Mass Effect: Andromeda has had a bit of a resurgence and more players are discovering the game. However, it does have a learning curve. First-time players may struggle when playing to understand the complex systems of crafting and equipment that BioWare had a chance to develop over the three previous games.

Things like the basic inventory systems will come naturally, but crafting is something that many gamers just ignore altogether, rather than become bogged down in all the details. If you’d rather get the best out of your gear, here’s everything you’ll need to know to deal with the augmentations.

What Augmentations Do

Augmentations are upgrades that can be added to change your armor pieces or weapons. By combining different augmentations with the game’s vast array of mods, armor sets, and weapon types, hundreds of different combinations are possible.

It’s one of the things that makes Mass Effect: Andromeda unique from other games; the player gets a lot of input on their character’s stats. Some augmentations make drastic changes, while others just add small improvements.

How Augmentations Are Different From Mods

Anyone who has spent some time in Mass Effect: Andromeda’s crafting system may notice that the augmentations seem similar to “Mods.” However, Mods are unique because they’re only equipable on weapons, not armor.

Augmentations could be used on weapons or armor. It’s also easy to remember because a Mod will actually change the player’s weapon by adding a scope, a new barrel, an extra or larger magazine, and so forth. In the crafting menus, Mods go in the circular slots, while augmentations go in the hexagonal slots.

The Six Types Of Augmentation

There are six different types of augmentations that have different effects on your equipment. Every one of the dozens of augmentations in the game fits into one of these categories:

  • General Gun Behaviour Gun Fire Type Gun Projectile Mod Slots Special

Augmentations in the Gun Behaviour, Gun Fire Type, Gun Projectile, and Mod Slots categories can usually only be equipped on a weapon, but there are a few exceptions. However, almost any augmentation for a piece of armor can also be attached to a gun.

Augmentations Don’t Count Towards Your Item Limit

At the beginning of the game, you can only carry up to 100 items - and this quickly becomes a problem if you’re saving up everything. Ryder can upgrade their inventory capacity eventually, but until then they’re between a rock and a hard place.

Thankfully, the augmentations don’t count towards the player’s carrying capacity. Many beginners have tossed away augmentations they might have used, only to notice their item limit was unchanged. Avoid this mistake!

Augmentations And Item Rarity

For weapons, the rarity determines how many augmentation slots it’ll have.

  • Common and Uncommon guns have two slots Rare guns have three slots Ultra Rare guns have four slots

Only a few guns don’t follow this pattern:

  • The weapons from the Pathfinder Elite Weapons Set DLC only have two slots The L-89 Halberd assault rifle has two slots The x5 Ghost also only has 2 slots, which is strange but seems to be explained by the fact that it’s just the basic weapon.

It’s worth noting that the rarity scaling doesn’t apply to armor - all arms, helmets, and legs have two slots, and all chests have four slots.

You Can’t Put Any Augmentation In Any Item

Augmentations are pretty picky about where they fit in a build. Each individual augmentation will specify whether it can fit in a particular piece of armor or weapon. If an augmentation says it will fit in a weapon, it’ll fit in any weapon. However, an augmentation that fits in the player’s chest plate might not be able to go in their helmet.

To make matters worse, they’re not standard across their types - one special augmentation might go in the player’s arms, while another special augmentation might not be equipable in the arms, and needs to be placed in the chest instead.

Researching Augmentations

Some augmentations need to be researched before you’ll have access to them. This means spending Ryder’s resources on the augmentation blueprints. Once you’ve researched a particular augmentation, you’ll get one copy of it, and it’ll start appearing in the world as loot.

  • Don’t waste your time searching: you cannot find these augmentations in the open world until researching them first, no matter how hard you look.

Usually, Ryder needs to unlock blueprints in order, following the Ranks up. The Augmentations are exempt from that rule: they only have one rank.

You Can’t (Usually) Stack Augmentations

The types are significant to the augmentation crafting process because, as a general rule, you can only put one augmentation of each type into a certain piece of equipment. There are six types and usually no more than four slots in an item, so it’s a bearable annoyance.

General augmentations are the exception to the rule. You can stack as many General modifications as you want on a weapon or armor piece. Players have also found a small glitch wherein two specific Gun Behaviour augmentations, Plasma Charge System and Vintage Heat Sink, can both be applied to one item.

Getting Extra Augmentation Slots

Having too much fun? Want to customize your build even further? One of the Science Cryo Pod perks, called Innovation, allows any item that can be augmented to gain an extra slot. Although sadly, it doesn’t magically allow the player to augment items that didn’t have a slot before.

You may need to wait a while before you can unlock this, though, because it requires Havarl to be 90% viable, and for at least two other Science Cryo Pod perks to have been unlocked, called Improved Development and Improved Development II.

Augmentations Are Permanent

Augmentations are permanent once they’ve been attached to an item, so be careful when choosing where a particularly rare or powerful augmentation will go.

  • The only way to remove an augmentation is to deconstruct the item.

It’s worth noting that you shouldn’t bother deconstructing augmentations as you do with other unwanted gear - doing so doesn’t return any resources. It’s much more valuable to sell the augmentation for credits the next time you’re in town, especially since the augmentations don’t count against your inventory limit.

NEXT: Mass Effect Andromeda: 10 Things You Need To Know About The Angara