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Fans of weapon customization in Fallout 4 will be delighted with Starfield. Bethesda’s new sci-fi epic uses a similar upgrade system, allowing the player to outfit their equipment with a variety of attachments at the appropriate crafting station. Whether you’re playing a sneaky thief or a shotgun-wielding berserker, everyone needs weapons eventually. Combine mods with inherent weapon traits to dramatically improve DPS and overall efficacy. With so many potential combat situations in Starfield, no single setup can be the best all the time. That said, the following excel often enough to rank amongst the best weapon mod combinations in Starfield.
Chokes, Compensators, and Folding Stocks
Chokes reduce shotgun spread and Compensators buff stability and hip-fire accuracy at the expense of range. Pair either with a Folding Stock to keep recoil under control, and your shotgun blasts on point. This setup works well with Disassembler, one of several weapon traits that allow the player to deal additional damage to a specific type of target. In this case, it’s robots: Disassembler increases damage against robotic targets by 20%. Blanket damage buffs are always a good thing, and Disassembler is particularly nice, given how nasty some of Starfield‘s robots can be.
Battery Mods, Stocks, and Extended Magazines
Extended Magazine increases the base capacity of magazines, which means fewer reloads and higher DPS. There are a number of battery mods that complement this trait, the best of which may be Large Battery and Tactical Battery. These pair well with stock mods and other options to reduce recoil. Without them, automatic weapons with Extended Magazines can be hard to manage by the time the player has to reload. One weapon trait that pairs well with these weapon mods is Corrosive. This trait randomly deals corrosive damage and reduces the target’s armor over six seconds. The sheer amount of ammo these weapons can dump down range allows players to get serious mileage from this trait.
Long Barrel, Recon Laser Sight, and Hitman
Recon Laser Sights mark enemies while aiming and greatly improve the weapon’s accuracy. Long Barrels improve accuracy, range, and recoil at the cost of reduced ADS. Rifles become significantly more deadly with this combination of mods since the player is far more likely to find their targets and hit their shots. The Hitman trait allows the player to do 15% more damage to human targets, which are the perfect enemy for this kind of weapon. Whether the player wants to roleplay an assassin or just hates eating shotgun blasts from the enemy, this combination of mods gets the job done every time.
Shielded Tool Grip, Hair Trigger, and Space-Adept
The Shielded Tool Grip mod brings reduced recoil and superior long-distance accuracy at the cost of slower ADS time. The Hair Trigger mod increases the rate of fire. Together, this combo results in faster, stabler shots over a longer distance. On the right weapon, that’s enough to chew through the enemy long before they get in range. When possible, complement these mods with the Rapid trait to increase the weapon’s firing speed. Traits that improve the weapon’s damage in particular locales, such as the 30% buff when using a Space-Adept weapon in space, also help. Be sure to have a backup weapon, however, since such weapons suffer damage penalties when in unfavorable environments.
Muzzle Break, Tactical Grip, and Skip Shot
Prefer to fight at point-blank range? A shotgun with a Muzzle Break and Tactical Grip is a fantastic supplement to melee builds. The loss of hip-fire accuracy is unfortunate, but it’s more than made up for by higher Stability, long-range accuracy, superior ADS time, and faster reloads. Adding these mods to Shotty with Skip Shot allows the player to melt enemy health bars with half a dozen shotgun blasts in the blink of an eye. Starfield includes a few bullet sponge enemies that take forever to die without such upgrades, so the player will be grateful they packed this kind of weapon for their trip into space.
Starfield is now available for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
