Equipment

Equipment refers to various weapons, armors, and accessories equipped by characters throughout the story. In a world where the threats of war and monster attacks are ever-present, good equipment are crucial for survival. They can provide significant advantage in combat by raising the user's power level or granting special properties like magic resistance, or even allow the user to destroy opponent's weapon if it is of inferior quality.

Equipment Grading
Various equipment of different quality had appeared throughout the story and their quality differs greatly. All equipment appeared so far are classified into 1 of the 6 grades below, but equipment quality within the same grade can also differ by a lot.

Normal Grade
Equipment forged by normal blacksmiths and widely available to the general public. These are the most commonly seen equipment in the market.

Special Grade
Equipment enchanted with some magic. They are considerably more expensive than Normal grade equipment (could cost 50 times as much according to LN Volume 10). Widely used among adventurers.

Rare Grade
Equipment powerful enough to raise the level of adventurers. According to LN Volume 9, it's difficult even for A rank adventurers to have a whole set of Rare grade equipment. Most equipment created by Garm in the beginning of series are of this level. Examples include:


 * Equipment gifted to Kaval's Party
 * Ogre series equipment obtainable from treasure chest, after defeating the level 30 floor boss in Ramiris' Labyrinth
 * Sword found by Basson in Ramiris' Labyrinth

Unique Grade
These exquisite equipment are usually displayed as the advertising masterpiece in shop or passed down as family heirloom among nobles. They are the best equipment available on the market, albeit extremely hard to find. Examples include:


 * Youm's set of equipment given by Rimuru
 * Equipment used by Pegasus Riders
 * Guren, Benimaru's katana (before upgrade)
 * Gourikimaru, Shion's ōdachi, (before upgrade)
 * Vortex Spear, Gabiru's spear and Lizardman's heirloom
 * Minotaur series equipment obtainable from treasure chest, after defeating level 50 floor boss in Ramiris' Labyrinth
 * Albert's Cursed Sword and Cursed Armor

Legend Grade
When Unique grade equipment that contains Magisteel gets exposed to highly concentrated Magicule for many years, it will evolve into Legend grade. These equipment are so powerful that "owning one is akin to bringing a machinegun into swordfights". As their name implies, these are legendary equipment that are often sealed away from public view. Kurobe is the only known blacksmith that could craft weapons of this grade late in the story. Examples include:


 * Carrion's White-Tiger-Blue-Dragon Halberd
 * Moonlight, a rapier owned by Hinata Sakaguchi
 * Equipment used by Royal Guards of the Eastern Empire

Mythical (Gods) Grade
As their name implies, the existence of these equipment are a myth to most people. Imbued with godly powers, they only lend their power to those whom they deem worthy, and will transform into whatever forms suitable for their owner. These are equipment used by some of the most powerful characters in series. Examples include:


 * Tenma, a sword owned by Milim Nava. It takes the appearance of a long curved single-edged blade.
 * Night Rose, a sword owned by Luminous Valentine, named after her palace destroyed by Veldora Tempest 2,000 years ago.
 * Flame Pillar, a sword used by Leon Cromwell when he was a Hero.
 * Rimuru's katana after evolution
 * Equipment gifted to Generals of the Eastern Empire

Notable Materials
There are some notable materials used in series to craft equipment with higher quality.

Monster Parts
Body parts and substances from monsters could be used to create high quality equipment. For example, Youm's armor is created out of Knight Spider's exoskeleton, and scales from Charybdis can be used to create armors and weapons with powerful magical properties.

Magisteel
Metal refined from Magic Ore. It is highly heat resistant, durable and excellent in conducting magic, hence very suitable for producing high quality equipment. However, it is also very expensive due to its scarcity, costing more than 20 times as much as gold of the same weight.

Mithril
An alloy created by combining magisteel with silver. Weapons made of mithril are particularly effective against undead monsters. Known equipment made of mithril includes armor gifted to Jinrai's by Rimuru and Minos Bardiche found in the labyrinth.

Orichalcum
A gold-colored alloy created by combining magisteel with gold. It is superior to magisteel in all aspects, including thermal properties, toughness and magical properties. Equipment made of orichalcum are easily worthy of Legend grade.

Ultimate Steel (Hihi'irokane)
Formed after exposing magisteel to concentrated magicules for thousands of years (or special conditions like Rimuru's stomach), this is the material of mythical class equipment. Weapons made of Hihi'irokane only responds to magic power from the owner it recognizes.

Equipment Enhancement
In a world where magic is publicly available, there are various ways for craftsmen to enhance the equipment they made.

Enchantment
By using Engraving Magic, the craftsmen could affix magical effects to equipment. Engraved magic gear could be infused with mana, and once infused, it was possible to execute certain magic. However, there was a limit to the number of varying magics that could be enchanted. At most, only two types of different magic could be enchanted. Moreover, it was impossible to remove the engraving after enchanting.

The Eastern Empire utilized this principle to create magic stone-powered weapons that could be used by everyone, resulting in obsolescence of Gadra's Magic Corps.

Slotting
A new way of enhancing equipment invented by Kurobe and Kaijin, based on Rimuru's idea. By punching holes into equipment, Element Cores (magic marbles imbued with the power of spirits) can be inserted into these slots, granting the equipment magic properties.

Inserting Element Cores in different combinations could yield vastly different and unexpected results. For example, inserting a water spirit core next to a fire spirit one reduces power, but having a water spirit core paired with two fire spirit cores increases power by ten fold.