"barring the key item."

[Irondude]

Attaching materia requires the “materia melder” key item, an apparatus which can be obtained via a quest available to Disciples of the Hand level 18 or above (with the exception of culinarians and alchemists). The apparatus allows players to attach one piece of materia per item.

Players who have met certain requirements can obtain the more advanced ”augmented materia melder,” which allows the attachment of up to five pieces of materia per item. Players can never fail to attach the first piece of materia. However, the success rate progressively decreases with each subsequent piece of materia. A failed attempt to attach materia will result in the loss of all items involved in the process, barring the key item.

Hmmm. does that mean the augmented materia melder or the base gear..... It sounds like 5/5 materia gear is going to be very costly.

[redmage]

I personally took it as the materia melder itself... and yeah it sounds like it's going to be very risky! Makes sense to me and I think the more brave folks out there will enjoy some of that risk. Hopefully a dev can chime in and clear that up for us.

[Arcell]

Most have come to the consensus that it's the Key Item: Augmented Materia Melder. I mean why use the phrase "Key Item" if it's not referring to that? They could have just said "A failed at tempt to attach materia will result in the loss of all items involved in the process, barring the (piece of) equipment/gear.

[Archadius]

Key item = Key item

[DNO]

thats crazy to lose a weapon i spent 2-10 million for. not to happy about that

[Arcell]

thats crazy to lose a weapon i spent 2-10 million for. not to happy about that

True but with the new crafting system in place hopefully most things won't cost 2-10 million. Considering HQ finished products are guaranteed with all HQ materials in addition to the simplification of recipes as a whole, the price of things should go down.

[Jynx]

Awww man! Alchemists get the shaft once again...

[Amineri]

Awww man! Alchemists get the shaft once again...

All I'm going to say is poisoned weapons.

[Oscillate_Wildly]

Wow, that uh...makes me happy that I have weaver at 33.
But I suppose.
However...What if we want to make gauntlets that shoot out cookies though as Culinarian? ):
ALL THE POSSIBILITIES MAN!

Still though! If they're going to do that to Alchemist I hope in the future, our recipes include more poisoned weapons. :P

[Misha]

thats crazy to lose a weapon i spent 2-10 million for. not to happy about that

This, regardless of gil loss it is rather stupid to make equipment disappear when you fail to attach materia too it. At most it should get rid of all previous slotted materia which is a HUGE penalty in itself as I'm sure some materia will become quite rare and pricey!!!