Fusing EX Equipment in Princess Connect Without Burning Skill Gems

Princess Connect! Re:Dive rewards patience, but the moment a favourite unit finally earns a slot for EX Equipment, the temptation to tap every glowing button is real. Many players in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane find themselves burning through Skill Gems faster than they ever planned, then wondering why their roster feels weaker a week later. The fusion system is forgiving once you understand what each material actually does, and unforgiving when you skip the prep work.

EX Equipment is not just a stat stick. It carries unique passives that often reshape how a character performs in Clan Battle, Princess Arena, and the harder floors of Luna's Tale. That is precisely why wasting the Skill Gems attached to the process stings so much. The gems act as the experience fuel that pushes fused gear up its breakpoints, so spending them on a half-finished piece leaves you with a stat orphan that is too good to throw away but too weak to use.

Aussie players who pull during the biannual anniversary banners tend to face this exact trap, because the temptation to instantly max a new toy often overrides the slower, more calculated approach veterans recommend. The good news is that with the right ordering of menus and a modest stockpile of the proper items, your first fusion can be the cleanest upgrade of your account. What follows is the exact pathway, the small mistakes to dodge, and the moment to step away from the screen so you do not blow the budget on impulse.

Before touching the Forge, it helps to know what every button does, where the Skill Gems are silently consumed, and which steps can be delayed safely. A few minutes of reading here saves hours of grinding later, and keeps your gem wallet intact for the next banner you have been eyeing on the JB Hi-Fi lunch break.

Getting Comfortable With the Fusion Menu

The Forge screen lives inside the Character menu, accessed by tapping a unit, choosing Equipment, then opening the EX Equipment tab on the far right. Players occasionally miss it because the icon is smaller than the standard six-slot grid and sits beside the regular gear slots you have used since the early tutorial. On a Telstra or Optus connection from Adelaide or Perth, the menu can take a beat longer to load, so be patient and let the equipment list populate before tapping anything.

Once inside, you will see three things: the EX Equipment slot itself, a list of compatible base items, and a meter showing your current Skill Gem balance for that specific character. The meter is the part that matters most, because every fusion step that pushes the piece past a threshold will silently drain from it. Tap each option slowly the first time to read the tooltip, instead of mashing the confirm button the way you might when claiming a free summon on Australia Day.

Stockpiling the Right Materials Before You Begin

Fusing an EX Equipment piece requires three categories of inputs, and mixing them up is the most common cause of wasted resources. Players often assume one universal bar exists, only to discover they have spent a mage-specific gem on a sword-wielding unit. Sorting your inventory by category before you begin turns a chaotic afternoon into a tidy fifteen-minute job.

A typical first-piece checklist looks something like the list below.

• One matching-class EX Equipment shard dropped from the appropriate hard-mode quest
• A handful of Enhance Stones appropriate to the unit's role
• Enough character-specific Skill Gems to reach the next two breakpoints
• A small reserve of generic gems in case a guaranteed success event is running

If you want a quick reference for which hard-mode quests drop the right shards this week, the drop-rate tracker keeps the current rotation updated for Aussie time zones. Once the inventory is laid out, double-check the unit's name and class on the confirmation pop-up. A tired tap at 2am AEST after a long shift is how accounts end up feeding a defender's gems into a striker.

The Step-by-Step Fusion Process

Now to the actual fusing. With the character and EX Equipment tab open, select the base piece, then choose Fuse from the lower-right menu. The game will ask you to select the first sub-piece, usually a weapon or armour fragment, then display a preview of the resulting stats. If the numbers look right, confirm and watch the animation; if not, back out and re-evaluate.

The second step is where Skill Gems enter the equation. You will see a slider that lets you choose how many gems to commit in one go. Slide conservatively at first, reach the immediate breakpoint, then stop. Most top players in the local Discord scenes recommend two or three modest top-ups rather than one big dump, because the game occasionally rewards a lucky bonus roll and you want spare gems ready if it does not.

The third step is the final lock. Confirm the fused piece, equip it, and exit the menu before any other shiny button tempts you. A clean walk-away is part of the strategy, and your gem balance will thank you tomorrow.

Mistakes That Drain Skill Gems Fast

Even seasoned players slip up, especially during limited-time events that push everyone to spend in a hurry. A few habits consistently cost more than they save, and recognising them early keeps the stash healthy for the next event rather than emptying it on day one.

• Maxing the slider on the first attempt instead of testing with a small batch
• Fusing during a half-watched stream when the confirm pop-up gets tapped twice
• Ignoring the difference between character-locked Skill Gems and the universal pool
• Forgetting to claim the free gem mail from the daily login, which quietly offsets costs

If you have already made one of these errors, do not panic. Most mistakes are recoverable with a week of focused dailies, and the next banner is rarely as urgent as it feels at 11pm AEDT.

Locking In Gains After Your First Success

After the first piece is equipped, take a screenshot, post it to the clan chat, and let the dopamine settle before queueing another. A short break prevents the second-piece impulse that turns a smart upgrade into a marathon session. Many Aussie players find that pairing fusion nights with a Bunnings sausage sizzle or a Friday footy match keeps the pacing sane and the wallet happier.

For a deeper look at how special equipment sets are unlocked across the roster, the community walkthrough at princess-connect-re-dive-how-to-unlock-special-equipment-sets breaks down each prerequisite step by step. Bookmark it, share it with a clanmate, and your next EX Equipment will feel less like a gamble and more like a calculated win.

Grab a cold drink from the fridge, clear your schedule for an hour, and dive into the Forge with a calm head and a healthy gem reserve. The first fusion sets the tone for every upgrade that follows, so a measured approach today pays off across every banner running through the rest of the Aussie summer.