Auto Assault: Driver's Ed: Crafting

Reverse Engineering

Nearly all equippable inventory items in Auto Assault are made from individual parts, commodities and components which are base building blocks in the game. In order to learn how to build something, you'll need to take it apart first. Find a vendor that sells  Projectile Weapons Discipline Training Kit (they are pretty easy to find). Then open up the Research window (the Z key) and click on Reverse Engineer mode. Your inventory window should now pop up and you should have a little wrench cursor now. Find your newly purchased Projectile Weapons Discipline Training Kit and left-click on it. It'll ask you if you are sure - hit "Accept."

There is a chance that, depending on the complexity of the item, you may destroy it and not learn how it is constructed. For simple items your chances of Reverse Engineering is usually around 100% so it should not be an issue. Note that when you Reverse Engineer the kit it is now saying it is "broken" in your inventory. That's okay. Right-click on the broken kit.

Now the Crafting window pops up. The Projectile Weapons Discipline Training Kit recipe should now appear in the "You Can Craft:" list and should show up at the little display window on the right. Below is a list of Commodities and/or Components required to build a Projectile Weapons Discipline Training Kit. You can move your mouse over each to see what it is.

The two items needed should be: Salvaged Metals and Salvaged Nuts and Bolts. These kinds of components can easily be found out in the Central Wastelands; for instance you can find raw material like these quite easily when you destroy buildings or other structures. If you have both items, they should display in the "Required Commodities/Components" area in color (if you don't, they are non-highlighted). There would also be a message at the bottom: "You don't have the right components!"

Also remember that you will need to be near a Control Shop in town before you can repair anything.

Once you do have the right components, the "Assemble" button should now light up. Click on it and after a few seconds, voila! You've now reconstructed the Projectile Weapons Discipline Training Kit. You now have the option of Memorizing this item and make a Limited Patent out of it.

Memorization

When you successfully craft an item, you have a chance of memorizing how to craft it. If you memorize it, you can then directly craft that item instead of finding or reverse engineering broken items. By doing so you now possess a Limited Patent on that item and can craft X number of iterations from that recipe before you lose it. The exact number is dependent on a number of factors, like your Memorization level, item crafting difficulty, and so on. Now all you would need are the proper commodities.

There are two other drawbacks. You will only craft the same exact item you memorized, and you can only memorize a maximum of five (5) items at a time. To memorize new items, you will have to remove previously learned ones from your list.

To craft an item from memory, bring up your Research panel, and click the "Memory" tab at the bottom of the window. If you memorized the Projectile Weapons Discipline Training Kit from above, it should show up in the Memorization list. You can also move the mouse over the item to see what commodities it needs. When you've gathered and refined the proper commodities, the "Craft" button will now light up. Click on it and the Crafting window will pop back up, and you can quickly Assemble it. Once the item is crafted it goes straight into your inventory. Note the item now denotes who built it - handy when you want to get your name as an expert crafter out in the wastelands.

During normal crafting, if you memorize a new item but you already have five memorized items, it will ask you if you want to replace one of the old ones with the newly memorized one. If you hit yes, just left click on the memorized item you want to get rid of and it will be replaced.

Experimentation

Experimentation allows you to attempt to improve an item while you're crafting it by adding new components/commodities to the crafting process; however, not all items can undergo experimentation. When you hover your mouse over a broken item, there is a list on the right for Enhancements and Gadgets. If your broken item has empty enhancement slots, you can experiment on the item and try to improve the item when you craft it. Or if you are crafting it from memory you can use the exact same process to Experiment on the item.

To Experiment on the item, drag various commodities into the blue box. Each commodity has an associated value that tells you how much it can affect the Experimenation process. Lower quality commodities give you less of a chance of getting a useful Enhancement, higher quality components greatly increase that chance. The more times you Experiment on an item, the better the chance you have of failing the crafting process and destroying the item completely. You can only have one of each kind of commodity. This means, you can only have one Glass, whether it is Salvaged or Perfect. Despite which commodities you use, there is a chance that the Enhancements generated for that item will still not be helpful at all, making Experimentation simply that: an experiment.

When you are ready, hit "Assemble." Whether you succeed or fail, you will lose both the commodities you initially needed to make the item, plus one of each commodity you added to the experiment. If you succeed, the new item (hopefully with enhancements!) will be in your inventory.

Tinkering

Armor or weapons may sometimes have colored dots in the upper left corner of their icon. These are Gadget slots, which allow you to add gadgets you find or craft to improve the item.

A red dot indicates the slot is currently locked. An empty dot indicates the slot is open, but there is no gadget in it. A sold grey dot indicates the slot is open and currently has a gadget in it. Increased skill allows you to open more slots on an item. You do not have to have Tinkering skill to put a gadget into a slot, only to open closed slots.

Left click on the tinkering kit to pick it up, and then right click on the item on which you wish to open a gadget slot. There is a slight chance of destroying the item instead of opening up a gadget slot.

To add a gadget to an open slot, left click on the gadget to pick it up, and right click on the item with the open slot. Warning: This will almost assuredly raise the level of the item by one for each gadget, so be careful!

Getting Items

There are any number of ways you can acquire commodities, components, and other inventory items. Many are dropped as loot, left behind from destroyed enemies. Other items can be found by destroying buildings, towers, light posts, signs, and other objects in the wastelands. Junk yards and other stores in various towns also offer a variety of items. Finally, you can trade with other players if they have the items you need.