It’s been a while since I last set foot on Teer Fradee, the beautiful yet perilious island where Spiders’ latest game GreedFall plays out. But once I returned a couple of weeks ago, I was instantly enchanted once more. I even managed to romance Vasco (yay!) – though only briefly, since shortly after a romantic evening we uncovered a secret together that set us back to a “friendly” status. Well.

In my last posts I reviewed the game in general and gave some info on how to play the factions. Political schemes and secrets are the heart of this game and worth discovering for oneself, so I refrained from spoilers. Luckily, this post is about upgrading your characters to the best effect.

Crafting Weapons And Armor

Weapons and Armor carry specific traits and they come in three classes. The Green one is the weakest, Blue is a little better and Purple is the ultimate class you want to upgrade to.

In the beginning, upgrades are your friend. Purchase those at a smithy and have the blacksmith outfit you and your companioins with better protection from your armor or more damage, accuracy and what not in your weapons. For that, you will need money and materials like leathers and metals.

They can be gathered by hunting, mining or robbing defeated enemies, looting boxes or simply by recycling unused or undesireable armor and weapons.

Apart from paying a blacksmith to manufacture weapons, armor and upgrades, you can unlock and upgrade the Crafting-skills yourself. Which is rather useful, as you will not always have a blacksmith on hand or may not want to waste time finding one. I would advise you to invest in that particular Skill.

Also, you can buy weapons and armor at a smithy. You may need to trade trinkets, unused weapons or supplies to purchase those, but if you find better gear, go for it. And don’t forget to outfit you companions, too, since beating the game on your own may not be as easy as you think.

Which Weapons to Choose

Depending on your Class you will have slight differences in your arsenal. As a warrior, you can choose between a light and fast one-handed weapon like a rapier and a heavy, long weapon like a mace. But you can also equip a gun or traps. As a rogue, you can combine a light one-handed weapon and a gun or a gun / long gun and explosives/traps. As a mage, you can have a magic ring and another weapon, but also use other tools.

So far I have played as a warrior and as a mage. As a warrior, I started out one-handed, which is very useful in the beginning as you can move faster and your weapon strikes with more speed, too. I later switched to a two-handed weapon, though, because once I had mastered the combat system, I wanted to be able to cause more damage as the enemies grew tougher. As a mage, I used magic rings with different traits – I had a few – pretty much exclusively, although I also had equipped a one-handed weapon.

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I guess it really depends on what you feel comfortable with. For example, I hated that, when you switch from saber to gun, you are pretty defenseless as you aim, which is why I used to use guns rarely. Until I discovered how much punch a really good pistol can deliver to otherwise invulnerable creatures.

Choosing The Right Upgrades

I sometimes would purchase a weapon or armor, eager to finally get better damage or more protection, only to find that I lacked the Strength to wear said armor or weapon. But, don’t despair, there is a good chance one of your companions can use that instead.

Now, when it comes to upgrades, I found that the further you progress, the more you should invest in armor that protects you from elemental and poison damage. More damage in one-handed and two-handed weapons is always good, whereas pistols and long guns require accuracy to use them to the best effect. Check your Skill tree to find the branches you need to unlock to be able to use long weapons as well as two-handed weapons or vice versa, if you start out as a warrior.

Also, be mindful of which upgrades you purchase or craft for your armor. See, you can boost useful traits like Lockpicking, Vigor or Science by choosing the right materials for your upgrades. While I never had much use for science during me previous playthroughs, I found Lockpicking very useful. Especially during infiltration missions.

As with all RPGs, it is fun experimenting with armor-types and upgrades. Yet some traits that seem useful to you can lower the overall damage and you will have to decide what is worth more to you. I found, that more damage is always better. Plus protection against poison.

I hope you will have as much fun trying out armor and weapon upgrades as I had playing GreedFall.

Until then, keep on playing.

Cheers
Vanessa