Choose one useful item family
A gear combine consumes two matching pieces and produces one upgraded piece. Matching means the same item family, rarity and level. Two helmets for different officers are not interchangeable materials, and a Level 1 duplicate cannot stand in for a Level 2 piece.
Start with the officer effect you actually want equipped. Inventory copies are materials; they do not add passive bonuses merely by being stored. A smaller improvement in the slot your campaign uses can be more useful than spending all your Gold on a promotion for an idle role.
Count the entire Common upgrade tree
Starting with Common Level 1 pieces, making one Common Level 5 item needs sixteen matching copies. The combines happen in layers: eight at 100,000 Gold, four at 170,000, two at 300,000 and one at 500,000. The total Gold fee is 2,580,000.
That is eight hundred thousand plus six hundred eighty thousand plus six hundred thousand plus five hundred thousand. It excludes the cost or effort of obtaining the pieces. The final 500,000-Gold confirmation is only the last combine, not the cost of the whole tree.
If you already own a Common Level 4 piece, do not buy its earlier steps again in your budget. Count the missing matching inputs from your real inventory and add only the remaining fees.
Uncommon Level 1 requires two finished branches
To promote from Common Level 5, you need two matching Level 5 pieces and the 850,000-Gold promotion fee. From nothing but Common Level 1 inputs, that means thirty-two matching copies and 6,010,000 Gold: two branches at 2,580,000 each, plus 850,000.
This worked crafting example is a calculation from the current fixed fee table; it does not imply a player owns these materials. A Gear Box contains random pieces rather than a promise of the exact family needed for your next branch. Inspect its reveal before changing the plan.
Check the selected pair before confirming
Compare the target, matching material, Gold fee and resulting bonus in the upgrade interface. If the target is equipped, the result takes its equipment slot. Consuming a second piece still removes that material from your inventory, so think about whether you were keeping it for another purpose.
Avoid a long sequence of blind combines. Stop after a step and verify the result, especially if the network interrupted the confirmation. An unchanged animation is not enough evidence that the server rejected the purchase.
A useful stopping point beats an empty reserve
Gear and its earned rarity and level persist across seasons, but that does not make every promotion affordable today. Compare the next equipped bonus with the city development and combat preparation your kingdom still needs.
Common pieces reach a 1.50% listed effect at Level 5. Higher-rarity curves depend on the effect, and combined caps can limit the benefit of an already strong build. Read the current and next bonus for your chosen piece. If the next step solves no current problem, keep the materials and Gold until it does.
