Understanding Rares in Wurm Online
What is A Rare?
A rare item is an item of exceptional quality. Rares always have the property of being shiny when placed somewhere as well as when equipped in a hand or head slot of the character. But rares also give different bonuses based on their item type. This guide will help you to understand the value, purpose, and means of acquiring rares.
How to Get Rares
Any action you take that produces an item has a chance of producing a rare. For instance cutting a tree into logs, cutting those logs into planks, using those planks to continue a bulk storage bin, or improving that bulk storage bin with a log. At any of these stages you have a few seconds each hour that that actions will produce a “rare roll”. When a rare roll happens some actions will automatically generate a rare, such as sawing the planks. Others give the chance of a rare such as improving the bulk storage bin with the log produces a 1/5 chance to get a rare bulk storage bin upon a successful improvement.
In addition you can sometimes force rare rolls by using a rare. Most actions where you use a rare as a component of an item give a chance of producing a rare equal to 1 divided by the number of item components. For instance using a rare plank in the bulk storage bin which has 30 components produces a 1/30 chance that the bulk storage bin will itself become rare after the plank is added. The main exception to this is 2 component items. For instance a scythe is made of a scythe blade and shaft. Using a rare shaft does not give anywhere near a 50% chance at a rare scythe, but using a rare scythe blade gives a 100% chance of a rare scythe. This holds true for all tools and weapons with a blade or head, and a handle.
A common misunderstanding is using rares in non component actions will also increase your chances to create a rare. This is false, only items used wholly in the creation of another item produce rare chances beyond the regular chance of a natural rare-roll. For instance if you got a rare log and sawed it into planks that would confer no additional chance that any of those planks would become rares. But if that log were used in the creation of a catapult as a component, then it would function as intended.
Rares such as rare iron can be used in improving other items. On the action the rare is fully used up, this grants a 1/100 chance to make the item being improved rare. This is a low enough chance it is generally not worth the value of the rare to use it in such a way.
Finally using a “strange bone” on any item turns it into a rare.
The Four Types of Rares
Functional Rares – A functional rare is any rare with a clear function. All tools armor etc. and some other items fall into this category. Functional rares are always enhanced somehow in terms of their value to the player. A rare pickaxe gathers slightly higher quality ore. Rare armor protects the user slightly better. And all of these items take slightly less damage upon use. Functional rares are generally the most valuable rares on the player market.
Decorative Rares – A decorative rare is an item such as a table, fireplace, or tapestry that has no functional purpose. However, rarity gives it the quality of being shiny. While such items have no functional utility, they have value on the player market in that their appearance makes them more desirable to some players.
Rare Materials – Rare materials are things such as planks that can be used in the creation of other items to give those items a chance to become rare such as described above.
Sacrificial Rares – All rares can be sacrificed to give the player full nutrition, food, and water. Many rares are considered too valuable to be used in such a way but some rares have no other function. For instance, rare oregano cannot be used as a material in anything and has no notable benefit or purpose beyond sacrificing. This makes it an ideal example of a “saccing” rare.
How to Tell Useful Materials and Saccing Rares Apart
The best way to tell if a rare has a useful function is to enter it into wiki but instead of searching for the item itself search for pages containing that item’s name. For instance, brass lumps are at face value a saccing rare. Most items that use brass do not consume it as a component, and improving with brass has a very low chance of a rarity transfer. In this context, it’s best to get its value as a saccing rare.
However, when you search for pages containing “brass lump” one page that pulls up is bird cages. Looking at the recipe you can see it uses brass lumps as a component giving a 1/29 chance of rarity transfer. A debatably better option for this item than saccing it.
Supremes and Fantastics
Finally, it’s worth noting there are supreme and fantastic items. Supremes are even more uncommon than rares and give stronger benefits for items with that quality. They also give a gain to a random skill when sacrificed. Fantastic items are exceedingly rare. I personally have put countless hours into this game and never seen a fantastic item that wasn’t GM spawned. If you acquire one it is exceedingly valuable. Even supreme oregano may be worth a lot to someone as a curiosity to keep in a magic chest.
Increasing Your Rarity Window
On deeds, you can sacrifice certain items at full favor (non-priest characters are always considered full-favor) to increase the amount of rarity window for players working on your deed. Cordage ropes and Valrei items are two of the most popular items to sacrifice for this purpose.
