The weapon you choose to use and upgrade in Chronos: Before the Ashes requires dragon shards. Each upgrade requests more dragon shards from you. You have to use three for the first upgrade, five for the second upgrade, and eight for the third. When you give your weapon a level four upgrade and beyond, you need to use rare dragon shards. These are not easy to come by and find, but there’s a quicker way to find them rather than looting them off powerful enemies.

How to make Rare Dragon Shards

Rather than finding Rare Dragon Shards, you can make them. You need Dragon Oil and a standard Dragon Shard. Whenever you loot a Dragon Oil, open up your inventory, and combine it with a standard Dragon Shard. After turning it into a Rare version, you now need three of those to make a level four, five, and max weapon.

How to find Dragon Oil

The first Dragon Oil you’ll find in the game will be after you defeat the Cyclops and you’re wandering around the area right before the Golem. You can find them inside of boxes that you can open from your inventory. When you reach the jungle world in Chronos: Before the Ashes, stronger enemies have a chance to drop Dragon Oil.

Where to find Rare Dragon Shards

Finding Dragon Oil and a standard Dragon Shard can be a little taxing. Eventually, when you near the end of the game, you’ll be able to fight enemies that can potentially drop Rare Dragon Shards. These are some of the toughest enemies in the game, so you can expect that these creatures won’t go down easily, and you need powerful weapons to battle them.