Diablo 4’s endgame upgrade system is a little convoluted at first blush. Since most casual players are butting up against The Pit and earning Masterworking materials, let’s do a quick rundown of how it all works and why you should do it.
How to Masterwork
First thing’s first, you’ll need to have unlocked The Pit and completed at least one Tier 1 run-through. The quest “Pit of the Artificer” appears when you reach World Tier 4, and you can check our Pit unlock guide for more details. Once that’s done, head to the Blacksmith to use your earned Obducite to Masterwork your first piece of gear as part of the questline.
Masterworking requires materials found in the pit, which drop in the following tiers:
- Rank 1-4: Obducite; drops in Pit tiers 1-30
- Rank 5-8: Ingolith; drops in Pit tiers 31-60
- Rank 9-12: Neathiron; drops in Pit tier 61+
These materials can be converted into one another at the Alchemist, with higher level materials converting into increased numbers of lower ones (1 Ingolith will convert into 3 Obducite, for examples). Use this to save time if you’re blasting high-tier Pit runs! Just don’t forget to bring along the 3 required Runeshards.
Masterwork upgrades
After this first Masterworking rank, that same item can be upgraded a grand total of 12 times, resulting in the following bonuses:
- Each rank gives all base affixes a +5% boost
- Every fourth rank gives one random affix a +25% boost
- This +25% boost can be applied three times to one affix, or spread out across multiple over the course of Masterworking
- At Masterwork rank 12, you’ll have gained a 45% increase to all base affixes, plus an additional 75% spread across one to three affixes
Masterworking tips
Masterworking all your 925 item level gear that has Greater Affixes that suit your build is essential to progressing further into The Pit, but you should focus on reaching rank 4 on all pieces, then rank 8, then finally rank 12. Don’t waste time and effort trying to jack a piece up to rank 12 before anything else is upgraded! The power gains in those early ranks spread across multiple pieces of gear will far outweigh a completed one.
Don’t forget, salvaging a Masterworked item will return all invested materials except those you used to get it to the current rank. So if you salvage a rank 3 item, you’ll get back 30 Obducite, but lose the 30 you used to get it to rank 3.
You can also reset the Masterwork of an item using some materials plus a staggering 5 million gold if you’re unhappy with how the bonus affix boosts pan out, but I’d save that for your tippity-top min-maxing later on.
