Until October 2026, every gear tier in IdleWorlds asked for 4 more Combat levels than the one before it. That worked while tiers came quickly, but it fell apart at the top. Combat past level 70 takes well over a week of fighting per level, and players were already clearing Zones 23 to 26 with gear they could never put on. Tier 25 gear asked for level 89. Tier 34 asked for 125. The Item Level update fixes that curve, and adds a Gear Score so you can tell at a glance which piece is actually stronger.
Gear Score is simple: every stat on an item is multiplied by a weight and added up, in units of 1 ATK. ATK, DEF, XP per task, resists and Warfare count 1 per point. HP counts 0.5. Item Find, Gold Find and the Bonus Enhance, Brew, Enchant and Build procs count 1.5 per percent. 2x Gather counts 0.75 per percent. Crit Chance counts 8 per percent and each +1 skill level counts 5, because both are rare. Upgraded pieces include their upgrade bonus and their share of the tier set bonus, so a +4 piece scores what it really gives you. You'll find the number on item tooltips, in the loadout editor and on every item's wiki page.
Gear Score is a shortlist tool, not a verdict. It compares pieces for the same slot, but it doesn't know what you're doing. A combat loadout wants ATK and DEF, a gathering loadout wants 2x Gather and XP per task, and an item-hunting loadout wants Item Find. Use the score to spot the two or three strongest options, then pick the one that matches the job.
Item Level is the new rule for the level you need. Gear at level 69 and below didn't change, and that includes every piece of raid gear. Past Tier 20, each tier now adds 2 levels instead of 4: Tier 21 needs 71, Tier 22 needs 73, Tier 25 needs 79 instead of 89, and Tier 34 needs 97 instead of 125. Nothing needs more than it used to, nothing needs less than 70, and gear you already wore stayed equipped.
Crafted gear always uses its tier's level, and upgrading it from +1 to +4 never raises the requirement. That's deliberate. A maxed crafted piece is the baseline at every tier: something any player can work toward with their own skills, and something that stays worth wearing. Unique drops are measured against that baseline. A unique that's exactly as strong as the crafted +4 piece of its slot and tier gets the tier's level. One that's twice as strong needs up to 4 levels more. One that's much weaker, usually because it trades raw stats for a resist or a utility stat, can need up to 3 levels less.
The result is that late-game uniques now spread out over several levels instead of all sharing one wall, so there's always something new to put on as your Combat level climbs. The full table of every tier and every unique above level 69, with its score against crafted +4, is on the Gear Score and Item Level page of the wiki, computed straight from the live game data.
Looking ahead, new uniques for Zones 23 to 34 are being built on the same rules: sidegrades with a clear purpose next to crafted +4 gear, raid gear on top, no new Gold Find, and +skill levels kept rare. The IdleWorlds roadmap on the wiki has the details.