Blackram Narrows breakthrough items dead end.

[KouGrizzle]

So from what I understand you need about 4-5 unique breakthrough items for your weapon, ring, earring, necklace in order to upgrade those items past level 20?  So *technically* you could be stuck farming Blackram Narrows for days and days if you have bad RNG? 

 

I'm probably doing this wrong because that doesn't seem to be normal progression design.  I was under the impression that you should only upgrade your Hongmoon items/weapons so I was hoping someone could tell me if I'm missing something or this is intended?

 

 

TLDR:  Is it only possible to breakthrough your weapons/accessories in that one particular dungeon or am I doing it wrong?  Can you trade the items with other people after unsealing them?   I know you can spend $1 to get your class item, is it worth doing that at lower levels?  I'm sure that price skyrockets as you progress...

 

 

[Shimmerstone]

Purple breakthrough items aren't (that I know of) trade-able, and require you to farm it/get a brilliant key for it (and yes, they usually only come from the single dungeon). I got my breakthrough bangle for my FM on the 10th attempt, which was perfect because you get a 400hp bonus for killing the final boss in Blackram Narrows 10 times.

[Yokai]

You need only 1 item from Blackram Narrows for gear breakthrough: An unsealed purple weapon for your specific class. If you spend 40 Ncoin (the equivalent of about 50 cents US), you are guaranteed that weapon from just one run of the dungeon. Otherwise, just run the dungeon until you finally get lucky on that weapon.

 

But you don't need that dungeon for the breakthrough items for your Hongmoon Jewelery.  You can simply spend some "Viridian Stones" at the merchant standing to the left of the village mission board in Jade Village. I think the breakthrough pieces are 5 stones each. You can also buy a full soul shield from that vendor that is every bit as good as the purple soul shield that you can (optionally) farm in Blackram Narrows.

 

Here's the simplest guide to soul shield progression: https://www.reddit.com/r/bladeandsoul/comments/41jw2u/psa_try_not_waste_your_unsealing_charm_and_money/

 

Here's another slightly more complex guide (Click through to YouTube itself, then expand the "Show More" section beneath the video): 

 

[Aquel]

The Hongmoon Jewelry upgrades off different items from instances.  Example, Hongmoon Ring stage 5 requires Dura's ring which comes from I believe Adder's Nest instance after you beat it.  

[nOrad]

After a week and I'm starting to see the scheme. It's really simple : 

Can you login at night ? No? Then buy prenium. 
Oh and you need to awaken that weapon right ? You need *this*, oh and it's not tradable (blight weapons) so you can't just buy it of the market, Just go grind the dungeon for it, good luck. Done it 20-30 times and yet you don't have it ? such badluck, but now you don't have any remaining keys ? Go dailies.... OR go hit our moonstore for more keys! OR alternatively, IF you have prenium, you can exchange 20 viridian stones for a viridian key. And I'm only lvl 23... both option require you to hand your wallet to NCsoft.

 

After running the dungeon 20-30x times and getting every single class bright weapon except mine.... I'm starting to think the RNG is tricked to make you go mad and hit cashshop. But I could be paranoid, I've heard stories of people getting their weapon first try.

 

I know devs need to make a living but I don't like devs playing mind tricks on me. And that's only at lvl 20. I can only imagine what it will be at lvl 35+ and higher hongmoon levels.

 

TLDR : Get prenium, or feel the pain.

I'm glad PVP has none of this bullshit, I woulda left long time ago.

 

[Partholonian]

IIRC, Plague Necklace, Dura's Ring and Wu Fu Earring are all 100% drops, you only have to kill that boss once to get one for breakthrough (you can farm more for accessory exp if you want).  I think Blight Necklace too.

 

For the weapon, a weapon chest is 100% either from the boss itself or from the daily (I forget which) but it will often be the wrong weapon if you don't have brilliant key (I've heard you can get them from daily reward chests in addition to $$).  However the actual weapons can also drop as regular drops to be bid on -- in my experience most players won't bid against you if you tell them you need it for breakthrough (unless they do too).

 

P.S. You can still progress in the storyline and go on to new areas with your Rank 10 Hongmoon weapon, and go back to Blackram once a day with the daily to try for your breakthrough.  So your character doesn't have to be completely stalled.  Eventually you would hit a limit where you can't kill things, but I don't know where that would be.

[Jixua]

I had all 4 of my items maxed out after a few blackram runs.  the purple items give like 3 levels

[KouGrizzle]

Thanks for the responses guys, it's not as bad as I thought but I don't think you can get the breakthrough items from the Viridian Stones like someone said in this thread...?

[ShakaAlek]

For f2p you can't get a brilliant key with viridian stones, don't know for premium players... And so far 20-30 runs? If you're as unlucky as me that's not gonna be the end of your grinding, I still haven't seen a single blight sword ever in 50+ runs.

[KouGrizzle]

2 hours ago, ShakaAlek said:

For f2p you can't get a brilliant key with viridian stones, don't know for premium players... And so far 20-30 runs? If you're as unlucky as me that's not gonna be the end of your grinding, I still haven't seen a single blight sword ever in 50+ runs.

 

That's pretty crazy man, you've run Blackram Narrows over 50 times?  Jeez.  What level are you now?  And you're still using a lvl 10 Hongmoon Weapon?

[WarRazr]

Guys I've seen every other weapon than my own, even the razor for Warlock but not once the Blight Axe. For other classes I don't know. Care to tell me what weapons you need.  

[WarRazr]

BTW I've also tried it at least 25x

[ShakaAlek]

On 23/1/2016 at 11:06 PM, KouGrizzle said:

 

That's pretty crazy man, you've run Blackram Narrows over 50 times?  Jeez.  What level are you now?  And you're still using a lvl 10 Hongmoon Weapon?

I got finally lucky yesterday and dropped my weapon directly from the boss and won the bid, I was level 25 at that point.

[Aquel]

On a slightly positive note, you got the 400 HP bonus from running 10 times and you are halfway to the running 100 times bonus.  So that is a good start on the bonus attributes.

[SoulEnchant]

Just badluck on RNG got my blight staff on first run.

[neonshadowfax]

On 1/23/2016 at 2:13 PM, ShakaAlek said:

For f2p you can't get a brilliant key with viridian stones, don't know for premium players... And so far 20-30 runs? If you're as unlucky as me that's not gonna be the end of your grinding, I still haven't seen a single blight sword ever in 50+ runs.

jesus, and I thought my 20ish runs were bad... i play a few hours a day (classes permitting) just grinding for this crappy staff. Saw it in my last run, and someone from another class outbid me just to troll me. I'm starting to reconsider playing the game if this is what I have to put up with every 10 levels or so... 

[ShakaAlek]

2 hours ago, neonshadowfax said:

jesus, and I thought my 20ish runs were bad... i play a few hours a day (classes permitting) just grinding for this crappy staff. Saw it in my last run, and someone from another class outbid me just to troll me. I'm starting to reconsider playing the game if this is what I have to put up with every 10 levels or so... 

I'm tackling the next purple dungeon now, the tomb of the exile, the luck seems the same so far, though i'm only around 10 runs...

[Kasmiya]

On 1/23/2016 at 10:40 AM, nOrad said:

IF you have prenium, you can exchange 20 viridian stones for a viridian key. And I'm only lvl 23... both option require you to hand your wallet to NCsoft.

 

I have premium. How does one do this? 12 runs in and I haven't even seen my weapon drop. On my BM and Summoner it took 9 and 8 times.

[meloncider]

I was just about to make a thread about this. RNG is so terrible. I have been constantly going to this dungeon every night now, maybe 7-8 runs a night and I have still not seen my weapon yet. I'm in this vicious cycle where I cant buy it, I cant leave and move on because I have a low tier weapon and i'll be dealing lower than average damage. I dont want to be doing this dungeon till i'm level 30.

[Warlyx]

On 23/1/2016 at 4:40 PM, nOrad said:

IF you have prenium, you can exchange 20 viridian stones for a viridian key. And I'm only lvl 23... both option require you to hand your wallet to NCsoft.

7 hours ago, Kasmiya said:

 

I have premium. How does one do this? 12 runs in and I haven't even seen my weapon drop. On my BM and Summoner it took 9 and 8 times.

i think is has been removed , it was in the dragon store (beta ) but on release was removed for unknow reasons :(

[Kasmiya]

7 hours ago, meloncider said:

I was just about to make a thread about this. RNG is so terrible. I have been constantly going to this dungeon every night now, maybe 7-8 runs a night and I have still not seen my weapon yet. I'm in this vicious cycle where I cant buy it, I cant leave and move on because I have a low tier weapon and i'll be dealing lower than average damage. I dont want to be doing this dungeon till i'm level 30.

 

The funny thing is I get plenty of the weapons that I needed for alts but not the one I need and then when I switch alts I'll get the weapon I needed on the other nonstop and not the one I actually need. Summoner? Got so many FM bangles but never saw the staff drop, got it from a chest on my like 9th run. FM? 12 runs and have yet to see a bangle drop but I have at least 5 Summoner staff. So stupid... lol RNG, I hate you. xD

[Warlyx]

would be cool to being able to exchange 10 blight weapons for the one u want (or a viridian key at least)

[neonshadowfax]

5 hours ago, Warlyx said:

i think is has been removed , it was in the dragon store (beta ) but on release was removed for unknow reasons :(

I think we all know the answer to this question: they want us to spend real money. I know the mods will deny it, but I can't shake the feeling that something fishy is going on higher up in the company. It's not as simple as "1 in 8 chance". There was a good post about the probabilities from another topic (click on the "!Rigged" header because this is bugged): 

We can't buy it from the market, we can't exchange it using stones anymore (even for premium members!), we can't trade it, we can't use something else as a substitute until we get something better, we can't get it as an achievement if we are unlucky running this dungeon 20+ or 30+ times like I have. It sucks. It's not "fun" anymore, and it's gone beyond "work hard in an mmo jeez these whiny idiots want everything on a silver platter". I want to progress. 

 

I kind of want to just buy one myself, so that I can continue doing quests with my friends who already have their weapons. But if I did it, I'll feel like I'm giving into some crappy business model. And not all of us have access to money like I do, wasting my excess student loan money. I already bought a founder's pack, why would I have to buy something dumb like this instead of a cool cosmetic item... :( It's a great game, but this RNG thing really puts a damper on it for me. Save it for endgame... 

[Warlyx]

after lots of runs im tired and not having fun , i think oh well u can come later...yeah in the end u need to get the drop or get the drop. i was lucky and got it on 4th with my main , but this alt? ugh..... 3 days running that dungeon and nothing....i have like 8 warlock weapons already :( ...im going to hit 45 inside -_-

[meloncider]

Oh well, the game was nice while it lasted. Don't misunderstand. I love dungeon crawling/grinding, but you know after 20 plus runs I have yet to get anything, I have run out of keys and I have run out of patience. I'll pick up and play this game after they fix the RNG or like Warlyx stated found a way around this "Dead end", because I'm not having fun playing this dungeon over and over with no results. And it's sad to me there is no other around this but going to cash shop.