How do weapon mods work?

[Thomas]

I have most it not all all of the mods and I have no idea how they work. I mean I have upgraded weapons but do I lose it once I upgrade a weapon with it? And do I need to carry it at all times like I dont get how they work very well.

[ARmodder]

When you upgrade a weapon the component that is replaced by the upgrade gets put into your "Mods" tab in your Pipboy those components/parts can be used on other weapons, so you don't lose any of the mods, you can swap out a muzzle break from say your pipe pistol and put it on your pipe rifle so long as that same part is available on the pipe rifle.

[Thomas]

Okay so mods are like parts? They are not plans so you have them all the time you need them in your inventory to build it right?

[DouglasGrave]

Originally posted by Cereal:

Okay so mods are like parts? They are not plans so you have them all the time you need them in your inventory to build it right?

Yes, they're basically parts. You typically end up with them as independent items in your inventory because you replaced that part on an existing weapon. For example, if you have a short pipe rifle and decide to make a longer barrel for it (using up some junk items), you'll have the original short pipe barrel left over as a mod.

Unfortunately, you can't just break down a weapon into all its parts or leave it half-built, though some bits (like suppressors) aren't required and can just be removed. In contrast, most armour can have mods taken off and just reverts to the base version (which is kind of absurd, but what can you do?).