Crafting - Iconic weapons, Technical Ability & the Crafting Skill

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So I've reached max level and 70+ hours playtime.
The only attribute I've maxed to 20 is Technical Ability. Because I wanted to do Legendary and Iconic weapons crafting.

Crafting_Ape.PNG

As far as I can tell, Crafting Level 18 lets you craft Iconic weapons? I'm not sure if anyone has done this yet. I'd love to hear from someone as to how it works and if you just unlock all crafting recepies/blueprints, or only those you have, or only some at certain rarities... Because I'm still not entirely sure how blueprints work.
> XP gain on the crafting skill is slow as hell (and I think some others like Athletics aren't balanced either)​
> The level 20 Crafting perk at the bottom there? Needs Skill level 20? Crazy Science? Not sure if I'm gonna get there in this playthrough.​
> Cost Optimization and Let There Be Light! give you cost reductions for crafting too, but they come so late and it's so little.​

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You need to keep your Iconics if you don't have Level 18 of the Crafting Skill. If you want to craft them, seems you'll need at least level 18 in Technical Ability. Level 18 TA also let's you craft legendaries (Edgerunner Artisan perk), so y'need that to be able to craft the 4 legendary uniques shown in the screenshot. If you want the best Iconics possible, you have to go deep in TA. Why this essential (in my opinion) part of the game is locked so far in the guts of one of the attributes I don't know, but I'm not sure I'm ever gonna play without high TA if it's not balanced differently in the future.

Upgrading_Ape.PNG

The Crafting perk Tune-Up let's you upgrade lower quality part into higher quality ones. Other perks give discounts on that. Basically, 8 pieces for the next better quality. Nice, right? Well, you need to individually craft each one. So if you have thousands of Commons, it's gonna take you a long time to upgrade all the way to the top. And at the rate of 7:1 I have in this screenshot? At 7k Commons, I'd get 1k Uncommons = 142ish Rares = 20ish Epics
> This is not worth your time. The XP reward for doing it is too small and it takes too long​
> If you craft Uncommon weapons and sell them, you can buy vendors' uncommon, rare & epic parts and still make a proit​
> You don't just click once either. You hold for a second, making it even more frustrating to mass upgrade​

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Upgrading costs are a problem. Double each time. It limits you to a few upgrades per item and even less for high-cost legendaries. If you can't craft items like Johnny's shoes and grabbed them early in your run, they'll lack behind in stats compared to generic armor found later on, even with several upgrades (regularly looted, uncommon shoes are nearing 100 Armor in my game, at the time of this screenshot).

I believe there needs to be:
  1. Rebalancing of XP requirements for several skills
  2. A redesign of the Tune-Up perk's crafting system, to allow for mass upgrades in a timely manner
  3. A re-evaluation of the approach to item upgrading. Iconic weapons feel almost exclusive to Technical Ability, in a way. You lack the ability to truly upgrade early-game items you liked into late-game. Stat gains often seem insignificant
There's much more to be said about gameplay balancing and this is just my subjective opinion on this specific part of the game, after playing my own way.
Hope this gives some perspective and maybe helps others out.
 
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You have any idea if iconic weapons such as the problem solver can be farmed again if you already have done the quest? The camp respawns with new bandits however I dont seem to get the weapon to drop. Deconstructed mine before I figured out that it could be upgraded to an Iconic weapon.
 
What bugs me the most is the fact that you are forced to spend attribute points into the TA attribute. But sorry, I am playing a build that focuses in different attributes. Thanks, now I am unable to ever craft something better than blue Items. What the f? If I want to ever craft something better I have to Start a New playthrough. That is big BS. There could at least be an Option to have npcs that craft for you (of course they Charge you a Fee, nothing is for free in Night City).
 
You have any idea if iconic weapons such as the problem solver can be farmed again if you already have done the quest? The camp respawns with new bandits however I dont seem to get the weapon to drop. Deconstructed mine before I figured out that it could be upgraded to an Iconic weapon.
I don't think you can pick any Iconic weapon up twice, but if you've got Crafting Level 18 you might be able to build it again, even if you've previously scrapped it. I'd need someone that has actually gotten to Crafting 18 to confirm that though. All I know is that you're supposed to be able to craft Iconics with it. Not just upgrade them, but actually craft from scratch.
 
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Can someone confirm if we can craft Iconics? I disassembled the Archangel by mistake and now it's the only gun missing from my stash. I have the Blueprint but can't seem to craft it. Thanks in advance.
 
can confirm level 18 in crafting does little to nothing. def does not unlock all weapons/armor iconic recipes

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the problem is that you require the weapon's previous quality in order to craft it. and the ability granted by lvl 18 in crafting does not unlock the common crafting recipe for the iconic weapon (i used dying night as an example, i don't have the ability to craft the common or uncommon version of it even with 18 in crafting). once you upgrade it to legendary, you won't be getting another. the only exceptions i've come across so far are buzzsaw and comrade's hammer, which i have the actual iconic recipe for them

just one more reason that IMO technical is the worst attribute in the game
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can confirm level 18 in crafting does little to nothing. def does not unlock all weapons/armor iconic recipes

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the problem is that you require the weapon's previous quality in order to craft it. and the ability granted by lvl 18 in crafting does not unlock the common crafting recipe for the iconic weapon (i used dying night as an example, i don't have the ability to craft the common or uncommon version of it even with 18 in crafting). once you upgrade it to legendary, you won't be getting another. the only exceptions i've come across so far are buzzsaw and comrade's hammer, which i have the actual iconic recipe for them

just one more reason that IMO technical is the worst attribute in the game
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I can confirm other exception, notably the iconics that you only loot the crafting recepies of: Buzzsaw, the iconic smart submachine gun, iconic double barrel & iconic tech sniper (to name a few recepies I can definitely craft multiple times).
But you are correct, the iconic weapons that you get as an existing gun you won't be able to craft again.

This probably boils down to another thing to revisit when bugfixing and making the game work on consoles has been addressed.
 
Hello, just reached level 18 crafting today and it did unlock some legendary (but not iconic) armor recipes for me but I have the same issue where as I cannot craft an iconic from scratch (green) to legendary... And I think that shouldn't be the case right? Or are we supposed to never dismantle those?
Related to crafting I've notice the following phrase on the support site https://support.cdprojektred.com/en/cyberpunk/pc/gameplay/issue/1649/crafting-and-upgrading-tips but I think it must be a typo right? No way Engineering affects crafting quality...

Quality of crafted items
Stats and quality of the crafted items are determined by your Engineering Skill level.

Iconic items
Whenever you gain an Iconic item, you will automatically receive Crafting Specs of that same item for different rarities and improved stats.
 
I don't think you can pick any Iconic weapon up twice, but if you've got Crafting Level 18 you might be able to build it again, even if you've previously scrapped it. I'd need someone that has actually gotten to Crafting 18 to confirm that though. All I know is that you're supposed to be able to craft Iconics with it. Not just upgrade them, but actually craft from scratch.

My crafting is 20. You can not craft some of the iconic weapons without having previous versions of them. For example you can not craft Epic Widowmaker without having Rare Widowmaker and there isn't an option to craft Rare Widowmaker either. But you can craft some other iconic weapons if they don't need previous one as a requirement. This issue should be resolved. Because I got rid off many iconic items before I realised that. Not all iconic items give you a spec to craft them again. It gives a spec to craft a higher rank, not itself.
 
Hello, just reached level 18 crafting today and it did unlock some legendary (but not iconic) armor recipes for me but I have the same issue where as I cannot craft an iconic from scratch (green) to legendary... And I think that shouldn't be the case right? Or are we supposed to never dismantle those?
Related to crafting I've notice the following phrase on the support site https://support.cdprojektred.com/en/cyberpunk/pc/gameplay/issue/1649/crafting-and-upgrading-tips but I think it must be a typo right? No way Engineering affects crafting quality...
I'd need to check but I haven't noticed any stat or quality changes on my crafted items with a higher Engineering level.
Could be though. Might actually be in the game, I'm just not sure.

What's written about Iconics is technically true. You do unlock specs from the base quality all the way to legendary, but you're still limited to one iconic if you pick up a weapon instead of the spec.

My crafting is 20. You can not craft some of the iconic weapons without having previous versions of them. For example you can not craft Epic Widowmaker without having Rare Widowmaker and there isn't an option to craft Rare Widowmaker either. But you can craft some other iconic weapons if they don't need previous one as a requirement. This issue should be resolved. Because I got rid off many iconic items before I realised that. Not all iconic items give you a spec to craft them again. It gives a spec to craft a higher rank, not itself.
Far as I know, you either get an iconic or you get a spec to craft it. The ones I got a spec for I can craft the lowest quality version as many times as I want. To get the higher quality versions of those, I need the lower quality version as a requirement.

For iconics I get as a weapon, I still need to craft better quality versions with the lower quality one, but I don't have an option to get another low quality one (will mostly be rare). That's the problem.
I never got rid of my iconics, but the fact that the game lets you scrap them at all (can't do that with Johnny's item for example) without a possibility to get them back - that needs active resolving.
 
I'd need to check but I haven't noticed any stat or quality changes on my crafted items with a higher Engineering level.
Could be though. Might actually be in the game, I'm just not sure.

What's written about Iconics is technically true. You do unlock specs from the base quality all the way to legendary, but you're still limited to one iconic if you pick up a weapon instead of the spec.


Far as I know, you either get an iconic or you get a spec to craft it. The ones I got a spec for I can craft the lowest quality version as many times as I want. To get the higher quality versions of those, I need the lower quality version as a requirement.

For iconics I get as a weapon, I still need to craft better quality versions with the lower quality one, but I don't have an option to get another low quality one (will mostly be rare). That's the problem.
I never got rid of my iconics, but the fact that the game lets you scrap them at all (can't do that with Johnny's item for example) without a possibility to get them back - that needs active resolving.

In my opinion, you don't get specs for each iconic you acquire. You get higher quality specs but not itself. Maybe this is an error I encountered in my gameplay but it is what it is. I am not able to craft some iconics because it needs lower quality versions of them and there are no specs for lower quality.
 
In my opinion, you don't get specs for each iconic you acquire. You get higher quality specs but not itself. Maybe this is an error I encountered in my gameplay but it is what it is. I am not able to craft some iconics because it needs lower quality versions of them and there are no specs for lower quality.
Every higher quality iconic that needs a lower quality one (at least in both my playthroughs) I can either craft the lowest quality needed, or found the gun itself in that quality. For the example you mentioned: I found Widowmaker as a Rare weapon and upgraded it to Epic, then Legendary. The Buzzsaw rifle I found as a blueprint, then I can craft it as Rare, then upgrade it to Epic & Legendary.

But it is true: You can't craft Iconics however you want (Common-Legendary) even with Crafting level 18.
 
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