Starfield: How to Upgrade Weapons

Your time exploring the many reaches of Starfield is going to leave you wondering how to upgrade weapons and keep yourself safe. Space is vast, and there’s a threat around every corner, so keeping your mini arsenal up to date is essential for continued field work.

Weapons in Starfield come in various forms, and each type can be useful in specific situations. However, even the most appropriate gun may fail if you haven’t upgraded it to match the level of challenges you’ll face. However, if you’re confused about how you can better your weapons, we’ve got you covered.

How to Upgrade Weapons in Starfield

There are two broad ways to improve your weapons in Starfield. The first requires you to invest multiple points into the many Certification skills in the Combat skill tree. These skills are present for every major type of weapon, and each rank into the skill will improve multiple stats of the gun by a certain percentage.

This approach is viable for those who are going for a gunslinger build. But for those who wish to take on something like a stealth build, this method would require a heavy investment of early skill points. So, the second method might be more suitable for people who want to save their skill points but still dish out some decent damage.

Crafting and improving your gear has always been a major aspect of Bethesda games. Whether it’s infusing your bow with special effects in Skyrim or switching out the ammo type in Fallout, the player has complete freedom in how they approach their offensive capabilities. Starfield is much the same, but there are some kinds of weapons that you may not have used in other games.

The game enables players to craft and use weapon mods, which can help improve their performance on the field. These mods will change specific components on your weapon, like the muzzle, barrel, magazine, and so on.

While the skills can be acquired at any time through the game, players will have to plan out their weapon modding a bit so they don’t have to keep circling back.

Where to Upgrade Weapons in Starfield

There are a number of locations you can visit to craft and upgrade your gear in Starfield, such as the Pharmaceutical Labs to cure any Status Effects you may have acquired during your adventures.

Weapon Workbenches are where you would want to go when trying to upgrade your arms, but before you do, you also need to ensure you have the required components to upgrade the gun you wish.

You can unlock new crafting components by visiting a Research Lab, where you can also unlock weapons mods for further customization. The Constellation Lodge has all the required crafting stations in the basement, so you can go here whenever you have a bunch of things to do at once.

To upgrade your weapons, approach a Weapon Workbench and interact with it to bring up a list of all your weapons in your inventory. Select a weapon from this list, and a new page will open up, giving you an in-depth look at this weapon and everything you can do to improve it.

If you want to research and implement mods, be sure to invest some skill points into the Weapon Engineering skill.

A quick way to upgrade this skill is to craft, equip, and then remove a mod from your gun. So, if you have an abundant source of resources to craft a mod, you can keep crafting it and removing it to quickly rank up this skill and be able to craft the best mods in Starfield.

When you select a weapon in the Workbench list, you will be able to see its active mod slots along with the installed components. Every mod will require specific items to complete the research, and you can gradually build up the research meter over time as you accrue more resources.

A point to keep in mind is that researching a mod is not the same as building one. However, once the research is complete, you can create the mod at an Upgrade Station.

In case you don’t have certain items to craft a mod, you can use the Track functionality to make it easier. Now, when you come across these resources in the open world, the symbol beside it will let you know you have met the crafting requirements for a mod.

Now that you know what to do to improve the performance of your weapons, you are a force to be reckoned with on every planet. Which weapon type is your favorite to use in the game? Let us know in the comments below and check out our other Starfield guides to become an accomplished space explorer!