Item Lock and trade partners

In short: Lock a piece of gear so it cannot be traded, sold, dropped, vended, composed or upgraded -- even by someone who has your password; unlocking takes five days. Trade partners are the one door a locked piece may still pass through.

What: the client's own Item Lock window. A locked item stays yours: it cannot leave your character except in a trade with a trade partner of three days, and nobody can sell, drop, vend, compose or upgrade it. The catch: an unlock is not instant -- the item stays locked for five days after you ask, so a thief who gets into your account cannot strip it that night.

Locking

1. Open the Item Lock window (the lock button in the inventory).
2. Put the equipment in and confirm. Only equipment can be locked -- potions, scrolls and materials cannot.
3. The piece shows its lock state at once. You can still wear it, take it off and store it in the warehouse; only the ways it could LEAVE you are shut.

Unlocking

• Put the locked piece in the same window and ask to unlock it. The game tells you the date it becomes free -- five days from now -- and the piece stays locked until then.
• When the day comes the lock lifts by itself (at your next login if you were away) and the game says so.
• An item already being unlocked cannot be locked again until the five days are up.

What a locked item refuses

• Trade with anyone who is not a matured trade partner (three days of partnership).
• Selling to a shop, listing in a booth, dropping on the ground.
• Being used as a minor item in a +N compose.
• Being upgraded at the Artisan Wind forge.

Everything else works: equipping, repairing, storing in the warehouse.

Trade partners

The original game also refuses to trade, sell, drop or vend the best piece of each kind you carry unless the other player is your trade partner of three days. On Aurenfall that guard is switched off for everyone (the launcher patches it into the client; nothing to apply for): your best items trade, sell and vend like anything else. If you still see "To protect your online virtual property..." after updating, tell the staff -- that is a bug.

So on this server partners matter for one thing: a locked item can be traded to a partner of three days and to nobody else. To become partners:

1. Open the friend window and switch to the Trade Partner tab.
2. Add the other player -- they must be online. They get a prompt.
3. When they accept (or ask you back within 30 seconds), you are partners. The pane counts the probation down from three days; a locked piece can pass between you once it reaches zero.

Either side can end a partnership from the same tab at any time. A list holds up to 40 partners.

Where to find them