There is a factory in the wasteland — two machining lathes, a precision press and two assembly benches — and every weapon in the Zone is born there. Barrels, receivers, slides, triggers, springs, magazines, grips, stocks and optics are machined one at a time, then assembled by hand. A pistol takes seven parts. A rifle takes nine.
Machine it, then assemble it
Twenty-four firearms and thirty-one melee weapons come out of the factory, from a shiv to a precision rifle. Nothing is quick: a machine run takes a minute and a half at the least, a precision receiver more than three. Batch runs cost less per piece, because the slow part is setting the machine up — and you walk between the stations while it works.
Everything wears out
Weapons degrade as you use them and blades blunt as you swing them. A worn weapon is repaired at the bench by replacing the parts that actually failed — rolled fresh every time and weighted by what really breaks, so springs and barrels go often and a receiver almost never. Every rebuild lowers the weapon's ceiling a little. A gun you find in the world arrives broken or missing pieces: repair it, or strip it for whatever is still good.
Fit it out
Scopes, suppressors, grips, extended magazines and finishes are fitted by hand from your pack. The heavy suppressor and the extended rifle magazine exist nowhere but the Black Market dealer's shelf; everything else turns up in the world.
- Five stations: lathes, press, assembly benches
- 24 firearms and 31 melee weapons, all built from parts
- Weapons wear out and are repaired part by part
- Scavenged guns arrive broken — repair or strip them