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Diablo 4 item power breakpoint is an odd and mysterious system that decides how good a piece of dropped gear is. If you're used to playing games with item power, you might think you can just keep donning better items as you find them in the game, and you'd be right.
However, after you've unlocked the Nightmare world tier or even Torment, and want to start crafting a strong build to tackle difficult content, you can't just keep equipping every new item, and things with higher power won't drop as frequently. So, which products are worthwhile investments? Here's a brief explanation of how item level breakpoints impact gear selection in Diablo 4.
Item Levels in Diablo 4 and How Level Breakpoint Affects it
Every weapon, armor piece, and jewelry item in Diablo 4 has an item level (ilvl), also known as item power in-game. Item Power defines the item's base armor rating or attack value, as well as affix stat ranges. In other words, the higher your Item Power, the more powerful the item. When comparing affix ranges with the advanced tooltips setting enabled, it's easiest to detect these discrepancies.
While the Item Power of items increases as you progress through the levels and World Tiers, their affix magnitudes grow at specific intervals known as breakpoints. These breakpoints are found at the following Item Power levels:
Level 1: Power 1 – 149
Level 2: Power 150 – 339
Level 3: Power 340 – 459
Level 4: Power 460 – 624
Level 5: Power 625 – 724
Level 6: Power 725+
Item Power 725+ Ancestral things have the greatest affix rolls. When you start acquiring Sacred gear in World Tier 3 and Ancestral gear in World Tier 4, you'll notice big affix spikes because these items tend to drop around the last three breakpoint thresholds. Keep in mind that Ancestral equipment has greater affix ranges than Normal and Sacred gear.
How to Increase Item Level
Playing on higher World Tiers is the best way to find gear with greater Item Power ratings. Ancestral gear, the greatest items in Diablo 4, is dropped by World Tier 4. These items often have Item Power 725 or above.
Aside from farming goods, you can raise your Item Power by upgrading your equip at a Blacksmith or Jeweller. Each item upgrade raises its Item Power score by 5, scaling up to +25 with maximum upgrades.
Players can actually hit gear breakpoints by doing this. If you upgrade an item and it hits a breakpoint, all of its affixes will be rerolled. This will almost always result in a massive boost to that affix's stat values. Keep any items at Item Power 700 with perfect affixes, as you can raise them to the final affix breakpoint through upgrades.
