Upgrades

Appendices

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1633641281
Welcome to Tamari's KF2 Survival Handbook - a consolidated resource for tips, tricks, and tactics for Killing Floor 2 that aims to help you become a better player and have more fun with the game while you're at it.


This guide is focused on: Upgrades

The Upgrade System in Killing Floor 2 can be an enigma to a lot of players. While it appears to be a simple way to increase the power of your weapons, there is actually a lot more going on under the hood.

Upgrades change the dynamic of the game entirely, by opening up new loadout possibilities and weapon synergies.

This guide will begin by explaining the relevant terminology and concepts to understanding how the Upgrade System works, and will then provide backing statistics.

These Appendix guides are a lot more technical and fleshed out than the normal guides in the Handbook. They aim to serve as a reference resource and a complete breakdown and analysis of the topic they revolve around.

Enjoy!

To properly understand how the Upgrade System works, we first need to discuss Weapon Tiers.

Most weapons in KF2 are divided into categories that separate the more powerful weapons from the weaker ones. These categories are known as Weapon Tiers, and range from 1 to 5. The Weapon Tier at which a weapon starts is known as that weapon's Base Tier.

Weapons with Base Tier 1 are starting weapons, or in other words, the weapons you spawn into the game with. You can also sometimes find these weapons lying on the ground during normal gameplay if you're lucky.

Some examples of Tier 1 weapons include:

• AR-15 Varmint Rifle
  
• Crovel Survival Tool
  
• MP7 SMG
  
• 1858 Revolver

Figure 1 - An AR-15 Varmint Rifle found in Burning Paris

On the other hand, Tier 5 weapons are amongst the strongest weapons in the game. These, as well as the other remaining weapon tiers, cannot be found naturally in the world and must be bought at the Trader.

Some examples of Tier 5 weapons include:

• HMTech-501 Grenade Rifle
  
• M99 AMR
  
• Helios Rifle
  
• Killerwatt

As you move through the Weapon Tiers, weapons typically become stronger, not only in damage, but utility as well.

For example, the Support's Tier 1 shotgun, the SG 500 Pump-Action shotgun, is a very basic pump action shotgun. It deals decent damage, but is very slow due to the pump mechanism.

On the other hand, the Support's Tier 4 shotgun, the AA-12 Auto Shotgun, is fully-automatic. This allows you to sustain a higher rate of fire and deal more damage in a shorter timeframe compared to the SG 500. Furthermore, the AA-12 is magazine-fed, compared to the SG 500, which reloads a single shell at a time. This translates to faster reloads overall for the AA-12 and allows you less downtime between attacks.

Due to the innate differences in their operation, the AA-12 is typically better at dispatching many foes quickly, and can prove powerful against Large Zeds in particular. The SG 500 on the other hand is better used in early waves against weaker foes. Due to it's full-auto fire capability and faster reloads, the AA-12 will typically perform better than the SG 500 in almost every situation. This is why the SG 500 is Tier 1 and the AA-12 is Tier 4.

Most other Perks' weapon sets follow a similar trend.


I take care to say that the AA-12 outperforms the SG 500 in ALMOST every situation because individual player skill is a large contributor to a weapon's effectiveness as well. Some players are simply better than others, and may be able to use a lower Tier weapon with greater effectiveness.

You also have to take into account the situation at hand. For example, a weapon like the SG 500 can potentially be better in a panic situation, due to it's reloading mechanics. If you were close to death and had a Zed attacking you, you could reload a single shell and open fire immediately, something that the AA-12 would not allow you to do, due to it's magazine-fed nature.

These are just a few examples of how statistics and categories alone cannot always properly gauge a weapon's effectiveness in any given situation. A multitude of factors play into a weapon's overall strength.

you should think of Weapon Tiers ONLY as a general indicator of how effective a weapon is/will be, and NOT as an absolute indicator that one weapon is strictly better than another.

Anyway..
categorizing weapons into Tiers based on all that information is pretty difficult.
To make things easier and more standard, one can differentiate the Weapon Tiers by their price range instead. The price range I am referring to here is the price listed at the Trader.

In general, more expensive weapons are higher Tier. Higher Tier weapons typically deal more damage and weigh more, making them harder to fit into your loadout.


Here is a breakdown of the different Tiers and their associated price ranges:

Tier 1

200-300 Dosh

Tier 2

650-850 Dosh

Tier 3

1100-1300 Dosh

Tier 4

1500-1600 Dosh

Tier 5

2000-2500 Dosh

Here are a few exceptions you should be aware of:

1. Stock Equipment

Not all items and weapons are classified under a Tier, particularly, the set of standard items and weapons that all Perks have in their inventory.

These include the following:

• 9mm Pistol
  
• Knife
  
• Welder
  
• Syringe
  
• Hand Grenades

These items/weapons are collectively known as Stock Equipment, and are not classified under any Weapon Tier(s). All perks have the same Stock Equipment, with the exception of Hand Grenades and Knives (which differ from perk to perk).

You cannot buy or sell Stock Equipment at the Trader and you cannot drop them (in the case of Hand Grenades, you can buy more however).


2. Pistols

Some Pistols are treated differently than other weapons when it comes to their price ranges, particularly those which have both Single and Akimbo (dual-wield) capability. To properly adjust for this, single Pistols of a given Tier are typically 50% of the price of the Akimbo variant.

For example, the Gunslinger's Tier 4 Pistol, the .500 Magnum Revolver, costs just 750 Dosh alone. When bought in a pair, the total price is exactly 1500 Dosh, which is more in line with what you would expect.


Figure 2 - Akimbo vs. Single Pistol price differences

If you aren't aware of this phenomenon, it might be tempting to consider a single .500 Magnum as a Tier 2 weapon, since it falls under that price range. In reality though, both variants of the .500 Magnum are considered Tier 4. They are just priced differently to account for the fact that you can choose between single and dual-wield variants.

When trying to determine a Pistol's Tier based on the price, use the price of the dual-wield variant, should one exist.


Before you move on to the next section(s), here's a quick recap of the vocabulary introduced in this section:

Weapon Tier

A numerical category assigned to a weapon that denotes that weapon's general usefulness/effectiveness compared to other weapons. Weapon Tiers have a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 5. Not all weapons have an associated Tier. Weapon Tiers are not an absolute indicator that one weapon is strictly better than another in every given situation, but a good approximation at best.

Killing Floor 2's Upgrade System is a vehicle for improving the performance of your weapons, by allowing you to enhance their Weapon Tier. The Upgrade System is accessed in the Trader window.

Recall from earlier that each weapon has a Base Tier. Upgrades simply increase that Tier by one, up to a maximum of 5. As a weapon increases in Tier, it's damage increases as well.

As an example, let's suppose you wanted to upgrade the AR-15 Varmint Rifle, which has a Base Tier of 1 and a base damage of 30:

The first upgrade would bring it to Tier 2 and increase its damage to 36
The second upgrade would bring it to Tier 3 and increase its damage to 42
... then to Tier 4 with a damage of 54
... and so on..

Naturally, this means that weapons whose Base Tier is 5 (such as the M99 AMR) cannot be upgraded, as they are already at the maximum.

As you can see, the AR-15, when upgraded, actually receives a pretty significant damage boost. By the time the it is fully upgraded to Tier 5, it deals a hefty 60 damage per shot. That's 200% of it's original power!

The damage values listed above are base values, unmodified by any Perk skills or abilities.

Let's compare this to the Commando's Tier 4 assault rifle, the SCAR-H, which has a base damage of 50. You can see from the numbers alone that a Tier 4 AR-15 already surpasses this value.

As of now, upgrading a weapon's Tier only improves it's damage. For Field Medic Weapons (such as the HMTech-101 Pistol, HMTech-201 SMG, and Hemogoblin), the Syringe Recharge Speed is improved as well. Damage over time (DOT) effects are also amplified.

When a weapon is upgraded, it gives off an orange glow that distinguishes it from regular weapons. Here's how this looks in-game:


Figure 3 - Two HZ-12s, one upgraded


Upgrades cost an additional fee, which depends on the current Tier of the weapon. As you continue to enhance a weapon, this fee increases.

Upgrades also increase the weapon's weight. This makes upgraded weapons harder to fit into your loadout.

There are a few exceptions, which I will address shortly.

Here are the Weapon Tiers along with their associated Upgrade Costs and Weight Penalties:

Tier 1

500 Dosh
+1 Weight

Tier 2

600 Dosh
+1 Weight

Tier 3

700 Dosh
+1 Weight

Tier 4

1500 Dosh
+1 Weight

With this new information, let's revisit and expand on our earlier example with the AR-15 Varmint Rifle. Recall that the AR-15 has a Base Tier of 1, a base weight of 4 kg, and a base damage of 30:

The first upgrade would cost you 500 Dosh, bringing it to Tier 2 with a new weight of 5 kg and damage of 36
The second upgrade would cost you 600 Dosh, bringing it to Tier 3 with a new weight of 6 kg and damage of 42
... then 700 Dosh to upgrade it to Tier 4 with a weight of 7 kg and damage of 54
... and so on..

Most weapons follow this trend. All you need to know is the weapon's Base Tier and weight, both of which you can find at the Trader. This should be pretty intuitive.

Before someone brings it up, I should state that upgrades are not standard across all weapons. What I mean by this that the increase in damage / utility between Tiers is NOT the same for all weapons. As such, some weapons benefit more from upgrades than others.


The exception cases are:

1. Pistol Upgrade Cost

For Pistols that have both Single and Akimbo (dual-wield) variants, the cost to upgrade either variant is the same.

As an example, consider the .500 Magnum Revolver. Earlier, I explained how both the single and dual-wield variants are considered Tier 4, even though the prices of the two variants actually differ.

Because both the Single and Dual .500's are Tier 4, they both have the same cost (1500 Dosh) to upgrade. The same applies to any other Pistol that can be dual-wielded.


2. Dual-wield Pistol Upgrades

When upgrading a set of dual Pistols, only one of the two Pistols is actually upgraded.

This can be seen by dropping the upgraded Pistols onto the ground. You will notice that only one of the two Pistols actually gives off the distinctive "orange" glow. Here's what I mean:


Figure 4 - A pair of upgraded .500 Magnum Revolvers


Don't be confused by this. You might think that having only one of the two Pistols upgraded limits your damage, but dual-wielded Pistols are actually treated as one "weapon" by the game. Therefore, as long as one of the two Pistols is upgraded, the Akimbo variant will be considered as upgraded as well.

The reason for this caveat is to prevent an exploit.

If both Pistols in the Akimbo set were upgraded, one player could purchase and upgrade a set of Pistols and then drop them both for other players. The net result is that the first player "duplicated" the upgrade, by giving two other players an upgraded weapon for the price of one upgrade.

If you're really persistent, you might even try to upgrade two single Pistols separately before combining them into a set, but this still will not produce the desired effect. If two single Pistols are upgraded separately, one of them will lose its upgrades upon becoming part of a dual set.


3. Pistol Upgrade Weight Penalty

Pistols do not incur a weight penalty until they are upgraded past Tier 3. This applies to both Single and Akimbo variants.

For example, you can upgrade the 1858 Revolver (a Tier 1 weapon) twice and the M1911 Pistol (a Tier 2 weapon) once before additional upgrades begin to add weight to the weapon.

Obviously this does not apply to Pistols whose Base Tier is already 3 or higher.

There are three Pistols that do not follow this trend.. an exception within an exception if you will.
They are:

• HMTech-101 Pistol
  
• HX25 Grenade Pistol
  
• 9mm Pistol

The HMTech-101 Pistol, actually begins adding additional weight after reaching Tier 2. This is likely to account for the fact that the weapon also receives an improved Syringe Recharge Rate in addition to the damage increase.

The HX25 Grenade Pistol, while technically a Pistol, is actually categorized as an Explosive Weapon by the game. As such, it follows the typical trend of upgrades, adding +1 kg with each upgrade level.

Both variants of the 9mm Pistol have no weight penalty for any of their upgrades.

Lastly, Dual-wielded Pistols also have double the weight penalty, to account for the fact that you are technically upgrading two weapons at once. Where upgrading a single Pistol would add +1 kg, upgrading a set of Dual Pistols would add +2 kg to the weapon's weight per upgrade.


4. 9mm Pistol

The 9mm Pistol (Single and Akimbo) has one additional upgrade for 200 Dosh, prior to the first upgrade level of 500 Dosh. This makes it the only weapon in the game that can be upgraded more than four times.


5. C4 Explosives

C4 are the only non-Tier 5 weapon in the game that cannot be upgraded.

Now that you understand how the Upgrade System works, we can discuss its impacts on the game as a whole.

As you've seen, upgrading a lower Tier weapon causes it's damage to increase, shifting it closer in line with higher Tier weapons of the same family.

The primary purpose of this is to create more opportunities for unique weapon loadouts.

As I mentioned earlier, some lower Tier weapons may be better than their higher Tier counterparts in certain scenarios. For example, the M4 Combat Shotgun utilizes single shell reloads, which can potentially help more in a panic situation than say, the AA-12's magazine-fed operation. Due to their operational differences, the M4 is better at keeping it's ammunition topped off than the AA-12.

Still, in a world without Upgrades, you probably wouldn't use the M4 over the AA-12, since it is higher Tier. The Upgrade System allows you to improve the M4's damage so that it performs at a reasonably similar level to the AA-12, while still allowing the situational benefits it provides. This allows you to choose the weapon you think will be the most useful, without limiting the overall impact and utility you provide to your squad.

Upgrades also allow players to use their favorite weapon(s) with (relatively) the same effectiveness as if they had chosen a higher Tier weapon. This opens up many opportunities for interesting and unique weapon loadouts that give a breath of fresh air to the game.

Keep in mind my earlier digression about Weapon Tiers. Just because a weapon is higher Tier does not mean it is guaranteed to perform better. This includes lower Tier weapons that are now higher Tier due to upgrades! Just because a Tier 1 weapon is now Tier 5 does not mean it is necessarily better than the other Tier 4 weapons for example. Always remember the operational differences between each gun. Also remember that player skill and individual situations play a very significant factor in the overall effectiveness of any weapon or item.

Lastly, remember that upgrades are not standard across all weapons either. Because of this, some weapons benefit a lot more from upgrades than others. This guide merely exists to teach you how the system works and outline the potential benefits of utilizing it.

This section will give you detailed statistics about each individual weapon's upgrade statistics. The following values are base values, meaning they are the natural values without any special modifiers, for example from perk skills or abilities.

The statistics shown include the following:

• Base Statistics (Tier, weight, price etc)
  
• Total cost to fully upgrade
  
• Damage at each upgrade level (for Field Medic Weapons, also the Syringe Recharge Rate)

The Total Upgrade cost does not include the cost of the weapon itself.

These values are consistent with KF2 v1081 (Back and Kickin' Brass) and are currently out of date with the most up to date release.

Weapons are organized by type (Assault Rifles, Shotguns, etc).
Within each category, weapons are suborganized by Weapon Tier.

For weapons with different firing modes and attacks, you will see additional text in parentheses noting where the damage comes from.

For example, consider the HMTech-201 SMG:

HMTech-201 SMG

As you can see, the 201 costs 2800 Dosh to fully upgrade from its Base Tier of 2.
After the first upgrade (Tier 3), it deals 24 damage per shot and the Syringe recharges 9 ammo per second. And so on..

This should help you understand and interpret the data more easily.

9mm Pistol (Single / Dual)

HMTech-101 Pistol

1858 Revolver

Dual 1858 Revolvers

M1911 Pistol (Single / Dual)

Spitfire (Single / Dual)

.50 Desert Eagle

Dual .50 Desert Eagles

AF2011-A1 (Single / Dual)

.500 Magnum Revolver (Single / Dual)

SG 500 Pump-Action

VLAD-1000 Nailgun

Double-barreled Boomstick

HZ12 Multi-Action

Dragonsbreath

HMTech-301 Shotgun

M4 Combat Shotgun

AA-12 Auto Shotgun

Doomstick

MP7 SMG

MP5RAS SMG

Tommy Gun

HMTech-201 SMG

Mac 10

P90 SMG

Heckler and Koch UMP

Kriss SMG

AR-15 Varmint Rifle

SA80 L85A2 Bullpup

Mkb.42 (H) Carbine Rifle

M16 M203 Assault Rifle

Kalashnikov AK-12

Hemogoblin

SCAR-H Assault Rifle

Stoner 63A LMG

HMTech-401 Assault Rifle

FN FAL ACOG

HMTech-501 Grenade Rifle

Killerwatt

Winchester 1894

SPX 464 Centerfire

Crossbow

M14 EBR

Rail Gun

M99 AMR

Freezethrower

HX25 Grenade Pistol

C4 Explosives

M79 Grenade Launcher

Seal Squeal

RPG-7

Seeker Six

M32 Grenade Launcher

Caulk n' Burn

Flamethrower

Microwave Gun

Husk Cannon

Helios Rifle

Crovel Survival Tool

Katana

Fire Axe

Road Redeemer

Pulverizer

Hemoclobber

Eviscerator

Static Strikers

Zweihander

Bone Crusher

Battleaxe

Scalpel

KF-BAR

Machete

Kukri

Lawn Mower Blade

Gore Shiv

Utility Knife

Fireman's Knife

Bowie Knife

HE Grenade

Frag Grenade

Flashbang

Medic Grenade

Molotov Cocktail

1/2 Stick of Dynamite

Nail Bomb

Freeze Grenade

EMP Grenade

Tamari's KF2 is a KF2 community of over 800 Members that I operate alongside Forrest Mark X that aims to bring a modded experience to KF2 that enhances the game through quality-of-life features and changes, new gamemodes, and a chill and close-knit environment. We're a multi-continental KF2 community supporting the NA and EU regions, and now also Southeast Asia / Australia as well!

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These are not your typical modded servers. The mods in use aim to enhance the vanilla experience as opposed to drastically changing it. As such, you can expect to find features that remedy some of the more clunky aspects of vanilla KF2 gameplay as well as features that allow players to customize their experience(s). We also have lots of customized content that builds on the original game, such as 25 additional Prestige Levels (with unique badges), 187 custom Server Achievements, and custom gamemodes like Arms Race, True Endless, and ZED Wars.

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I hope this guide has helped you to learn a few new things to give you that edge out on the Killing Floor. If you have any questions, leave a comment below! I will be updating this from time to time as more things are discovered.





Be sure check out the rest of the Handbook, where you can learn a bunch of other odds and ends about KF2 to help you improve your gameplay:
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Thanks for reading!
- Tamari