Gear progression in Tlessa is straightforward. It begins with crafting and enchanting, as well as using the shop, and moves into sets, oils, uniques, mythics, and even cosmic items.

The goal of this document is to break down exactly how you can progress your gear throughout your playtime to become stronger. We all enjoy seeing the numbers go up—this guide will help you make that happen!

Gear consists of weapons, armour, spells, rings, and trinkets. Every class has its own set of weapons, which you can craft, enchant, and even purchase from the shop—up to a cost of two billion gold. However, crafting can continue far beyond that, all the way to thirty-six billion gold.

Enemies will also drop random gear. Sometimes it’s better for you, sometimes it’s worse—however, even the less useful gear can be broken down into something called Gold Dust, which is used in alchemy to create the oils you'll need later to enhance your gear even further.

There are NPCs, like the Labyrinth Oracle, who will help you transfer all aspects of your gear—including something we haven’t discussed yet: sockets and gems—from one piece of gear to another. You can also use the Queen of Hearts in Hell to re-roll enchantments on your gear, including on uniques, mythics, and cosmics, to maximize your stats.

As you can tell, there’s a lot to gear progression—so let’s break it down step by step, so you know exactly what to do to get even stronger. Along the way, there will be optional steps to help you fill in any gear gaps, especially during events like raids or special maps such as The Ice Plane.

Tier One: Basics

This is where you will start—finding gear by killing monsters, buying from the shop, and crafting or enchanting.

The guide quests will introduce you to crafting and enchanting, explaining their value and why they matter. The best gear in the game is crafted, not bought. At first, you might wonder, "If I can buy it, why should I craft it?" The answer is: to raise your crafting levels so you can eventually craft gear that goes beyond what the shop offers.

You also can't buy enchanted gear unless you purchase it from the Market—a player-driven shop filled with gear that others have crafted and enchanted.

As mentioned, you can find enchanted gear by killing monsters, but crafting allows you to control the specific enchantments you apply.

So your first tier is a combination of shop gear, crafted and enchanted items, and self-found drops.

During the early stages, you will also participate in something called Faction Loyalty. As a reward for your loyalty, you will receive your first set of Uniques. These are powerful items, but you won’t unlock their full potential until you can re-roll them. Even then, the more you level your character, the more these items will benefit you in meaningful ways.

Tier Two: Uniques and Re-Rolling

At this stage, you're crafting, enchanting, killing monsters, and completing Faction Loyalty tasks. You've likely obtained a few Uniques by now.

Eventually, you'll make your way down to Hell, where you will meet the Queen of Hearts. This is where you can begin re-rolling your Uniques to improve their stats—though, of course, it's all based on RNG.

But before that, you’ll enter your second major map: the Labyrinth. Here, you will meet the Labyrinth Oracle. This NPC allows you to transfer your most powerful Unique—perhaps even one that surpasses any enchant you can craft—onto your Body slot.

Body armour always provides the highest stat bonuses. This will help increase your damage output, as damage is tied to your class’s core damage stat. The higher this stat, the more damage you’ll deal.

Tier Three: Hell Forged

At this stage, you will have reached Hell and gained access to a new specialty shop. This shop will appear in your actions section—either through the dropdown menu on mobile or on the left-hand side where you select the monster you want to fight.

Buy an entire set of this gear and use the Labyrinth Oracle to transfer everything you've done so far onto this new gear set. Make sure to purchase a full set, including the weapon that corresponds to your class.

This gear is stronger than the highest-level item you can craft—level 400 being the crafting cap. This marks your first step into what is known as Set Progression.

At this point, you should be re-rolling your Uniques to get the most out of them. Ensure you have level 400 enchantments that make sense for your class applied to all your gear—and, of course, a full set of Hell Forged gear equipped.

Tier Four: Purgatory Chains, Holy Oils, and Trinkets

This tier becomes important when you enter Purgatory, the next plane after Hell. So far, you have crafted and enchanted your gear. You've traveled through the Surface, Labyrinth, Dungeons, Shadow Planes, and then Hell. As you progress through the quests, you will eventually unlock Purgatory.

At some point in the guide quests, you were introduced to Alchemy. Alchemy includes items called Holy Oils, which you want to apply to every piece of gear you have. While they add stats to your gear, they also apply effects called Devouring Darkness and Light. These help you void and devoid your enemies, while also protecting you from being voided or devoided—or at least reducing the chances of it happening.

Next are Trinkets. These allow you to ambush and counter your enemies. Trinkets also provide stats and improve your survivability against stronger creatures.

Last, but certainly not least, is the new gear set you’ll upgrade to: Purgatory Chains. This set is stronger than Hell Forged, and just like before, you’ll use the Labyrinth Oracle to transfer everything over to this new gear. Purgatory Chains gear is purchased the same way as Hell Forged—from a specialty shop in Purgatory.

At this stage, you also start to see some optional gear paths. These might be worth pursuing if you’re participating in events or raids, but if you miss those, don’t worry—you can still get gear of the same strength by simply playing the game. Let’s discuss these next.

Optional Gear Set: Pirate Lord Leather

The Pirate Lord Leather gear set can only be obtained by participating in a raid called The Smugglers Are Back. This raid takes place on the Surface from time to time, and only the player who lands the killing blow on the Raid Boss will receive a full set of this gear.

Pirate Lord Leather is weaker than Hell Forged but stronger than the maximum crafted gear at crafting level 401. In theory, this could be your first gear set acquired during your set progression, but it is entirely optional. You can skip it and move straight to Hell Forged. It depends on your current quest progression and which maps you have unlocked.

Note: Raids only last for one month.

Optional Gear: Corrupted Ice

Corrupted Ice is stronger than Purgatory Chains and is only available by participating in The Winter Event, which takes place once per year—usually starting in November and lasting throughout the entire winter season. During this event, there are quests to complete, raids to join, and global event goals to work toward. Through these, you have a chance to earn Corrupted Ice gear.

As mentioned, this gear is better than Purgatory Chains. However, it is optional—you can skip it and move on to the next map after Purgatory: Twisted Memories. There, you can obtain Twisted Earth gear, which is even stronger than Corrupted Ice.

That said, if the Winter Event is active and you’re looking to upgrade from your Purgatory Chains gear while working toward unlocking Twisted Memories, participating in the event is a great way to earn powerful gear in the meantime.

Mythics and Cosmics

Mythics and Cosmics start becoming available around the time you reach Purgatory. You can obtain Mythics from the Winter Event, as rare drops from Purgatory Dungeons, and by participating in the Delusional Memories Event, which we will discuss after Tier Five.

Mythics are stronger than Uniques. Cosmics, on the other hand, are handed out through Mr. Whiskers' gifts, which occur randomly while you're fighting in the Ice Plane during the Winter Event. You can also obtain Cosmic items from specific weekly fights, such as battles against the Alchemy Church during the Delusional Memories Event.

Cosmics are stronger than Mythic items. If you have the chance to get one—or even just a Mythic to replace a Unique—it’s highly recommended. Aim to acquire a Mythic first, and then, when either the Delusional Memories or Winter Event is active, try to obtain a Cosmic to replace that Mythic.

Tier Five: Twisted Earth, Sockets, and Gems

At this stage, you should have a full set of Purgatory Chains gear (or Corrupted Ice), fully applied Holy Oils, the best enchantments, and at least one Unique, Mythic, or Cosmic item. Your next goal is to purchase your next set of gear—Twisted Earth—which is stronger than the optional Corrupted Ice gear. If you missed the Winter Event, aim for this gear after finishing with your Purgatory Chains set.

By now, the guide quests will have introduced you to Sockets and Gems. You can use the Seer Camp in Purgatory to create sockets on your gear and attach gems. You can craft four tiers of gems, with each tier producing a gem that randomly contains three different stats: Fire, Ice, and Water. These stats help you resist incoming damage from tougher enemies, especially during raids and special event maps. Once you have access to Purgatory, it’s important to learn about Elemental Atonement, as it becomes a key concept at this point in the game—especially if you're aiming to participate in raids and obtain Cosmic or Ancestral items.

When using the Labyrinth Oracle, you can transfer sockets, gems, Holy Oils, and enchantments to any other gear set. This makes upgrading your gear much easier, as it removes the need to re-craft, re-enchant, or re-apply oils and gems.

Optional: Delusional Silver

This gear set is stronger than Twisted Earth but can be skipped, as you can obtain Faithless Plate gear from Twisted Memories.

Delusional Silver drops from Global Event Goals, Weekly Fights during Delusional Memories, and Raids.

You can easily get a full set by participating in the Global Events. However, this gear is only available through the Delusional Memories event, which makes it optional—especially since you can progress directly to Tier Six gear: Faithless Plate, from Twisted Memories. So don’t worry if you miss this event.

Delusional Memories runs for the same length of time as the Winter Event and usually begins in April each year, lasting for about three months. That gives you plenty of time to earn the gear, complete event quests, advance the story, and take part in the raids.

Tier Six: Faithless Plate

This is currently the strongest gear in the game and can only be obtained by participating in weekly fights within Twisted Memories. Access to these fights requires you to complete a series of quests.

Once you have access to the weekly fights, you’ll have a chance to obtain Faithless Plate gear based on how many pieces of Twisted Earth gear you have equipped. As mentioned earlier, this gear only drops from the weekly fights and has a small drop chance influenced by your equipped Twisted Earth gear.

Faithless Plate is considered stronger than Delusional Silver.

Once you have this gear, you are considered to be immensely powerful. However, it will take time to complete the full set, as you can only fight each monster on the list once per week.

Ancestral Items

Ancestral Items are class-specific items that only drop if you are the one who kills a raid boss. These items can be equipped and have skill trees that you can train to increase your stats, damage, and other aspects of your character.

You train them by selecting a skill in the item's tree and then killing monsters until the skill is fully trained. Over time, the damage you deal will increase. All the skills on the item work together to make you stronger in that specific class.

Because of class ranks, a character can switch their class at any time, allowing you to make use of multiple Ancestral Items and train the skills on all of them.