We're pleased to announce a new system that promises to offer adventurers unprecedented customization options for their equipment! Named the "Evolith" system for the curious stones whose powers must be harnessed to reap the benefits, it will be introduced in a version update coming as early as late November.

Introducing Evolith

Little more than nondescript rocks at first glance, the substance known as evolith has long escaped the notice of the inhabitants of Vana'diel. Closer investigation, however, has revealed that these ancient stones harbor elemental power to rival that of crystals. With advances in the emerging discipline of synergy*, the time has come that their latent potential may at long last be tapped...

*Synergy is a new form of synthesis conducted using a "synergy furnace."
This system will be introduced in detail in a future Topics article.

With each piece of evolith possessing unique properties (*see example screenshots), adventurers may mix and match them in various combinations to bolster compatible equipment with the exact combination of attributes they desire.

*Development screenshot—subject to change.

Evolith 101

Adventurers may enhance their equipment with evolith through the following procedure:

1. Acquire evolith
- Evolith can be obtained by completing new NM hunting regimes accessible from "Hunt Registries" that will be introduced to certain areas alongside the Evolith system.
- Note that each piece of evolith is defined by a unique shape, size and elemental affinity.

2. Choose the base equipment you wish to enhance
- A vast assortment of equipment will support evolith, from several hundred existing items spanning a wide range of levels to new equipment slated to be introduced alongside the Evolith system.
- You may check whether or not a particular piece of equipment supports evolith by trading it to one of the "Synergy Engineer" NPCs that will be dispatched to certain cities.

3. Prepare your equipment
- A maximum of three evolith-holding "slots" may be etched into a given piece of equipment via synergy.
Note that each slot will have its own shape, size, and elemental affinity, to correspond with the evolith itself.
- The etching process will require the use of dedicated items.
- Similar to augmented items, etching evolith slots into a piece of equipment will render it untradeable and unauctionable.

4. Confirm compatibility
- Ensure that the slot is of the same shape and elemental affinity, and is large enough to hold the piece of evolith you wish to attach.

5. Attach evolith
- Evolith may be attached to a compatible piece of equipment via synergy.
- It is possible to outfit a piece of equipment with as many pieces of evolith as slots it contains.

*Development screenshot—subject to change.

The Finished Product

Should your synergy be successful, congratulations! The help window for your newly evolith-enhanced equipment will appear like this:

*Development screenshot—subject to change.

- Evolith Replacement and Slot Removal
Should you wish to replace an attached piece of evolith with one offering different benefits, this may be done at time via synergy. It is also possible to remove evolith slots entirely—thereby returning the equipment to its original state—through synergy using a dedicated item. Note that in both cases, the previously attached piece of evolith will be lost.

With countless varieties of evolith in existence, the possibilities are endless. Seek out the combination that best suits your playing style, and the equipment of your dreams can be yours!

Okay so this scares me just a little bit: Should your synergy be successful, congratulations!

I wonder if your item has a possibility of being lost. And you obviously lose the evolith item if you ever put it back to a normal piece of gear. Also when you replace it. Well, regardless; crafting might make a come back with this system.

Choosable augments = win
Ability to chose new augments or erase existing augments = win
Finally able to get haste augment on neck or backpiece? = uber win
Difficulty of NMs, Droprates on evoliths, frequency of NM fights = could be the only fail...we will see

Did I miss something? It looks like the system is a bit different from adding stat X onto gear Y, the stats shows all are tied to specific action types, less enmity on "light elemental healing magic" and attack on "axe weapon skills". I hope we get to just some % haste onto some gear, but I didn't see anything to confirm it yet.

lol at the ability delay example being 1 second off of a 2hr.

Choosable augments = win

Should your synergy be successful, congratulations! The help window for your newly evolith-enhanced equipment will appear like this:

That's what I thought at first, until I read the rest of the article.Synthing by itself is already a crap-shot. Kind of wonder if its based on any synth skill, or some random modifiers or what.

Edited, Nov 4th 2009 7:13am by lolgaxe

Ensure that the slot is of the same shape and elemental affinity

So can you augment and Evolith synergy an item, or does one disable the other?

If you can do both, with enough time and effort, and in the case of augments, luck, you could end up with some seriously good gear.

They are EX which means no AHing or trading sadly...yet they're not rare so maybe we can get multiple stones and stack the effects on the same piece of gear...?

Should you be succesful...

Looks interesting. I used to play a game called Dark Cloud where you would fuse stones to weapons to make them stronger, and giving them atributes.

when this turns out to be another monumental flop like the augment system.