What do upgrading and reinforcing change?
At the Upgrade Station you can upgrade gear up to Lv.20 with Ancient Coins and materials. Damage, armor and other stats go up with each level.
Reinforcing at the Salvage and Repair Station doubles durability and raises stat values by about 15% (only while durability is above the original maximum). It stacks with upgrading.
Upgrade costs grow with each level. In the game data, the cost to reach a given level is the same for every item, so gear that starts at a lower level simply has more steps (and a higher total) to Lv.20.
Example: at Lv.20, Iron Pickaxe has 1,386 mining damage and Solarite Pickaxe has 1,099, so the iron one ends up higher. See the max mining damage ranking for details.
How to upgrade gear and the max level
- Use the Upgrade Station. Put a weapon, armor piece, accessory, pickaxe or other gear into the Upgrade Station to raise it one level at a time.
- The max is Lv.20. Each item has a starting level (e.g. Lv.6 for the Iron Pickaxe and Lv.16 for the Solarite Pickaxe) and can be raised from there up to Lv.20.
- Costs come from a per-level table. You need Ancient Coins plus a material matching the level (Solarite for Lv.15–18, Pandorium for Lv.19, Relucite for Lv.20, and so on). The cost does not depend on the item.
- Some stats do not change when upgraded. Fixed-value bonuses on gear (such as skill bonuses) stay the same.
Some gear cannot be upgraded at all. Check the "Stats" section on the item page: upgradable items show their item level with a max of Lv.20.
Upgrade cost per level (Lv.1 → Lv.20)
The "Lv.n" row is the cost of a single upgrade from Lv.n−1 to Lv.n.
| Target level | Materials |
|---|---|
| Lv.1 |  Ancient Coin×18  Copper Bar×2 |
| Lv.2 | Ancient Coin×31 Copper Bar×3 |
| Lv.3 | Ancient Coin×47 Copper Bar×4 |
| Lv.4 | Ancient Coin×66 Copper Bar×5 |
| Lv.5 | Ancient Coin×86  Tin Bar×7 |
| Lv.6 | Ancient Coin×108 Tin Bar×8 |
| Lv.7 | Ancient Coin×132  Iron Bar×10 |
| Lv.8 | Ancient Coin×157 Iron Bar×12 |
| Lv.9 | Ancient Coin×183  Scarlet Bar×14 |
| Lv.10 | Ancient Coin×211 Scarlet Bar×16 |
| Lv.11 | Ancient Coin×240  Octarine Bar×18 |
| Lv.12 | Ancient Coin×269 Octarine Bar×20 |
| Lv.13 | Ancient Coin×300  Galaxite Bar×23 |
| Lv.14 | Ancient Coin×332 Galaxite Bar×25 |
| Lv.15 | Ancient Coin×365  Solarite Bar×28 |
| Lv.16 | Ancient Coin×398 Solarite Bar×30  Jungle Emerald×1 |
| Lv.17 | Ancient Coin×432 Solarite Bar×33  Ocean Sapphire×1 |
| Lv.18 | Ancient Coin×468 Solarite Bar×35  Desert Ruby×1 |
| Lv.19 | Ancient Coin×504  Pandorium Bar×38 |
| Lv.20 | Ancient Coin×540  Relucite Bar×41  Corrupted Alloy×20 |
Total cost to upgrade to Lv.20 (from your current level)
The total needed to go from your current level up to Lv.20. The lower an item's starting level, the more it costs to max out.
Upgrading all the way from Lv.1 to Lv.20 takes 4,869 Ancient Coins.
How reinforcing works
- Press the yellow button on the Salvage and Repair Station. At the Salvage and Repair Station you can reinforce any weapon, tool or armor that is not Legendary. It uses a small amount of the item's main material (metal bars or wood).
- Double durability, about +15% stats. Reinforcing doubles the item's durability and raises the values of its weapon, armor and accessory stats by about 15% (max minion count is not affected).
- The stat boost lasts only while durability is above the original max. Once durability drops to the original maximum or below, the stats go back to normal. Reinforcing again restores durability to 200%.
- Repairing is different. The blue repair button only restores lost durability using Scrap Parts. It does not raise stats.
| Item | Reinforcing cost |
|---|---|
 Copper Pickaxe |
Copper Bar×1 |
 Iron Pickaxe |
Iron Bar×1 |
 Galaxite Pickaxe |
Galaxite Bar×1–5 |
 Solarite Pickaxe |
Solarite Bar×1–5 |
 Galaxite Sword |
Galaxite Bar×1–6 |
 Solarite Sword |
Solarite Bar×1–6 |
The amount of material depends on how worn the item is (the table shows a typical range). "Reinforced" values on this site are estimates at about ×1.15 and may differ from the in-game display by a few points.
Pages comparing max upgraded stats
- Max mining damage Pickaxes compared by level and after reinforcing.
- Max physical damage Melee and ranged weapons, plus gear with physical damage +%.
- Max magic damage Staffs and gear with magic damage +%.
Unless a note on the page says otherwise, numbers are read from the game files of Core Keeper 1.3.0.6 (prefabs, configuration files, drop tables and the game's program) and calculated by this site, including upgraded (per-level) values, sell prices and mana costs. Names and descriptions are the game's official English text. Only reinforcing materials, minion and pet attacks and some food values are based on the Core Keeper Wiki (Fandom) data (CC BY-SA 3.0). Core Keeper and its images are © Pugstorm. This is an unofficial fan site.