How to upgrade a multitool
Should you upgrade a tool or find one at S? Find one if damage is what you want, and check the type before you pay. An upgrade rolls a tool's base stats again, and for some types that roll is fixed low: an Alien or Experimental tool upgraded to S always lands at the floor of its damage. A tool found at S keeps its own roll. The numbers of a found tool are under multitool stats.
Where to upgrade
Any inhabited or abandoned space station will do. An abandoned station sells no technology, but it still upgrades a multitool. A pirate station does not offer it.
What an upgrade changes
The class goes up, the supercharged slots fill towards four, and the base stats come from a roll that belongs to the tool. Once the tool is in your hand that roll is fixed: upgrading from C or from B ends on one result, and you cannot roll again by paying again. To get another result you need another tool.
Damage after an upgrade
The first roll of a tool also picks its type, so the type limits where an upgrade can land.
| Type | Upgraded to S | Found at S |
|---|---|---|
| Alien | 25.0% to 25.5% | 26.5% to 35% |
| Experimental | 15.0% to 15.5% | 16.5% to 25% |
| Atlantid, yellow | 10% to 13.3% | 11.5% to 20% |
| Atlantid, plain | 13.3% to 16.7% | 11.5% to 20% |
| Atlantid, blue | 16.7% to 20% | 11.5% to 20% |
| Rifle | 15.2% to 20% | 15.8% to 20% |
| Sentinel | 32% to 50% | 34.7% to 50% |
| Royal | 15% to 25% | 24.8% to 25% |
| Staff | 33.8% | 28.8% to 50% |
An Atlantid's colour tells you its damage before you pay. Rifles, Sentinels, and Royals spread over the whole range, so those are the ones worth hunting for a high result.
Staffs
Every staff upgraded at a station ends on one and the same base: 33.8% damage, 13.5% mining, and 44.3% scanner. Only a staff that is built at class S keeps its own roll, up to 50% damage.
An upgrade fills the empty supercharged slots, and you cannot choose where they land. Tetris figures shows where they fall.