What's the trigger for Legendary drops?

[Apex Artist]

I'm just into Voodoo Boy territory, having done my first mission for Mr. Hands, and about to go into the Voodoo Boy den.
My character is level 35 with 50 street cred.
Suddenly it seems a lot of enemies are dropping legendary versions of their weapons now, and I'm wondering what drives that. I guess I didn't expect to see legendary drops before I hit level 40.
What factors go into pushing those drops? Character level? Story progression?

[craigsters]

your street credential most likely

[Amanoob105]

The orange tier of weapons? They start turning up after you reach level 33.
https://cyberpunk.fandom.com/wiki/Cyberpunk_2077_Weapons#Rarity

After that it seems to be largely just sheer dumb luck if you find anything worse.
The 5++ stuff won't start turning up until you're level 51 (and have the PL DLC).

*Edit*
Forgot to mention.
https://cyberpunk.fandom.com/wiki/Street_Cred
The main thing street cred does is it gives you a discount at stores.
However it also increases the drop rate of tier 5 equipment once you hit level 40. It doesn't however, as mentioned above, control when they start dropping.

[Apex Artist]

Thanks. I can't recall when I hit lvl 33 but it could've been when I started getting the higher level drops.
Mods seem to be lagging behind weapon drops by a few tiers, and I'm not sure if that's my fault for some reason, or normal.

[Amanoob105]

Originally posted by Apex Artist:

Thanks. I can't recall when I hit lvl 33 but it could've been when I started getting the higher level drops.
Mods seem to be lagging behind weapon drops by a few tiers, and I'm not sure if that's my fault for some reason, or normal.

Weapon mods are less of an issue as you can always just craft better options from lesser options.
Two of a lesser tier can be turned into one of the next tier up.

I assume you've already figured out what can be done with the chimera core?

The issues only kick in if you're looking for certain scope or muzzle attachments, which can't be crafted.
Or mods that only start turning up at certain levels, which makes crafting them harder assuming they even have a version lower than tier 5 to craft with.
For that you'd need to look though the list itself as when what turns up at which level is all over the place. And some scopes and muzzles don't go above certain tiers.
https://cyberpunk.fandom.com/wiki/Cyberpunk_2077_Attachments_and_Modifications

[Chaosolous]

Street Cred and your overall level.

Loot scales.