I'm not understanding the blueprint mechanic

[Sir Argo]

I've got a few friends that have played the last two seasons and they try to explain it to me, and I'm just not getting it. So I thought I'd post a message here and see if anyone can make it more simple.

I think I'm struggling with terminology because when I think of "unlocking" a blueprint, I think it is now available. It was locked before, but now it is unlocked. I've either crafted it or bought it and now I own it. But then there is this little button that says "lock". So if unlocking a blueprint is obtaining it and now I can build it, then wouldn't locking it be doing the opposite? Nope. That's not how that works. We'll cover that farther below, for now I'm just pointing out that I think this is about what words mean.

Here's what I think. If you can, please correct what is wrong and/or explain what I'm missing.

001 - that little puzzle piece

• If the blueprint does not have a puzzle piece within a circle, in the upper right corner of it's tile, then I own it already. The tile's image will also have full opacity.
• If the blueprint does have the puzzle piece within a circle, it means I don't own it yet.
• If the puzzle piece is grey, it means I do not have enough fragments to buy this blueprint.
• If the puzzle piece is gold in color, it means I do have enough fragments, it can be purchased right now.

002 - getting a whole blueprint

• I can buy a blueprint in the wish machine for 2000 starchrom (price varies).
• I can pay 500 starchrom at the wish machine to play whack-a-mole and possibly win a blueprint (discounts may apply)
• I can get a blueprint from a mystical chest.
• I'm sure there's a couple more ways to get an entire blueprint in one action.
• These blueprints are "complete". I own them. I can build a weapon at my gear bench with them.

002 - fusing a blueprint

• As far as I can tell, this is just making a whole blueprint out of fragments.
• So if a blueprint says it takes 40 fragments to make, and I have those 40 fragments, I can hit "fuse" and it will lose the 40 fragments and gain a completed blueprint.
• They're just using the word "fuse" where other games might use the word "craft" or "build" or "purchase".

003 - blueprint fragments

I'm having serious issues with this one.

A blueprint for a gun, pretend there is the Mega Super Pistol 0/40 (category: Juggersnot), says it takes 40 fragments to create.

• Do I need 40 Mega Super Pistol fragments?
• Or do I need 40 Juggersnot fragments?
• How do I know how many Mega Super Pistol fragments I have?
• How do I know how many Juggersnot fragments I have?

For the last one, I'm can answer part of it myself. I can see a spot that shows I have 100 Juggersnot fragments, and if I hover the mouse over it, it says 60 "Epic" and 40 "Fine". If I click on the heading of that (Blueprint Fragments) it shows me a screen with headings UNLOCKED / LOCKED. The locked tab has sub-tabs for each category and some of them show various weapons. So for example, under the juggersnot sub-tab, there's the Mega Super Pistol showing 40/40. If I look under the UNLOCKED tab, all the sub-tabs are empty. I'm just going to assume at some point I'll have something there.

004 - the many meanings of the word "locked"

In most games, a locked weapon or skill is one you haven't obtained yet. Maybe you have to pay skill points to unlock that skill, or do a quest to unlock that weapon. I don't think this definition of "locked" is what OH means. So let's try this...

When I go to the blueprints tab, right side, click the heading, I'm now looking at two tabs: UNLOCKED and LOCKED. The unlocked tab is basically empty. The locked tab shows various weapons under a number of categories.

• When I highlight the Mega Super Pistol 40/40, it shows me the description of the weapon. At the bottom, I can hit F to fuse, or C to lock. WAIT A SECOND!! This is showing up under the heading LOCKED already. Why do I have the option to lock a weapon that is already under the category LOCKED?!
• There's also a trout in there that is showing 20/40 that I cannot fuse, but I can LOCK. A friend said that locking a blueprint merely means you can take it with you to the next season. If that's true, how can I lock a blueprint that I haven't yet fused?

I'll stop here for now. I have additional questions about mods, but I'll do that in a different message.

[Bu3(SW)]

You may be a visual learner (nothing wrong with that). Would you like to join my discord and I can stream the process to you and make sense of this in seconds for you?

[~KeNnEtH~]

1. Blueprints are unlocked using fragments.

2. Blueprints are collected via a few ways:

- opening mystical chest in a stronghold (1 mystical chest per stronghold and only once per season). To reset, you need to start a new season.

- wish machine by buying it for starchrom either directly or through the gamble. To be clear, starchrom is earned via gameplay and there is a finite amount you can earn per season.

3. Any duplicates (i.e. weapon or armor set piece you already unlocked) are converted into blueprint fragments.

4. Blueprint fragments of the same class (i.e. stranger, beyonder, huntsman, juggernaut, wanderer, operator) will go towards upgrading a blueprint of the same class, regardless of rarity (normal - green, rare - blue, epic - purple, legendary - gold).

The class is written in the blueprint image.

5. Pressing C to lock blueprint fragments is mainly to prevent using a desired blueprint's fragment to fuse into something else.

For eg. I have 15 SOCR Last Valor blueprint fragments. Because SOCR Last Valor is a "Beyonder" class weapon, I can also use it to upgrade the Jaws pistol which is also a "Beyonder" class weapon. If I have other "Beyonder" blueprint fragments to level the Jaws blueprint to the next level, I may accidentally select the 15 SOCR Last Valor fragments and used them when I want to keep them for future to upgrade SOCR Last Valor instead.

6. The rarer an item, the more levels its blueprint can be upgraded, This is indicated by the number of stars on top of the blueprint image.

7. Once you build an item (weapon or armor set piece), it is built and it does not automatically get upgraded when you upgrade its blueprint. You will need to build an new copy of it after the blueprint is upgraded to enjoy the benefits the upgrade brings.

So, don't get too attached to the item you built but focus on the blueprints.

[Garmadon501]

I am noticing that I have unlocked blueprints which for some reason are not allowing me to use their fragments to upgrade other equipment in its class. Has anyone else seen this?

[Lebeau]

All the various permutations of use for bp's still has me confuzzled as well. Gonna' have to bone up & google it hardcore (any suggestions on what is current/applicable?)....& good luck btw....

[ExplorerNMS]

OP, you forgot to mention anything about UPGRADING Blueprints. Which is the subject that I'd like to know more about.

I've seen videos where someone upgrades a blueprint and then uses the Upgraded Blueprint to Upgrade another blueprint that couldn't be upgraded on its own.

[Critical Mass]

To upgrade a weapon you need a certain amount of XP (no not level XP or Season Pass XP - yeah bad choices of terminology leads to confusion). This type of let's call it blueprint XP is earned from breaking down blueprint fragments. The blueprint fragments only of the matching style of weapon can be used (Huntsman, Operator, Juggernaut, Beyonder, Stranger or Wanderer). The number of XP per fragment depends on its quality: Gold (Legendary) fragments are worth 30 XP each, purple (epic) fragments are worth 10 XP, blue (fine) are worth 3 and green are worth 1. Fragments for the actual weapon you are trying to upgrade are worth double XP so do what you can to mostly use matching fragments.

The amount of XP to upgrade weapons and armor depends on their quality and the number of upgrades already in place. For legendary you need 1600 xp to go from 1 to 2 stars. then 4000, 6000, 8000, and 10000 for each subsequent star up to 6. For armor the legendary progression is 400, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500. Epic is a lot less but only goes to 5 stars max. Blue you generally don't want to worry about upgrading.

When blueprint transfers were introduced it made it MUCH easier to get max stars in legendary equipment because you could move the stars from whatever legendary weapon has the most to a weapon you have unlocked (fused) which has enough blueprint xp available from a bunch of blueprint fragments to reach the next star level (use matching legendary fragments then lower quality fragments, only using non-matching legendary fragments where you really must). After you have done that look to see if you have enough xp in a different weapon to achieve the same thing with another conversion.

You can check your xp available with the View Details button above the list of Current Blueprint Fragments. This only shows number of fragments for each weapon (or armor) of one style. If calculating the xp from the fragments is too hard then find an unlocked weapon of that style, right click on it, click Enhancement then right click the + in the empty box below. the total XP available from unlocked items of the same style should be listed. *Bug workaround - the number is often obscured by being written behind the heading Total XP. To get past this check the Locked Total XP available then come back to unlocked and the number should be visible.