Upgrade-able Items for the Ancient Anvil

It may be a while before I reach the vaults, but when looking things up, I noticed that there is no list of items that can be upgraded on the Ancient Anvil, does any know what can be used on that item so I know what to bring besides the essence.

 

Pollen Pump, Flamethrower, Poison Bow, entirety of Boomerang, Gauntlet and Chakram families (i.e. including their upgrades such as Lunarang, Vine Fist, Neo Chakram, etc.), side quest rewards (Antique Sniper, Hokucide and Firestorm Fury), all boss weapons except Miniknog Launchers and Dragonfire Pistols, Gnome Gun, every whip except Luciane's, Cartillage Gun, Alien Worm Gun, Giant Worm, Time Piece, Tesla Wrath, Soulseeker, Oculus Reaver and Adaptable Crossbow.

Rule of thumb: if it's found on Tier 6 or Tier 5 planet it's likely unupgradable; same goes for all crafted weapons (excluding those that made with Boomerang, Gauntlet or Chakram) and weapons of rarity other than purple.

I personally recommend Solus Katana / Time Piece, Adaptable Crossbow, Firestorm / Flamethrower and Gnome Gun, to a lesser degree Antique Sniper / Tesla Wrath, and Hokucide.

 

Pretty much any of the unique weapons that aren't already tier 6 : http://starbounder.org/Unique_Weapon

 

There are a lot of weapons on that wiki page that don't work with the upgrade anvil, including all the ones players can craft in the tiered sets (making the Violium Shortsowrd and Agisalt Pistol remain stuck at tier 5, yet those are what I use late game).

I looked through the game files and found the complete list of upgradable weapons (They have the "upgradeableWeapon" tag in their files), and here are the items discovered (look in the spoilers):

Rope Whip
Intestine Whip
Vine Whip
Gauntlet
Vine Fist
Claw Glove
Stun Glove

Chakram
Neo Chakram
Hard Chakram
Saw Chakram
Frozen Boomerang
Boomerang
Lunarang
Molten Boomerang
Giant Worm

Time Pierce
Hokucide
Soulseeker
Oculus Reaver
Firestorm's Fury

Poison Bow
Pollen Pump
Flamethrower
Gnome Gun
Tesla's Wrath
Alien Worm Gun
Cartilage Gun
Adaptable Crossbow
Vintage Scoped Rifle

Erchius Eye
Solus Katana
Ixodoom Claw
Kluex Staff

Sadly I don't use any of these in my active arsenal since they are either a 2-handed weapon, or they have a very slow attack rate, but someone else my find this information useful. Also note the gloves, most boomerangs, and the chakrams can be double upgraded (Upgrading them with found blueprints/weapon vendor, then using the anvil).

 

b-b-but I like H-h-h-h-h-okucide...

 

Basically, any weapon that has a purple icon, isn't found on Volcanic Planets and that isn't the Miniknog Launcher, Dragonhead Pistol, Protector's Broadsword or the Zephyr Spark Launcher (feh, it should get 3.5 times the amount of sparkles and a 3.5 times as colorful explosion, by all accounts).

If you want to be able to upgrade all unique weapons (even those that have to be spawned in), the upgraded upgrades mod (http://community.playstarbound.com/resources/upgraded-upgrades.4392/) allows you to do that.

Also, Hokucide has sub-par damage and an extremely situational special. Even the Alien Worm Gun works better for keeping enemies at a distance, although it's damage is even worse. At least the AWG looks cool and works at range. The Alien Appendage has a DPSPTH (DPS Per Two Hands) of 42, so it's got the damage, the keeping enemies away from you and it's a reasonable compromise in terms of aesthetics.

Of course, the Kluex staff is what you want if you want to kill bosses quickly. When upgraded and when using the Perfect Set, it can deal 31.5*4.6*10=1449 damage per charge. Four charges should be able to kill the final boss. As a bonus, you can wait with aiming until you're done dodging.

Alternatively, if you prefer traditional guns or swords, I recommend cartilage guns (DPSPTH of 43, plus poison, plus bouncing off surfaces in case you miss) and soulseekers (DPSPTH of 49, equivalent to a super-strong tier 7 weapon using the Asuterosaberu DX as the base for assumptions or a weak tier 9/superstrong tier 8 judging by the protectorate's broadsword).

Not sure where the doomcannon ranks (if you can consistantly hit an enemy with 3 or more pieces of shot at once, it's stronger than the cartilage guns and will inflict an extra 130 damage the next shot), but it's not upgradeable anyway.

 

hey now, Hokucide's damage matches the Protectorate's Broadsword once it's upgraded. saying it has sup-par damage is kind of a misnomer if you're referring to it's upgraded form (its final form huehue). sure, there are probably better options it terms of swing/shot speed and the damage of each individual swing/shot, but by no means is Hokucide a terrible choice. I mean, just look at that blade.

also, Doomcannon might just be the best "ranged" weapon that isn't a rocket launcher. "ranged" because it's a shotgun, but it still does disgusting amounts of damage. I actually completed my first ancient vault using my Doomcannon for nearly 90% of the boss fight, whereas I used my HOKUCIDE during the chest-hunting part.

 

I'd also like to add that Hoku's alt ability doesn't require energy.

Out of weapons I've tried, I use most often Adaptable Crossbow (quite a fun weapon with it's own legitimate uses), Firestorm Fury (albeit modified to have a combo just like every other sword, else it pretty much sucks; built-in flamethrower doesn't really pay off for reduced damage potential), Gnome Gun (as long as you have time to set up this thing can melt through enemies like through butter) and Solus Katana (it's pretty much boss even if ability is somewhat lacking).

 

Hokucide has a lower swing speed than the Astrosaberu DX or the Protector's Broadsword, though. I guess it's just that I prefer to kill my enemies right away, rather than avoiding them. As for the adaptable crossbow, being able to switch to the most effective damage type is nice, but since it itself has only 28 base DPS even if upgraded, and status effects do very little damage anyway, I might as well just use my procedurally generated ranged weapons. Since I carry two pairs (a set of grenade launchers and a pair of pistols), on average I'll get 1.25 times my base DPS, which given that 1.25 * 40 = 50 and 1.5 * 28 = 42, means that I'm almost definitely better off with my procedurally generated weapons. Worst-case scenario, I get only base damage and I lose out on 2 points of damage per second.

Now, if only we had a good fist weapon. They're currently just simply worse than daggers or shortswords, and as such, there's no reason to use them.

 

I dunno, man. I tend to wreck stuff with my Hokucide unless I begin lagging. like, one- or two-shot stuff.

 

I tend to lag, but even when I don't, some normal monsters are just slightly too strong even for an Astrosaberu (by which I mean they take more than fifteen seconds to kill), which is why I switched over to an approximately 45 DPS dual-wielding of one-handed melee weapons. Daggers swing fast enough that enemies can't actually hit me without getting hit back far enough to have to try again.

Anyway, this is getting completely off-topic. Should we start a new topic about which weapons are best for fighting through vaults with?

 

Whatever floats your boat, man. I don't think difference in 0.1 uses per second (Hokucide has one strike per second, Astrosaber 1.111... rounded down to 1.1 in tooltip, Protector Sword 1.25, rounded up to 1.3 in tooltip, Solus Katana roughly 1.2) gonna really help you.

You don't get it. Default arrows count as a hunting weapon, which makes AC actually about as good as Aegisalt Bow, Fire arrows got AOE, Frost arrows slow down, and Gravity arrows allow you to pull tricks like kicking enemies into enviromental hazards or pulling friendly NPCs out of trouble. That's 4 in 1.

 

I always have a farm, so hunting weapons ain't that useful (especially since I generally get completely overloaded with food while exploring anway), AOE can be done with grenade launchers as well, and pulling enemies into enviromental hazards requires careful setup. NPCs jumping into enviromental hazards tend to just jump right back into the most common hazard (lava) after you try to rescue them. Frost can be inflicted by other weapons as well (I found an ice rocket special spear that is perfect for this, since if you want to keep enemies away, spears are perfect, and rocket spears help you to get away).

 

I think their point is that they only need one weapon instead of 4 separate ones.

 

Yeah, but one weak weapon versus 3 strong ones (2 grenade launchers + 1 spear) seems like a bad tradeoff, especially given that I can also use the spear to fly around a bit, thanks to a gravity augment.

 

Whatever boats your float my dude