as many times i have the Hs in storage and no money to buy Lucky Stones. Then around level 45 weapons may run in the 500 k range and to me, i would rather use an HS then two smelts at that point. But if you have a armor or weapon drop, you might try to use them for smelts. Also, if your drop has an upgrade on it like +1, then you are not able to transmute it to a smelting stone.



Heaven Stones - You may use HS to upgrade to +3 and your weapon will not be ruined. After +3, there are 4 possibilities:

1. You weapon gets one +. You weapon was level 33 +7 and it is now level 33 +8.

2. There is no change in the weapon status. Your weapon is still 33 +7.

3. Your weapon decreases one level. Say it was level 33 +7, then it decreases to level 33 +6.

4. Your weapon is ruined or destroyed.

Now what everyone fails to mention, there is a trick to upgrading armor or weapons. This is what works for me now. Later you may find your own tricks. Just as long as it works.

If you are in a guild use the guild hall to upgrade. I try to do it late at night when it seems less people are on the game. NEVER do it on a server that is congested. I used to upgrade in town and the highest I ever got was +6, till I read the forums and discovered what i did wrong. Now a year later, and I got the Big Fairy all the time. I am talking about my armor and weapons, not me, lol.

The key was to upgrade with no one on the radar screen. The guild hall fits this description. You can also find a place around Randol toward the fringes of the map when there are no mob or monsters around on the radar screen. I have people who use places, their "Lucky Spots," located in Eghea too. What they all got in common is that there is nothing on the radar screen.

Armor is always harder to upgrade then weapons, at least for me. If you use the guild hall and you ruin a weapon do not use the guild hall again. Go to your secondary spot. If not in a guild, then i would suggest to go to another server but same spot should be OK. I have noticed that some days are good for upgrading and others days bad. Of course, I have upgraded two pieces of armor to +14, then the third piece is ruined. Nothing is guaranteed. The only thing i can ensure you, is that if you attempt to upgrade in the guild hall or a desolate place, that your chances of upgrading are tremendously improved, compared to doing so in town.

Do not be impatient either. I have only ruined items twice per piece at the most when upgrading and I never have used runes of protection. Well, my level 71 shirt, I ruined 4 times. I can not see me paying $120 to get a +15 weapon. I know of some people that do but they have the money and i do not. lol

You may want to upgrade using the leap frog method. I will get the first weapon up to level 6. Then I try to get the second one up to level 8 or level 10. Then get the lower weapon upgraded past the higher one. But always try to have a backup weapon in case you ruin the first one. If you had the +8 weapon for backup, then you might try to get the next one to +11. Going from +10 to +11, is a big attack point jump.


CONCLUSION:

Be patient. Best to wait a day then ruin your weapon. You will ruin armor and weapons, but in the long run, i have always came out ahead. I start with 50 HS on me, in case it is a good day. These are only guidelines and not set in stone, but to show you various ways to upgrade. See what works for you and adjust accordingly. And shop for your upgraded weapons and sometimes it might be just as cheap to buy one then to try and upgrade it now. That is a judgement call. Some people would rather buy the weapons or armor already upgraded. Nothing wrong with that. So have fun and hope this will get you that high upgraded piece you are working on.