Enhancements can be applied to weapons and armour via the R&D Building, which is an unlockable Cartel Perk, increasing their base stats up to 20% over ten enhancement levels. Each enhancement increases performance metrics like damage or accuracy by 2% of the item's base value. However, enhancing carries a risk: the upgraded item may be destroyed in the process depending on the enhancement quality used.
Enhancement items are fully tradeable, giving them economic value both in PvP and marketplace interactions. Players may also sacrifice duplicate items to protect enhanced gear from destruction, adding a layer of resource investment and decision-making.
There are three distinct types of Enhancement items, each offering different risk-reward profiles:
| Type | Quantity Used | Base Break Chance | Chance Increase Per Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Street-Quality | 100 | 5% | +5% per level |
| Syndicate-Issued | 75 | 2.5% | +3% per level |
| Blacksite Prototype | 50 | 1% | +2% per level |
These items are consumed on use, and the probability of breaking scales with enhancement level and item quality.
Once a Cartel has unlocked the Research & Development Building Perk, found in the Headquarters tab, a new Research & Development menu entry is added to the Cartels page. This page allows for Scrapping and Enhancing Items.
To Enhance an Item -
To mitigate the risk of losing powerful gear, players may sacrifice a duplicate item. This guarantees that the enhanced item will survive if the enhancement fails, though the second item is always destroyed in the process. This mechanic creates a strategic tension between risk-taking and resource management.
Enhancement items are acquired through a variety of gameplay actions, incentivizing both solo and group activities:
Enhancements earned from Territory Wars are calculated based on a combination of:
Participation bonuses and size scaling are built into the formula to encourage collaboration without disproportionately rewarding small Cartels or exploitative behavior.
Cartels can scrap weapons and armour in the R&D Building to convert them into Enhancement items.
For each scrapped item an internal value referred to as Enhancement Points is calculated, these points are based on the quantity and value of the items scrapped, with value including a small diminishing return calculation to reduce the ability to quickly scrap high-value items to acquire Enhancements quickly. Enhancement points are then ‘spent’ to calculate the number of Enhancement Items gained using a weighted set system to ensure that Enhancement Items are gained in proportion to their intended rarity.
The highest rarity Enhancement Item will be earned based on the points available, so for example, 50 Enhancement Points will earn 1 BlackSite Prototype Enhancement, whereas 49 may result in 2 Syndicate-Issued and 10 Street-Level Enhancement items.