All right, I keep having to stop at the end of the Tier 1 floors because I don't have any tier-2 gear. Are 2-starred items Tier 2? And if that's true, then are 3-starred items Tier 3? Then what does that make 4- or 5-starred items?
Also, how can I craft all this armor if the materials on the recipe never drop? I've been looking for Beast Scales for a bit and it doesn't seem to me like they're ever going to drop... Same goes for a couple other materials.
I'm just kind of confused as to how people say crafting all this stuff/getting to Tier 2 is easy, when I can't seem to get a single item that goes toward any of that gear...
An explanation/help would be great... I bought a 2-starred sword for 7.5k crowns earlier and I don't want to regret getting it if it's not going to count toward Tier 2 gear...
I'll address the teir question first:
In general
0 - 2 star is Tier 1
2 - 4 star is Tier 2
4 - 5 star is Tier 3
You must have 2 star gear and have gone through 15 floors of tier 1 to progress to Tier 2, and I believe its 4 star and 25 floors of Tier 2 to move on to Tier 3.
Wiki is your friend for dropped items, if yo are looking for Beast Scale, you are looking for Beast monsters, look at what areas you are going to and focus on going to the ones with Beast's in them, it will greatly increase your chance of getting the drop. I believe Beast Scale is a one or two star item so it's more likely to drop in lower levels of Tier 1. All I can say is keep running through Tier 1, you should gather enough materials eventually, you can also trade or pay for them with the Crowns you collect from all these run throughs.