What's the Source Code crafting good for?

[RabidChoco]

So I'm kind of half-hreatedly experimenting with the Source Code recipes, and basically it just turns a piece of gear into the Source Code's gear?
Or am I missing something? What's it do and how do I take advantage of it?

[The Weak]

I have never played with it much. I think it only has use for the paper dolls (classic mode) since you keep the original name of the target item, but the stats are replaced with that of the Source. I could be wrong though.

[RabidChoco]

That is almost certainly what it looks like, thanks. Thought for sure there might be more to it, but the squad handbook is nigh-silent on that aspect.

[Talithmara]

Actually, this could be worth testing; I'm curious if it impacts range and all that. Imagine if you could take the stats of a hard hitting hammer and slap that on a boomerang to get the power on a longer ranged weapon. I'm a little busy at the moment but if no one tests it before I'm free, I'll check it out.

EDIT: Testing complete. You can only use the same kind of weapons (A Spear onto a Spear, etc) and it seems to overwrite everything, including handedness (A Kudo Muramasa overwrote the Wakizazhi being Subhanded, making it two-handed instead.) Everything is the same as the Source weapon except the name and how it looks in Classic Mode (The weapon portrait shows the original, but equipping it shows what the source data was affixed to.)

So yeah, judging from how cheap Source Shafts are, it's probably for purely cosmetic convenience in Classic Mode. I need to play around with armors to see if those have restrictions, because I'm sick of not being able to use the heavier armors due to my team, and having the LOOK of them will be pretty neat.

EDIT 2: Mission successful. You can use this as a cosmetic change to, for example, finally get some use out of those Assassin Only armors if you don't have an assassin, by simply overwriting the stats and requirements of the Assassin gear with whatever you want to use it on. A great option for if you lack a specific class type and they get something exclusive you like the look of.

Now, unfortunately, this means you can't have total freedom with weapons; you can't make a boomerang look like an axe or anything, but I appreciate the option, at the very least. I also wonder if it's possible to look like the character is dual-wielding massive weapons by using a Source Code of a 1h weapon onto a two-hander. As for armors, I THINK it should be pretty universal, since there's no restriction on Light/Heavy/etc, there's just "Torso" and "Legs" and so on.

[RabidChoco]

I thank and salute you, Ranylyn, for taking the time to do the experimenting. Kind of a disappointing conclusion on my end, but thank you, both of you, for your time.

[Talithmara]

No problem, and I was curious, too. It only took a few minutes of experimentation and keeping an eye on specific variables to really get to the bottom of it.

[RabidChoco]

Don't know how useful it is, but I just found out if you strip something you added an item's Source Code to, you get both spliced items back, it looks like.

[Talithmara]

I'm not too sure when that would be useful, but that could be good to keep in mind!

I'm also curious about what happens if you want to replace the Plugged Source with another one (Say, if one person has one specific look you really like, but you desperately need to upgrade their equipment since it was a level 10 Weapon/Armor and you're level 40.) I'll be testing that, later.

[Talithmara]

I misunderstood your post and I'm glad I did.

I thought you meant you get the source code for both items. You actually legitimately get both items back in their entirety, which is nice. This actually ties in directly with the second part of my post, since this lets you tackle situations like that. Yay!

I can now try to give my pseudo-Kudo Muramasa Dual-Wielder a power upgrade they're long overdue for (Still using viral katanas at level 19) without losing the look of the Kudo Muramasas.

[RabidChoco]

Also seems to re-randomize any random aspects of equipment so spliced; tried it with the two Muramasa katanas I've since upgraded from. So a potentially less expensive, though debatably more tedious way to reset for more favorable unique gear?

[Talithmara]

That's one way of looking at it. I don't know if it would be worth it, but if you're low on funds and desperate to try to get a specific stat on one of the ones with the yellow names, it's certainly an option. If nothing else, it's a theoretical application for this in Basic Mode.