4Story Online Refinement Guide

4Story Online Refinement Guide by Steven Neely

1. Refinement Basics
   • Benefits and Reasons for Refinement
   • What do I need?
   • How do I refine?
2. Advanced Refinement
   • Increasing Your Success
   • Refining Weapons
   • Refining Armor
3. Item Option Transfer
   • What is it?
   • How does it work?
   • Transferring Options
     • Armor Options
     • Weapon Options
   • Best Possible Options

[Refinement Basics]
>> Benefits and Reasons for Refinement
Refinement is actually a very useful system in the game. The simplest, and most common benefit is increased durability. As you level up, you will most likely want to be able to go longer without having to repair, and of course avoid having your items break. More durability is always something your items could use, especially if you plan on keeping them for a while.

>> What do I need?
To refine an item, you of course need the item to refine, and up to 3 refinement Catalyst. Catalyst, simply put, are items just like the one you are trying to refine. Maybe it is a sword you found while doing reps(repeatable quest), or a bow you bought in the shop.
Of course, thanks to the Cash Shop, there are special Catalyst which work with any item and can help users more easily obtain better Item Options to refine with.

You will simply need to take your item to one of the [Refinement Engineer Soldiers] in your starting town(Lonbarei Training Camp or Kuznet’s Advance Base) or in your castle area(Magnaksia Military District or Headquarter of Blo Brunak Magic Knight Guild).

• The performance level of your Catalyst can be no lower than 20 levels from the performance level of your original item.
• There is no limit to how much higher the performance level of your Catalyst can be.

Simply click the refine button and of course pay the refinement cost. The cost is based on the performance level of your original item. Obviously items that have been upgraded more with a higher performance level will cost more to refine, so it is often best to refine items before you upgrade.
Also any item can only be successfully refined a total of 5 times. If a refinement fails, this will not count towards your refinement limit.

>> Increasing Your Success
Many people seem to loathe the refinement system do to the fact that they spend so much money, and the refinement fails. There are ways to help increase the chances of a successful refine, however. And so always make sure you are prepared before refining, to help ensure you do not waste your money.

• Using 3 Catalyst is a simple way to help increase the chance of a success for your refinement.
• Using Catalyst with a higher performance level than your original item can also increase the success rate for your refinement.
• Cash Items can be purchased as an alternative method of increase the success rate of your refine, guaranteeing a successful refinement.

The best advice is to find 3 items with high performance levels, such as dungeon items. Currently the level 59 dungeon items are very useful for Catalyst. Refining an item with a performance level of 34 using these dungeon items(which have a performance level of 66) will give you a higher chance of success.
When refining upgraded items, it is obviously harder to find Catalyst that have a higher performance level. In these cases, you will most likely need to use Cash Shop items to increase your chances of success.

>> Refining Weapons
When refining weapons, it is best to use other weapons to refine them with. Being even more specific, using ranged weapons to refine ranged weapons, and magic weapons to refine magic weapons. You don’t have to refine with the exact same item, but with Item Option transfers, you will only be able to transfer Item Options that are applicable to that type of weapon. So obviously other similar weapons will hold Item Options that you can use.
You can actually refine weapons with armor, and armor with weapons. But of course the only thing that you will gain, would be increased durability on the item.

>> Refining Armor
The same concept goes for armor. It is best to use other armor to refine your armor with. Obviously the Item Options can only be transfered from armor to armor. Using weapons to refine armor will only increase the durability.
Also, while sold by the weapon merchants, shields(magic and physical) can hold armor Item Options, rather than weapon Item Options, as they are defensive pieces of equipment. So of course Magic Shields and Physical Shields should be considered armor and refined as such.

[Item Option Transfer]
>> What is it?
Item Option Transfer simply refers to taking Item Options from one item, and adding them to another item.

Option Levels are as follows(in order from worst to best): F, E, D, C, B, A, S, SS, SSS.
Option Level F would obviously have very few Item Options and the quality of each Option would be low, where as SSS would have high quality Item Options in several different Options available to that item.

>> How does it work?
Item Option Transfer requires a few things for it to work.

• The Refinement must be successful for a transfer to be possible
• The Item Option‘s ‘type’ must be transferable to the item you are refining
• The Item Options must be greater than the Item Options already on the item you are trying to refine(if any)

It is a simple list really. And I will later explain the ‘types’ of Item Options for both weapons and armor.
Now, essentially, you will just refine an item with up to 3 Catalyst that contain Item Options. If your refinement is successful, then there will be a chance that eon or several Item Options will transfer from your catalyst to the item you are refining.
When transferring Options, there is a chance where you may transfer multiple Options to one item in a single refine. Most of the time only 1 Option will be transfered, but there is the potential for up to 3 Options to be transfered in a single refine.

>> Transferring Options
When trying to transfer Item Options, you of course need to make sure the item you are trying to refine can even use those Item Options. So here is a little list to help you know what Item Options are available for weapons and armor.

• Armor
  • Includes: Heavy (Warrior) Armor, Light and Heavy Leather Armor, Cloth and Uniform Armor
  • Defense Rating
  • Magic Defense Level
• Shields
  • Includes: (Warrior) Shields, Magic Shields
  • Defense Rating (Shields)
  • Magic Defense Level (Magic Shields)
  • Block Rate
• Weapons
  • Physical
    • Melee
      • Includes: 1-Handed Swords, 2-Handed Swords, Axes, Daggers, Chakrams
      • Physical Critical Rate
      • Attack Rating
      • Physical Attack Speed
    • Ranged
      • Includes: Bows, Crossbows
      • Physical Critical Rate
      • Attack Rating
      • Long Range Attack Speed
  •   Magic
    • Includes: Wands, Staffs
    • Critical Magic Rate
    • Magic Attack Level
    • Magic Attack Speed
    • Cast Rate

Each of these Item Options can be transfered to your items, and each item can only hold the Options listed for that type. The Item Options also have limits to how high they can go. While the definite limit for each Option is unknown, at least know that each Item Option can only go so high for your items.
Also, as an important side note, Shields used by warriors can only hold the Defense Rating Option, while Magic Shields can hold the Magic Defense Level Option.

>>>>> Armor Options
Transferring Item Options to armor can still be a bit, ‘iffy,’ but for the most part. You have a chance to ‘stack’ the Options that are in your Catalyst. To explain, using 3 Catalyst with +3 to your Defense Rating can possibly stack up to +9, but may also yield a lower number.

1. Refinement Item
   • No Item Options
2. Catalyst
   • +3 Defense Rating
   • +3 Defense Rating
   • +3 Defense Rating
3. Resulting Item
   • +9 Defense Rating

1. Refinement Item
   • +6 Defense Rating
   • +4 Magic Defense Level
2. Catalyst
   • +1 Defense Rating
   • +1 Magic Defense Level
3. Resulting Item
   • +7 Defense Rating
   • +5 Magic Defense Level

Also, there are cases when a higher number is given than what is available on the catalyst provided. An example would be using 3 Catalyst with +3 Defense Rating and +2 Magic Defense Level, with a successful transfer of +12 Defense Rating.

1. Refinement Item
   1. No Item Options
2. Catalyst
   1. +3 Defense Rating, +2 Magic Defense Level
   2. +3 Defense Rating, +2 Magic Defense Level
   3. +3 Defense Rating, +2 Magic Defense Level
3. Resulting Item
   1. +12 Defense Rating

>>>>> Weapon Options
Transferring Item Options to your weapons seems to be a pretty simple system that is somewhat reliable. The Item Options most likely will not stack. Usually the highest Option from the Catalyst will be transfered.
There have been cases where Item Options were transfered that were not available in the catalyst, such as 3 Catalyst with something like +21, +24 and +24 Attack Rating could transfer a +22 Physical Critical Rate. This is an extremely rare case, and could have been corrected.

1. Refinement Item
   1. No Item Options
2. Catalyst
   1. +21 Attack Rating
   2. +24 Attack Rating
   3. +24 Attack Rating
3. Resulting Item
   1. +22 Physical Critical Rate

>> Best Possible Options
I mentioned that each of the Item Option has a limit to how high it may go. There is no way for users to officially know the limits without any insight from Zemi, so just like most of the system, it is up to us users to discover the information. Currently, many of the Item Options have had their limits increased. As this is a collaborative effort, feel free to post here if you have obtained a higher Option on an item of yours. It is suggested that you provide a screen shot of your item with the Options, and tell us how the  Item Option was transfered(Catalyst used, Cash Shop items, etc.)