Cores

As you are adventuring through Cabal Online, you will come across many Cores. These cores present themselves in a variety of different types such as Upgrade Cores, Force Cores, and more. You can always tell if a core has dropped, as it will make a 'bling' noise as it falls to the ground; a noise that I love to hear. Cores add stats to your weapons and armor - low, medium, high and highest upgrade cores improve the stats of your equipment (upgrades go up to +12); whereas a force core adds a special attribute to equipment with a slot such as HP + 50.

Which cores to use when upgrading your items ?

The items that you wear can be upgraded with multiple types of cores, but not all of them will be worth while. For example, you COULD upgrade a shadowsteel with an upgrade core highest, but that would be a waste of money, as you do not have different upgrade success chances (%) by using higher grade cores for upgrading. The only cores that will increase this success % are the enchanted cores (after having Core Enchanters applied to them). Items can be upgraded to +7 by right clicking on the core and then clicking the item. For +8 to +12, you will have to visit a Core Alchemist and continue upgrading.

Before we proceed, we will rank the weapons and armors on tiers, for easier understanding.

Naming convention :

UCHH = Upgrade Core Highest

UCH = Upgrade Core High

UCM = Upgrade Core Medium

UCL = Upgrade Core Low

Tier 1 - Can be upgraded with UCHH * UCH * UCM * UCL - Includes Crude items

Tier 2 - Can be upgraded with UCHH * UCH * UCM * UCL - Includes Red and Reinforced

Tier 3 - Can be upgraded with UCHH * UCH * UCM * UCL - Includes Coraleye and Iron and Silk items

Tier 4 - Can be upgraded with UCHH * UCH * UCM * UCL - Includes Citrine and Shadowsteel and Aramid items

Tier 5 - Can be upgraded with UCHH * UCH * UCM - Includes Bluestin items

Tier 6 - Can be upgraded with UCHH * UCH * UCM - Includes Pherystin and Titanium items

Tier 7 - Can be upgraded with UCHH * UCH - Includes Aqua and Shadowtitanium items

Tier 8 - Can be upgraded with UCHH * UCH - Includes Lapis and Osmium items

Tier 9 - Can be upgraded with UCHH * UCH - Includes Topaz and Shineguard and Teragrace and Mystic items

Tier 10 - Can be upgraded with UCHH * UCH - Includes SIG Metal items

Tier 11 - Can be upgraded with UCHH - Includes Mithril items

Tier 12 - Can be upgraded with UCHH - Includes Lycanus items

The same ranking is used for enchanting items as well, with Force Cores (Highest, High, Medium, Low). The enchanting takes place at a Core Alchemist, giving you the chance to insert the following properties in a slot (thanks to FlyBy for this great enchant chart) : http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/8829/enchants2010.jpg. Whenever you enchant, you will use the item, 3 cores, and a Catalyst. This catalyst will improve the success rate, based on its level of upgrade (a +3 Daikatana will give higher success rates than a +0 one) as well as help you choose the Level 1 upgrade you wish to insert.

You have 2 types of enchants : Level 1 enchants, which you can control the outcome of, and Level 2 enchants, which are totally random. For level 2 enchants, it is advisable to use a catalyst, in order to have a failsafe enchant, and not render the item useless (for example, if you try critical rate in a helm of deathblow, you might want to use a critical damage catalyst as backup, in case you fail to insert rate)

To obtain a level 1 enchant, you must use a single Force Core. To further increase your success rates, use any 2 other upgrade cores (they all give the same %, so my suggestion would be to use UCL)

To obtain a level 2 enchant, you must use 2 Force Cores. To further increase your success rate, you can use another Force Core (3 in total) or an Upgrade Core.

Level 2 enchants do not require a Catalyst but in case you fail to obtain any random level 2 enchant, you will receive a level 1 enchant, and therefore, it is advisable to control the outcome of the lvl 1 enchant. There's also the possibility of completely failing the enchant, not gaining either of the 2 types of enchants, but an empty slot.