How To Upgrade Gear In Dragon Traveler Without Wasting Materials​

Upgrading gear in Dragon Traveler is about pushing a small set of perfect pieces, not randomly leveling everything that drops. With a bit of discipline, you can massively boost power while spending the minimum possible gold and materials.​​

Understand how gear upgrades work

Dragon Traveler follows the usual idle/gacha pattern where upgrading:

• Increases the base stats of a piece (attack, HP, defence, etc.).​
• Scales with item rarity and level, so higher‑rarity gear gives more stats per upgrade.​

Like other gear‑heavy games, later upgrades cost sharply more materials, so pushing many items a little bit is far less efficient than maxing a few great ones.​​

Step 1: Decide who actually deserves upgrades

Progression and team‑building guides all repeat the same rule: pick a core six and build only around them. That means:​

• 1 main tank, 1 healer, 2–3 main DPS, and 1 flex utility slot.​
• Ignore side projects and bench units until this group is fully geared and enhanced.​​

Because AFK income and campaign rewards are capped by story progress, a focused main squad gives far more return on upgrade materials than spreading them across your whole roster.​

Step 2: Only upgrade correctly‑statted pieces

Before hitting the “upgrade” button, check that the piece actually suits the unit and role. General gear advice from other gacha/ARPG systems applies directly here.​

• Tanks/bruisers: HP%, defence%, damage‑taken reduction, block or lifesteal.​
• DPS: attack%, crit rate, crit damage, sometimes speed or penetration.​​
• Supports: HP%, defence%, healing or energy‑related stats.​

If a piece has the wrong main stat for the hero (for example, crit on a pure healer, or flat defence on a glass‑cannon assassin), treat it as temporary filler and do not sink high‑tier materials into it.​

Step 3: Respect set bonuses and breakpoints

Most dragon/idle titles give strong 2‑piece and 4‑piece set bonuses, and Dragon Traveler leans into that same model. To avoid wasting resources:​

• Aim for full 4‑piece sets on your most important heroes (e.g. attack/crit sets on carries, HP/defence sets on tanks).​​
• Accept slightly worse sub‑stats if they complete a powerful 4‑piece set, because the set bonus often beats small stat differences.​

A common mistake in similar games is over‑levelling random “good stat” items that break your set and deliver less total value.​​

Step 4: Follow a safe upgrade curve

Upgrade costs usually spike at certain levels (for example, +7, +10, +12 in many enhancement systems), so it is smart to climb in stages rather than blindly maxing. A conservative, material‑efficient pattern looks like this:​

• Push all six core heroes’ gear to a cheap early breakpoint (for example +3 or +5) first.​
• Then bring weapons and key offensive pieces on main DPS up to the next breakpoint, since damage scales your AFK and clear speed.​
• Only after your team is fully outfitted at mid levels do you start maxing weapons and chest pieces on your absolute best heroes.​​

This mirrors upgrade strategies in other gear‑grind RPGs, where you avoid over‑investing in one item while the rest of the team is still under‑geared.​​

Step 5: Know when to stop investing

Even good gear should eventually be replaced; endless rerolling and upgrading is where most players burn resources. To avoid that trap:​

• Stop upgrading low‑rarity items once you unlock clearly stronger tiers, and move your materials to the new baseline instead.​​
• Treat early enhancements as “rent” – they got you to the next AFK tier, so it is fine that you do not fully recoup them.​​
• Save high‑end upgrade mats and rare reroll/enchant resources for items that already have perfect main stats and good sub‑stat potential.​

Combined with a tight six‑unit focus, this approach lets you upgrade gear in Dragon Traveler aggressively without wasting materials, keeping your account ready for future set releases and end‑game drops.