In Starfield, your weapon tier can significantly influence your gun's performance. Not only do weapon rarities add unique modifiers to your weapons, but sometimes a specific modifier can boost a lower-tier weapon's value.

Weapon rarity determines the number of unique modifiers a weapon possesses, like the Berserker mod on some guns. The base weapon tier doesn't come with any modifiers, but subsequent rarities add one, with a maximum of three modifiers at the highest rarity.

To determine a weapon's true power, you need to understand both weapon tier and weapon rarity.

Weapon Tiers

The effectiveness of gear, whether it's the damage output for weapons or damage resistance for armor, is determined by its Tier or Quality. When comparing two identical pieces of gear, the one with a superior tier will have better stats.

The Five Tiers of Starfield:

1. Base: Basic weapons
2. Calibrated: Low-tier weapons offering slightly improved stats.
3. Refined: Enhanced weapons with better performance.
4. Advanced: Top-tier weapons with superior stats.
5. Superior: The highest tier offering the best stats. (Armor Only)

Base weapons are common in the beginning. Generally, players will start finding Calibrated weapons at level 10, followed by Refined weapons between levels 20-30, Advanced weapons from 30-40, and Superior weapons from 40-50.

The highest tier for weapons is Advanced, and the highest tier for armor is Superior. However, There appears to be a hidden 'fifth tier' for weapons, equivalent to 'Superior' stats, found in the game files and accessible via console commands.

The Tier or Quality of gear is important in determining its damage output or resistance. Once you secure 'Advanced' weapons and 'Superior' armor, other gear tiers become redundant.

If you want to upgrade your arsenal while waiting for the ideal weapon drop, you can try crafting, particularly using the weapons workbench.

Some Weapons Don't Have Tier

Some gear might not have a tier, placing it in the lowest effectiveness bracket. Many "Unique" weapons with distinct names fall into this category, making them useless once superior alternatives are discovered.

For example, unique weapons like the N67 Smartgun don't fit into these tiers. You need to assess your weapon stats against standard weapons to determine the relative power.

Weapon Rarities

Weapon rarity in Starfield is not the same as weapon tiers. It pertains to the number of special modifiers a weapon possesses. The rarities include:

• Common (No modifiers)
• Rare (One modifier)
• Epic (Two modifiers)
• Legendary (Three modifiers)

As your character progresses to higher levels, vendors, enemies, and containers will offer gear of higher tiers. The availability of these tiers is linked to your character's level. However, weapon rarity isn't tied to character levels and is purely based on luck, so you might stumble upon a Legendary weapon right at the beginning if you're lucky.

A high-rarity weapon can be better than a same-tier weapon in performance. For example, a rare Base Solstice and a common Calibrated Solstice could have similar stats. However, the rare version, due to its rarity, might have an additional modifier, making it more valuable.