History Main / SocketedEquipment

A piece of Socketed Equipment comes with a number of empty "sockets," into which can be placed various "gems" (ie. GreenRocks) to add more qualities to said piece of equipment: a ruby might add Fire damage (or resistance to fire); a black diamond might add life-drain; so on and so forth.

* ''VideoGame/DivineDivinity'':
** ''VideoGame/DivineDivinity'' refers to them as "charms". The difference here that the amount of charms you can put on a piece of equipment is determined by your Charms skill, in addition to the "Charm Quality" of the item.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' and Materia are basically this, except without the mated-for-life aspect (as befits the PowersAsPrograms nature of Materia).
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' allows you to modify weapons; its GreenRocks were generally consumable items (oddly enough, the required items had the opposite effect: poison items made poison-resistant armor and antidotes made poisonous weapons). While you can't unmodify a sword, you also don't need to; there's no randomly-generated equipment in the game. Instead, there is basically just ''one'' flavor of weapon and armor for each character, which is completely blank and which you then modify to your heart's desire, and which you can buy basically anywhere. Any combination of qualities you find in one weapon, you can create in another, with a few exceptions in the game's {{Infinity Plus One Sword}}s.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' also has a materia system, although they work more like gems from ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', providing small stat bonuses. Materia can be obtained by converting gear that has been equipped long enough to reach 100% "spiritbond"; higher-level gear has a higher chance of turning into higher-grade materia. These can then be attached to gear by a crafter of sufficient level, or by special "Materia Melder" [=NPCs=] (for a fee). Materia can be melded to gear beyond the number of allotted slots, but "advanced melding" like this has a chance of failure, resulting in the materia being destroyed, and cannot be performed by Materia Melder [=NPCs=]. Prior to Patch 3.2, high-end gear typically lacked materia slots entirely; nowadays, it simply disallows advanced melding. There is also a limit to how high materia can raise any given stat on a piece of gear.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChroniclesEchoesOfTime'' has a forgiving gem system that works well with character customization. All equipment has one or more slots. Using equipment in battle increases its level. When it's level 3 it can be destroyed to produce a "Jewel". Jewels can be added and removed for a small fee. Some Jewels increase the level cap of equipment, and equipment produce two and three Jewels at levels 10 and 20 respectively. After beating the game for the first time, the player will have several Jewels and Armors to specialize their characters.

* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'':
** Both games featured "upgradeable" equipment that could be fitted with better components. In the first, armor and non-lightsaber weapons had only one "gem" per socket; all guns used the same scope, for instance, although some had different bonuses from it. In contrast, lightsabers not only had a wide variety of stat crystals for two slots (and a color slot), but also had two special color crystals ([[InfinityMinusOneSword Mantle of the Force, and Heart of the Guardian]]) that changed the effects of ''absolutely every'' upgrade crystal, in two separate ways.
** The second game featured a full range of different components for each slot; weapons had three slots apiece, armor had two, and lightsabers had five (although two were "crystal" slots that worked like in the first game) not counting their color crystal. Any given slot had between about three and six different types of upgrade, each with multiple levels. These can now be crafted, with a large variety of skill requirements, making your crew's skills more useful. The main character (only) can get a special crystal that changes effect with the player's alignment and level, but the specialness is reserved for that crystal alone this time.

* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'' includes socketed items that allow you to socket and unsocket gems without consequence to boost various attributes or give new ones entirely. Some items come pre-equipped with gems with the caveat that they cannot be removed. Certain gems can only be equipped in armor or only in weapons while some allow you to socket them in either one. Weapons can have up to three sockets while armor pieces can have only up to one and sometimes even the same weapon or armor piece can have more or less slots depending on the enemy that drops it.
* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'' uses a similar system to its predecessor with slots for augments. This time around, while there are equipment with pre-equipped augments, they don't fill up any slots, and a RandomlyGeneratedLoot system allows for dropped equipment to have varying numbers of slots. After completing a mid-game sidequest, a shop that allows for adding additional augment slots is unlocked. However, there are some items that can't have any extra slots added.

* The Orbments in all the games in the ''VideoGame/TrailsSeries'' have a set of slots for various Quartz. Which Quartz the player installs determine the stats and arts available to the character equipping the Orbment.

* ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}'' includes socketed items that allow you to socket and unsocket gems without consequence to boost various attributes or give new ones entirely. Some items come pre-equipped with gems with the caveat that they cannot be removed. Certain gems can only be equipped in armor or only in weapons while some allow you to socket them in either one. Weapons can have up to three sockets while armor pieces can have only up to one and sometimes even the same weapon or armor piece can have more or less slots depending on the enemy that drops it.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' allows you to modify weapons; its GreenRocks were generally consumable items. While you can't unmodify a sword, you also don't need to; there's no randomly-generated equipment in the game. Instead, there is basically just ''one'' flavor of weapon and armor for each character, which is completely blank and which you then modify to your heart's desire, and which you can buy basically anywhere. Any combination of qualities you find in one weapon, you can create in another, with a few exceptions in the game's {{Infinity Plus One Sword}}s.

* The Orbments in all the games in the ''VideoGame/KisekiSeries'' have a set of slots for various Quartz. Which Quartz the player installs determine the stats and arts available to the character equipping the Orbment.

** Path of Exile also has a socketed ''skill tree''. Around the skill tree, there are slots to socket Jewels into, which basically serve as an enchantable passive node, which you can craft to optimize your character's stat bonuses. Unique jewels also interact with the skill tree, such as converting a stat into a different type within an area, gaining bonuses based on the amount of the types of nodes you invested in the area, allowing you to put points into any node around it, and even upgrade active skills if you meet the attribute requirement threshold within its radius. More complex jewels alters every passive skill within its radius or add an entire new passive skill cluster. Which can have ''its own'' jewel sockets.

** ''VideoGame/DivinityOriginalSinII'': socketed equipment is randomly obtained and can be enhanced with "runes", which have different effects depending on the equipment type to which they're added. Runes can be added and removed at will; the ItemCrafting system also allows some runes to be fitted with "frames", which irreversibly creates a new rune.

* ''VideoGame/DivineDivinity'' refers to them as "charms". The difference here that the amount of charms you can put on a piece of equipment is determined by your Charms skill, in addition to the "Charm Quality" of the item.

[[quoteright:350:[[Webcomic/AwkwardZombie https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ALL_OF_THEM_4363.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[http://awkwardzombie.com/comic/socket-to-me ALL OF THEM.]]]]

** Path of Exile also has a socketed ''skill tree''. Around the skill tree, there are slots to socket Jewels into, which basically serve as an enchantable passive node, which you can craft to optimize your character's stat bonuses. Unique jewels also interact with the skill tree, such as converting a stat into a different type within an area, gaining bonuses based on the amount of the types of nodes you invested in the area, allowing you to put points into any node around it, and even upgrade active skills if you meet the attribute requirement threshold within its radius.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[http://www.awkwardzombie.com/comic1-060710.php ALL OF THEM.]]]]

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' also has a materia system, although they work more like gems from ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', providing small stat bonuses. To create material, players must have equipment equipped long enough to achieve a 100% ''spiritbond'', at which point most of them can be converted into a random materia of the appropriate level and type (crafting gear turns into crafting materia, for example). Craftsmen of appropriate level can then attach them to their types of equipment with materia slots. Its possible to attach more materia than there are slots, but at the risk of failing and losing the materia entirely.
** Many items don't allow socketing of materia, but give bonuses to more stats to compensate.
** There's also a limit to how much of a bonus an item can give to a particular stat.
*** And since high-quality items usually have as much as they can hold of any stat they improve (much like the items without sockets), many [[AwesomeButImpractical materia are rendered useless in most situations]] because the equipment that's good enough to upgrade with powerful materia can't actually benefit from their full power.

* In the ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' series, weapons, armor, and talismans each have zero to three slots that players can put decorations in to put points into a skill, which becomes active once enough points are added. Some of these decorations take away points from a different skill, which can activate a skill with a negative effect if enough points are taken away. Some decorations take up two or three slots, in exchange for providing a bigger boost than decorations that just need one slot.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' 3.5 has a supplement that introduced Augment Crystals, magical items that could be attached to your weapons or armor to provide bonuses. The advantage was that you could transfer the crystals to new items when you upgraded your equipment, so even if they weren't very powerful on their own, they never really became obsolete either.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' also has a materia system, although they work more like gems from WorldOfWarcraft, providing small stat bonuses. To create material, players must have equipment equipped long enough to achieve a 100% ''spiritbond'', at which point most of them can be converted into a random materia of the appropriate level and type (crafting gear turns into crafting materia, for example). Craftsmen of appropriate level can then attach them to their types of equipment with materia slots. Its possible to attach more materia than there are slots, but at the risk of failing and losing the materia entirely.

* ''VideoGame/{{Dota2}}'' uniquely has this only for cosmetic effects. Fitting, as the items themselves are strictly cosmetic.

* ''VideoGame/ExaPico]]'':

* In the first ''ArTonelico'' game, all equipments can be enhanced by placing Grathnode Crystals into them, each of which have different effects like adding elemental damage or increasing stats. Said crystals can also be applied to the Song Magic of the Reyvateils to make them hit more times or cost less MP. Also happens in the third game, as the girls' Song Magic can be customized using fairies called Hyumas that aside of providing extra effects like buffs, elemental resistances and increase to the periodic healing in battle, also changes the battle music depending on how the battle goes.

* Many artifacts in the role-playing game ''VideoGame/{{Exalted}}'' have slots for hearthstones, which can be used either to regain Essence (common trait for all hearthstones) or to utilize a power unique to the stone.