Gear Upgrade Cost Efficiency Calculator

How this is calculated

COST PER 1% IS THE SCORE. An upgrade's raw price tells you nothing, because a 5,000 upgrade that adds 15% is better than a 2,000 one that adds 2%. Dividing the price by the percentage gained puts every upgrade in the game on one comparable scale, and the lower number always wins. ⚠️ WHICH UPGRADE WINS DOES NOT DEPEND ON HOW STRONG YOU ARE. Both percentages are measured against the same character, so your current damage cancels out of the comparison entirely - it is in both figures and divides away. The head-to-head output is built from the two costs and the two ABSOLUTE gains alone. This is worth trusting: you never need to re-rank two candidate upgrades because you got stronger in between, and a ranking a friend worked out on their own character is valid on yours provided the absolute gains are the same. YOUR COST PER 1% RISES AS YOU GET STRONGER, AND THAT IS REAL RATHER THAN IMAGINED. The same +150 damage is 15% at a base of 1,000 and only 7.5% at a base of 2,000, so it costs exactly twice as much per 1% the second time. Late-game upgrades genuinely do buy less, and prices usually climb at the same time. HOURS PER 1% IS THE FIGURE THAT ACTUALLY MATTERS. In-game currency is only a stand-in for the time you spent earning it, so converting the price into hours puts the upgrade in the units you are really paying with. An upgrade costing four hours of grinding for 15% is a very different proposition from one costing forty. ⚠️ TWO UPGRADES IN THE SAME SLOT ARE NOT AN ORDERING PROBLEM. If both go in the same slot you can only ever benefit from one, so buying the cheap one first means its price is spent and gone the moment the better one arrives. If they occupy DIFFERENT slots and you will eventually own both, then the cheaper-per-1% one should come first, because you get its benefit during all the hours you are still saving for the other. STAT INTERACTIONS ARE NOT MODELLED. This assumes the upgrade's effect on your damage is already worked out and entered as a plain number. Crit chance multiplying with crit damage, armour scaling, set bonuses and conditional procs all need working out before they become the figure you type in - and the honest way to get that number is a training dummy, not a spreadsheet. RESOURCES ARE ASSUMED INTERCHANGEABLE. An upgrade priced in a currency you cannot spend on anything else is effectively cheaper than one priced in your general funds, and no calculator can weigh that for you.

Common questions

Why compare on percentage instead of raw damage?

Because raw damage cannot be compared across upgrades that cost wildly different amounts, and percentage puts them on one scale. A 5,000 upgrade adding 150 damage and a 2,000 one adding 80 look incomparable until you notice the first buys 15% and the second 8% - at which point the second is clearly the better value per resource. For two upgrades on the SAME character the two methods actually rank identically, because they share a base, which is why the damage-per-1,000 output exists alongside the score. Percentage becomes essential the moment you compare across characters or across time.

Does the answer change as I get stronger?

Your cost per 1% changes; which of two upgrades is better does not. Both percentages are measured against the same character, so your current damage sits in both figures and divides out of the comparison entirely - the head-to-head output is built from the two costs and the two absolute gains alone. That means you never have to re-rank two candidates because you levelled up in between, and a ranking worked out on someone else's character transfers to yours as long as the absolute gains are the same. What does change is the absolute score: every upgrade costs more per 1% the stronger you get.

Why do late-game upgrades feel so much worse?

Because they genuinely are worse per resource, and the effect is easy to quantify. The same +150 damage is a 15% gain at a base of 1,000 and a 7.5% gain at a base of 2,000, so it costs exactly twice as much per 1% the second time even at an identical price. Prices usually rise steeply at the same time, so the two effects compound. This is not a perception problem or a difficulty curve - it is arithmetic, and it is worth knowing so you can judge a late upgrade against what it really buys rather than against how the early ones felt.

Should I buy the cheap upgrade first?

Only if it goes in a different slot. If both upgrades occupy the SAME slot you can only ever benefit from one of them, so buying the cheap one first means its entire price is spent and gone the moment the better one arrives - it is a stepping stone, not a saving. If they are different slots and you will eventually own both, then buying the cheaper-per-1% one first is right, because you get its benefit during every hour you are still saving for the other, and the total spend is the same either way.

What should I enter for damage with the upgrade?

The number you actually measure, ideally on a training dummy, rather than the one the tooltip implies. Tooltips report the stat, not what the stat does to your output, and the gap between the two is where most upgrade regret comes from - a stat that has hit a soft cap, a bonus that only applies conditionally, or a weapon whose speed change interacts with everything else you have. If you cannot measure it, estimate conservatively; an over-optimistic input produces a flattering score and a purchase you regret.

Does it handle crit, armour or set bonuses?

No, and deliberately so. Those interact multiplicatively with everything else on your character, so their effect depends on your whole build rather than on the item - the same crit chance is worth far more to a high crit-damage build than a low one. Work that out first, as a single number for what the upgrade does to your damage, then bring that number here. Our crit chance versus crit damage calculator handles the specific case of splitting points between those two stats, and a training dummy handles everything else more honestly than any formula.

What if the currency is one I can't spend on anything else?

Then the upgrade is effectively cheaper than the score suggests, and this cannot weigh that for you. A raid token that buys nothing but raid gear has no alternative use, so spending it costs you nothing you would otherwise have had - whereas general funds spent here are funds not spent elsewhere. The practical approach is to compare upgrades within a currency rather than across currencies, which is exactly the comparison the head-to-head output is designed for and the printable table is laid out to collect.

Take it further with AI

Copy this into ChatGPT or Claude with your own numbers filled in. It hands over the figures this calculator worked out, so the answer is built on real arithmetic instead of a guess.

I used the Gear Upgrade Cost Efficiency Calculator at https://www.bfcbrilliance.com/tools/gear-upgrade-cost-efficiency-calculator.

What I entered:
- Your damage now (dps): ___
- Your damage with the upgrade (dps): ___
- What the upgrade costs (resources): ___
- Resources you earn an hour (/hr): ___
- Alternative upgrade - your damage with it (dps): ___
- Alternative upgrade - what it costs (resources): ___

What it calculated:
- Cost of each 1% you gain: ___
- Damage this upgrade adds: ___
- Extra damage in plain numbers: ___
- Hours of earning per 1% gained: ___
- Hours of earning to afford it: ___

Use those figures as given — they are already worked out, so please don't recalculate or estimate your own. Help me turn them into a plan: what to buy or do, in what order, roughly what it should cost, and the mistakes people most often make with this job.

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