Umbral Shards System Guide (Updated Up To Patch 1.3.4)

Umbral Shards are a mysterious, powerful resource that enables you to take an item with a Gear Score of 590 all the way up to a Gear Score of 625. 

When you reach Expertise 600, you unlock the ability to upgrade items of that type via Umbral Shards, as well as the ability to acquire Umbral Shards from Gypsum Casts of that type, or crafting by GS 600 items of that type. 

Umbral Shards can only be applied to equipment if 2 things are true:

1. The equipment item is Gear Score 590.
2. Your expertise for that piece of equipment is also 590.

It’s also important to note that upgrading an item with an Umbral Shard will bind that item to the player.

Each piece of Gear carries a different weight towards your average Gear Score so you’re going to want to level up your gear in the correct order. There’s an Umbral Shard Gear Optimizer. Make a copy and specify your Gear Score of every item to find out which one you should level up first for a better average Gear Score.

The actual stat increase is pretty minimal, but damage scaling really depends on your Gear Score in both PvP and PvE. For example, Armor Gear increase from 601 up to 604:

Weapon Gear increase from 601 up to 605:

War Hammer 600 GS vs War Hammer 625 GS:

If you upgrade 590 GS Epic item, it’ll not become Legendary and will not receive one more perk.

The only exceptions to this rule are items that come with a preset perks list (mostly named items), for example, Infamy, Will of the Ancients, Beginning, Featherweight Ring, Doom’s Chance Earring. Upgrading them to 600 Gear Score using Umbral Shards, will unlock the third perk slot (not counting Attributes and Gem slots), making them Legendary.

The Gear Score – Perk Count system is used in two different ways:

1. When dropping/crafting/obtaining in any way an item with random perks, you will only roll for the eligible perk buckets, based on the item’s Gear Score (which is rolled before the perks).
2. When items have a preset list of perks, the system is still used to “disable” non-eligible perks. Even if the Gear Score is too low for the last perk, the perk itself is still attached to the item, compared to case #1 where it isn’t. The perk gets disabled. 

Acquiring Umbral Shards

You can acquire Umbral Shards in 4 different ways. 

1. The most efficient way is through running Mutated Expeditions.

Mutated Expeditions award Umbral Shards based on their Difficulty Level and the Score Rank you achieve upon completing them.

2. The next way to acquire Umbral Shards is by opening Gypsum Casts after the Expertise of that item type has reached at least Expertise 600.

They give Umbral Shards based on the expertise of the item you are opening, so you want to open casts that correspond with your highest expertise items.

3. Outpost Rush rewards Umbral Shards on completion of a match. 100 shards for the winning team, and 50 shards for the losing team. Players must obtain a minimum score of 501 points to be eligible for this reward.

4. Lastly, Umbral Shards can be acquired through Crafting. Once you reach at least Expertise 600 for a gear type, you will earn Umbral Shards any time you craft a GS 600 item of that type. The amount of Umbral Shards earned will increase as your Expertise level increases.