Artisan Archive

You need to experiment on them, otherwise you're stuck at the initial quality of the tool (absolute max of 30% with 1000 CD resources).

To experiment:

1. Use a "specialized" crafting tool, you cannot experiment using a generic tool. The specialized tool for making crafting tools is a "Weapon, Droid, and General Item" tool.


2. Stand next to a crafting station matching the tool you are using. There are public stations in most NPC cities, you can buy a private station (which are required for more complicated items) from and architect, or you can buy a droid from a Droid Engineer that contains a "crafting module" for each of the station types. The droid module also counts as a private station.


3. After assembling the item, you'll get a new dialog with options "Experiment", "create prototype" and "create manufacturing schematic". Select "Experiment" to go to the experimentation screen. Here you spend points (gained with your "Artisan Experimentation" skill mod) to improve the item in a particular category. Crafting tools only have a single category to spend points in.

The max amount you can experiment up to and the starting point are dependent on the quality of the resources you use. In the crafting window, you can see the different experimental categories along with the stats that influence that category. For crafting tools, the "Experimental Effectiveness" category depends 100% on conductivity, so you'll want to use metals with high conductivity. Tools also require a Chemical resource, which doesn't have the conductivity stat. In that situation, the chemical slot is just a "resource sink" which doesn't have any effect on the quality of the item.

Just to make it clear, use your Generic tool to make a Weapon, Droid, and General Item tool. You won't be able to experiment on it. THEN, use your WDG tool to make stuff while you're standing near a WDG crafting station. Probably the first thing you'll want to make is a set of fully experimented crafting tools. I think mine are all 14.46 or something like that.