I have a chest of hardened steel weapons with gold bars that I am unable to dismantle. I just ran through New Asgarad and all of those have purple borders and can be dismantled. Why the difference?
Thatâs how the authors of this idea wanted it. 
The ones with the yellow border are âuniqueâ and can not be dismantled. The purple bordered ones are the âepicâ versions and can be. Implemented for Age of War.
I noticed that yesterday. Got a hardened steel spear with the yellow border and it couldnât be dismantled. Other hardened steel stuff with purple borders I could dismantle just fine, except a throwing axe I stumbled across. But that spear with the yellow border I couldnât.
I understand that, but why is some hardened steel gold and the eest not?
Because there is a difference between Epic (signified by purple) and Unique (signified by yellow). Epic can by crafted, Uniqueâs are only found in drops. Unique also has a âvariableâ that allows it to roll better stats than (itâs little brother) the Epic version.
I feel Funcom shouldâve made both versions capable of being dismantled (as well as all of the Legendary stuff), but they never asked me.
Yeah, I would assume that the âuniqueâ version has slightly better stats. Enough to make it worth it? I donât know. I havenât bothered to really look and compare yet. 