Unlocking Inscriptions

Unlocking important/common inscriptions is something everyone probably have already done, but not for me.

I am mostly a PvE player, but do play a tiny bit of RA and stuff occasionally. It all began when I was doing random farming here and there in Elona with my Monk. I identified some gold/purple drops and on the top left of my screen showed "Inscription Unlocked: Let the Memory Live Again - 8%". I didn't look too much into it, as I assumed that I had already unlocked most of the common inscriptions for weapons, including 15^50, 15/-5, 15/-10 etc. (I farmed LB/SS points with my Warrior and opened every chest on the way in The Sulphurous Wastes; besides, I have Wisdom Track 3.) So this happened for perhaps several other mods, but I never paid attention.

The problem surfaced when today I created a new PvP character and had to create weapons. When I opened the weapon creation panel, I was stunned to see that I do not even have the maximum "Strength and Honour" inscription unlocked. I did not know what went wrong here, because I never bought any inscriptions to use, and all the inscriptions I have were self-found. I scrolled down and saw a 13% "Guided by Fate", 10% "To the pain", and 8% "Let the Memory Live Again" Inscriptions. I racked my brains but still cannot find any logical explanation for this incredible phenomena. I checked my storage and lying in front of me were 15^50, 15/-10, 15% While Enchanted, 10% HSR, 15e/-1 etc, from my salvaged golds.

Has anyone out there, too, faced something similar to this? How to I solve this other than spending B. Faction to unlock whatever is needed? Will finding more golds to identify unlock everything else?

Unfortunately it happened to me as well. I had to spent nice deal of B. factions to unlock the stuff I had already in several copies in the inventory found in various continents. It seems this unlocking does not work always as it should - it is not triggered properly.

In PVP in order to use the max inscriptions you need to have the lower ones unlocked as well... Its the same with runes. You could go out and get a Superier Vigor drop, but you wouldn't be able to use it as a PVP option until minor vigor and major vigor had been unlocked as well.

Apart from getting lucky with drops, theres not really any other option than using Balthazar faction to unlock the missing bits.

Okay, so this is an issue that affects PvP, and not PvE, right?

Just checking...

It's a bug. It just randomly happens. It has also happened to me, ~2 weeks after NF release, when I had already unlocked almost all (both nonmax and max ones), the unlocks just got reset. It fixed itself shortly after and all unlocks magically returned, I can't remember what I did exactly, got another 1 unlock or reroll a pvp char or something else.

That's not true unless a hidden update changed something. Unlocking a max one, be it a mod/inscription/or rune was always enough to use it, without the need of unlocking lesser ones.

How would *unlocking* of mods affect PvE?

Then I guess I was mistaken... as I've had everything unlocked for a while, I had to go by my vague recollection of what happened when I unlocked runes and inscriptions via PVE and what was available for use in PVP

No, actually it has always been true that you must unlock all lesser runes before you can use previously unlocked Superior Runes. The same goes for all mods/inscriptions/etc.

That's not the case at all. If you are unlocking runes using balth faction via the priest, then you have to unlock first minor, then major, then superior. But if you get a gold drop, and ID a sup rune, it automatically unlocks the whole set (at least, you can definitely use the superior rune in PVP - whether or not you can also use the minor and major without IDing them also I'm not sure).

Same with mods - that's like saying if you unlock 15^50 you can't use it until you've also unlocked 14^50, 13^50, 12^50 etc, which would be ridiculous. If you unlock the best, you can use the best.

So if I am able to use a 14^50 inscription does that mean that I have unlocked everything up till that level? (If so, I have unlocked 15^50, so if everything below that is unlocked, why can't i use the max mod?) I also just "unlocked" a wand wrapping of quickening 9% (I have unlocked 10% in the past), but still I cannot use a 10% wand wrapping.

I don't know why yours is doing that, I've never had such an issue. I went on a gold IDing rampage purely for that purpose because I didn't PVP much so rarely had any faction to use to unlock stuff, and I made a point of checking every time it said I unlocked something! From my experience, if I unlocked 15^50, 20% enchantments, 20/20 etc it has always meant that I can use that mod plus everything up to that level. Perhaps it is a bug like other people have mentioned

edit: Belicosos Finos' post pretty much explained me this, assuming he's right. Only now I've read his post.

(This should probably be in Q&A or bugs)

To clarify, since there's a lot of confusion here:

- To unlock a rune with balth faction, you must unlock all lower levels of the same type of rune. To unlock major, you must have unlocked minor already, and to unlock superior you need major and minor unlocked.
- If you identify a rune in PvE that you have not unlocked, that level of that rune is unlocked. This is true even if the "unlock lower levels" requirement for a balth faction unlock. In this way, it is possible to unlock a superior or major without the minor rune unlocked.
- When you identify a weapon with a PvP mod (this excludes slayer mods, for example) of any kind (including an inscription), if you have not unlocked a better version of that mod then the level of the mod you just IDed will unlock (ex: I have Strength and Honor 11^50% and I ID a weapon with Strength and Honor 14^50%, my Strength and Honor PvP unlock will upgrade to 14^50%)
- When unlocking mods with balth faction, if you have not unlocked any level of the mod (either with balth or in PvE), then your first 1000 pts unlock the lowest level of the mod (such as Str&H 10^50%. If you have unlocked the mod at any level (either by buying the lowest level with balth faction, or identifying a weapon with the mod at any level), you will unlock the max level version of the mod (Str&H 15^50%).
- There is a bug where for an weird reason you will rarely lose some of the inscription unlocks you had previously unlocked. I had this happen to me once, and I just re-bought the inscriptions with balth faction. Some people have had them come back by waiting a little while. This is the bug you experienced. Either wait and hope they come back, or start re-unlocking them in PvE or PvP. AFAIK, it only happens once per account and only affects inscriptions.

Hope this helps.

Regarding the bolded part, I disagree, as I do have a wand wrapping of quickening 10% in my storage (which means it was salvaged from something I had identified previously), but I am unable to create a PvP weapon with that max mod.

I've had this sort of thing happen once or twice. I had 10% furious spearheads unlocked on my account. I ID'ed a drop I got in PvE that had an 8% furious spearhead and got the message it had been unlocked. I checked with the Priest and found I no longer had 10% furious unlocked - it was replaced with 8%.

So it's not just inscriptions.

Given the explanations about unlocking with faction requiring you to start low and work up, it seems like this is a bug with the software not setting all the steps of a mod as unlocked when you get a perfect unlock from a max drop ID.

Oh, and I mentioned the situation with the spearhead on the official wiki back in Feb. '08 to the Misc. bugs page, so it has been around for a while.

I can confirm that. For near 6-7 months I had superior vigor unlocked, though never I had for that time a Major Vigor drop or even Minor.

And I'm also of the opinion it only happens once per account (the bug) as I can only recall happenning it once and since then I've got many purples and golds with less than perfect mods and it didn't affected my PvP equipment creation window.

He said AFAIK - means "as far as I know" :-)

I know nothing about PvP, but I was wondering if it made any difference if you actually took the mod/inscription out of storage and put it in the PvP character's inventory?

I can confirm this on my account, as what happened to me is exactly the same.
didn't have the major vigor for exp but had a sup vigor drop so it only give me the sup once I gotten major vigor unlock.

Not sure this is intentional or not however.