Learn the best way to deal with unidentified gear (“unids”) in GW2, including when to sell, what to salvage, and how the system works.
Two important features of unidentified gear:
- Not affected by magic find.
- Only drops level 80 gear or materials.
This means there is no advantage to opening unidentified gear on a “bag opener” character.
Unidentified Gear comes in three rarities: blue (common), green (masterwork), and yellow (rare).
TIP: Always open yellow gear to identify it before deciding whether to salvage or sell. Then use the Glob of Ectoplasm Salvage Calculator to decide how to handle the items.
Every time you open (identify) an unid, you have a chance to get an item of a higher tier of rarity. For example, if you open a blue unid, you might get a green or a yellow item.
For this reason, we recommend you open (identify) all unidentified gear before you sell or salvage. You might end up with a few new rare items, or potentially even an exotic.
However, this can be time-consuming, and can require you to play a lot of Inventory Shuffle to get it done. It can be an even bigger hassle if you don’t have a permanent salvage tool like the Silver-Fed Salvage-O-Matic.
Also, it’s always important to factor your time into the equation. How much time will you save by selling a stack of blue or green unids on the Trading Post, versus opening and salvaging/selling all the items? Trading Post prices also do a good job of leveling out at the average value of what’s inside.
Summary: Always open (identify) rare unids. For blues and greens, it’s best to open them. However, the final difference is slight. If you don’t feel like dealing with it, it’s fine to sell them on the Trading Post.
Photo by Mitchell Griest on Unsplash
