Reverse engineering
- Reverse Engineering (RE) is the process of de-constructing an item in order to gain some of its crafting materials. There is also a chance of gaining a new recipe.
- The quality of the item determines what materials you receive
- You can only Reverse Engineer specific types of items you can craft yourself. For example synthweaving will only allow you to Reverse Engineer force user armours.
- When an item is reversed engineered, the item is destroyed in the process. Make sure you RE the correct item because once it is gone, it isn't coming back!
- Reverse engineering can be done at any time in the game, you do not require any form work bench
- To reverse engineer an item simply click the golden RE icon in the upper right corner of your inventory.
- When clicked this will blackout any non-reversible items and highlight those you can Reverse.
- Simply click on the item you want to RE and you will begin doing so.
- After the item has been RE'd a loot table will pop up with the materials you gathered from the process. Click take all.
- An important aspect of Reverse Engineering is that it will be the only way to get certain patterns/recipes.
- Reverse Engineering a green item has a small chance to give you a blue schematic of the same item
- Reverse Engineering a blue item has a small chance to give you a purple schematic of the same item
- If you want to reverse engineer health packs or stims be careful because you will reverse engineer the whole stack! Make sure you split up stacks before you reverse engineer if you want to keep a specific quantity.
- To split a stack simply [SHIFT + CLICK] the item then drag the cursor into an inventory slot.
There are two set paths reverse engineering an item can take. This is determined by the item type and can be split up accordingly. I will list both types of reverse engineering with the items that fall into the category shortly after it.
1. LINEAR - Item Modifications & consumables
[PREMIUM] -> [PROTOTYPE] -> [ARTIFACT]
Linear reverse engineering is exactly that, one path with one final outcome. Let's say you learn how to make a basic premium quality Medpac from your Biochem trainer. You make several and decide to reverse engineer them. If you are lucky, you will learn the improved version of the schematic. This will mean you can now make a prototype quality Medpac. Successfully reverse engineering this item has a chance to give you a new artifact quality schematic, you will then be able to craft an artifact quality Medpac. This is the end of the road for that item, as it can no longer be improved. There have been no reports of being able to reverse engineer an artifact schematic into a legendary schematic.
2. PREFIX - Crafted Armour & Weapons
This is where things start to get a little tricky to fully understand. Prefix crafting only applies to items such as crafted armours and weapons, for these are the only crafted items which can branch out into various stats.
It follows the same basic rule of a linear path, except it has more outcomes rather than one solid ending. Loose ends if you will.
Let's say you start with a premium schematic you learnt from your crafting trainer. Successfully reverse engineering this item has a small chance to grant you an improved version of it.
This new schematic will (as with the linear path) fall into the prototype quality. However this is where things start to differ!
You could end up with either one of three different schematics of the same prototype quality. This schematic will fall into the Tier 1 prefix list. Falling in to one of these categories:
TIER 1 PREFIX LIST [T1]
- [T1] CRITICAL - Grants you an item with +Crit
- [T1] OVERKILL - Grants you an item with +Power
- [T1] REDOUBT - Grants you an item with +Defence
Now you might be thinking, "what if I don't get the one I need?" and the answer is simply, tough luck. You will have to keep reverse engineering more items until you get the Tier 1 Prefix you want. Unfortunately (this is the part you are going to hate) you can still learn the same tier 1 prefix schematic after having already learnt it... which is a bit silly but that's just the way it is.
Having managed to successfully learn a prototype Tier 1 prefix schematic. You can now advance on to the Tier 2 prefix list. This is again, done by reverse engineering your prototype item.
You will eventually end up with (as with the linear path) an artifact schematic. Now, depending on what Tier 1 prefix you reverse engineered from, will determine what Tier 2 prefix item you will get.
The below list shows the Tier 2 prefix underneath the Tier 1 prefix it came from.
TIER 2 PREFIX LIST [T2]
- [T1] CRITICAL - Grants you an item with +Crit
- [T2] FERVOR - Crit & Accuracy
- [T2] SUPREMACY - Crit & Alacrity
- [T2] LEADERSHIP - Crit & Presence
- [T2] TEMPEST - Crit & Shield
- [T2] ENDOWMENT - Crit & Surge
- [T1] OVERKILL - Grants you an item with +Power
- [T2] HAWKEYE - Power & Accuracy
- [T2] VEHEMENCE - Power & Alacrity
- [T2] COMMANDER - Power & Presence
- [T2] RAMPART - Power & Shield
- [T2] EXPERT - Power & Surge
- [T1] REDOUBT - Grants you an item with +Defence
- [T2] EXACTITUDE - Defence & Accuracy
- [T2] N/A - Defence & Alacrity
- [T2] GENERAL'S - Defence & Presence
- [T2] VERACITY - Defence & Shield
- [T2] ANTI-ARMOR - Defence & Surge
And that is pretty much the gist of it. You may also be wondering what happens if you originally learnt a prototype schematic from your trainer and start to reverse engineer it. Well, it follows the same rules as if starting from a premium schematic, the only thing is the [T1] prefix will be of artifact quality and so will the [T2] schematic that comes from it.