Aquamirae adds 2 Smithing Templates, and between them they gate both of the mod’s custom armor sets. The Terrible Upgrade turns ordinary Iron Armor into Terrible Armor, and the Abyssal Upgrade turns Diamond Armor into Abyssal Armor. Both sets are built out of Ice Maze materials and tuned against the things that live there.
One thing that trips people up straight away: both items just read “Smithing Template” in your inventory, so the tooltip is the only way to tell them apart. They work at a Smithing Table exactly like a Netherite Upgrade does, and each one is consumed the moment you forge a piece with it.
Obtaining
The Terrible Upgrade is where the chain starts, and it’s the only one of the 2 that can be found rather than made. It turns up inside 
Pirate Pouches and 
Treasure Pouches, both of which have a 10% chance of holding one when you open them.
That’s the same odds either way, so gather whichever pouches you come across.
| Source | Chance | Where the pouch comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Pirate Pouch | 10% | Camp barrels, and dropped by the Maw, Maze Captain and Maze Pillager |
| Treasure Pouch | 10% | Frozen Chests, the Eel, Maze Vindicators and Captain Cornelia |
One template on its own won’t get you far, so the first thing to do with it is make more. Put the Terrible Upgrade in the middle of a 
Crafting Table, put 4 
Fins in the corners and 4 
Angler Fangs on the edges, and you’ll get 2 templates back out. That’s a net gain of one every time you run it.
2The Abyssal Upgrade never drops from anything at all, and it can’t be duplicated either. You make one by feeding a Terrible Upgrade into a recipe with 4 
Abyssal Amethyst on the edges and 4 
Ship Graveyard Echo in the corners, which returns a single Abyssal template. The Terrible one is spent in the process.
Those 2 facts together are what make the Abyssal set expensive. Every Abyssal Upgrade you want costs another Terrible Upgrade on top of its own materials, and since each template only forges one armor piece, a full suit needs 4 of them. Stockpiling Terrible templates before you convert any is the sensible order.
Usage
Both templates go in a Smithing Table, the same station you’d use for Netherite. The template sits in the first slot, the base armor piece in the second, and the matching material in the third, and the station eats all 3 to hand back the upgraded piece. Nothing here works at a Crafting Table.
Terrible Upgrade
Abyssal Upgrade
The Terrible Upgrade takes Iron Armor plus a Fin and gives you the Terrible Helmet, Chestplate, Leggings or Boots. The Abyssal Upgrade takes Diamond Armor plus an Abyssal Amethyst and gives you the Abyssal Heaume, Brigandine, Leggings or Boots. Each finished set carries its own bonuses, which the armor pages cover properly.
Forging a single armor piece uses up a whole template, so a 4 piece suit needs 4 of them. Duplicate the Terrible Upgrade early and often, and try not to spend your last one by accident, as getting another means opening pouches until a 10% roll comes up.
Forging Terrible Armor
Terrible Armor is the cheap path, and it’s a genuine step up before you have 
Diamonds to spare. A full set upgrades 4 pieces of Iron Armor, using 4 templates and 4 Fins between them. Fins are common enough that the templates are the real limit rather than the material.
Worth knowing before you stand there confused at the table: the 
Smithing Table‘s own hint says the material slot wants an Angler’s Fang, and that’s simply wrong. The recipe takes a Fin. Angler Fangs are only used in the duplication recipe, so keep both, but bring Fins to the forge.
Forging Abyssal Armor
Abyssal Armor upgrades 
Diamond gear instead, and each piece wants an Abyssal Upgrade plus 1 Abyssal Amethyst. Since the Abyssal template can never be duplicated, this is the end of a long chain rather than something you’ll do casually. It’s reserved for the back half of an Ice Maze run.
Adding it all up, a full 4 piece Abyssal set costs 4 Terrible templates, 20 Abyssal Amethyst and 16 Ship Graveyard Echo. That’s 16 crystals and all the Echoes going into templates that get destroyed, with 4 more crystals spent at the table itself.
Tips
Duplicate your first Terrible Upgrade before you spend it on anything. 4 Fins and 4 Angler Fangs turn 1 template into 2, and you’ll want at least 4 to armor up completely, so running the recipe a few extra times banks templates for the Abyssal conversions later on.
Farm the Anglerfish for the duplication materials, as it’s the only creature that drops Angler Fangs at all. Each one gives you either a Fin or an Angler Fang on 1 to 2 rolls, weighted 75% toward the Fin, so the Fangs are the slower half of the pair to collect.
Get the Ship Graveyard Echoes banked before you commit to Abyssal, since they only drop from creatures the Shipbreaker kills and that’s a 30 to 40 minute wait each time. Any spare beyond the 16 you need is never wasted either, as Echoes repair most of the mod’s armor and weapons on an anvil.
Frequently Asked Questions
Open Pirate Pouches and Treasure Pouches from the Ice Maze, as each has a 10% chance of holding one. Pirate Pouches come from camp barrels and from the Maw, Maze Captain and Maze Pillager, while Treasure Pouches come from Frozen Chests, the Eel, Maze Vindicators and Captain Cornelia herself.
Only by crafting it, as it never drops from anything. You combine a Terrible Upgrade with 4 Abyssal Amethyst and 4 Ship Graveyard Echo at a Crafting Table, and the Terrible template is consumed to make the single Abyssal one. That’s why the Terrible templates are worth stockpiling first.
The Terrible Upgrade can be, but the Abyssal Upgrade cannot. Surround a Terrible template with 4 Fins in the corners and 4 Angler Fangs on the edges and you get 2 back. There’s no equivalent for the Abyssal one, so every single one costs a fresh Terrible template plus its materials.
That hint is wrong, and it’s a mistake in the mod rather than anything you’re doing. The Terrible Upgrade’s slot description reads “Add Angler’s Fang” while the actual recipe takes a Fin, so put a Fin in and it’ll forge. Angler Fangs are still worth keeping, since the duplication recipe wants 4 of them.
