Stat Gain Mechanics on Equpment: If on Item Level Up, a stat roll fails and does not boost a stat, you only get a +1 on the available stats.
When trying to max an item in crafting, it’s actually only recommend you use the HP Hammer method I posted earlier on some items but not all.
For example with Circlet (Dodge Type) has a max HP of 74 and max MAG of 10, MAG 2, and DEF 1. EVA is max at +15.
Circlet is an SR, and the stat gain (which is different per equipment) is really low.
When leveling up an item, each item apparently has a base percent on all stats to grow. If no stat grows, then you get a minimum of +1 to a random available stat.
In this case, to ensure Circlet can gain max evasion, you can use 5 HP Hammers, 3 Magic Hammers, then the rest of the stats will go to SPR, DEF, and EVA, and you can max out the Circlet by level 20 (need to Awaken once).
You can use Evasion Hammers but that will give you only +10 Evasion, and the total Hammers used is higher.
I leveled up my Circlet +1 to level 5 while using HP, MAG, and EVA seals for each level (so total of 5 used), and my Circlet ended up with only 8 HP, 1 MAG, and 2 EVA which is really terrible stat allocation (I want to max out evasion). At level 10, it was at was 12 (HP), 2 (MAG), 1 (DEF), 0 (SPR), and 3 (EVA).
Anyway, I reset and do the method below to guarantee I get +15 Evasion on my Circlet by Level 20.
So, the method I posted works in cases like that. You will always get at least a +1 on a random available stat per level but otherwise, it’s a random chance on all stats at once.
For weapons and other things (which high max stats), you are better off just saving and using ATK or MAG hammers. Though again, I don’t know for sure but I just wanted to post this as a correction to what I posted earlier about hammer usage.