How to Enhance and Refine Gear in Marvel Rivals Blood Hunt (& Best Tips)

After months of chasing the perfect drop in the PvE Blood Hunt mode of Marvel Rivals, the grind finally became a little less dependent on luck. Two long-requested systems now let you improve the gear you’ve already earned instead of endlessly hoping the next vampire drops something better.

NetEase’s July 23 update finally introduced Gear Enhancement and Gear Refining, two mechanics designed for players who want to keep pushing through the mode’s endgame. Instead of relying entirely on perfect RNG drops or repeated forging, you can now strengthen existing gear and fine-tune it for your build.

Whether you’re climbing toward Nightmare 300, aiming for the free Units reward at Nightmare 260 with every hero, or simply trying to get more value from your favorite equipment, knowing when to Enhance and when to Refine is just as important as understanding how they work. Here’s everything you need to know, including the required materials, what each system actually does, and when to use them.

Marvel Rivals Blood Hunt: Gear Enhancing vs Refining

Both systems improve your gear, but they solve two completely different problems. Enhancing a gear makes that item stronger by increasing the value of every stat it already has. Refining, on the other hand, lets you replace one Extended Effect with another in hopes of landing a better roll for your Blood Hunt build.

If you’re wondering which one to use first, think of it this way: Enhance makes a good item better, while Refine helps turn a nearly perfect item into a great one.

Gear Enhancement

Use Enhancement when you’re already happy with a gear piece and simply want to squeeze more power out of it.

When you Enhance a piece of gear:

• Every Base Effect increases in value.
• Every Extended Effect also becomes stronger.
• The gear’s Rating goes up.
• Your hero’s overall Gear Score increases.
• The gear’s level and rarity do not change.

Once a gear piece reaches +10, it automatically triggers a “Forge”, which randomly upgrades one of its non-S-tier Extended Effects to S-tier. Didn’t get the effect you wanted? You can also Reforge the same gear afterward. This randomly upgrades one of the remaining non-S-tier Extended Effects instead, giving you another chance without replacing the gear itself.

Gear Refining

Refining doesn’t make every stat stronger. Instead, it lets you reroll a single Extended Effect on a gear piece.

That means you can:

• Replace an unwanted perk with another valid perk for that gear.
• Roll anything from D-tier all the way up to S-tier.
• Keep rerolling until you get a result you’re happy with.

One restriction to keep in mind here is that you can only designate one Extended Effect slot on each gear piece for refining. Once you’ve chosen that slot, you can reroll it as many times as you like, but the other Extended Effects remain locked.

Note: Refining only pulls from the pool of effects available for that gear type. In other words, you cannot suddenly make your Armor piece roll Weapon-exclusive damage perks, for example.

Materials Required

Gear Enhancement and Refinement both use the same two currencies:

• Uru Shards, which you can acquire by scrapping unwanted gear.
• Eternal Ember, acquired as a common drop from Nightmare-difficulty Blood Hunt matches and dismantling previously enhanced or refined gear.

The required amount increases based on the gear’s level, rarity, and current Enhancement level, so it’s worth being selective before spending your stockpile.

Two Tips Before You Spend Anything

• Don’t invest in every Legendary. Wait until you find a piece with several desirable stats before committing your Eternal Ember.
• Focus on your main hero first. Building one strong character is far more resource-efficient than spreading upgrades across multiple heroes early on.

How to Enhance Gear in Marvel Rivals Blood Hunt

You can enhance your gear through the “Forge” tab under the “Prepare” menu of Blood Hunt. The process itself is straightforward, but it’s worth checking the stat preview before spending your materials, especially once the Enhancement costs start ramping up.

Here’s how to Enhance a gear piece:

• Open the Prepare menu and switch to the Forge tab.
• Filter the gear list by Hero and Part (Weapon, Armor, Wristband, or Exclusive) if needed.
• Select the gear you want to Enhance. The preview screen shows exactly how every Base Effect and Extended Effect will improve after the upgrade.
• Check that you have enough Uru Shards and Eternal Ember. The required amount is displayed directly above the yellow Enhance button.
• Click Enhance to increase every stat on the selected gear piece.
• Repeat the process whenever you have enough materials until the gear reaches +10 Enhancement.
• Reaching +10 automatically triggers Forge, upgrading one randomly selected non-S-tier Extended Effect to S-tier.
• If Forge upgrades an effect you weren’t hoping for, use Reforge on the same gear. This randomly upgrades one of the remaining non-S-tier Extended Effects instead, giving you another chance without starting over.

Tips for Enhancing Gear

Before you dump your entire stash of Eternal Ember into the first Legendary item you find, keep these points in mind:

• Only Enhance Level 60 Legendary gear. You will eventually replace lower-level/lower-rarity equipment anyway.
• Don’t spend Eternal Ember on temporary upgrades. You’ll earn more by clearing higher Nightmare floors, but fully enhancing multiple pieces is still an expensive investment.
• Upgrade the gear that’s helping you most. Need more survivability? Start with your Armor. Looking to push your damage output higher? Prioritize the piece carrying your strongest offense-related Extended Effects instead.

How to Refine Gear in Marvel Rivals Blood Hunt

Once you’ve settled on a gear piece worth keeping, it’s time to start refining it:

• Open the Prepare menu and head to the Forge tab.
• Select the hero and gear piece you want to work on.
• Click Refine instead of Enhance.
• Choose the Extended Effect you want to designate for refining. Remember, you can only permanently assign one stat slot per gear piece.
• Browse the available replacement effects. These are pulled from the pool of stats that can naturally roll on that gear type.
• Spend the required Uru Shards and Eternal Ember to reroll the selected effect.
• If you don’t like the result, simply re-refine the same slot again as long as you have enough materials.

One nice thing about Refining is that you’re not just swapping one stat for another. The new effect can also roll at a different tier, so even a D-tier perk has a chance of coming back as an S-tier one. Of course, RNG can be just as unforgiving in this department too, so don’t expect every reroll to be an improvement.

Tips for Refining Gear

Refining is where you’ll spend the most time chasing the “perfect” piece, so a little restraint goes a long way.

• Refine only after you’re happy with the rest of the gear. Since only one Extended Effect can be designated for refining, make sure the remaining stats are already worth keeping.
• Refine the stats you’ll get the most value from. If your build is already built around a particular Hero Trait, improving that is almost always a better investment as long as it isn’t “overkill”.
• Know when to stop. If you’ve already landed a strong stat that fits your build, it’s often better to move on to another item than gamble everything away on a marginal upgrade.

How are you spending your Eternal Ember so far? Are you all-in on enhancing your favorite gear first, or chasing that perfect Refine? Let us know in the comments below.