You discovered the game-play loop.. congratulations.. you can do this with 90% of games out there IF you really tried and ruin your own experience if you think about it too much. The grind can be a lot but I'm with friends.. it's fun overall.

I will say this.. I take everything to T4.. that is when it seems like a ripoff. Going from any T4 to the next armor is equal in most cases. T4 iron armor has the same stats as T1 padded this is BS. So I will say this.. next time I play I will never be going over T2 then maybe it won't feel so cheap and I won't feel robbed when I get to the next stage plus I'll save a ton of resources to make ONE black metal T4 weapon/tool is 120 black metal.. lmao.. what a joke.