…but that’s not quite reality.

While there is some customization available, it’s not as much as you may think. 

But before we get into discussing each item type (weapons, armor and consumables) let’s talk about the core pieces of the crafting system.

Crafting Components

Just like any other game with crafting, you need to come to the table with the right components. You essentially have three different types in this game:

Leather Metal Electrical

There are different “levels” of each type, and you need the rarer, better components for higher level crafting. For example, the worst type of metal component you’ll find is metal debris. The second worst is called metal components.

These components can be found throughout Mars, but the main places you’ll find them are monsters and chests/lockers. You can also recycle things you don’t want to sell (like armor or weapons) to retrieve crafting components. 

Finally, some vendors carry these components. They’re actually cheaper than I expected, so that’s not a bad way to go if you find yourself coming up short regularly.

My Recommendations

If you have my kind of luck, you’ll have tons of 1-2 types of components and struggle with 1-2 types. In that case, always recycle (rather than sell) things that give you these missing components. If a vendor has it, stock up – a good way to make the money you need is just sell your excess components.

…because you don’t really need 100+ low quality leathers. 

Crafting Talent

Crafting is one of the Technomancer Talents you can choose to invest in. Each point in the talent allows you to use higher-end upgrades for your gear, although you’ll still have to find these plans in the world.

With zero points, you can use Level 1 upgrades. With one point, you can use Level 2 upgrades. Two points lets you use Level 3 upgrades. Maxing out this Talent lets you use Level 4 upgrades. Huzzah!

My Recommendations

If you’re gonna craft throughout the game, you may as well put a few points into this Talent. Just don’t invest too quickly! Being able to use higher-level upgrades without actually having them (because they’re found later in the game) is wasting a precious Talent point. 

Instead, invest in a Talent you can use right now, and ignore the Crafting talent until you find the next set of upgrades.

Upgrade Plans

As I mentioned earlier, The Technomancer’s crafting system requires you to have the right set of plans before you can use higher-level upgrades.

The best way to find these plans is to just scroll over to the corresponding tab in their “Purchase” menu. Note that most vendors specialize in one type of product – weapons, components, armor, etc. But even if they sell these other things, there’s a chance they may have plans for sale as well.

My Recommendations

Depending on the Technomancer abilities and combat style you’re favoring, you may be tempted to just buy the plans that correspond with your build. For example, I only bought plans for staves, gloves and armor when I first found them.

But later I realized that (duh!) I may want to switch it up in the future and play with other styles. Plus, my companions could always benefit from my upgraded crafting for the other weapons. 

Serum is abundant – invest a little more and buy every plan you can!

Now let’s get more into the specifics. First, let’s talk about your weapons.

The Technomancer Weapon Crafting

The first thing you should know is that you can’t actually craft weapons. This isn’t Skyrim where you walk up to crafting table with the right materials and they make it for you. 

It isn’t The Witcher 3 either. There are no blacksmiths standing around waiting for you to walk up and order a new piece.

Instead, crafting for weapons is essentially just upgrading your equipment. Each type of weapon has a different number of upgrade slots. For example, maces have two, rifles have one, and staves have three.

All weapons have essentially the same three types of upgrades:

Critical hit chance Physical damage Disruption chance

Critical hit chance is just what it sounds like. If you choose this upgrade, you’ll have a critical hit more often, dealing extra damage.

Physical damage is also (hopefully) self-explanatory. This doesn’t increase your damage by much, but considering it stacks with every time you hit an enemy, it does add up.

Disruption chance is your weapon’s ability to disrupt the action of an enemy. Considering that your enemies hit with Dark Souls type of damage, disrupting them is a major part of the game. 

My Recommendations

The best upgrade for you really just depends on your preferences and how you like to play. When I first started, I only used physical damage upgrades. Since I use Warrior style, I figured it’d help a lot since I’m hitting multiple enemies at once with that upgraded damage.

But now, my personal preference is increasing disruption chance. I find myself in the middle of packs of enemies often, so anything I can do to disrupt them from turning me into a human ping pong ball is awesome. 

Technomancer Crafting: Armor

Armor is similar to weapons in that you can’t actually build your own armor. Instead, you’re creating upgrades to improve the utility of armor you find or buy on Mars.

You have a few more options available than with weapons, but it’s still nothing to write home about. You can upgrade armor to include:

Physical damage reduction Electrical damage reduction Disruption reduction Poison damage reduction Energy regeneration

Physical damage reduction is just as you’d probably expect. When a bad guy hits you, he does less damage.

Electrical damage reduction isn’t as important early-game, but plays a bigger role later-game. Spoiler alert – you aren’t the only thing slinging lightning bolts on Mars!

Disruption reduction keeps your enemies from disrupting your various attacks or abilities. 

Poison damage reduction will be much more important in some areas than others. While enemy rogues may poison you, I found the worst poison damage comes from certain monsters.

Energy regeneration is mainly important for anyone investing heavily in the Technomancy skill line. Especially those casting Electric Arcs and Electric Storm often.

My Recommendations 

I think these are more situational than the weapon upgrades. In general you can’t go wrong with balancing physical damage reduction and disruption reduction, then only using the others if the situation (read: enemies) call for it.

Technomancer Crafting: Consumables

There are essentially three types of consumables in the game:

Health injections Focus injections Traps

Health injections are your main source of healing in the middle of battle.

Focus injections help you recover fluid charges faster.

Traps are… well, traps.

My Recommendations

To be honest I haven’t used a single Focus injection so far, but I’ve definitely used quite a few health injections. Being able to make them at the crafting table is extremely handy.

Also, traps are very useful. I normally don’t really use traps in RPGs, but there have been a few fights in The Technomancer where I was severely outnumbered and had to keep retreating behind explosive traps to win. 

Conclusion

Even though it’s not the best crafting system ever created, it does provide some very useful upgrades. While the lower level numbers are dismal, the higher value you get with the Level 3 and Level 4 upgrades will make a big difference in combat.

Again, don’t forget to upgrade your companions’ gear! Its the best way to maximize your investment in the game’s crafting system. 

Good luck, and I hope this short Technomancer crafting guide and my personal recommendations helps you dominate Mars!