Refinement System

In both Ragnarok Online and Ragnarok Online II, gear and weapons can be refined to become stronger and more effective. Gear and weapons can be refined up to a maximum of +20. In both games, refinement can be done by either a refinement NPC or with a Blacksmith job class.

Ragnarok Online
In RO, players must use certain ores in order to refine equipment. Refining via a refinement NPC will incur a Zeny fee in addition to the required ore.

Materials

 * Weapon Lv. 1 - Phracon
 * Weapon Lv. 2 - Emveretarcon
 * Weapon Lv. 3 - Oridecon
 * Weapon Lv. 4 - Oridecon
 * All Armor Types - Elunium

Equipment can be refined safely to a certain point. After that, the equipment runs the risk of being destroyed, with the rate of destruction increasing the better the equipment.

To refine an equipment past +10, players must utilize Bradium for weapons and Carnium for armor and get their gears refined via an NPC (Blacksmith players are unable to refine equipment past +10). When refining past +10, the equipment will only downgrade upon failure instead of being destroyed. But once it goes below +10, it incurs the risk of destruction again.

Refinement Process
In order to refine equipment via a refinement NPC, players must wear the gear that they are upgrading (there is no such requirement when upgrading via a Whitesmith's Weapon Refine skill) and possess the necessary refinement materials. Only then will the refinement NPC allow players to choose which equipment to refine.

When refining, the player must select the equipment from refinement NPC's menu prompt and confirm the selection. In the case of refining via a Whitesmith player, the Whitesmith player must have the equipment in their possession in order to refine it.

New
In 2016, GRAVITY began development on a more modernized NPC refinement system in which players utilize a separate window to process refinements rather than picking from a menu list. The developmental refinement system listed all available smelting materials on the window itself, allowing players to scroll through and pick the materials they wish to add to the left section. This was eventually changed to have the refinement window open the Inventory bag alongside it so players could drag and drop the materials they wished to use onto the refinement window itself. This also meant that players no longer had to have gear item equipped in order to refine them via an NPC.

Ragnarok Online II
Originally, RO2's was based on RO's in that players must utilize Oridecon for weapons and Elunium for armor. Only equipment for Level 25 and higher can be refined, however there is no safe refine limit like there are in RO.

Materials
Oridecon and Elunium each have three forms: powder, crystal and piece. Carnium and Bradium are optional ores that are used in tandem with Oridecon and Elunium to refine equipment safely without destroying it. As such, they are only available from the Kafra Shop.
 * In powder form, they are used to upgrade equipment from level 25 to 39.
 * In crystal form, they are used to upgrade equipment between level 40 to 49.
 * In piece form, they are used to improve level 50 equipment.

Equipment could be easily disassembled to acquire Oridecon and Elunium for refinement. Players must go to a Disassembly Expert to purchase Fairy Stones that can be used on unwanted equipment items to easily degrade it into useful Oridecon Powder and Elunium Powder.

Refinement Process
In RO2, equipment can be refined via a refinement NPC or a player with the Blacksmith profession. Unlike RO, the equipment to be refined does not have to be worn for the refinement NPC to process. Players with the Blacksmith profession can only refine equipment through the Vending System.

When refining equipment, the player must drag the equipment from their inventory and drop it into the appropriate refinement slots. Once the slots have been filled, the player must confirm their selections for the refinement to process.

New
The has since been modified to utilize Polinium and Infinium, making the previous Oridecon and Elunium items obsolete. Both Polinium and Infinium can only be acquired from the Kafra Shop and through events, making the new refinement system heavily reliant on real-life money. With the new system, equipment won't break upon failure and instead will simply downgrade in refinement.

In addition, disassembling an equipment now has a chance of failure whereas before it worked 100% of the time.

Patches
Ragnarok Online Ragnarok Online II
 * Patch (2018 Aug. 29)
 * Corrected an issue where if the Refinement UI window is open, the transaction will be disabled.
 * Patch (2017 Oct. 18)
 * Improved the display of the probability that is not displayed on the "Re-Refine" button of the Refinement UI.
 * Patch (2017 Sept. 06)
 * The position of the smelter shown in the Refinement UI will change.
 * Using the in-game Refinement system, the attempt to smelt more than 12 refiners will be changed to show the success / failure status as a broadcast.
 * Patch (2017 Aug. 09)
 * The Refinement UI is updated. In addition to graphical changes, continuous Refining is possible to make Refining easier.
 * Patch (2016 Nov. 30)
 * The Refinement UI is improved.
 * All kinds of refinement (including weapons, armor, shadows and over-refine for each level) are integrated into one UI.
 * The Refinement cost will be partially changed.
 * (Oridecon, Concentrated Oridecon - 10,000 Zeny)
 * (Bradium, Enriched Bradium - 10,000 Zeny)