The only way to get your hands on the best weapons and abilities in Remnant: From the Ashes is to craft them. And you'll have to beat the game's many bosses to craft materials, then wander through its wastelands for upgrade items. That's where this comprehensive crafting guide comes in handy.
Building your perfect setup can be hard work, as not all bosses spawn every game. But some of the best items come from world bosses, which you'll see every time you run a campaign. They are however worth the effort.
This guide will tell you where to find everything you need to upgrade your weapons, armor, and abilities. Beating bosses is its own challenge and part of the Remnant experience. Good luck.
How to Upgrade Items in Remnant
Every piece of gear in Remnant: From The Ashes uses the same upgrade material: different types of iron.
Boss weapons also use Iron and its variants, but you'll also need a special material called Lumenite Crystals to upgrade them.
When you first start the story campaign – and until you have a few pieces of +5 gear – you will only find basic iron. This is because the game generates areas randomly and scales the difficulty of each area based on your current gear score and character level.
Each time you load into a new dungeon or worldspace, the Remnant randomizes its layout and adjusts enemy damage abilities and health accordingly.
It also places loot around the newly created map based on your gear's upgrade level, only adding better materials as your gear levels up.
The five upgrade items and their level breakpoints are as follows:
- Iron: Used to upgrade to +5.
- This item looks like randomly stacked brown pieces of metal.
- Wrought Iron: Used to level up to +10.
- This item looks like a small group of rusty iron plates with holes in them.
- Galvanized Iron: Used to upgrade to +15.
- This object looks like large chunks of blue-silver metal in a pile.
- Hardened Iron: Used to level up to +19.
- This item looks like a large piece of metal in a creamy white color with a few small bars of similar metal.
- Simulacrum: Used to level up to +20.
- This item looks like a trifold crystal that shines with red light.
It should be noted that unlike other materials, Simulacra spawns are planet-bound, with a strict limit of one spawn per planet. You'll have to be on the lookout, like if you miss it, it's gone.
To create a new version of the planet, you must reset the campaign for a guaranteed drop. Adventures have a high chance of having one, but it's not sure. There is also an incredibly low chance that the NPC Ace will sell it.
How to Upgrade Your Gear in Remnant
You need to visit Rigs to upgrade your gear.
You'll encounter Rigs as part of the tutorial, but if you've forgotten he's east of the large red crystal in Ward 13, the central area. It doesn't matter what kind of weapon or armor you have: if you have the crafting mats, Rigs can upgrade the item for you.
Craft boss weapons
Each boss you kill will drop an item they have, and these special crafting materials allow you to craft a weapon or weapon mod based on that boss' abilities.
You will need to visit McGabe to craft the weapons. She's in the workshop behind Rigs.
Below is a full list of all the boss items and the weapon they will allow you to craft.
- Ancient Core (use the Control Staff found by breaking the Houndmaster's Horn to activate and kill the Ancient Construct on Rhom)
- Crafts the Iron Sentinel weapon mod, which creates a fully automatic gun turret minion that shoots anything it can see.
- Barbed Tendon (Barbed Terror)
- Used to create the Unstable Quills weapon mod, which fires 12 corrosive damage quills that you can detonate from a distance to deal area damage. Can also be overloaded to increase damage.
- Black Tear (combat à double boss Shade and Shatter)
- Used to craft the Veil of the Black Tear weapon mod, which generates an energy shield around one or more players.
- Blinking Spear Shard (Assault):
- Creates the Blink Token weapon mod, which teleports the caster forward and generates an electric blast that deals AoE shock damage.
- Blazing Heart (Monkey):
- Used to craft the Spitfire handgun, a flamethrower.
- Crystalline Plasma (Iskal Queen of the Swamps of Corsus)
- Creates the Pride of Iskal Hand Gun, which comes with the vampiric weapon mod, firing four beetles that attach to enemies. It drains their health and returns to heal the caster.
- Displacement Crystal (Riphid):
- Creates the Flicker Cloak weapon mod, which generates a shield around the caster that absorbs damage and prevents stagger.
- Dragon Links (Sign by breaking the tail)
- Used to create Smolder, a fast-spinning fire elemental sword.
- Dreamer's Mana (Nightmare)
- Creates the Repulsor Long Gun, with an associated weapon mod called Banish, which banishes enemies to another dimension for a short time. Upon returning, they take 1,5x damage for a brief period.
- Flesh Barb (Gorefist)
- Used to create the Mantle of Thorns weapon mod, which reduces melee damage taken and reflects incoming melee damage, plus a stagger effect.
- Sceptre glacial (Ikro the Ice Conjurer in Subject 2923)
- Creates the Blizzard weapon mod, which projects a cloud that travels forward, raining frostbite damaging icicles on enemies in its path.
- Guardian Tentacle (Ixillis by killing both in quick succession)
- Creates the Guardian Ax melee weapon capable of rapid bursts of attacks, with charged attacks hitting multiple times for massive damage.
- Hardened Shell (The Sketch Temple World Event on Corsus)
- Allows the purchase of the Carapace armor set from the Mar'Gosh merchant, but you can only talk to him if you have the Parasite status effect from the Iskal Infector present in the event.
- Hammerhead's Ore (The Unclean One by going to the basement of the arena before the boss fight starts and hiding in a jar)
- Creates the Butcher's Bane melee weapon, which deals corrosive damage and benefits from slow, charged attacks.
- Hivestone (Ixillis)
- Used to craft the Hive Cannon Hand Gun, which deals corrosive area damage and has an unremovable weapon mod that fires a hive projectile dealing 20 damage on hit with another area effect.
- Hollow Seed (The Mangler)
- Used to craft the Seed Caller weapon mod, which summons up to two Root Hollow minions that roam near enemies and attack.
- Dog Choker (Maul)
- Used to craft the Howler's Immunity weapon mod, which creates a stationary aura that reduces damage to anything standing within it.
- Iskal Husk (Iskal Queen in Swamps of Corsus by dropping a pillar on her head once she jumps into the arena)
- Creates the Seeker weapon mod, which spawns up to three scarab minions that track enemies and explode, dealing corrosive damage.
- Jackal ivory (Erfor, the jackal in subject 2923)
- Creates the Cold Spear weapon mod. Fires an icicle that deals Frost damage and freezes enemies on contact.
- Caller's Bell Kin (the Keeper)
- Creates the Song of Swords weapon mod, which creates a large damage debuff aura around the player.
- Luminous Gland (dream eater in the swamps of Corsus)
- Creates the Rift Walker weapon mod. Generates a small rift at the launch point that creates clones of the player that draw aggro at close range, makes the caster invulnerable, and the clone explodes upon leaving the rift.
- Bracelet of Orbyk (Obryk, the Shield Keeper, subject 2923)
- Creates the Frozen Mist weapon mod, which sends out a frost damage projectile that, when hit, explodes into a frost cloud that damages everything in it, player included.
- Radioactive Skull (Scourge)
- Creates the Breath of the Desert weapon mod, which fires seven heat-seeking radioactive projectiles.
- Root neoplasm (Harsgaard, Root Harbinger in subject 2923)
- Creates the World's Edge melee weapon.
- Sentinel Shard (Raze)
- Creates the Beckon weapon mod, which summons up to two Wasteland Skull minions that fire projectiles.
- Shadewood (Shroud)
- Creates the Rattle Weed weapon mod, which generates Rattle Weed that aggro enemies within 10 yards.
- Shrapnel Shard (Brabus)
- Creates the Explosive Shot weapon mod, which allows your weapon to fire exploding bullets.
- Silver Shard (Tian, the Assassin in Subject 2923)
- Creates the Fan of Knives weapon mod, which sends out a flurry of knives that deals bleed damage over time.
- Spore Gland (L'Ent)
- Creates the Sporebloom Long Gun, a single-shot rifle that deals burp damage. Comes with an unremovable weapon mod called Spore Shot that deals massive rot damage and leaves a damaging cloud behind.
- Stalker's Claw (Pacify the Ravager boss using a lullaby at the entrance to his boss arena. Bells are 1-5 from left to right. Lullaby order is 5-1-5-1-2- 3-4-1)
- Creates the Scar of the Jungle God melee weapon, a set of energy claws with fast attacks.
- Steel of Agony (Brudvaak, the Rider and Vargr, the Warg in Subject 2923)
- Creates the Chain Blade melee weapon, an extendable bladed chain for use with charge attacks.
- Guardian's Stone (Claviger if he absorbs a servant)
- Used to create the World Breaker melee weapon, which creates an area of effect explosion when you use its ability.
- Storm Crystal (Stormcaller)
- Creates the Stormcaller weapon mod, which generates a large thunderstorm around the caster dealing shock damage and reducing incoming damage to the player.
- Swarm Tusk (Le Thrall)
- Creates the Swarm weapon mod, which sends out a swarm of insects that seek out enemies in a large radius, dealing corrosive damage.
- Tempest Heartstring (Totem Father if the totem outside the arena is red)
- Used to craft the Voice of the Tempest melee weapon, a fast attack spear with a chance to cause the Overcharged effect.
- Tentacle Pod (The Ravager)
- Creates the Curse of the Jungle God Hand Pistol, a fully automatic weapon with a mod that creates a shock damage tentacle wherever the shot lands. The tentacle attacks anything that comes near it.
- Thermal geode (the harrow)
- Used to create the Defiler hand weapon, which can fire six heat-seeking radioactive orbs.
- Twisted Heart (The Ent if you kill him after breaking his legs)
- Creates the Petrifying Maul, a hammer that deals Rot damage that generates a small AoE when slammed.
- Impure heart (the impure)
- Creates the Devastator Long Gun, a crossbow with high precision damage and critical chance.
- The Eternal Heart (The Eternal King)
- Used to create the Ruin Long Gun, which allows you to revive once on death, followed by a five minute ability cooldown.
- Silver of the Void (Claviger without allowing him to absorb a servant)
- Used to create the Particle Accelerator Long Gun, a single-shot rifle that can send out a black hole that explodes after a short period of pulling enemies towards its center.
- Conduit de Zephyr (Sear and Scald)
- Used to create the Wildfire Shot weapon mod, which generates arcing fireballs that ignite targets and deal burn damage over time.
That's all you need to know about crafting in Remnant: From the Ashes and its DLCs, The Swamps of Corsus, and Subject 2923. There are a huge number of possible builds with just a few weapons, mods, and gear on offer, but spend enough time in the worlds for the game, and you can do wonderful things. Check out our Remnant guides hub for even more. We just reviewed the latest DLC, Subject 2923, too, so please read it if you haven't checked it out!
