Pretty much just look at the item's stats, really (or better yet, test it on your chars to see if the numbers raise/are blue, since there are a lot of calculations/multipliers involved with a chars' final stats). If it's higher, the item is probably at a higher rank. While there may be exceptions, it's not really something you have to worry about for the most part. If you reeealy want to, you can check outside resources like the item rank chart[gamefaqs.gamespot.com].

As for Innocents/Specialists, it'd be good to know what each of them does so you can make better use of them, but I wouldn't say it's something "required" per se. If you're interested, you can check the wiki[disgaea.fandom.com].

Enemies' lvs in the Item World are dependant on the item's rank you're in and what floor you're at, along with stuff like "Stronger Enemy Bills" and such. There's also another hub area that you can unlock later on (you can go back and forth at will, with some exceptions/certain Chapter limitations) that raises the levels of all enemies along with their stats (but you receive double the EXP), so the Item World also get harder by default.

Originally posted by 68ST0X20:

Is it possible to know an item's rough "level".
i.e. if I have two axes I've never used before with different citizens inhabiting them, which base axe is better. Do I just need to learn the core stats for item types plus the effects of citizens?

Also, what affects the strength of enemies in the item world - better quality items have stronger enemies at item level 0 - do they get stronger with item quality, or do they scale with the player party?

Just check the Item Rank Ingame with the Male Ninja left from the three Shopkeepers. The Item Rank doesn't really matter that much tough, just equip whatever Item has better Stats. Item Rarity is also not that important for a long time, since it doesn't matter if a Item has 100 Floors if the Enemys past Floor 20 start eating you alive.

Also it is Child Play to just farm 1000+ Innocents of whatever Stat you need and completly breaking the (Main) Game with it.

Rank 38 is the highest Item Rank you can randomly find and this Weapons have around 1000-1400 in their Main Stat.

So just upgrade the Shop until the General Shop sells Bandit Hands and wait until one of this Hands have around 100 Innocents of the Stat you need. Then repeat that 5 Times, enter the Itemworld 5 Times and subdue said Innocents(just quit and reload until the innocent appears on floor 1 ) , combine them and Tadaaa even a Rank 1 Weapon now has the Stats of a R38 Weapon.

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3500894711

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3500894971

Thank you very much, both of you!

You also answered another question I had - I wondered about missable innocents but I was mistakenly thinking that innocents appeared when on the floor matching their level number. Seems that is only true for Bailiffs? Nice tip that I can just reload until the innocent I want appears on 1st floor!

Yeah, Bailiffs are the only ones that work like that. There are others that are tied to some gimmicks like Lovers and dual-stat specialists, but once spawned, they work like regular innocents. The only other way to "miss" a specialist would be to reach the final floor of the item without subduing them, so they get stuck on the item permanently, but this is very unlikely and pretty much only relevant for the aforementioned innocents, as they can spawn when/after you're done raising the item.

Also, while I won't say it's straight up a bad idea, I'm personally not too fond of forcing/reloading specialists spawns on the very first floor. It's fine if all you want is that one particular innocent and then just dump the item, but, at least once you have your item world runner setup and a char strong enough to 1-shot gatekeepers, just rushing through the floors is better/faster imo (feel free to enter easily accessible Mystery Gates on the way for more floors/spawn opportunities). Aiming for the 10th floor (and clearing it) on garbage/dummy items is good for the long run, since Mr. Gencies Exits becomes almost a secondary currency, especially if you plan to perfect your items later on.

Originally posted by neemoos:

Also, while I won't say it's straight up a bad idea, I'm personally not too fond of forcing/reloading specialists spawns on the very first floor. It's fine if all you want is that one particular innocent and then just dump the item, but, at least once you have your item world runner setup and a char strong enough to 1-shot gatekeepers, just rushing through the floors is better/faster imo (feel free to enter easily accessible Mystery Gates on the way for more floors/spawn opportunities). Aiming for the 10th floor (and clearing it) on garbage/dummy items is good for the long run, since Mr. Gencies Exits becomes almost a secondary currency, especially if you plan to perfect your items later on.

The Floor 1 Method is very useful if you want a lot of Innocents in a very short amount of Time. For a Example you wanna get 100 Firefighters for one of your Units which depending on the Items means clearing 60-70 Floors assuming the Firefighters always spawns on Floor 1-9 or spending 6-7 Gencys. For me it depends on my Mood if i wanna continue my Run or am fine with wasting a little bit of Time.

Of course i am doing a Item World Only Run i am at Lv. 180+ while being in Chapter 2-1. Gonna get all my Charas to T6, get all the Maps (only missing Z ) and then i gonna kick Etnas Butt and then i finnaly gonna do the Story for good xD. Poor Zenon gonna have to face a bunch of People who could oneshot Lamington.

Since i am doing non stop IW Expeditions it should be quite obvious that sometimes i just don't wanna go for another 10 Floors.

Oh yeah i am trying to get the Z Pirates in a Lv.63 Muscle and i managed to get the Jollys like 3 Times in a Hour.... Feel bad for all this poor Souls *looks at GamefaQ*