How evolutions actually work
Max weapon, held passive, boss chest - and the three ways that goes wrong.
Of the 151 recipes in the game, 40 are unions: they consume two weapons rather than a weapon and a passive. 25 consume something that is itself already evolved, which is what makes the Grimoire page three ranks deep rather than a flat list. And 18 consume a passive-slot item outright - Operation Guns and Emergency Meeting both do this, and it surprises everyone the first time.
The requirements, exactly
- Every weapon the recipe consumes must be at max level.
- Every passive it requires must be in your inventory - held, not consumed. A few recipes want those maxed too, which is why Infinite Corridor reads Clock Lancet (max) + Silver Ring (max) + Gold Ring (max).
- You must open a boss chest, from ten minutes onward.
Where it goes wrong
Slots. A recipe you cannot fit is a recipe you cannot finish. Two evolutions that each want two passives will not both happen in 6 passive slots alongside your survival kit.
An evolved input is not automatically finished. Most evolutions cap at level 1, so equipping one is all the next recipe needs from it - but the Bracelet and Emerald chains level like ordinary weapons, and Tri-Bracelet genuinely wants a maxed Bi-Bracelet.
The chest is a moment, not a state. Nothing on a level-up screen advances a finished recipe. If the planner is telling you to open a chest, the ranked list of items below it has stopped being the useful advice.
Limit Break: what happens after max
Limit Break is the mode that changes what "max" means. Unlocked by the Great Gospel relic and switched on at stage select, it lets a weapon keep levelling past its cap, and each level past max buys one bonus from that weapon's own menu of tiers - Might, Area, Amount, Pierce and the like, each weapon carrying its own list and its own limits. The planner models it: with the mode on, slot levels run past max and the advice names the stats the extra levels are buying.
Two consequences are worth planning around. Evolving a limit-broken weapon resets the bonus stats - the evolved form starts over at level 1 - so evolve first and break the result, not the ingredient. And since every level past max is another bonus, Growth compounds harder here than anywhere else: a Limit Break run wants few weapons and a tall Growth stat, which is exactly what the planner starts pushing when you flip the mode on.