End-game Guide

This guide assumes that you have read all the previous guides, have arrived at level 130, achieved max kill of at least 18 monsters from masteries with Slayer V, have all T7 E10 or above gear (or working for this goal), maxed 4x mining lasers of an ore and have progressed through the Steamdrake/Deathwhisper part of the main questline. This guide will cover the T8 equipment and the Maw monsters, focusing on the 4th dungeon as the majority of the mechanoid shard income.

This will be the slowest advancement of the game so far. Nothing compares to the gruelingly long progress towards getting full T8 equipment, which is the eventual goal. With the introduction of Slayer mastery, there is no more set max power limit where getting more powerful past it doesn't matter in the slightest: there is no ceiling to killing more of the most powerful Maw monsters for income anymore. With T9 probably in the horizon, a good preparation for the unknown would be close to full T8 set, with the 8.5 core equipment being the last to make.

The focus and main goal of the guide is getting powerful enough to complete the daily missions for the 4th dungeon and using the resources from it to craft T8 pieces in the order of how easy the core requirements are.

The thing that makes T8 extremely lucrative is the incredible increase in base stats and the fact that there is no RNG in the stats. Every piece grants an average of base 60 savagery and fortitude (if distributed evenly) compared to the T7 counterpart. This is purely from reinforcement. Another part is the T8 energizements provide a nice boost, most notably in the IDR energizement in gloves (from 13% to 18%).

The thing that makes T8 extremely expensive is also related to reinforcement. Since you need to reinforce 20 times (T7 was 14) and the fact that mech shards don't drop and need either dungeon attempts or crafting, you need around 600 mech reinforcement shards for every piece except the sidearm. This alone makes the cost per piece around 350M. The mech energizing shards aren't used as much until the later pieces that require very specific energizements like speed, IDR and armor per level, so their cost is small compared to reinforce. It's recommended to craft the first piece where any general energizement can work and do full rerolls until you get it, then adjust your other gear accordingly; this will be the most cost efficient method.

It's just about always cheaper to buy the components from market with your buy price and craft the mech shards. The Purge the Scourge daily missions really help here.

The best place to get the mech shards is the 4th dungeon. The 3rd dungeon is a net negative because of the daily quests requiring too much to get it. The 4th dungeon is a net positive and a great source of income. However, don't sell the mech shards; all will be used.

The main questline provides 340 mech shards of each, 60% of a required T8 piece. Also, the later quests reward some free 4th dungeon runs. It makes life so much easier to complete the questline and get these shards and complete the runs to craft our first T8 piece. However, there are 3 main roadblocks in the way:

1. For the quest 'Repurposing Ancient Technology III', you need to turn in a 8.2 core.
2. For all of the mech shard reward quests, you need to kill a lot of Maw monsters when you are relatively weak in power.
3. The quest 'Price of the Temple' is actually the most expensive quest in the game, requiring hundreds of thousands of ores.