Augmentation
Augmentation Overview
Augmentation is not a skill itself, but an important mechanic, with 4 different secondary Augmentation skills. It can be confusing at first; Augmentation as a mechanic involves breaking down Magic gear for materials, Extracting mods from existing gear into Augments, and Applying these Augments to different pieces of gear in order to add the extracted mods. There are 4 different types of Augmentation: Jewelry, Weapon (which includes Gloves), Armor (Chest and Legs), and Ancillary-Armor (Helms and Boots). Each one is a skill with levels and experience that breaks down different gear types, and each is leveled independently.
While Transmutation lets you change the treasure effects (mods) on your gear, Augmentation lets you add one additional treasure effect (mod) to a piece of gear. With Transmutation you distill items into Phlogiston and use a transmutation table to make changes. With Augmentation you decompose items into ornaments (jewelry), beads (weapons and gloves), baubles (chest and legs), and contraptions (helms and boots), in order to extract a mod from one item and place it onto a different item.
Along with Transmutation and Shamanic Infusion, Augmentation forms the mechanism for enchanting gear in Project Gorgon.
In addition to its use in player-crafting, augments can also be found in monster loot and applied to equipment by NPCs.
For additional information, see the Lorebook 
Augments for Everyone.
Learning Augmentation
Learning augmentation is a multi-step process. Visit Nightshade at the Kur Mountains Outpost to begin a series of quests that allow you to augment gear. There are four subcategories of augmentation taught by the following NPCs:
Training Augmentation
- Jewelry Augmentation - Neck Augments and Ring Augments
- Learn from Poe in the Myconian Cave. Requires 25 Alchemy, 25 Toolcrafting.
- Weapon Augmentation - Main hand Augments, Glove Augments, and Off-Hand Augments
- Learn from Malgath in the Wolf Cave. Requires 25 Alchemy, 25 Blacksmithing.
- Armor Augmentation - Chest Augments and Leg Augments
- Learn from Syndra in a barn in central Kur Mountains. Requires 25 Alchemy, 25 Leatherworking.
- Ancillary-Armor Augmentation - Helm Augments and Boot Augments
- Learn from Gribburn in the basement of Hogan's Keep. Requires 25 Alchemy, 25 Tailoring.
- Jewelry Augmentation - Neck Augments and Ring Augments
Some challenges must be completed before receiving skills from these sub-trainers. For example, Malgath is reached after defeating multiple Wolf Cave mobs; Poe is in an obscure corner of Myconian cave; Gribburn requires learning Goblinese and gaining favor with Hogan; and Syndra requires resolving a problem.
To learn Weapon Augmentation, for example, a player travels to Malgath in the Wolf Cave and gains his favor in order to train the first level skill called "Decompose Main Hand Weapon".
Using Augmentation
Decomposing Items
Decomposing Uncommon or higher rarity items breaks them down into baubles, beads, contraptions, or ornaments, depending on item type (e.g. decomposing Level 1-30 jewelry produces s or s). These constituent materials are then used when extracting or undoing augments. Decomposing may also yield Prisms, used in Transmutation. The type (size) and quantity of materials received depend on the level and rarity of the item being decomposed.
Item Decomposition Recipes
| Recipe | Skill | Level | Ingredients | Trainer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Decompose Main-Hand Weapon | Weapon Augmentation | 1 | Main-Hand Item x1 | Malgath |
| Decompose Ring | Jewelry Augmentation | 1 | Ring x1 | Poe |
| Decompose Chest Armor | Armor Augmentation | 1 | Chest Armor x1 | Syndra |
| Decompose Helm | Ancillary-Armor Augmentation | 1 | Head Armor x1 | Gribburn |
| Decompose Off-Hand Weapon | Weapon Augmentation | 13 | Off-Hand Item x1 | Malgath |
| Decompose Necklace | Jewelry Augmentation | 13 | Necklace x1 | Poe |
| Decompose Leg Armor | Armor Augmentation | 13 | Leg Armor x1 | Syndra |
| Decompose Boots | Ancillary-Armor Augmentation | 13 | Footwear x1 | Gribburn |
| Decompose Gloves | Weapon Augmentation | 18 | Gloves x1 | Malgath |
Extracting Augments
Augmentation skills also allow you to extract "mods" from that specific equipment type. As an example, Weapon Augmentation teaches the player to extract "mods" from weapons (and gloves). Extracting a specific mod effect requires materials gained during the Decompose process. This material is usually specific to the equipment type. Weapons, as an example give beads, while jewelry gives ornaments. The exact material for each augment extraction is listed on the respective skill's wiki page. An extraction takes 20 of the required material (e.g. 20 beads).
Extracting a specific effect requires a "crystal" as well. Putting the wrong type of crystal(e.g. using a redwall crystal because they're more readily available) will result in the item and crystal being destroyed, and the player will receive a message stating that they used the wrong type of crystal.
Using the right type of crystal requires matching up a specific gem's primary and/or secondary effect with the effect of the item. These effects are notated on the gems page.
For instance, extracting a psychology effect from a sword, the player uses tourmaline as the crystal in the extract augment recipe. The weapon and crystal are both destroyed in the process, but create an augment that can be placed on another weapon. The player's augmentation skill level determines the success of the extraction; the skill level should be within 10 levels of the weapon's level.(A player with level N Augmentation has a 100% chance of extracting a level N+10 power, but only a 10% chance of extracting a level N+20 power, and a 0% chance of extracting anything higher.) If you fail to extract an augment, the item is lost anyway. Even if the weapon and crystal are destroyed, the player still receives Weapon Augmentation experience
Assuming everything went right, the player receives an augment which can be applied to a different weapon. (In the past, augmentation resulted in oils, which are no longer used in the mechanic.)
Augment Extraction Recipes
Applying Augments
The next step of augmentation is applying the extracted mod to another item. The attachment skills are learned from Nightshade once you have sufficient favor. The recipes for attaching items fall under the Lore skill-line.
Applying an augment to an item costs 100 Enhancement Points on the item, which is max points for normal loot items (120 for crafted). Therefore you can apply only one augment to an item. Other uses for Enhancement Points include Shamanic Infusion, the addition of Pockets to chest/leg armor (Tailoring for cloth and leather or Blacksmithing for metal and organic) and various other improvements such as additional armor through reinforcing (Blacksmithing) or additional damage of a particular element (Tailoring).
Note that applying an augment will bind the item to your account. Despite the item text reading that the item is bound to the character that augmented it, your other characters will be able to equip it. You can (currently) not augment an item that is bound to another character on your account. If you want to augment items without using the NPC install service you should make sure that all items are bound to the character that can apply augments, by using that character to transmute the item for the first time (other characters can then transmute the item without rebinding).
Augment Application Recipes
Undoing Augments
Only one augment can be added to an item at any one time. If you want to undo an augment applied to a piece of gear, use the appropriate "undo" recipe, for example "Undo Augment on Helm" in Ancillary-Armor Augmentation/Recipes. These undo augment recipes can also be used to undo Shamanic Infusions.
Augment Undoing Recipes
Augmentation Loot
“Augments can now be found in loot from monsters. Augments are much more likely to drop from animals (e.g. bears and wolves) than from sentient enemies such as goblins. The skills you have active will influence the types of Augments you find (e.g. you'll find more Ice Magic augments while using Ice Magic), but there is also a large randomness factor.
The goal of adding augments to loot is to make augments more available to low-level players. For this reason, augments are more likely to be found on low-level monsters than high-level monsters. (At higher level we expect player-augmenters to make up the difference; the plan is that when we eventually have level 125 monsters, they won't drop augments at all -- only player augmenters will be able to make max-level augments.)
Augment-Installation Services
Some NPCs can now (since June 2018) install Augments for you! By using one of these NPCs, you do not need to have learned the various Augment Installation recipes from Nightshade. Learning Nightshade's recipes will eventually be a cost-savings for max-level players who do a lot of augment-installing, but at the current max level of 80, most players will find it cheaper to just use these NPCs. The following NPCs can install Augments for you:
| NPC Name | Zone | Install Cost and Requirements. |
|---|---|---|
| Amutasa | Rahu |
Amutasa can install Level 0-60 Augments for 650 Councils. You must be [Friends] or better. |
| Joeh | Serbule |
Joeh can install level 0-20 Augments for 50 Councils. You must be [Comfortable] or higher. |
| Kalaba | Eltibule |
Kalaba can install Level 21-40 Augments for 250 Councils. |
| Kib the Unkillable | Red Wing Casino |
Kib the Unkillable can install Level 21-50 Augments for 350 Councils. |
| Nightshade | Kur Mountains |
Nightshade can install Level 0-100 Augments for 2000 Councils. |
| Preta | Sun Vale |
Preta can install Level 0-50 Augments for 350 Councils. You must be [Close Friends] or better. |
| Rick Snapley | Gazluk |
Rick Snapley can install Level 61-80 Augments for 1000 Councils. |
| Torgan | Gazluk |
Torgan can install Level 61-80 Augments for 900 Councils. |
| Tyler Green | Serbule Hills |
Tyler Green can install Level 0-25 Augments for 0 Councils. You must be [Friends] or better. |
| Urzab | Ilmari |
Urzab can install Level 41-60 Augments for 650 Councils. |
Trivia
- Prior to the August 28, 2017 Game Update, Augmentation was (even) more complicated. A dev blog regarding the changes made to Transmutation and Augmentation can be found here: https://forum.projectgorgon.com/entry.php?24-Augmentation-and-Transmutation-Changes.