When you first start playing Fortnite: Save the World, you may feel a little discouraged by the weapons you are starting off with. You will hear people in chat bragging about their “Level 130 Nocturnos” that their high-level friends gave them. There is something you should know about those high level guns:
Weapons Are Scaled back to your Skill Level!
There is a cap on weapons based on the area you are in and your assigned skill tree points.
If you look at your Hero’s statistics screen (Under the Combat Heading), there is a stat called “Max Effective Weapon Level“. You can see this at “Heroes > Primary Hero > See All Stats”. “This is the maximum weapon level your character can effectively wield. Higher-Level weapons will act as if they were this level while equipped.”
So, someone might give you a level 130 Nocturno, but if you are still in Stonewood, your maximum effective weapon level is Level 10. And the weapon will act like a Level 10 weapon. It doesn’t matter if your weapon is way stronger than that, it’s going to get scaled back. It will still have the nice gun perks though.
Don’t Upgrade Your Weapon Schematics Above the Zone You are Questing in!
I know you really want to start making high level guns from your schematics. But don’t go crazy! Start thinking about Fortnite: Save the World weapons in terms of Star Ratings, and not Weapon Levels. Here is each zone’s star rating:
- Stonewood is Zone 1 – ☆
- Plankerton is Zone 2 – ☆☆
- Canney Valley is Zone 3 – ☆☆☆
- Twine Peaks is Zone 4 – ☆☆☆☆
Don’t upgrade your weapon schematic levels above the zone you are in! Why not? Because you won’t find the materials needed to craft your weapons. If you are still in Plankerton, and you upgrade your Shredder to the 3 Star level, you will have a bear of a time finding the Malachite Ore and Sturdy Mechanical Parts you need to craft your 3 star weapon. Those materials are found mostly in Canney Valley, and your weapon will be scaled back to a 2 Star Weapon anyway.
How To Upgrade Your Weapon Schematics Rarity!
Don’t be discouraged by getting only getting Uncommon, Rare or Epic versions of Weapon Schematics. Why not? Because you can increase their rarities if you really want their Epic/Legendary Counterparts.
For example we have the Legendary “Hunter-Killer” ranked as our the #2 Assault Rifle in the game.
- The Uncommon version of this weapon is the “Old Faithful”.
- The Rare version of this weapon is the “Predator”.
- The Epic version of this weapon is the “Raptor”.
You can upgrade the rarity of weapons to the next level if you have the Flux and other materials needed for the upgrade. You can purchase Flux in the Event Store with gold earned doing Daily Quests and other quests. I recommend you buy Flux every chance you get!
Here is how you upgrade weapon rarity. I’m going to use an Epic Shredder in this example. Navigate to the Armory Tab:
Pick your weapon in the Schematics Section:
Click on the weapon you wish to upgrade:
In order to upgrade this Shredder into a Super Shredder, I would need:
- 9,500 Schematic XP
- 100 Legendary Flux
- 5 Pure Drops of Rain
- 1 Weapon Design
The weapon will still be a 2 star weapon. And I will still be able to easily finding crafting materials in Plankerton. The DPS will increase, and I will unlock more perks down the road. The weapon will need more materials to craft it though.
We put together a list of lower level guns that you might want to upgrade into their Legendary Big Brothers. Check it out.