Item Quality

Items which use stats, namely Melee Damage, Durability, Armor, Hypothermic Insulation and Hyperthermic Insulation, have Item Quality, with higher quality items having better overall stats (though lower quality items may be randomly superior in an individual stat). Items with improved quality can be obtained from beacons, loot crates, and other forms of loot drops (such as from killing predators), while blueprints of higher quality items are obtainable only from beacons and loot crates. Items with higher quality can cost substantially more than primitive versions.

Items that are affected by quality:

• Weapons
• Tools
• Armor
• Shields
• Saddles

There are currently 6 levels of quality, defined as follows.

	Primitive	Ramshackle	Apprentice	Journeyman	Mastercraft	Ascendant
Random Multiplier Threshold	1	1.25	2.5	4.5	7	10
Crafting XP Multiplier	1	2	3	4	5	6
Repairing XP Multiplier	1	2	3	4	5	6
Crafting Resources Requirements Multiplier	1	1.33	1.67	2	2.5	3.5

Item Quality Generation

Arbitrary Quality

When items which use quality are generated, they are given an Arbitrary Quality(AQ) by the loot system, beacons generate items with the same AQ, largely independent of beacon color, while loot crates (caves, ocean) have higher AQ depending on crate color. When generated via console, the item's AQ is set to the "Quality" parameter.

Randomized Quality

For each item stat used by that item, a Randomized Quality(RQ) is generated between 0 and AQ*RO, where RO is the Randomizer Range Override specific to that stat and item type. The RQ is used to determine the overall item quality and the value of that stat.

Item Quality

Each stat's individual item quality is calculated as (RQ^2/(AQ*RO))*RV, where RV is the Rating Value Modifier specific to that stat and item. The item quality of each stat is then averaged together to get the Item Rating(IR) and compared to the Random Multiplier Threshold to determine quality. An Item's Quality tier determines the multipliers applied to the XP gained from crafting or repairing the item and to the crafting cost for the item (including repair costs).

Item Cost

The final Cost of the item is calculated based on Base Cost(BC), Resource Requirement Rating Scale(RS), Crafting Resources Requirements Multiplier(CM), which is determined by item quality, and Item Rating(IR) as:
BC+(BC*IR*RS*CM*0.3)

Item Stat Value

The actual value of individual stats are determined by their RQ, Initial Value Constant(IV), State Modifier Scale(MS), Default Modified Value(DM), and Randomizer Range Multiplier(RM) as:
IV + IV*MS*DM + IV*MS*RM*RQ

Notes

• Blueprints can be affected by item quality. This allows the player to infinitely craft items with the item quality on the blueprint (Apart from items with specified crafts such as some tek bps that only allow 1 or 3 crafts). For example, one who obtains a Ramshackle Crossbow Blueprint can make as many Ramshackle Crossbows as they would like and have the resources for.

• Blueprints with high level quality can be difficult and even impossible to craft without using an Argentavis, a Castoroides, or a Tek Replicator. A lot of Ascendant blueprints are impossible to craft elsewhere because the Smithy / Fabricator does not have enough slots in their inventories to craft such items. The Argentavis and Castoroides, however, function as a mobile Smithy with 300 slots (provided a saddle is equipped), which can allow for some of these blueprints to be crafted if you can meet the high resource requirements. Both come with a weight limit, though, and as such, if a blueprint needs lots of heavy resources (such as Metal Ingot or Crystal), the Castoroides or even the Argentavis may prove useless. Note that the Argentavis comes with handy weight reductions for most heavy resources (including Metal Ingot and Crystal) and a comparatively high base weight while the Castoroides reduces the weight of Wood. The Tek Replicator has 600 slots and no weight limit, which allows for the crafting of high quality items which would be impossible even with the aid of an Argentavis/Castoroides.

• As of patch 255.0 all Rocket Launcher blueprints have been changed to primitive quality, thus making blueprints of this item obsolete unless the player does not have enough engram points.

• As of the release of Extinction, all Tek Tier equipment now possess quality, which they did not prior to Extinction. However, any parts of  Tek Armor do not possess a quality prefix, but instead possess higher durability than the ones found in Tekgram.
• Most of the weapons have a limit of 755.3% damage, and 296.6% for Tek weapons. Some other powerful weapons' maximum DMG% might be lower. To further increase ranged weapon damage, use mods or change the player damage multiplier in advance game settings instead.
• Most of the saddles have a limit of 325(%) armor and 290(%) for tanky creatures like carbonemis, stegosaurus and etc. (need testing!)
• Crafting Skill still crafts over those hard caps and the items survive a reset on unofficia servers and in single player. (need testing!)