Weapon Upgrade Pricing for Starfinder

Here’s the final post for the week, playing with fun options for the weapon damage benchmarks per level for Starfinder I posted on Monday.

Since those benchmarks allow you to determine the damage of nearly any weapon at any item level (grenades and special weapons are special cases), they are half of what we need to allow you to upgrade Starfinder weapons. If you want to have your laser pistol be improved so it does more damage, just select an item level on the EAC small arms table with a benchmark that’s better than your current damage, and increase the pistol’s item level to match.

The big question left, of course, is “how much does that cost?”

Enter the Weapon Upgrade Pricing chart.

To determine the cost of such an upgraded weapon, find the first value on the chart that is more than it’s current cost. Then go three steps down the chart from there for each increase in item level. That entry is the new value of the weapon. Pay the difference between that new value and your original value, and your weapon is upgraded. (Upgrading a weapon requires the same time, resources, and skill at building a weapon of the new item level from scratch).

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(art by 3droman)

For example: Carl has a 5th level wyrmling dragon rifle, a longarm which does 1d8 fire damage and costs 3,020 credits. But his character is 7th level, has money to spare, and he wants to upgrade the weapon. Looking at the benchmark table, he sees that if he upgrades his longarm to 7th level, it’ll do 2d6 damage. Much better!

His friend Ali the mechanic has the ranks and tools to do the upgrade. All Carl needs to know is the price.

Looking at the Upgrade Pricing Chart, he sees the first value higher than 3,020 is 3,250. Since he increased two item levels he needs to go six steps down the chart, which is 7,000 credits. Since his weapon currently has a value of 3,020, he needs to pay the difference — 3,980 credit (likely in UPBs) to get the weapon upgraded.

Weapon Upgrade Pricing Chart

Credits

100

250

400

500

750

1000

1,175

1,350

1,500

1,750

2,000

2,250

2,500

2,750

3,250

3,750

4,125

4,500

5,250

6,000

7,000

8,000

9,000

10,000

11,000

12,500

14,000

15,500

17,000

19,000

21,000

23,000

26,000

30,000

34,000

38,000

42,500

37,000

52,000

60,500

69,000

78,000

92,000

106,000

120,000

140,000

160,000

180,000

210,000

240,000

270,000

310,000

350,000

400,000

465,000

530,000

600,000

700,000

800,000

900,000

1,050,000

1,200,000

1,500,000

You can also use the chart to estimate the cost of other kinds of equipment such as armor and even magic items… but that’s a different article!

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