Melirei
Retired Game Mechanic Novelist
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Tekking Basics
When you let a Tekker identify a special weapon, its photon attribute % can go up or down by a maximum 10% difference (-10%, -5%, +/-0%, +5%, +10%). The %s do not change independently--all %s are increased or decreased the same amount--but you can decline the Tekker's proposal and retry as much as your wallet allows to get different %s. You almost always want to tek it up 10%, because it's more powerful that way.
For non-rare weapons, each unidentified weapon comes with a hidden special and grind value, and the tier of the special and the grind can vary with each tek, though the type of special will never change. Specials can be tekked up or down one level, while the grind can be tekked +/-4. For instance, a Dark weapon can be tekked to Shadow, Dark, or Hell, while a Dim weapon can only be tekked to Dim or Shadow. Unless you have a reason to want a worse special, you should always tek the special to the highest level if you plan to use the weapon. Tekking the grind is not so important because grinders are cheap and plentiful.
Note: Claire's Deal items is one of the possible cases where you want a specific special over the better one, like tekking to Seize Launcher.
Unintentional Mistekking
Some players mistek items on accident, which, aside from dealing less damage, can have a few consequences. First, while area %s can later be increased by spending Photon Drops or Photon Spheres (a process often called "sphering"), once a weapon is tekked, its hit % can never be changed. For certain weapons, like Zanba or Flowen's Sword 3084, having the critical amount of hit % or not can decide if the weapon is mediocre or endgame-tier. In other words, a lucky player who found an extremely powerful weapon as a drop can experience a reversal in fortune by unknowingly wrecking it with a mistek. A weapon tekked as 0/0/0/0|10 makes everyone's heart ache.
The second consequence has to do with sphering. Every weapon can have %s in up to three of its five attributes (except unsealable weapons can only have two, due to the kill counter taking up one of those slots, and S-Rank weapons which can have none). That means that if you found a 0/10/20/0|0 weapon and tekked it to, say, 0/20/30/0|0, you can still sphere up another area attribute in addition to A.Beast and Machine. However, mistekking an area down to 0% does not free up that slot and will prevent you from sphering in an additional different area. If that same weapon were tekked to 0/0/10/0|0 instead, you would still able to sphere only one additional area apart from A.Beast and Machine. This means if someone sells you a Native Excalibur and you want to sphere it in another area, for example Dark, there's a chance you can't do it because it has a hidden Machine area that was tekked to 0.
Intentional Mistekking
Occasionally you may consider intentionally mistekking the photon attribute %s of a weapon. This is a trade-off that you should only do in very specific situations.
The first situation is for less expensive sphering when adding % to your weapon. It costs 20 Photon Drops to add 5% and 1 Photon Sphere to add 30%. For weapons that can be tekked to 15%, 45%, and 75%, by tekking 5% below maximum (to 10%, 40%, 70% respectively), during its sphering process you can use a sphere instead of adding the last 25% with 100 PDs. This will save a PD if you buy the sphere from Paganini, but will save more if you use spheres distributed in events, especially since occasionally people will sell spheres they obtained from event at lower prices. I believe the reason mistekking was a prevalent strategy was that spheres used to be obtainable from MA1&2 in some versions of PSO, but I don't think it's available here at the moment.
However, it's important to note that, by mistekking an item, the item will not be at its full power until you sphere it. For example, suppose you intentionally tekked an item to 10% instead of 15%, but you don't sphere it immediately. Until you sphere it, your weapon will be dealing less damage because of its lower %. On the other hand, if you tek it to 15%, then slowly sphere it later, and if you end up buying the sphere from Paganini, your weapon is more powerful during the time at the cost of 1 PD only. Of course, the cost will be higher if you obtained the sphere from an event.
Therefore, if you do not plan to sphere a weapon soon or at all, it is not really a good idea to mistek them, for the above reasons.
Another situation where players may consider mistekking is for aesthetics, especially for weapons where the %s don't matter, e.g. FO spellcasting weapons, or pure utility weapons, or weapons that are not worth using. There are some people who dislike odd hit % like 35% or 55% prefers to tek to multiples of ten like 30% or 40%. There are also people who like to tek to 0s for cleanness, as well as those who dislike that due to hidden areas. There are some who likes to tek to -5s for novelty, especially -5% in hit or three areas. This is all purely personal preference.
Conclusion
When tekking a special weapon where the %s matter, always tek 10% up unless you have a very good reason to tek 5% up instead to make the trade-off worthwhile, like you're planning to sphere it soon or if spheres are much cheaper to you than 99 PDs.
Special Thanks
I would like to thank @emoticon for writing parts of the guide and polishing it overall.
When you let a Tekker identify a special weapon, its photon attribute % can go up or down by a maximum 10% difference (-10%, -5%, +/-0%, +5%, +10%). The %s do not change independently--all %s are increased or decreased the same amount--but you can decline the Tekker's proposal and retry as much as your wallet allows to get different %s. You almost always want to tek it up 10%, because it's more powerful that way.
For non-rare weapons, each unidentified weapon comes with a hidden special and grind value, and the tier of the special and the grind can vary with each tek, though the type of special will never change. Specials can be tekked up or down one level, while the grind can be tekked +/-4. For instance, a Dark weapon can be tekked to Shadow, Dark, or Hell, while a Dim weapon can only be tekked to Dim or Shadow. Unless you have a reason to want a worse special, you should always tek the special to the highest level if you plan to use the weapon. Tekking the grind is not so important because grinders are cheap and plentiful.
Note: Claire's Deal items is one of the possible cases where you want a specific special over the better one, like tekking to Seize Launcher.
Unintentional Mistekking
Some players mistek items on accident, which, aside from dealing less damage, can have a few consequences. First, while area %s can later be increased by spending Photon Drops or Photon Spheres (a process often called "sphering"), once a weapon is tekked, its hit % can never be changed. For certain weapons, like Zanba or Flowen's Sword 3084, having the critical amount of hit % or not can decide if the weapon is mediocre or endgame-tier. In other words, a lucky player who found an extremely powerful weapon as a drop can experience a reversal in fortune by unknowingly wrecking it with a mistek. A weapon tekked as 0/0/0/0|10 makes everyone's heart ache.
The second consequence has to do with sphering. Every weapon can have %s in up to three of its five attributes (except unsealable weapons can only have two, due to the kill counter taking up one of those slots, and S-Rank weapons which can have none). That means that if you found a 0/10/20/0|0 weapon and tekked it to, say, 0/20/30/0|0, you can still sphere up another area attribute in addition to A.Beast and Machine. However, mistekking an area down to 0% does not free up that slot and will prevent you from sphering in an additional different area. If that same weapon were tekked to 0/0/10/0|0 instead, you would still able to sphere only one additional area apart from A.Beast and Machine. This means if someone sells you a Native Excalibur and you want to sphere it in another area, for example Dark, there's a chance you can't do it because it has a hidden Machine area that was tekked to 0.
Intentional Mistekking
Occasionally you may consider intentionally mistekking the photon attribute %s of a weapon. This is a trade-off that you should only do in very specific situations.
The first situation is for less expensive sphering when adding % to your weapon. It costs 20 Photon Drops to add 5% and 1 Photon Sphere to add 30%. For weapons that can be tekked to 15%, 45%, and 75%, by tekking 5% below maximum (to 10%, 40%, 70% respectively), during its sphering process you can use a sphere instead of adding the last 25% with 100 PDs. This will save a PD if you buy the sphere from Paganini, but will save more if you use spheres distributed in events, especially since occasionally people will sell spheres they obtained from event at lower prices. I believe the reason mistekking was a prevalent strategy was that spheres used to be obtainable from MA1&2 in some versions of PSO, but I don't think it's available here at the moment.
However, it's important to note that, by mistekking an item, the item will not be at its full power until you sphere it. For example, suppose you intentionally tekked an item to 10% instead of 15%, but you don't sphere it immediately. Until you sphere it, your weapon will be dealing less damage because of its lower %. On the other hand, if you tek it to 15%, then slowly sphere it later, and if you end up buying the sphere from Paganini, your weapon is more powerful during the time at the cost of 1 PD only. Of course, the cost will be higher if you obtained the sphere from an event.
Therefore, if you do not plan to sphere a weapon soon or at all, it is not really a good idea to mistek them, for the above reasons.
Another situation where players may consider mistekking is for aesthetics, especially for weapons where the %s don't matter, e.g. FO spellcasting weapons, or pure utility weapons, or weapons that are not worth using. There are some people who dislike odd hit % like 35% or 55% prefers to tek to multiples of ten like 30% or 40%. There are also people who like to tek to 0s for cleanness, as well as those who dislike that due to hidden areas. There are some who likes to tek to -5s for novelty, especially -5% in hit or three areas. This is all purely personal preference.
Conclusion
When tekking a special weapon where the %s matter, always tek 10% up unless you have a very good reason to tek 5% up instead to make the trade-off worthwhile, like you're planning to sphere it soon or if spheres are much cheaper to you than 99 PDs.
Special Thanks
I would like to thank @emoticon for writing parts of the guide and polishing it overall.
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