Rarity

Rarity denotes the worth and difficulty of obtainment for items, notably: armor, weapons, and collections in DC Universe Online .

Overview

Rarity denotes the worth and difficulty of obtainment for items, notably: armor, weapons, and collections in DC Universe Online .
Based on a colored tier system, each obtainable item in the game has an icon that identifies the item and its rarity.

White denotes Poor items that do not have a particular rarity as they are easily available as vendor junk.

Light blue denotes Common items that do not have entry level rarity as they are easily available as loot drop or purchasable vendor items. Most weapons and gear at the beginning of the game are of common rarity.

Green denotes Uncommon items that can usually be found dropped by Mobs or Time Capsules. Blue-level vendors also sell uncommon gear and items.

Blue denotes Rare items, usually dropped by high-level mobs and mini-bosses, or by Time Capsules. Orange-level vendors also sell rare gear and items.

Purple denotes Epic items, usually dropped by end of level bossess or Time Capsules. Epic items usually denote Iconic Equipment and Iconic Battle Suit pieces or collections.

Chest4 5Full-size image | SourceDC Universe Online Wiki contributors; game artwork belongs to its respective owners.

Gold denotes Legendary items. These are special items gained through The Vault, Time Capsules, powerful end level bosses and Special Promotions. These items are untradable, except for styles, collections, and base items. Collections typically have these as the most rare level.

Orange denotes Exotic items. These are special items typically gained through Time Capsules. These items are currently the rarest items to be found.
There are no icons of this color, these items usually have icons normally indicating legendary or artifact rarity.

Light yellow denotes Artifact level items. The items originally were only available through special promotions or to the development team. They are the most powerful items to exist in the game.
The first regular items to have artifact rarity are the gear pieces of the Fallen God costume set ( Amazon Fury Part III).
Special promotion player artifact level items include the Patriotic Utility Belt and the Recruiter's Utility Belt. Developer artifact level items include the Monitor Helm of Ascension, the Monitor Annihilation Device MKI trinket and the Monitor Ring of Legend.
Collections typically have this level ranked just below that of Legendary.

Bright yellow denotes Marketplace items which can be found and obtained only from the Marketplace. These items usually are account bound, meaning they can be traded only to other characters of the same player account.

Items like for example Static's Damaged Goggles seem to indicate that the game's development team considers artifact-level rarity to be lower than legendary rarity. However the fact that artifact-level rarity was at first not available to player characters and then introduced years after legendary rarity, justifies its current position as "highest" rarity in the above listing.
Collection item drops, say from a Time Capsule, can have a rarity associated with the drop occurring, while each collection piece may have a different rarity level within the collection--denoting which nodes of the collection are the most rare.
Artifact & Legendary levels are used a bit differently with regard to Collections, where Legendary can be the most rare piece within the collection, with Artifact being a step down, followed by Epic, and then Rare. Some collections do top out at Artifact, but typically then do not have a Legendary item in the set.
Rarity level can be used as a filter in the "Advanced" panel of the Broker.