Biomutant: A Complete Guide to Crafting, Upgrades, and Workbenches

Biomutant features a pretty robust crafting system that allows you to combine seemingly random things to make weapons and enhance your gear. Of course, crafting in the game is not immediately intuitive. To save you a whole lot of time and effort, I spent hours and hours experimenting with the game’s crafting system, and I’ve compiled everything I learned into this handy guide.

Now, just one note: I played the game on PS4, so whenever I mention controls, I will be referring to the PS4 version of the controls. I hope that doesn’t throw anyone off.

So let’s craft some stuff!

What’s the difference between crafting and upgrading?

In Biomutant, crafting and upgrading are a sort-of-integrated system, yet there’s some separation between what counts as crafting and what counts as upgrading. So I’m going to make sure I’m being clear about the terms.

Crafting – Crafting can be done just about anywhere in the game by simply accessing the menu. This includes making weapons from scratch and attaching random bits of garbage to your clothing.

Upgrading – Upgrading increases the quality of your weapons and gear, and it must be done at an upgrade bench.

So, even though attaching crap to your clothing is technically upgrading, it functions more like crafting in the game’s menus, so I will be referring to that as crafting. If it requires a workbench, I’ll be referring to it as upgrading. Cool?

What’s up with Material and Quality stats?

Before we get into the actual crafting, let’s demystify the stats of the parts you’ve undoubtedly been collecting by this point in the game.

Material and Quality are pretty much exactly what they sound like: what your weapon is made of, and the overall quality of that weapon, respectively. However, it gets a little fuzzy because Biomutant likes to use goofy words instead of intuitive ones. Thankfully, there’s also a Roman numeral next to each one that gives you insight into what those goofy words mean. The higher the number, the better the quality.

Here’s a breakdown:

Quality

• I – Lousy
• II – Defunct
• III – Rik-Rak
• IV – Decent
• V – Pow-Wow
• VI – Boostoid
• VII – Stronk

Materal

• I – Composite
• II – Rockcoated
• III – Ano
• IV – Bipp
• V – Meso
• VI – Carb
• VII – Meta
• VIII – Nano
• IX – Alumin
• X – Diam
• XI – Supra
• XII – Ultra

Each elemental enhancement also has its own naming system, but it’s really just important to look at the Roman numeral to determine how much of an impact that elemental enhancement will have.

And what about Rarity? Well, that’s just how rare something is. Sometimes, something that’s not great might actually be super rare, while other times a high Rarity also corresponds with a high Quality level. As you upgrade an item, the Rarity typically increases.

What does the Greenleaf value mean?

Okay, one more thing before we get into the meat and potatoes of the crafting system.

Every weapon and part has a Greenleaf value. This is just how much that particular item is worth. It can sometimes tip you off to an item’s quality level, because higher-quality items tend to be worth more, but sometimes, a component is just super rare and has an inflated value (as I mentioned in the previous section). You can mostly just ignore Greenleaf value and focus on the other stats (which are more important anyway).

Okay, so let’s get into the real stuff!

How do you craft melee weapons?

You can craft melee weapons at just about any point in the game, so long as you can open the menu. If you’re on PS4, you can press the Options button on the menu. From there, you’ll want to go to the Gear menu (which is the bottom quadrant of the pause menu). From here, press R1 to navigate to the Craft menu.

Once you’re in the Craft menu, you’ll need to move the cursor over either your character’s main hand or off hand.

Press X and you’ll be shown a list of your current melee weapons. The top item in that list should be the option to “Craft new melee.”

Once you’re here, you’ll need to select a base. This is the main part of your weapon (the part that’s not the handle, basically). You can select from all of your current parts, or you can press left or right to filter by One-Handed Slash Weapons, Two-Handed Slash Weapons, or Two-Handed Crush Weapons.

Above the base, you’ll see Rarity, Elemental, Quality, and Material stats. It’s actually really important to watch these in correspondence to the stats on the right-hand side (which are the actual current stats of the weapon if you were to craft it exactly as is). A weapon might have a high stat on the right-hand side, but its Material and Quality are already maxed out. You won’t be able to upgrade this any further. So sometimes it makes sense to go for a lower-stat item to see if you can make up for the lack of stats by upgrading.

To put it simply, a II – Rockcoated weapon with a 500 damage stat is going to be a much better choice than a XII – Ultra with a 550 stat.

Also, some bases come with a bonus attribute.

Watch for bases with attributes if you really want to craft the best possible weapon.

Anyway, beyond this, you will need to add a handle. Once you do, you can complete the weapon. However, there might also be add-ons, which allow you to fasten random crap (and I really do mean random crap) to your weapon.

Each addon should further increase the weapon’s stats, though I have to admit I kind of hate how they look.

I’ve not seen a weapon with more than two addon slots, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Now, I think two slots is the cap, but I’m not completely sure. If you find a melee weapon with more than two addon slots, post a picture of it in the comments section for me. I’d love to see it!

Once you’ve finished your weapon, there is a cost displayed below it that shows how much resources this will cost. If you have enough resources, you’ll be able to craft the weapon. If not, you’ll have to farm some resources (more on that later).

How do you craft ranged weapons (guns)?

Now, ranged weapons are a bit trickier. In fact, I was embarrassingly deep in the game before I figured out how to even access the ranged crafting menu.

So, you basically want to do exactly what you’d to in order to craft a melee weapon: Press the Options button, then go to the bottom quadrant of the menu to open the Craft menu, then select one of the character’s hands. Now, instead of selecting “Craft new melee,” you’ll press R1 to switch over to the ranged menu.

That’s pretty well-hidden, right?

Now, the process from here is pretty similar to melee weapons, except that ranged weapons have a lot more parts.

To craft a ranged weapon, you’ll need at least a Base, a Grip, and a Muzzle. You also have the option to add a Stock, a Magazine, and a Top Mod. Each of these components should increase the weapon stats.

This is where it gets really fun, because there are so many possibilities. You can try to make a weapon that’s as powerful as possible, or you can just try to make something absolutely ridiculous. Either way, it’s your gun!

How do you craft gear?

To start crafting gear, press the Options button to open your menu, then select the bottom quadrant. Press R1 to move over to the Craft menu. From here, you’ll need to select a dot that’s not one of your character’s hands. So, any location where you would slot gear.

Now, you’re not crafting gear from scratch here; you’re just sewing random garbage onto your clothing. This is an option I tend to avoid, because I don’t like how it looks. But if you really want to max out the stats of your gear, this is the way to do that.

Note that the Bomberjacket showed in the above image allows you to attach four addons. I think four might be the most you can add to any piece of gear, but I’m not completely sure. I’ve not seen more than four slots on a piece of gear, but that doesn’t mean a five-slot item doesn’t exist.

Note that your addons aren’t permanent if you don’t want them to be. You can swap out an addon for a better one in this same menu.

Plus, if you want to just quickly slot things, you can hit the triangle button to randomize the addon selection.

So now that we can craft gear, let’s do some upgrades!

Where can you find upgrade workbenches?

Upgrade workbenches are hidden in the most ridiculous of places, so most new players will wander past them without even knowing they’re there. Workbenches will always be located in hot air balloons. I don’t know why this is, but it is.

Anyway, if you want to perform some wild platforming maneuvers to get up there, you’re welcome to do that. However, every hot air balloon should have a rope hanging from it. You can simply climb this rope for easy access to the workbenches.

How do you use workbenches to upgrade your weapons and gear?

Once you’ve made it up to the hot air balloon, you should find one or two workbenches. Note that there are Weapon Upgrade Benches and Gearwear Upgrade Benches, though not every balloon will have both. Every balloon should have at least one, though.

Now, mosey on over to a workbench, then press the interact button (triangle) to open your upgrade menu. here, you can upgrade either the Quality or the Material of the item, so long as you have the resources to cover the cost.

Note that neither of these options blocks you out of the other option. So if you upgrade the Quality of an item, you can then go and upgrade the material, and vice versa. You should be able to upgrade any item to a VII (Stronk) Quality level and a XII (Ultra) Material level.

Now, there are just a couple things you should know about upgrades. First, if you want to upgrade a ranged weapon, you’ll need to go to a Weapon Upgrade Bench, then press R1 to select Ranged (similar to the Craft menu).

And secondly, the Quality rating numeral in the gear upgrade menu is inconsistent with the rest of the game.

I’m guessing these are just typos that the developers forgot to fix before launch, so don’t get too confused by them.

How do you farm crafting resources?

I’ve created a full guide to farming wood in Biomutant, so check that out if you’re looking for wood specifically. On top of that, your method for farming any of the other resources in the game will be pretty much the same, just substitute the other resource for wood.

So once again, go look at my wood farming guide. It will help you farm wood, but it will help you farm everything else as well.

How do you earn the Starstruck Trophy/Achievement?

Last but not least, let’s talk about the Starstruck Trophy/Achievement, which asks you to “Craft a 7-star Weapon.”

For this, I highly, highly recommend crafting a ranged weapon instead of a melee weapon. While you could get lucky with really good parts, you’ll have way more options with a ranged weapon. With a ranged weapon, you have a base type, stock, grip, magazine, top mod, and muzzle. You’ll want to combine the highest star-rated items in your inventory to make this happen.

Note that you’re not going for rarity or value here — you’re strictly going for a high star quality. Sometimes, a weapon with a higher star quality will have a lower value or rarity than one with a lower star quality. So make sure you’re combining the best possible components.

You might have to farm resources for a very long time to make this happen. I cranked my Luck up to 270 (giving me +94% to loot chance), which means I was earning scrap at a higher rate than most players should expect to. Even then, I was in New Game+ before I popped this Trophy.

It’s hard to give really detailed information here, because there’s an element of RNG in play. What I can do, though, is give you some general tips:

• Level up as high as you possibly can. (It does seem like you earn better-quality loot as you level up. Then again, I was investing almost exclusively into Luck, so my Luck stat might be the major factor here rather than my base level.)
• Crank up your Luck stat.
• Loot absolutely everything.
• Only salvage low-quality parts.
• Make a ranged weapon rather than a melee one.
• Watch the star rating as you combine different parts and keep the component that gives you the highest possible rating.

Beyond the things I’ve mentioned, you’ll just need a bit of good fortune. The gun I made to pop the Trophy (the Magnima Hurknoozle pictured above) ended up being valued at eight stars, even without any upgrades, which was more than what I needed.

And there you have it. That’s pretty much everything you need to know about crafting and upgrading in Biomutant!