Mycopunk Upgrade Crafting Guide: How to Craft and Reroll Gear
Master Mycopunk upgrade crafting with our complete guide. Learn scrap costs, discovered loot pools, Saxonite mechanics, and grid optimization tips.
Mastering your build progression in Saxon Industries requires far more than just picking up glowing drops off the battlefield. To maximize your damage output and push high-hazard missions, understanding how mycopunk upgrade crafting works is essential. While running missions yields plenty of loot pyramids, diving into mycopunk upgrade crafting lets you repurpose unwanted duplicates, fish for superior stat rolls, and perfect your character’s hex grid.
Whether you are trying to assemble game-breaking elemental combos or refine weapon perks, crafting gives you direct agency over your loadout. This guide covers the exact scrap costs, inventory limits, resource farming locations, and advanced routing strategies needed to turn useless scrap into peak firepower.
How Upgrades Work in Mycopunk
Before touching the workbench, it helps to understand what upgrades actually represent. In Mycopunk, upgrades are modular, polyomino-like puzzle pieces that slot into a hex grid assigned to your employee, primary weapons, and secondary weapons. Rather than offering linear flat buffs, upgrades dramatically change weapon behavior, provide elemental damage archetypes, or grant utility.
Rarity Tiers and Stat Variance
Upgrades drop across several distinct rarities. Higher rarity pieces offer game-changing passives, but they feature larger, more awkward shapes that demand clever grid management. Furthermore, two identical upgrades rarely feature the exact same stats; roll variance plays a massive role in endgame power.
| Upgrade Tier | Color Code | Grid Complexity | Stat Roll Nature |
|---|---|---|---|
| Common | White / Grey | Low (1–2 hexes) | Fixed / Minimal variance |
| Rare | Green / Blue | Moderate (2–3 hexes) | Moderate roll ranges |
| Epic | Purple | High (3–4 hexes) | Wide stat variance |
| Exotic | Gold / Orange | Very High (4+ hexes) | High impact, variable stats |
| Oddities | Unique Glow | Complex Geometry | Game-altering synergies |
For example, a damage perk like Point Demolition might roll at 158% extra damage on your first drop, while a subsequent find or craft could reach upwards of 217%. Because you can only slot one copy of an upgrade per item unless an effect explicitly allows duplicates, checking stat margins before scrapping is crucial.
The Hex Grid and Player Level Milestones
Leveling up weapons and employee classes increases the size of your grid, giving you more surface area to arrange high-tier perks.
| Level Milestone | Unlocked Feature | Strategic Advantage |
|---|---|---|
| Level 3 | First Grid Expansion | Fits your first 3-node Epic upgrades comfortably |
| Level 6 | Second Grid Expansion | Enables dual-element setups or hybrid survivability |
| Level 10 | Max Grid Size | Unlocks full capacity for complex Exotic pieces |
| Level 30 | Node Rotation Feature | Allows 360-degree rotation of puzzle pieces to eliminate dead hex space |
Mycopunk Upgrade Crafting: Scrap Costs and Mechanics
The heart of the crafting loop revolves around dismantling unwanted duplicates and turning them into scrap. In standard gameplay, duplicate upgrades cannot be stacked inside the same grid, making the salvage station your primary outlet for redundant drops.
When working with mycopunk upgrade crafting, players interact with three primary recipe tiers based on how much control they want over the outcome.
Core Crafting Recipes and Scrap Rates
| Crafting Option | Scrap Cost | Result Specificity | Best Used For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Random Upgrade | 4 Scrap | Random item from your discovered pool | Quick scrap burning when targeting broad tiers |
| Weapon-Specific Upgrade | 6 Scrap | Random upgrade restricted to a chosen weapon | Fishing for perks on newly unlocked guns |
| Targeted Upgrade (Exact) | 8 Scrap | Specific chosen upgrade with a fresh stat reroll | Min-maxing top-tier gear with higher damage margins |
| Tier Upcrafting | 10 Lower Scrap | 1 Scrap of the next higher rarity tier | Converting excess common/rare materials |
Discovered Pool vs. Saxonite Crafting
A frequent point of confusion among beginners involves the crafting pool. Standard scrap crafting can only generate upgrades you have already discovered in missions. You are essentially using scrap to reroll the stat ranges of pieces you already own. If you have only ever collected a single purple Epic mod for a specific weapon, paying 6 scrap to craft an Epic weapon upgrade will return that exact same item.
However, according to player experience and active discussions on the Steam Community forums, the developer added a newer system that incorporates Saxonite. By spending Saxonite alongside scrap, players can craft entirely undiscovered upgrades, bypassing standard loot drop requirements to expand their available blueprint pool.
Scrap Management and the 100-Scrap Cap
One of the most critical rules in mycopunk upgrade crafting is the storage threshold. Your inventory can only hold a maximum of 100 scrap per rarity tier.
If you hit 100 scrap in a given tier, any further items broken down will result in wasted resources. To avoid throwing scrap away:
- Monitor Storage Regularly: Check the storage tab between runs.
- Upcraft Near the Cap: Converting 10 lower-tier scrap into 1 higher-tier scrap is generally expensive, but doing so right as you approach 90–100 scrap prevents overflow loss.
- Target Specific Rerolls: Spend down surplus scrap by targeted crafting (8 scrap per attempt) to fish for high stat ceilings on core build items.
Resource Gathering Guide: Funding Your Crafts
Unlocking discovered upgrades and funding deep-crafting sessions requires a consistent supply of biome-specific resources and standard Gat currency. Knowing where to drop drastically cuts down your farming time.
Biome Resource Distribution
| Resource | Collection Method | Biomes Available | Primary Crafting Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gats | Mission clear payouts, side bounties | All Biomes | Base unlock fees and vendor items |
| Rompus | Detached from targeted enemy weakpoints | Farms, City | Mechanical upgrades and perk activation |
| Gusula | Punching biological stalks twice | Farms, Desert | Chemical and biological node unlocks |
| Bizia | Solving locked blue container puzzles | Desert, Tundra | Electrical and defensive node crafts |
| Yuko | Chucking status bombs at grunts | City, Tundra | Explosive and decay synergy crafts |
| Saxonite | High-hazard mission completion rewards | All (Difficulty Dependent) | Undiscovered upgrade crafting & major blueprints |
Maximizing Resource Runs
To accelerate resource collection for mycopunk upgrade crafting:
- Activate Consumables: Keep a Bootleg Replicator active before high-yield runs to double all collected raw materials.
- Tackle Mid-Mission Events: Carrying satellite uplinks, laptops, or launching crashed meteorites provides massive chunks of bonus Gats and regional mats.
- Farm High-Density Modifiers: Missions carrying the David and Goliath modifier generate excessive quantities of elite enemies, multiplying the chances for high-tier upgrade drops and Rompus components.
Crafting for Synergies: Building Your Loadout
Randomly tossing upgrades into your hex grid wastes the depth of the game's mechanics. The true potential of mycopunk upgrade crafting shines when crafting targeted pieces that feed into elemental loops.
Elemental Interactions
| Element | Primary Mechanical Focus | Synergy Example |
|---|---|---|
| Fire | Damage-over-time & Self-Sustain | Combines Emulator (infinite ammo on burn) with Hot Potato (fire rate boost). |
| Shock | Crowd-chaining & Mobility | Boosts movement speed while shocking groups, ideal for Scrapper hit-and-run builds. |
| Decay | Universal Damage Amplification | Acts like a vulnerability debuff, causing afflicted targets to take increased damage from all teammates. |
| Corrosion | Multi-Layer Armor Stripping | Melts exterior armor plates on Abominations, revealing vulnerable cores faster. |
Remember that upgrades displaying hollow nodes indicate exclusive properties. You can only equip a single hollow-node upgrade per category (usually designated for primary elemental conversions). Plan your craft orders around your core weapon's role before spending scrap.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I craft an upgrade I haven't found yet?
Under the standard scrap system, no. Standard mycopunk upgrade crafting only pulls results from your discovered item pool, making it a tool to reroll stat percentages. However, community reports confirm that using recipes augmented with Saxonite allows you to discover and craft brand-new upgrades directly.
What should I do when my scrap reaches the 100 limit?
When any scrap pool approaches 100, immediately spend it or upcraft. You can use 8 scrap to reroll high-priority perks for better numbers, or exchange 10 lower-tier scrap into 1 higher-tier scrap to free up space.
Why did I get a duplicate perk after crafting for a specific weapon?
If you select the 6-scrap "Weapon-Specific Upgrade" option on a weapon where you have only unlocked one upgrade of that particular rarity, the system has no other options in your discovered pool. It will generate that exact perk again with fresh stat rolls.
How do I get more Saxonite for crafting?
Saxonite is earned by completing missions on elevated difficulty tiers and swarm intensities. Raising the hazard rating increases both mission-end Saxonite drop rates and the frequency of high-tier loot drops from large enemies.
Related Guides
Complete Guide to Mycopunk Upgrades: Fast Farming Route and Best Builds
Learn how to farm Mycopunk upgrades fast using mission modifiers, top survival builds, and Abomination spawns to maximize your gear drops.
Mycopunk Pattern Infusion Guide: Maximize 1.0 Grid Upgrades and Weapon Stats
Master mycopunk pattern infusion in version 1.0. Learn how geometric grid sizes, secret silhouettes, and stat balances dramatically boost your mech firepower.
Mycopunk Upgrade Grid Guide: Best Weapon Mods, Adjacency Bonuses & Builds
Master the Mycopunk upgrade grid with our complete breakdown of weapon mods, adjacency mechanics, elemental stacking, and high-DPS loadouts.