This is the current design as I understand it:
An artificer unravels items (jewels, armor, shields, and weapons) from found loot and crafted items. Armor must be normal leather, normal wood, cloth, and/or iron ingot; Weapons must be iron ingot, normal wood, and/or cloth (i think like tessen). They can be runic crafted, however the materials must be of normal type (meaning no valorite, heartwood, barbed, etc.). Crafted jewelry made with special gemstones can be unravelled as well.
Only the properties and their intensities of an item are accounted for in unravelling. It will depend on what is the item to know what the maximum number of properties it can have and how intense they can be. For example, a ring can spawn with 5 properties maximum, a helm can spawn with 5 properties and a bow only 4. I think
Unravelling is banded into 3 levels based on Total Intensity:
- 1-199 Total Intensity = Magical Residue Ingredient
- 200-399 Total Intensity = Enchanted Essence Ingredient
- 400+ = Relic Fragment Ingredient
Example 1: Monster Looted Ring: HCI 15%
HCI has a range from 1-15%. This 1 property ring is worth 100 points. 100 points will only yield you a possible Magical Residue Ingredient.
Example 2: Monster Looted Ring: HCI 12%, DCI 14%, SDI 6%, LRC 16%, Faster Casting 1
HCI range 1-15%, so HCI 12% = 80%
DCI range 1-15%, so DCI 14% = 93% (I assume a round-down, but I dont know)
SDI range 1-12%, so SDI 6% = 50%
LRC range 1-20%, so LRC 16% = 80%
FC1 range is 0 or 100%, so FC1 = 100%
So the value of this item is 80+93+50+80+100 = 403 points. 403 points could yield a Relic Fragment Ingredient.
The most difficult property intensity to determine is the Leech properties on weapons, since the maximum values change based on Swing Speed Increase + Weapon Speed. The formula is ((Base Weapon Speed*2500)/(100+SSI)) (cap=100%). Archery weapons use the same formula, but divide the answer by 2. So a 5sec weapon with no SSI can max Mana Leech at 100% (think Lance), but a very fast weapon 2sec with no SSI (think Dagger) the max Mana Leech is 50%. The same dagger with 25% SSI can only have a max Mana Leech of 40%.
Example 3: Bronze Runic Hammer crafted Dagger using Iron Ingots: SSI 30%, Mana Leech 30%, Hit Fireball 28%
Bronze Runic Hammers have 3 maximum properties, ranging from 55-100% intensites.
SSI range is 5-30%, so SSI 30% = 100%
Hit Mana Leech is 1-38%, so HML 30% = 78% (dagger is a 2sec weapon with 30% SSI)
Hit Fireball is 1-50%, so HFB 28% = 56%
So the value of this item is 100+78+56 = 234 points. 234 points could create an Enchanted Essence Ingredient.
I recommend you grab most 4+ property items, especially with easy 100% properties: Faster Casting 1, Night Sight, and any Slayer Property for example. They are either 0 or 100% all the time.
Example 4: Monster Looted Pitchfork: Use Best Weapon Skill, Lizardman Slayer, Faster Casting 1, Hit Poison Area 4%
UBWS range 0 or 100%, so 100%
Lizardman Slayer range 0 or 100%, so 100%
FC1 range 0 or 100%, so 100%
Hit Poison Area range 1-50%, so 8%
So the value of this item is 100+100+100+8 = 308 points. Not bad for an item you would not even look twice at.
Lastly, note that Spell Channeling. There are 2 possible variations, Spell Channeling or Spell Channeling/Faster Casting -1. Spell Channelling is worth 200 points and Spell Channeling/Faster Casting -1 is worth 100 points.
Example 5: Monster Looted Kryss: UBWS, Snake Slayer, Damage Increase 35%, Spell Channelling
UBWS range 0 or 100%, so 100%
Snake Slayer range 0 or 100%, so 100%
Damage Increase 1-50%, so 70%
Spell Channelling 0, 100, or 200, so 200%
So this one is 100+100+70+200 = 470 points. Nice!
Ok, use this with a big grain of salt I probably got something wrong. As for collecting this stuff, I have 3 bins growing based on the 3 tiers: Magical, Enchanted, & Relic possibilities. Remember, you can unravel to gain skill in Imbuing (assuming they do not all us to Adv Character Token our way past it).