When to upgrade, craft, buy weapons?

[Fizzie]

Not sure when its best to do either option. Still confused about the crafting/upgrade system. Is it better than buying new weapons considering guns will scale with level? for example my dying night dps is pretty low since i havent upgraded it in a while. When I do craft its upgrade or upgrade it, does it auto scale to my level?

[NorthernDavid]

Crafted weapons will craft at one level below your level when you craft them.

If you have a high enough tech attribute and crafting skill it is nearly always cheaper to buy components and craft a weapon compared to buying it. You can get to the point where it will cost less to buy the components than you can get for selling the weapon back to the vendor.

Upgrading a weapon will increase it's level for a cost in components, up to your current level. If you hit the maximum level for the weapon it will not show up in the upgrade menu anymore (not really an issue untill you reach the level cap)

Iconic weapons (Like the dying light) are a little different they have both the upgrade the level like all others, and you can craft a higher tier of Iconic (Unless it is legendary) such as turning the Dying Light from an uncommon pistol to a rare pistol, or from rare to epic etc.
When you craft the higher tier of weapon it will start out 1 level below the level you are when you craft the higher tier.

A lot of people use the word upgrade to describe crafting a higher tier of an iconic but you can also use the upgrade abliity, it's in the crafting menu on a tab near craft, to increase the level of all weapons or armor, this will work on Iconic items as well.

[Fizzie]

Originally posted by NorthernDavid:

Crafted weapons will craft at one level below your level when you craft them.

Kinda wish items showed their level (i dont think they do, just dps). could help me keep track of progress on certain items or lmk when i should do something specific. im kinda just doing random stuff for now

[Graf Erik]

Another thing to keep in mind: Cost for upgrading a weapon rises linear.
So if the first upgrade cost 2 components, the next one will be 4,6,8,10 and so. That means that continous upgrading gets very expensive very fast. I'd recommend either
a) Find a new weapon every 5-10 levels or
b) Upgrade rarity for iconic weapons every... eh, now it get complicated. Upgrading rarety of iconic weapons rises it to yout current level (or one below, question of definition. You can upgrade it once more after upgrading rarety), but you can only do it 'a few' times. How often? Depends on how much attribute points you want to put on tech. For legendary you need 18, and even that is at best good for 4 upgrades (if original weapon was common). So don't increase rarity more often than every 10 levels, better make that 15 or even 20. Cycle through different weapons, there are plenty of iconics.
Keep in mind that upgrading ON higher rarity requires upgrade components of higher rarety, so really better wait a bit before raretizing up.
For example: If you have a rare waepon that you've already upgraded 10 times, upgrading it again will cost a large amount of components, but it will be just rare component. If you now increase rarety to epic, you'l need much fewer components, but now it'll be epic components you need.

In general, buying weapons? I think I actually bought weapons maybe 2 or 3 times in 350 hours. I just take what find and throw it into the chest with the 500 other weapons...

[NorthernDavid]

With the exception of the Iconics where you craft the base item, I prefer to not make one legendary until I am level 47 or higher. Another thing to note is there are a couple of Iconic items that behave a bit differently to the rest. The Black Unicorn Katana, the Witcher shirt and jacket, the gog shirt and the jackets victor gives you all behave differently. Those particular items you can craft at rare, but to get them to legendary you need to upgrade them, 12 times.

[proci85]

Generally speaking, the weapons dropped by your enemies will always be on your level. So usually, you can just get away with the loot.

If you re-craft one of your weapons by changing its quality (like rare -> epic), the weapon will be re-rolled to your level. This can be very useful, as the upgrading cost increases in a linear fashion. So for example, you get an Overwatch at level 30 as a rare, you re-craft it to epic at level 40 an level 50 as legendary.

Eventually at level 50, you are at max, so you want your weapons to match your level. I usually upgrade weapons to legendary. Some prime weapons that are useful:
- Overwatch (and O'Five), the two best snipers
- Shingen Mark V (Arasaka smart SMG), this one requires to be upgraded as it drops as legendary
- Divided We Stand (dropped as Rare)
- Malorian Arms (dropped as Legendary)
- Fenrir or Problem Solver (Buzzsaw does work if you missed them)
- Bloody Maria
- Tizzy

Most of the weapons have substitutes, so if you miss or upgrade one early, it doesn't really matter.

I usually only buy weapons that are not available as craft. The legendary LMG is probably the only example that comes to my mind.

[Gamefever]

Best scaling is achieved through crafting/upgrades always.
Its also a good way to break the money system in the game but how else are you going to collect all iconics, cars, cyberware...etc

As far as keeping on the level goes sure its important in the early game to upgrade right away even just picking up drops for use will manage that though through much of the game.
After you get into the 12-25 range well at this point you can get away with skipping a few levels but you will notice it.

[Fizzie]

I think im just going to skip upgrading/crafting for now. Ive found decent enough weapons from drops and I dont really want to start learning the other system. I appreciate all the comments though.
Im level 12 now, and still figuring out what type of build i wanna run anyway. Maybe if I do another playthrough ill check out the crafting mechanics. Rn its a bit overwhelming

[Fizzie]

I think i got the very basics. I just crafted another black unicorn katana. I upgraded it once and now it says its maxed until i get lv 13. So maybe I wait to *upgrade* iconics every 5-10 levels so I keep costs low while still upgrading it to my level. Not sure when I would craft its next rarity over just upgrading it.
Like my Dying night, its pretty underleveled right now. I can either *upgrade* or *craft* a new one. not sure what would be preferable.

[proci85]

Dying night is quite bad, even if maxed out. You probably will only find better weapons even in the beginning of the game.

[*D4rKsKy*]

All iconic weapons are kinda meh for example the crash magnum [overture model] is worser then the overture itself in my option. I never found the legendary overture blueprint. But i do found the legendary weapon itself by a vendor and its always better and stronger then the crash magnum from rivers.

[Fizzie]

Originally posted by proci85:

Dying night is quite bad, even if maxed out. You probably will only find better weapons even in the beginning of the game.

Thats a fair description. I was using it as an example. I have this iconic that I could either craft its increased rarity form or upgrade it. Also just learned upgrading a weapon does not bring it to your level but to its "next" level whcih is frustrating as there are no visible level labels for weapons!

[Bogmore]

I prefer weapons with a low rate of fire as that means they have a high single shot damage, which means better crit damage too. I have never been keen on firing a clip at a target to kill it then having to change clip for the next one.

But yeah, upgrading can cost a lot of components compared to making a new one after quite a few upgrades. My weapons are always red in the upgrades section, meaning they can't be upgraded any more.

[Fizzie]

maybe it makes sense to craft every 10 levels rather than upgrading? Crafting makes sure the weapon is almost leveled and instead of upgrading a very underlevelled weapon wasting resources. I hate that I dont even know how many times I would need to upgrade a weapon to my level