Starfield:Weapons

Weapons are the most efficient way to deal with lifeforms and robots, hostile or otherwise. There are many different types of weapons in the Settled Systems to utilize and modify. Each weapon (excluding melee weapons and throwables) also has a damage type, which includes Ballistic, Laser, EM (electromagnetic) and Particle Beam.

Weapons differ from one another in 5 distinct ways: 1) Weapon Type, 2) Model, 3) Traits, 4) Modifications and 5) Tier Level.

Weapon Types
Unless playing in an Unarmed style, weapons are essential for delivering damage and prevailing over adversaries. That damage can be delivered through a variety of weapon types:
 * Pistols: examples are Eon, Sidestar
 * Rifles: Grendel, Maelstrom
 * Shotguns: Coachman, Lawgiver
 * Heavy Weapons (grenade launchers, nail guns): Arc Welder, Cutter
 * Throwables (grenades, mines): Frag Grenade, Fragmentation Mine
 * Melee Weapons (daggers, swords): Combat Knife, Rescue Axe

Weapon Traits
Weapon traits are beneficial enhancements or buffs that are sometimes present on weapons the player acquires through looting, buying, stealing, or receiving as quest rewards. Traits appear randomly due to RNG, and cannot be added or removed by the player, unlike Mods which can. Trait examples include: Anti-Personnel for +10% damage against humans, Extended Magazine for double the magazine size, Explosive for explosive rounds, Lacerate for bleed damage, etc.

Depending on whether 3, 2, 1 or 0 traits appear on the weapon, it displays with a color in inventory lists and containers:
 * Legendary gold: means the weapon possesses 3 traits, the maximum
 * Epic purple: 2 traits
 * Rare blue: 1 trait
 * (Normal) white: no traits

Generally speaking, the more traits the better, but even more important is that the traits match with the player's preferences and playstyle. A white weapon with good mods, or that has a higher Weapon Tier (see below), might perform better than a legendary gold one.

Weapon Modifications
Weapon modifications (mods) are beneficial enhancements the player can install on their weapons at a Weapon Workbench to cause more damage, faster damage, better aim or to otherwise improve performance. Modded weapons can also appear in normal loot. Mods are grouped into slots: barrel mods, muzzle mods, grip mods, and so on. To install a mod, the player must first learn about that type of mod by completing research at a Research Laboratory. Higher levels of weapons mod research require assigning points into the Weapon Engineering skill. Once a certain class of mod has been researched, those mods can from then on be installed at a Weapons Workbench.

Weapon slots and their corresponding modifications include:


 * Barrel: Short Barrel, Standard Barrel, Extended Barrel, Long Barrel, Stabilizing Barrel, Tech Barrel.
 * Laser: Laser Sight, Recon Laser Sight, no mod.
 * Optic: Iron Sights, Glow Sights, Reflex Sight, Short Scope, Medium Scope, Long Scope, Recon Scope.
 * Muzzle: Compensator, Muzzle Brake, Suppressor, Stealth Lasers, Shock Charge Band, no mod.
 * Grip and Stock: Standard Grip, Tactical Grip, Standard Stock, Ergonomic Stock, Stabilizing Stock.
 * Magazine and Battery: Small Magazine, Standard Magazine, Large Magazine, Tactical Magazine, Small Battery, Standard Battery, Large Battery, Tactical Battery, Explosive Rounds, Armor-Piercing Rounds, Depleted Uranium Rounds, Penetrator Rounds, Whitehot Rounds.
 * Cover: Removed Cover, Standard Cover, Amplifier.
 * Internal: Hair Trigger, High Velocity, High Powered, Overclocked, Precision Tuning, no mod.
 * Receiver: Semi-Automatic, Binary Trigger, Burst Fire, Fully Automatic.
 * Skin: default skin.

Note: Not all mod variants are available on every weapon type. For example, melee mods don't appear as an option for ranged weapons, laser-specific mods aren't shown for ballistic weapons, some rifle barrels cannot apply to revolvers, etc.

Weapon Tiers
As the player progresses, better and better tier weapons will naturally start to appear in-game: an "Eon Pistol" at level 5 might drop as a "Calibrated Eon Pistol" at level 20, or as a "Refined Eon Pistol" at level 30. (Note: levels are approximate.) They all still look and play like an Eon pistol, but at each higher tier they will see an increase in weapon base stats such as damage or rate of fire. For example, an Advanced AA-99 Rifle might be twice as powerful as a basic one. Prefixes indicate weapon tier level as follows:
 * "Superior" - Tier 5
 * "Advanced" - Tier 4
 * "Refined" - Tier 3
 * "Calibrated" - Tier 2
 * (None), basic Tier 1 weapon

Weapon Naming Conventions
Weapon names are formed by combining the name of the last-slotted Trait (if present), plus any Modifications, plus any Tier name, plus Model Name. (Last-slotted means visually in the list of traits: slot 3 trait if present, else slot 2 trait, else slot 1 trait, else none.)

Weapon Name = [Trait] + [Mods] + [Tier] + Model

Examples:
 * Eon: No Trait, no Mods, basic Tier, model name.
 * Refined Eon: No Trait, no Mods, Refined Tier, model name.
 * Explosive Assassin's Equinox: Legendary (gold) because of 3 Traits: Anti-Personnel, Lacerate and Explosive; the final trait forms the prefix "Explosive." "Assassin's" because of suppressor and maybe other mods. "Equinox" because it's the model name.
 * Extended Mag Commander's Advanced AA-99 Rifle: Only one Trait (blue): Extended Magazine, so "Extended Mag" prefix. "Commander's" because of certain mods. "Advanced" because it is Tier 4 Advanced. "AA-99 Rifle" is the model name.
 * Lacerate Modified Calibrated Grendel: Two traits so Epic (purple): Extended Magazine and Lacerate which is last slot so "Lacerate". "Modified" because of the presence of several mods, which are not spelled out in the title. "Calibrated" because it is Tier 2 Calibrated. Grendel is the Model Name.

Weapon Manufacturers

 * Allied Armaments
 * Arboron
 * Combatech
 * Kore Kinetics
 * Laredo
 * Crimson Fleet

Tips

 * Advanced-level weapons will appear in stores many levels sooner than they would normally drop in-game. They will usually be expensive, and often worth it.
 * Some Advanced-level weapons like the Solstice, AA-99 and Urban Eagle can be found at abandoned structures (UC listening posts and Helium-3 mines) before you're high enough level to buy them.
 * Removing a mod from a weapon in Starfield actually destroys the mod, unlike in Fallout 4 where removing a mod will bank it for later reuse.

Unique Weapons

 * Acid Rain
 * Ambassador
 * Big Bang
 * Boom Boom
 * Deadeye
 * Elegance
 * Ember
 * Feather
 * Fury
 * Gallow's Reach
 * Hard Target
 * Heller's Cutter
 * Hunterwulf
 * Keelhauler
 * Microgun
 * Mindtear
 * N67 Smartgun
 * Peacekeeper
 * Pirate Legend
 * Poisonstorm
 * Power Beat
 * Rapidshot
 * Revenant
 * Sir Livingstone's Pistol
 * The Buzzcut
 * The Spacer
 * The Zapper