Crafting is a large component of how players can make it through the world of Outriders, depending on the type of craft different substances are needed such as shards. Shards in particular are used to upgrade the attributes of a weapon or armor piece. Each piece of equipment that players find will have three attributes out of the 12 currently available in-game.
The only way to get shards, however, unlike the other crafting materials, is through dismantling other pieces of gear. The catch, in particular, is that the piece that is dismantled must have the same boosted attribute that players are trying to get on a separate piece of gear. This can make it a colossal pain to have the right amount of shards for the specific attribute.
What to Salvage Shards Out of in Outriders
The 12 attributes currently available to be upgraded are Anomaly Power, Armor Piercing, Bonus Firepower, Close Range Damage, Cooldown Reduction, Critical Damage, Healing Received, Max Health, Skill Life Leech, Status Power, Weapon Life Leech. As each item will only have up to three attributes to upgrade players will need to choose wisely as to what will serve them best and be worth investing in based on their play style. Each of these attributes can be upgraded up to six times in any given item with attributes. However, each upgrade costs a good chunk of shards of that specific attribute to be invested.
The hardest part of the process is finding gear with shards in them in the first place. While all gear should have three attributes, not all of them will grant the player with those kinds of shards. Players should focus on finding better gear such as blues and purples to dismantle. These will also grant players with other crafting materials and mods if the equipment has them, so the higher-level items are often better to dismantle.
Another thing to remember when looking at which weapons and armor players should deconstruct is if they have shards at all. To check this look into the details of the weapon or armor where damage and mods are shown. There should be a list of three attributes attached to the piece of gear. On one of those should be the Raise Attributes symbol. This is the type of shards a player will receive from dismantling that particular piece of gear.
Outriders is available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC, and Google Stadia.