Understanding Starforge

All about the new starforge mechanic added in 26.4

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With Update 26.4’s main feature now being revealed (starforging) here’s a small guide/FAQ all about it.

What it is

Basically, it’s an extension to the blueprints you already own. It improves your blueprints by adding even more milestones than before and giving you great rewards for reaching those milestones, with some blueprints even increasing the base stats of the blueprint you own!

You can see which milestones are locked behind the new starforge mechanic by seeing the special glow behind the panes in the milestone upgrades.

Figure 1: Starforge milestones with the last node increasing stats

Now that you’ve seen what it is, let me address the elephant in the room. Unfortunately for the milestones that you see, they will only apply for blueprints that you actually own yourself and have starforge unlocked for.

This means that if you do not own the blueprint, you are locked out of these milestones to that specific blueprint. With the example image I showed, you will not get 20% surcharge value, 10% surcharge cost reduction, 10% multicraft chance, 1.25x value increase (again), and worst of all the 25% base ATK/DEF/HP increase.

The Pros

I am an optimist, so let’s start with the pros

• T16 quests are very likely not going to be balanced around you requiring starforged gear. Assuming that this is true, this update will only be beneficial from a questing point of view. You are allowed more flexibility with what is considered best-in-slot, lower tier equipment with starforge can outperform higher tier equipment without it. Sure, you may not have the literal best option there is, but if your goal is just to clear quests like before, then you won’t really suffer any drawbacks and just play like usual
• You don’t need to master the new blueprints to progress the new starforge track
• This gives more content and things to look forward to. Opening chests may be a pleasant experience once again since there’s actually something to look forward to other than phoenix feathers, malady coins, and ascension shards.

The Cons

• Kabam has said that they would not add non-cosmetic unlocks beyond the first loop since that will only apply to a very small percentage of the playerbase (Guess what we have right now). If you’re still not sure what I mean. I’m saying this because there’s a chance that they’ll start making balances around you having the latest starforge equipment which will not be pleasant for players that don’t pay for the newest blueprint.
• Some players like gearing up in the best possible equipment but that won’t be possible unless you get the latest new toy in their superior packs, then getting the starforge from the respective chest
• If you’re an event player, specifically DI, you’ll end up needing these new best-in-slot items especially since DI is a rabbit hole event where you as a player are unable to progress further than the theoretical limit of the event (If you didn’t understand this paragraph, don’t worry, it likely doesn’t apply to you)
• Some guilds may end up having requirements of you owning certain starforge blueprints (Likely event guilds)
• This update feels like they’re testing the waters to see what the playerbase finds acceptable in terms of ways they can increase monetary gains and this is borderline p2w from an event perspective. They’re really pushing to into that FOMO mindset (Fear of missing out), google it yourself if you’re curious what that means. I’m a just a normal STEM girlie who plays shop titans, I’m not qualified enough to explain what FOMO is 😛

How to get

As of right now, there are two ways

1. Open chests
2. Special events such as the current community event or content pass in April 2026

Opening Chests

This is a dedicated section since there’s a lot of question about this. To keep things simple, you must own all the chest exclusive blueprints before you can start getting starforge from chests.

For example:

Figure 2: I have every blueprint from the prehistoric chest

Figure 3: I can collect starforged from prehistoric chests

Figure 4: I don’t own all the blueprints from divine chests

Therefore, I cannot get any Starforge from the divine chest.

Farming keys

Talent tree recommendations:

Figure 5: Important talents that affect key drops

In the list, there are five talents of note which can and will affect your key income. I will explain them below, but it will be in the order you unlock them, NOT their strength:

1. No Stones Unturned – This guarantees that you get an extra drop every quest. The default chance for this without this talent is 75% so every quest without this talent, you have a 25% chance of missing out on the extra loot. This talent guarantees it.
2. Stones left unturned – The most important talent in this entire tree for key chance. This single talent is the highest key chance increase for non-boss quests of the whole tree (Ilod, 2025). This is because this talent removes stones from the drop table entirely which means you’d get other things in that slot instead if you were originally going to get stones, effectively increasing your chances of getting keys.
3. On the edge – This is more of a situational talent that may or may not increase the number of keys you get depending on a few factors but to simplify things, I will just explain when this talent shines. If you are running extreme quests, chain feather, and can claim quests right as they end, this talent may let you do one or more questing rotations per day. This extra questing rotation will lead to increased number of quests done per day which ultimately leads to more keys in the long run.
4. Keys to success – I don’t really need to explain this talent since it’s quite literally just x% more chance of doubling the keys that you get. But the caveat is that you need to actually get keys before this talent can actually activate. This makes the earlier talents like stones left unturned and no stones unturned even more important since you can’t double key drops if you don’t get keys to begin with.
5. Nemesis Returns – I’ll let Ilod and Reiga give their comments on this talent since I admit, it’s a talent I have never picked up or thought about picking up since I always thought of it as bad.

Figure 6: Ilod’s thoughts on Nemesis Returns

Figure 7: Reiga’s thoughts on Nemesis Returns

Ilod’s Talent Tree Simulator Tool: Shop Titans Talent Tree Simulator

Gearing Heroes

This part is very easy. Especially easier if you know how to use the quest sim, if you do then use Reiga’s version of the quest sim. Their version has the starforge mechanic already. Then you’ll just want to sim if your equipment is better than what’s shown in BiS.

Otherwise, I want you to remember a few rules!

Rules for picking equipment

1. The best equipment for all classes most of the time will be any equipment that gives both DEF and HP.
2. If your class is a green type, add EVA to that list
3. If you can’t get an equipment that gives both DEF and HP, then it’ll be ATK + HP/DEF/EVA

Rules for Starforge

1. One tier lower with starforge tends to be better if rarity is the same (Example: T14 Gun VS T15 Gun. T13 Spell VS T14 Spell) [For those that are curious, 2 tiers lower will be worse even with starforge]
2. Check if the item has the correct main stats or if it’s an STC levelling gear. Click me to see levelling gear

Example:

• A tier 14 weapon with starforge will be better than a tier 15 weapon without starforge if both weapons share the same main stats.
• T14 Gun – Wyrmbane Cannon (ATK/HP) with starforge is better than T15 Gun – Acidifier – X (ATK/HP) without starforge
• T14 Heavy Armor Fimbulwinter Plate (DEF/HP) with starforge is better than T15 Heavy Armor BIT .Runner Armor (DEF/HP)

Something noteworthy to mention is that if you’re just comparing the difference between one hero with and without starforge on the weapon, the difference in success rate is considered small from what I’ve tested (Usually within 5%) but still in favour of the hero with starforge. The difference becomes significant once you gear up a few heroes with starforge on their weapons. As such, it may be worth trying to get starforge on weapons that most heroes share as a BiS option.

If the equipment you’re comparing doesn’t have the same main stat, like if you’re comparing an ATK/DEF weapon to an ATK/HP weapon. It’s harder to say which will be better. The answer is to sim it.

But if the equipment, you’re comparing uses ATK/CHC or single stat ATK with starforge, compared to another equipment that has ATK/DEF or ATK/HP but without starforge. It likely won’t be better because defensive stats are currently stronger than offensive ones with few exceptions.

FAQ

Question: What happens if I sell my starforge blueprint on the market or if someone buys a starforge blueprint?
Answer: Your starforge blueprint will be sold like before this update as a normal item. Anyone who buys it will see it as either a normal item or as a starforge item depending on if the person who buys it, has the item as a starforge or not. The starforge status applies to your account, not the item that’s being sold if that makes sense.

Question: I completed all of the blueprints for the platinum chest but it doesn’t show starforge as available, why is that?
Answer: To answer this, I will show you the public conversation between a player and the response from an official Kabam staff

Figure 8: Conversation between two players about this inquiry

Figure 9: Official Kabam employee responds to the inquiry

Figure 10: The same discussion being brought up and member A from figure 8 criticizing this decision by Kabam

Figure 11: Official Kabam employee provides more context

Question: How does this affect collections?
Answer: You cannot work on starforge before you master the baseline blueprint.

Once you do start working on starforge after mastering the baseline blueprint, it will only give you research scrolls. It will not count towards the number of blueprints you’ve mastered.

Collection score is also unaffected since the game treats the baseline blueprint and starforged blueprint as the same thing.