Upgrade Kits

Upgrade kits
Upgrade kits are items used to upgrade your vehicle parts. To upgrade a part, drag the selected Upgrade kit with mouse over it. Each Upgrade kit will upgrade one part by 1 level. Upgrading part will add a Additional Modifier to parts stats. Upgrade kit level (+1, +3, +7...) tells you maximum level to which can be vehicle part upgraded with this particular Upgrade kit. For example Upgrade kit level +3 will upgrade level 0 part to level 1, level 1 part to level 2 and level 2 part to level 3. It cannot be used to upgrade level 3 or higher part.

Upgrade kit types
Most of Upgrade kits are specific for some part type, like External, Internal, Sensor, Armor, Wheels, Generator, Turbine etc. and can be used only on matching parts. Some Upgrade kit types are common, other rare. You can also get Universal upgrade kit, which can be used on any part. Received Modifier(s) depends on part type.

Additional modifiers
Additional modifier added by Upgrade kit is chosen from pool of modifiers corresponding with part type you are trying to upgrade. Some modifiers appear only on some parts (like Wheels can get bonus traction), while some can appear on more types (Hull strength, Power usage efficiency...). Some Upgrade kits will add more than one Modifier. Additional modifiers will stack. Applying three Upgrade kits with +5% Power usage efficiency will result in +15% Power usage efficiency. In other words, higher part level means more (and higher) Additional modifiers. To see which additional modifiers will be added to the particular part, you have to drag the Upgrade kit over the part with mouse. Confirmation dialog will appear with given modifier shown. You can cancel upgrade process. Once an Upgrade kit is used, it cannot be removed from part again.

Obtaining Upgrade kits
You can obtain Upgrade kits in many different ways:
 * Buy from NPC trader.*
 * As reward from NPC quest.*
 * From hidden treassure located by transmitter bought from NPC.*
 * As loot from enemies killed during protect NPC quest.*
 * As loot from defeated pirates during pirate ambush.
 * As loot from destroyed UFOs and PROTECTORs.
 * Buy from NPC Outpost storage.
 * As reward for completing Combat Simulation and as possible random loot from enemies killed in Combat Simulation. Boss has almost 100% chance of dropping loot.
 * From other players.

* More detailed info on NPC (random encounters) page.

Level of Upgrades kits you get depends on level of your vehicle. NPC will offer you for trade and reward you with better Upgrade kits with higher level vehicle.

Merging Upgrade kits
Two upgrades of same type (for example External and External) can be merged together. Merging two same level Upgrades will result in Upgrade kit one level better. So merging one +3 Armor and one +3 Armor will result in one +4 Armor. Merging different level Upgrade kits will only reroll the bonus on higher level Upgrade kit.So merging one +2 Internal and one +3 Internal will result in one +3 Internal with possibly other modifier and +2 Internal is consumed. This is only useful if you have plenty of Upgrade kits and want to get one with specific bonus.

Vehicle level
Level of a vehicle is determined as average level of all equiped vehicle parts. Empty equipment slots, prototype parts and unupgraded parts are counted as level 0. There are no parts for some slots, for example Thrusters, Lights... However these slots are not counted into average vehicle level. There are also no parts for drones, so they stay at level 0. Storage slots are also igonred.

Some vehicles in game will be researched by lab as locked and can only be unlocked by reaching certain level on other vehicle. This feature seems to be little bugged now (game ver. 19.09.01.1).

Important notes
Upgrade kits can be applied only on parts equipped on currently controlled vehicle or on parts in its inventory. Otherwise upgrade may fail with error message. This Error message is common for all errors related with upgrading, like incompatible upgrade type or level. Also merging Upgrade kits should be done in controlled vehicles inventory.

Parts named "Prototype" cannot be upgraded. Prototype parts are parts represented as grey slots which cannot be removed from vehicle. This applies even on Prototype Mining laser and Prototype sensor equipped from start of the game on Scarab vehicle which can be removed. You can upgrade only crafted parts or parts obtained as random Abandoned Items.

Parts up to level 5 can be freely swaped among different vehicles. Upgrading part to level 6 will bind it to vehicle where it is currently equipped and thus this part can no longer be used in any other vehicle.It can be removed and put in another vehicles inventory (or Outpost storage) as cargo though.

Salvaging upgraded parts will not return any Upgrade kits.

Upgrade kits have no weight in terms of vehicle load.

Disclaimer
Information on this page come from my single player server experience. They may be incomplete and slightly different from multiplayer game experience. Game version 19.09.01.1. Also I am not a native English speaker (you surely noticed already ;-) ), so feel free to correct me.