Star Citizen's new crafting system will focus on weapons and armor at start

RSI explains more of how updated fabricator crafting will work in Star Citizen when the new system is introduced in "the next few months," introduces new craftable weapons and armor.

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CitizenCon 2025 offers new details about Star Citizen's upcoming crafting system, revealing new resource hierarchies, UI changes, and the opportunity for massive levels of customization.

Details include how the team at CIG is rolling out the system in phases over time, starting first with weapons and armor. The team wants players to become familiar with the tools, especially the new inventory upgrades that'll help with managing so many new resources.

• Read more: Bethesda shows Fallout 76's new legendary crafting system coming in Milepost Zero update

Star Citizen's new crafting system

• New crafting machine can be purchased in shops, can be moved via freight elevator, can be used in a hangar and can be manipulated via tractor beam
• First wave of testing will be smaller in scope and expand over time
• Crafting is based on different material grades--better materials deliver better stats Blueprints required to craft items, can be earned via missions
• Crafted items can be better than anything bought in shops
• Coming to tech preview by the end of the year

"The first version is primarily going to be FPS items that you can craft--weapons and armor. For Star Citizen, crafting is our primary progression mechanic,"said design director Rick Porter.

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"Crafting isn't a new mechanic for creating new items. It's also a fundamental change in how we handle resources in the game--the materials that you collect, how you refine them. Quality matters."

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"The first version of crafting is going to be quite small in scale. We're going to use it as a kind of concentrated effort to allow the players to experience the initial UI, the flow of gathering materials of different quality, and using those to craft items which are better than what they currently have in the game," said senior systems designer Declan Holmes.

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"Once you take the refined materials to your crafting bench, the fabricator, you can use them to craft. The different attributes will be increased based on the quality of the materials you use. It's not just iron ore anymore, it's iron ore of the quality that you know will get you the stats that you desire on the item."

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"We won't have the new refining crafting system yet--we'll be using the existing ones," said senior gameplay programmer Jacob Taylor.

"Those will pass the quality through into refined materials, which you can then take to your crafting machine and start making your own personal items. Once you have your blueprint, and the quality materials that you've refined, then you can put them together on the item fabricator."

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