Upgrading Equipment at Technicus Down to the Last Percent
Technicus is the craftsman where you permanently upgrade the quality of your equipment using coins or rubies — and one of the few mechanics in the game where you can calculate exact probabilities. Every attempt has a known success chance, from 100% on the first step down to 2% on the last, and a failed attempt destroys nothing. This guide has the complete table of prices and odds for all 20 steps, expected costs worked out by rarity, and a strategy for what to spend your upgrades on and where to call it quits.
How Technicus Works
Technicus unlocks at level 10 and does exactly one thing: permanently raise the quality of a piece of equipment. Depending on its rarity, every piece has a fixed maximum number of upgrades, and each further upgrade gets pricier and less likely to succeed. You pay in coins or rubies — and this is where Technicus stands out: it's one of the few systems where the coins an advanced player has millions of actually have a real use.
The key feature here is that a failed attempt has no downside. The equipment doesn't break, doesn't drop a level, doesn't vanish — you simply pay for the attempt. Upgrading is purely a matter of patience and budget, never risk.
One limitation: only non-relic equipment can be upgraded — Technicus won't touch relic pieces. Rift equipment from the Rift Raid event, on the other hand, can be upgraded. Five of the six equipment types can be upgraded.
The Complete Prices and Odds Table for All 20 Steps
Here's the complete upgrade table. The "Step" column marks the order of upgrades for a given piece.
| Step | Coins | Rubies | Success Chance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 170 | — | 100% |
| 2 | 550 | 550 | 86% |
| 3 | 1,100 | 550 | 70% |
| 4 | 1,790 | 1,010 | 58% |
| 5 | 2,620 | 1,620 | 47% |
| 6 | 3,580 | 2,370 | 39% |
| 7 | 4,650 | 3,270 | 32% |
| 8 | 5,830 | 4,330 | 26% |
| 9 | 7,120 | 5,550 | 21% |
| 10 | 8,520 | 6,920 | 17% |
| 11 | 10,020 | 8,460 | 14% |
| 12 | 11,620 | 10,150 | 12% |
| 13 | 13,310 | 12,010 | 10% |
| 14 | 15,100 | 14,040 | 8% |
| 15 | 16,970 | 16,220 | 6% |
| 16 | 18,940 | 18,580 | 5% |
| 17 | 21,000 | 21,100 | 4% |
| 18 | 23,140 | 23,790 | 3% |
| 19 | 25,370 | 26,650 | 3% |
| 20 | 27,680 | 29,680 | 2% |
Prices are per single attempt — and since the odds fall all the way to 2%, the real cost of the high steps runs many times higher. On top of that, a special offer occasionally appears (the Technicus Prime Sale), which significantly cuts the ruby price of upgrading — it's worth holding the high steps back for exactly that.
How Many Steps Each Rarity Has
The number of upgrade steps depends on the piece's rarity.
| Rarity | Max Upgrades | Expected Attempts | Expected Cost in Coins |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ordinary | 3 | about 4 | about 2,400 |
| Rare | 8 | about 17 | about 57,000 |
| Epic | 12 | about 43 | about 310,000 |
| Legendary | 16 | about 102 | about 1,290,000 |
| Unique | 20 | about 244 | about 4,820,000 |
The expected values come from the odds table (for a step with a p% chance you need, on average, 1/p attempts). They make the real turning point obvious: you can max out an ordinary or rare piece out of pocket change, an epic one runs into the hundreds of thousands of coins, but legendary and unique equipment climbs into the millions — the twentieth step alone on a unique piece eats an average of 50 attempts at 27,680 coins each, nearly 1.4 million. These are just averages, though: you might sail through on the first try, or you might click a hundred times.
Strategy for What to Upgrade and Where to Stop
1. Only upgrade equipment you'll still be wearing a year from now. Upgrades are permanent, but tied to that specific piece. Pouring coins into a rare piece you'll replace with an epic one next month is pure waste. Ideal targets are the unique and legendary Commander and Castellan sets that form your long-term build, plus rift equipment for boss fights.
2. Always do the first 5 to 8 steps. Up through the 47% chance (step 5), the whole run costs just a few thousand coins and the bonuses add up fast. For rare equipment, feel free to push all the way to the max — 57,000 coins for a fully upgraded piece is a great deal.
3. From step 13 onward (10% chance and below), pay strictly in coins, not rubies. From step 17 on, the prices in both currencies are nearly identical (21,000 coins vs. 21,100 rubies per attempt), but your castle generates coins endlessly and for free, while rubies are the hardest currency in the game. Upgrading with rubies only makes sense during a Technicus Prime Sale with a steep discount.
4. Don't take the odds personally. A 2% chance means that on average one in fifty attempts succeeds — and you can easily run into a streak of 150 failures. Upgrade steadily, whenever your treasury overflows, and treat it as a long-term sink for your coin surplus, not a one-afternoon project.