User:Immortalbob/Guides/Covenant Tinkering Guide
Overview
Covenant and Olthoi armor are unique among the other armor classes for their wield requirements, Unenchantable property, and higher starting base armor level. Due to the higher base armor level, Salvaged Steel is unusable on these types of armor. Instead of tinkering the armor level, the individual protection properties must be raised. This guide will teach you how to tinker these types of armor effectively.
Glossary
Listed here are a few terms I will be using in this guide.
Armor Level - Armor Level or "AL" is exactly what it sounds like, this is the base or buffed Armor Level on your piece of armor.
Protection Level - These are the modified armor levels for each element, listed in the stat panel of your armor.
Protection Modifier - The invisible modifier given to each protection on your armor that is then multiplied by the Armor Level to get your Protection Level.
Types of Salvage Used
Listed below are the types of salvage that will be used when tinkering your armor.
| Name | Use |
|---|---|
 Salvaged Alabaster |
Increases Piercing Protection by .2 |
 Salvaged Bronze |
Increases Slashing Protection by .2 |
 Salvaged Marble |
Increases Bludgeoning Protection by .2 |
| Salvaged Alabaster |
Increases Acid Protection by .4 |
| Salvaged Bronze |
Increases Fire Protection by .4 |
| Salvaged Marble |
Increases Cold Protection by .4 |
| Salvaged Marble |
Increases Lightning Protection by .4 |
The Importance of Base Protections and Banes
It may go without saying, but the most important part of selecting Covenant or Olthoi armor to tinker are the base protections and spells.
Base Protections
The number you see listed next to each individual element is the Protection Level value. Depending on the Protection Modifier, it can range anywhere from 0.1(Poor) to 2.0(Unparalleled) times the amount of the base Armor Level.
The higher the base Protection Modifier of the damage type you are looking to increase, the less tinkers required to hit the unparalleled cap. No matter how many times a specific element is tinkered, it will always have a maximum value of two times the armor level of that item.
Spells
The other important factor of tinkering Covenant armor are the spells. To tinker a piece to fully Unparalleled for each element requires 3-4 banes. Physical banes are preferred as the salvage for these only adds 0.2 each tinker, while the elemental damage types are raised by 0.4 each tinker. Although physical protections normally generate with higher base stats, it is possible this will cause you to use up to double the amount of tinks to make them reach the same cap.
Example A:
A piece of Covenant armor without an Impenetrability (Spell) and a base armor level of 450 cannot surpass a protection level of 900.
Example B:
A piece of Covenant armor with Impenetrability VI (+200) and a base armor level of 450 cannot surpass a protection level of 1300. (AL450 + Imp6 x2) = 1300
Example C:
A piece of Covenant armor that has Slashing, Piercing, Bludgeoning, and Fire banes, and average(1.0) protections for Acid, Cold, and Lightning. The four protections that have banes associated with them should be at unparalleled when the item is activated. It leaves 3 protections at 1.0, or equal to the Armor Level. These protections are elemental, so each tinker adds .4 to the protection modifier.
Even though you will have to add three tinkers to each remaining element (adding up to +1.2, or 2.2 total) your armor will never surpass a 2.0 protection modifier.