Enchanting
Players imbue equipment with magical properties — added damage, elemental effects, stat bonuses — usually through a crafting subsystem that consumes materials or currency. Skyrim's enchanting (extracted from disenchanted items and combined with soul gems) and Minecraft's enchantment tables both let players customize gear beyond what's found, closing the loop between exploration/combat and equipment progression. Designers use enchanting to give players agency over their build even when specific drops are scarce, to create a resource sink for otherwise-useless materials (soul gems, lapis lazuli), and to add a crafting-adjacent progression system layered on top of loot. Key decisions: randomness (fixed enchantment choices versus randomized rolls), the source of enchantment power (extracted from items, learned as a skill, or bought), stacking rules across multiple enchantments, and rarity gating for powerful effects. Pitfall: enchanting systems that make find-and-equip loot obsolete undercut the game's other reward loops — enchanting should complement gearing progression, not replace the need to find good base items.
- Dev effort: Medium
- Timing: Real-time or turn-based
- Common in: rpg, sandbox