@benc read the comments,too bad the good tips are burried between thousands of begging morons, but the point is - stack luck , get 15+ gear (especially axes)
@Xy312 THIS!!!! I can't believe his comment was -1 when I found it, it's incredibly important to do so, but that's just the first part. Next comes the moment when you fight Normal/Strong enemies (especially if you didn't keep your CP low) -> your LUCK STAT dictates the value of the items dropped by monsters with no titles. I am playing a new char who only gets blacksmithing and it's going many times faster than my first one , also I am sure this one is not going to get "stuck" with 1000 CP.
@systmfrk - you will later find magic ones with stats which you can upgrade and get more of those same stats, honestly I wish it worked for all the items like that
awesome game ! my two cents - to survive in the bone cave area , you just have to have all gear of $600+ value , but the drop chance of such stuff is incredibly low in the previous location (not even mentioning the lower ones) , the drops there are usually around $250 value.
Or, to fix it , maybe make that blacksmithing would augment also the already present stats of all the items, just like it does to rings and necklaces.
 "Battle without End"){kind=icon}