Lustres

In the world of Altera, lustres make up the core of any living things. Most lustres that players obtain are also used in crafts of equipments or to even uncover special abilities.

Basic Lustres
The typical gem lustres are used for enhancing equipment and creating crests.

Onyxes drop more frequently from normal monsters and Elite Monsters as difficulty increases, with the drop rate peaking on Master difficulty, while Class-specific Lustres are extremely rare apart from the Boss loot and the reward lottery. On Abyss difficulty, the drop rate of Onyxes is sharply reduced but the presence of Sub Bosses, the higher numbers of Elite Monsters and the occasional Boss cloning provide more opportunities for Class-specific Lustres to drop.

Generally, fragments drop from dungeons near the starting towns, crude gems drop from Carderock Pass dungeons and average gems drop from Saint's Haven dungeons. Higher quality gems currently have to be crafted.

Lustres can also be obtained from the reward lottery at the end of a dungeon. Silver chests always contain an Onyx while Gold chests may contain a Class-specific Lustre (but never an Onyx) instead of other rare items. Outside of battle, the gem pouches awarded by the Adventurer's Guild boards have a chance of containing a random Lustre, while mail from affectionate NPCs may contain up to three of the same type.

Lower level Lustre types can be refined into higher level types by any Blacksmith NPC with the additional consumption of Octagonal Water.

Onyx
Used to enhance normal, magic or rare rarity equipments and creating stat crests. This can be considered the staple Lustre, being bought and used in large quantities by players of all levels.

Lustres
As of the October 24, 2012 update, Lustres are no longer class-specific.

Used to enhance epic rarity equipments. The lustre required depends on the class requirement of the enhancing equipment.

Diamond
Used for creating skill crests.

Dragonite
Was needed to use certain skills. They have been removed, and are no longer required.

Sparks
Sparks are used to reveal Hidden Abilities on equipment and accessories. Undesirable Hidden Abilities can be removed using a Reset Spark, after which a new Spark can be used on the item.

Note: Sparks cannot be used on Normal rarity equipment including those bought from NPCs. In addition, they cannot be used on any quest reward equipment regardless of rarity.

As of the October 24, 2012 update, Epic and Unique level Onyx and Crystal Sparks are no longer class-specific.

As of the March 29, 2014 update, sparks have been supplanted by Dragon Gems. Existing sparks continue to work on older equipment and sparked equipment are left untouched.

Crystal Sparks
Can only be used on weapons and secondary weapons.

Onyx Sparks
Can only be used on armors.

Diamond Sparks
Can only be used on rings, earrings and necklaces.

Reset Sparks
Removes the current hidden ability on an equipment. A recent patch in the Korean version made reset sparks unobtainable from dungeons (existing resets still function), and now have a new potential system.