Evony Equipment Refining Guide: How to Save Refining Stones

To avoid wasting Refining Stones in Evony, reserve your refining resources for long-term end-game equipment—specifically Achaemenid or Civilization tier gear—and only lock high-value Gold percentage stats. Because refined stats do not transfer when replacing equipment and locking slots exponentially increases resource costs, early refining on low-tier items will drain your stone supply without providing lasting value.

Gear Requirements: When to Start Refining

Refining Stones are a scarce progression resource. Because stats rolled on lower-tier items are permanently lost when you replace that equipment, you should avoid refining any gear beneath Achaemenid quality.

Free-to-Play and Low-Spend Players: Hold your Refining Stones until you obtain at least one piece of Civilization gear or Achaemenid gear for your primary march. Civilization gear provides higher maximum stat percentage caps, making it the most cost-effective target for long-term investment.
High-Tier Focus: Only refine items that will remain on your primary general for an extended period. Lower-tier equipment should be used with its default base stats until you craft end-game pieces.

Stat Quality Tiers and Locking Mechanics

Opening the equipment refining interface reveals four distinct stat slots. Each roll assigns a random attribute value within a defined percentage range based on the gear's tier.

Stat rolls are categorized by color:

Green, Blue, and Purple: Low- to mid-tier percentage rolls. These should never be locked, as they offer poor return on investment.
Gold: The maximum possible percentage roll for that equipment slot. These are the only rolls worth protecting with locks.

The Cost of Locking Slots

Locking a slot protects a desirable stat from being overwritten during subsequent refining rolls. However, every active lock significantly increases the Refining Stone cost required for all remaining unlocked slots on that item.

Stat Slot Status	Action Required	Resource Impact
All Slots Unlocked	Roll all four slots simultaneously	Lowest stone cost per roll
Green / Blue / Purple Stat	Keep unlocked and re-roll	Low cost; keeps slot open for better rolls
Gold Stat Rolled	Apply lock to the slot	Increases stone cost for remaining unlocked slots

Step-by-Step Refining Strategy

Follow this sequence when upgrading a piece of high-tier equipment to stretch your stockpiles:

Gather a Stockpile: Build a reserve of several thousand Refining Stones before starting. Beginning a refining session with insufficient resources leaves you vulnerable to bad RNG, potentially leaving your main march with unrefined or degraded stats.
Roll Unlocked Slots Together: Keep all slots unlocked initially and roll them at the same time to search for maximum percentage boosts at the lowest cost.
Lock Only Gold Stats: When a slot hits a Gold attribute roll, apply a lock to preserve it. Continue rolling the remaining unlocked slots.
Know When to Pause: If you spend thousands of stones without securing a Gold roll on the remaining open slots, stop the refining session. Resume on another occasion to protect your remaining stockpile from RNG variance.

General and Equipment Priorities

Because Refining Stones are limited, concentrate your stock where stats yield the highest tactical impact rather than spreading them across every general in your city.

Priority Generals: Allocate all available stones exclusively to your primary attacking general and your primary city wall general. Secondary march generals and sub-city mayors do not require refined equipment to fulfill their primary functions.
Priority Gear Pieces: Refine Weapons and Armor first. These pieces offer major Attack and Defense percentage bonuses that directly influence your march survival and damage output in Player vs. Player (PvP) and Server vs. Server (SvS) battles.