Equipment and Treasure

Everquest 2 is awash with items and equipment. Some items that you find in the world cannot be equipped or used; they are either fodder to be sold for a few coin, or materials to be used in crafting. However, most items that you come across are usable by players, sometimes restricted by class or level.

The progression of your character is a non-stop process of finding and using new equipment. One of the main ways to improve your character's performance is to find new equipment. Obtaining items is also the main way to gain wealth.

In this guide we discuss the equipment that your character wears, how to examine and compare items, when and how to upgrade your equipment, and obtaining items as treasure from monsters.

Understanding Equipment
Regardless of whether an item is equippable or not, there are a few easy ways to judge whether or not the item is valuable.

Item Rarity

 * Main Article: Item Rarity

As you find loot on monsters and get item rewards from quests, you'll notice that some items are more noteworthy than others. EQ2 uses simple labels to describe the value of items. The plainest of items have no label at all. From least valuable to most valuable, the labels are: There are two additional labels for player-made items, but you won't get them from monsters or quests:
 * Uncommon - poor quality equipment or low-value junk items, dropped randomly by creatures
 * Treasured - common quest rewards and loot; adept spells; common harvested materials
 * Legendary - above-average quest rewards and loot; rare harvested materials
 * Fabled - rare and powerful quest rewards and loot; master spells
 * Handcrafted - items crafted from mundane materials; these are typically similar or better than Treasured quality
 * Mastercrafted - items crafted from rare materials, using rare recipes; these are typically similar to Legendary quality

You can use these labels to make quick judgements about the value of an item. A Legendary or Fabled item is always valuable, even if your character can't use it - other players will be glad to pay you handsomely for it. On the other hand, an Uncommon or unlabelled item is unlikely to be of use to you or any other player, and can be sold to an NPC merchant for a few coins.

Examining and Comparing Items
You can view the details of any item by right-clicking and choosing "Examine". If you point the mouse at the equipment icon, a pop-up window will show some of the same information automatically. For equipment that can be worn or used, the details in the examine window will tell you how the item enhances your character, and will tell you of any restrictions to its use.

Each time you get a new quest reward, you should compare it with your existing equipment to see if the new item is better. When you point your mouse at the icon for a piece of equipment, a pop-up window will appear showing its details. A second pop-up window will show you what you are currently wearing in the same inventory slot.

When you examine an item, its name will be in red if you cannot wear it. You might not be able to wear it because it requires a higher level, or your class may simply be unable to utilize it. Before you discard an item whose name is red, be sure to check whether you could use it at a higher level. If so, then it might be worth saving for later.

Your Inventory
Any items that you receive will be placed in your character's inventory. Your Inventory window is accessed by pressing the I key, or through the EQII Menu. Here you see a "paper doll" view of your character, surrounded by his inventory slots. The inventory slots contain the items

Equipment Slots
If this is a new character, then you'll have starting equipment in some of the slots, but most equipment slots will be empty. At the very bottom of the window, your money and weight are shown.
 * To the left is your clothing or armor, which usually provides mitigation against physical attacks.
 * To the right is your jewelry, which usually boost your resistances, but don't provide mitigation.
 * Below your paper doll is your weaponry and other held items, and food/drink.
 * Along the bottom are six inventory slots that can hold backpacks or other containers.
 * Your money is weightless, and automatically converts to the best denomination. Main Article: Money
 * Your weight limit is governed by your strength. When overburdened, your movement rate is severely reduced.

Bags
Along the bottom of the window are six slots that can hold backpacks or other containers. Double-click a bag to open it. You can open and close all of your inventory bags at once by pressing Alt+I.

As a new character, you'll start with one bag, and you might obtain a second bag from your early quests. You'll find that these bags fill up fast as you kill creatures and harvest materials on your adventures. You can sell items to NPC merchants to free up space, but you'll want to buy additional bags as soon as you've amassed enough cash to afford them.

Items
As you finish quests and defeat monsters, you'll often receive items for your efforts. When you accept these items, they automatically go into your bag slots. From there, you can do a few things with them:
 * To Examine an Item: Right-click and choose "Examine". Most items explain exactly what they are used for.
 * To Equip an Item: Some of the items that you receive can be equipped by your character. To equip an item, find it in your bags and double-click it.  Alternatively, you can drag-and-drop it on your "paper doll" image to equip it.
 * To Sell an Item: Find an NPC merchant and click on him to open the Buy/Sell window. In the "Sell" tab, you can sell any item that isn't currently equipped.  If you accidentally sell an item, the "Buy Back" tab will let you fix your mistake.
 * To Activate an Item: Some items can be activated - generally gadgets used during your quests, but also potions and such created by players (or rarely looted from monsters). To activate an item, right-click and choose "Use", or double-click the item.
 * To Destroy an Item: Right-click and choose "Destroy".

Appearance Slots and the Dressing Room
Starting at level 20, you gain access to a second tab on the Inventory window: the Appearance tab. In this tab you can place any armor or clothing that's wearable by your class. The appearance items don't affect your character's stats, they are only used to change what your clothing looks like. When you find a piece of armor whose appearance you really like, but you can't justify equipping it for one reason or another, then you can put it in your Appearance Slot instead.

The Dressing Room is a helpful tool to let you see what you'd look like with a piece of equipment on. You can use the Dressing Room to "try on" items that you don't own. You can Ctrl-click on any piece of equipment to bring up the Dressing Room and see what you'd look like wearing it. This works anywhere that you can see an equipment icon: in Merchant windows, in the Broker window, in a Loot or Quest Reward window, etc. The Dressing Room can help you shop for nice-looking items for your Appearance Slots.

Repairing Gear
Each time you die, the equipment that you were wearing takes a 10% loss of durability. This has no effect on your character, until the durability of an item reaches zero. Equipment with 0% condition is non-functional. Therefore, it is important to repair your equipment occasionally, after every few times that you die.

Repairing gear is easy: just find a Mender NPC, click on them and select "Repair". Mender NPCs are found in the larger quest hubs of most outdoor zones, and in each city. They are usually not found inside dungeons.

Upgrading Gear
Each piece of equipment has a minimum level that's required to use it. If you were to never replace your gear, it would eventually be tinted gray in your inventory. An item that's tinted gray is rated for far below your level, and is probably hindering your performance in combat.

As you gain levels, you should periodically replace your gear to keep it close to your current level. You'll obtain some replacement gear from treasure chests and quest rewards, but you should periodically check your gear and identify any equipment slots that are are overdue for replacement.

Here are some guidelines for keeping your character well-equipped:
 * Wear the heaviest type of armor that's allowed by your class. For example, shamans should choose chain over leather or cloth.
 * Generally your gear should be rated for within 10 levels of your current level. If you can't afford to keep all of your gear current, then replace your lowest level item first.
 * Once you've accumulated some money, look for Handcrafted and Mastercrafted gear on the Broker. This gear is made by other players, and tends to be the best gear that you can obtain easily.

Buying New Gear through the Broker

 * Main Article: Broker

Players buy and sell items with each other using Broker NPCs. When you want to go shopping for equipment or spells or anything else, your first task is to find a Broker NPC and click on him to open the Broker Window. The Broker Window has two tabs: Buy and Sell. The Buy tab lets you search for items that match your character class and level.

But I don't have enough money!
Prices on the Broker will look expensive to the new player. So how do you accumulate money to buy stuff on the Broker? Simple - sell items on the Broker yourself! You'll obtain lots of items that you don't need while on your adventures, through completing quests and from looting monsters. Any item that is player-usable has some value on the player market - whether it's a spell scroll, a piece of equipment, or even raw materials that you harvested. Search the broker to see what similar items sell for, then put your items up for sale, and wait a day or two for them to sell. Use your earnings from those sales to buy gear that's useful to you.

Improving Your Gear with Adornments

 * Main Article: Adornments

If you're unable to find a suitable piece of gear to replace your existing gear, then you should consider improving your gear by adding adornments to it. Adornments are items that can be added to your equipment to improve it. By adding adornments to your equipment, you can increase the stats that your equipment bestows on you, or even gain new effects that you didn't have before.

Adornments are only created by player crafters; currently there is no source of pre-made adornments in the world of Norrath. As a result, your first exposure to adornments will be through the Broker, where you can buy adornments from other players. Generally you'll find a huge number of adornments for sale, which means that you can buy lesser adornments for cheap prices.

When you attach an adornment to a piece of equipment, the adornment is expended, and cannot be recovered. Because of this, you'll only want to attach adornments to items that you expect to use for a long time. Generally, you should consider adding adornments to your best items, as soon as possible after you obtain them. For example, most of the newbie zones give a nice tunic at the end of their quest lines; it would make sense to add an adornment to this tunic, because you'll probably not replace it for many levels.

Finding Treasure
As you kill creatures and complete quests, you'll find items. As a rule, take every item that you find, and sell it to an NPC merchant (or to other players) if you don't plan to use it. You'll find that you quickly run out of space in your inventory bags! Use the first few coins that you get to buy more bags - remember that you have six inventory slots that can hold six bags. You should be able to find a merchant who sells bags very close to the spot where your character began.

Treasure Chests

 * Main Article: Chests

Occasionally, your enemy will drop a Treasure Chest when it dies. The best loot is found in chests, rather than directly on the enemy's corpse. Even the lowliest creature has a small chance to drop a chest, but they are more commonly obtained from stronger creatures. Named creatures normally drop a chest every time. Heroic creatures have a high rate of dropping chests as well (this is one of the main incentives for venturing into dungeons).

There are four types of chest that can drop. The last two types are extremely rare, and some players will go for dozens of levels without seeing an Exquisite Chest. Each chest has a chance of being trapped. A trap is a spell that harms you (or your group) when you open the chest, and can be deadly if you're not healthy. The more valuable the chest, the more dangerous its traps can be. Scouts have the ability to disarm traps on chests before they are opened.
 * Small Chest: common in frequency, these chests usually contain crafting tomes or other low value treasure.
 * Treasure Chest: Contains at least one item tagged with the "Treasured" title. Adept tomes are the most common items found in these chests, although some decent equipment will sometimes appear.
 * Ornate Chest: Contains at least one Legendary item. Usually drops from named creatures.
 * Exquisite Chest: Contains at least one Fabled item. Either a piece equipment, or a Master spell, or a rare advanced crafting recipe.