Hoarding orbs and enhancer items?

Just started playing the other day. I've noticed there are special consumable items that alter equipment mods or increase the quality of them. I've also noticed that early on in the game at least, changing equipment when finding something better happens quite frequently.

SO - should I be hoarding these special items for a later date? I mean, what should determine when I use them and when I hold onto them? I get the feeling that later on in the game, I will be changing my items around less frequently, find something good and stick with it for a while at least, and then pumping those items up with orbs ect will be smart.

Or should I just say to heck with it and start using them now because plenty will be dropping throughout the game?

Are certain ones exceptions, like the one that turns a normal item into a magical one?

What do you do with your savings IRL?

Do you spend all your money at once, enjoying new gadgets and toys, or do you put your spare money into a savings account in case you need it in future?

Your original question is just one of preference / strategy :)

Orbs are useful to have, but useless if all you do with them is put them in your stash.

If you have a look at how many orbs you have now after playing for a few days, it should give you some indication of how common / rare the various types are.

One thing I will say is that try not to waste orbs on items that aren't very well suited to your character (if you don't know which items suit you best, don't use any yet).

Also, some people prefer to just save up their orbs and trade them for items that other people find.

Welcome to the game!

i used just this orbs on my playthrou (all2 acts /all 4 difficulties)
they all drop quite often so no need to horde these..


these drop often enough and it makes sence to upgrade your gear. especially your weapon or bow if u play a physical class. these quality enhancers affect the base defence or base damage of the piece. make sure u do this befor u use any orb on it. its cheaper then


orb of transmutation is to upgrade a white to magic (blue) item. it makes perfect sense to use one of these from time to time on a white base item.

orb of augmentation can sometimes give u just 1 mod instead of 2 that are possible. if u like the first mod use this orb to add a 2nd.

its always good to use these on a base item with good socket layout. or on jewelery and belts. just give it a try from time to time. if u dont like the result throw it away. i played throu the whole game with just blue stuff wich is no problem as soon as u have the right modifier on you gear. crafting with higher tier orbs makes no sence befor you reach the endgame content..

Your question deals with one of the key tradeoffs of this game (the other main tradeoff being between gear stats and sockets). It's a difficult question and everyone will probably give you different answers.

It's pretty easy (by design) to get through Normal difficulty with just the items that you find. Cruel isn't too bad either if you get some good drops. Once you hit Ruthless you really need to start improving your gear with orbs. Your armor values will be up in the hundreds at that point and your base weapon damage will be quite high too so adding 20% quality alone makes a very significant difference. Magic mods can give you much much more on top of that.

You'll also notice that you need orbs to buy items from the shop vendors so it's always a good idea to keep a few around at minimum in case the vendor rolls something awesome.

Really it just comes down to what you need at the time. If you feel yourself falling behind the difficulty curve in damage or defense then upgrade some of your gear with orbs. The benefits of a good roll can be huge.

Don't worry about burning the common ones... whetstones/armor shards/trasmutations/augmentations... you'll have more than you know what to do with at high level.
Most of the others are more valuable and you'd probably be better off saving them.

Thanks for all the replies. What I take from all that is I should be somewhat selective about what I upgrade, and always leave a few to spare. But that at later levels/difficulties there will be more and more dropping. (I'm guessing from increased number of champion/rare/unique monsters)

How about the flask upgrade ones? I noticed medium flasks become available at about level 4, so I guess next logical step is large at 8 or 10 or so? Then Huge or whatever they're called at 20?

They seem to get an enormous boost from white to magic, saturated and bubbling prefix were quite impressive. Does there ever come a point where you settle on a certain type for a long while before finding a significant upgrade?

Ah well, at least I can put them in the stash for the other characters once my main character outgrows them.

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mjkittredge wrote:

Thanks for all the replies. What I take from all that is I should be somewhat selective about what I upgrade, and always leave a few to spare. But that at later levels/difficulties there will be more and more dropping. (I'm guessing from increased number of champion/rare/unique monsters)

How about the flask upgrade ones? I noticed medium flasks become available at about level 4, so I guess next logical step is large at 8 or 10 or so? Then Huge or whatever they're called at 20?

They seem to get an enormous boost from white to magic, saturated and bubbling prefix were quite impressive. Does there ever come a point where you settle on a certain type for a long while before finding a significant upgrade?

Ah well, at least I can put them in the stash for the other characters once my main character outgrows them.

You can use transmutation on white flasks to make them magic.... and augmentation if they only have one mod.
I would save the "Flask Quality Upgrade" ones for later though... they're very useful for getting +20% quality on all of your divine flasks and/or godly vials (after you get ones with good mods of course).

Which mods you want really depends on your class. For a ranger I love surgeon's (+8 charges on a crit) prefix and fending (knockback) suffix... along with other standard good ones, like increased charge recovery.

Transmutation, Augmentation, Transformation you will use hundrets in Endgame to reroll the perfect Pre- and Suffixes and change with the saved Regals to Rare.

Its verry good at the moment that Transmuation drop verry often, so these can be used to upgrade good whites to magic and save the rest for endgame. The reroll-Orbs for the sockets and Alch & Co. droprate is in my opinion to low. ~10 Alchs till Chaos is a joke jet. Close to be useless for perfect gear.

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JACK_RABBITz wrote:

Transmutation, Augmentation, Transformation you will use hundrets in Endgame to reroll the perfect Pre- and Suffixes and change with the saved Regals to Rare.

Its verry good at the moment that Transmuation drop verry often, so these can be used to upgrade good whites to magic and save the rest for endgame. The reroll-Orbs for the sockets and Alch & Co. droprate is in my opinion to low. ~10 Alchs till Chaos is a joke jet. Close to be useless for perfect gear.

The higher orbs will be easier to obtain in 0.9.5 when selling to vendors is introduced.

Since it seems like your just asking for personal preferences, I'd say that save all the orbs and scrolls for as long as you feel that you can go on with your current gear. Thats how I've been going from start.

If it seems like you really have to pound on enemies until they go down (like 5-10 normal magic/melee ability attacks or something), then you probably have to start doing something about it... I think its normally better to use few orbs/scrolls in shop, and buy highest possible quality from there. You can really improve your survivability just by buying a new weapon or something.

Its better to use few orbs/scrolls THAN not use them and then suddenly find yourself in a worst possible situation... that could ultimately lead to death.