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Image with the Starfield UI on screen. There is a Calibrated Grendel hovered over also.
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Category:
GAME GUIDES

Starfield Weapon Tiers Explained: Calibrated, Refined, Advanced, and Superior

Image of Gordon Bicker
Gordon Bicker
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Published: Sep 12, 2023 11:14 am

Starfield has many gear phrases and stats to get used to so if you’ve been seeing “weapon tiers” floating around online forums and have been confused, don’t worry you won’t be the only one. There are five main weapon tiers in the game and it is worthwhile knowing about them. This article will take you through what all of the Starfield weapon tiers are.

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All Starfield Weapon Tiers Explained

Tiers are not to be confused with the rarity of an item. For example, the “Legendary” rarity is not classed as a tier. The tier of the weapon is instead decided by what prefix comes before the name of any particular weapon you find across the galaxy. These tiers instead highlight the improved stats of a weapon based on whichever tier it is in.

Related: How to Open the Inaccessible Weapon Case in The Lodge in Starfield

Calibrated

Calibrated is the second tier apart from normal weapons. If you see a rifle just named “Grendel” for example then that is just the basic weapon version. However, if that same weapon name has the word “Calibrated” listed anywhere in its title then that is now up a tier. At the start of the game, I found that you will be much more likely to discover regular and calibrated weapons.

Refined, Advanced, and Superior

The other weapon tiers after Calibrated simply indicate an additional base damage increase as noted before. The main order goes basic, Calibrated, Refined, Advanced, then Superior. I highly recommend that you don’t just get rid of any Advanced or Superior weapons that you find unless you feel you are already extremely well-equipped for any enemies you face on planets.

Related: Here’s Why Starfield Requires an SSD on PC

If you want to sell a lot of gear (or even ships) to gather up more credits then start off by selling Calibrated or Refined items, and keep the better quality weapons for another time. Overall though, the best way to think of weapon tiers in my opinion is just as another progression line. You can’t (as far as I currently know) upgrade one weapon’s tier to another but over time you will end up finding another higher tier of a weapon.

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Author
Image of Gordon Bicker
Gordon Bicker
Gordon is a contributing writer for Attack of the Fanboy, a Games Design (BA) Honours student, and a Video Game Ambassador. He has been writing at AOTF for over a year and a half, with four years of games writing experience for outlets like Green Man Gaming. When he's not busy, he'll no doubt be experiencing games, writing poetry, playing guitar, adventuring, or happily starting a new Skyrim playthrough! As an avid Final Fantasy XIV player, he also hopes that you'll gain a warm feeling from his community stories. Gordon has reported on Fallout 4 and Destiny 2, whose favorite genres include action RPGs, MMORPG's and First Person Shooters but is always experimenting with many other types of games.