Weapons & Smithing: Solar-Powered Engineer Pistol   Are you ready for one of the most epic tradeskill processes out there? Wanting something to really bite down into? Well, the Solar-Powered Pistol contains more upgrades than you can shake a stick at and will take you through a rollercoaster of skills doing so.         lBefore you start reading this guide, there's a few things you should keep in mind. First of all, you ought to know is that the Engineer Pistol is a smorgasbord of tinkering, which means it might end up costing you a fair bit of money - not so much that it hurts players that has been around for a little while, but if you just started out, you might not want to focus on this particular one - at least not yet. It will take you through a lot of various tradeskills and you really have to know your stuff to get it all together. Another point of interest is that if you rightclick this weapon (IE, "use" it, it will attempt to upgrade, not get worn. Upgrading the pistol takes weaponsmithing skills, while wearing it has other skills, which may be a bit confusing at first, but in order to wear it - simply pick it up and drop it into the selected slot). Also, its been reported that its not possible to build the gun from the gun that Adventurers start out with. Still feeling up for the challenge? We thought you might. If you want to be able to access the information you'll need throughout the various stages of the process, you'll be happy to know there are three in-game manuals for the thing...   Engineering News: The Improved Solar-Powered Pistol - Book 1 Engineering News: The Improved Solar-Powered Pistol - Book 2 Engineering News: The Improved Solar-Powered Pistol - Book 3 You can get these from your local store as they are located in the General Recipes Booth and you might want to get them just in case. They're not very expensive. Now - lets begin our work. Thankfully enough, if you have destroyed your newbie Solar-Powered pistol (or simply never given one to start with) there is a way for you to build one, so lets start with that first shall we? We'll need to get a few items - a Basic Calculator, a Jandawit Cleanup Cluster, an Auto Targeting Computer -IIR 4 Ultra- and an Irreparable River MV pistol.     Basic Calculator     Jandawit Cleanup Cluster       Auto Targeting Computer -IIR 4 -Ultra-     Irreparable River MV   lYou can get the Auto Targeting Computer and the Jandawit Cleanup Cluster from your Ranged Weapon Components booth, the Basic Calculator you will find in the Bookstore. As far as the River MV pistol goes, it can be found if you scout enough Basic Stores and look into the Weapons booth. Remember - you'll need the Irreparable version, any other one simply wont work. The first thing we need to do is combine the ATC with the Calculator like so...   + =   Solar-Powered Weapon Supervisor This solar-powered computer can command nanobots to extract molecular-size pieces of material from a weapon, although it still lacks some nanobots to command. ...which will make us a nifty little Solar-Powered Weapon Supervisor. Next we just need to combine the Jandawit cluster with the Solar-Powered Weapon Supervisor and we'll end up with the next piece of equipment we need, namely the Solar-Powered Weapon Device.   + =   Solar-Powered Weapon Device This device can probably replace the magazine and reloader only on 'irreparable' River MV's. A pistol of better quality will simply deject the device. When we've gotten this far its only one more step until we have our very own Solar-Powered Pistol. Very handy if you're a tradeskiller and were never given a pistol from the start. You might want to keep this one around for sure.   + =   Solar-Powered Pistol This Solar-Powered Pistol is a worn-out weapon, that uses nanobots to fire molecular-size pieces of itself at high speed toward the target. It does not use any ammunition. Solar-Powered Tinker Pistol We're going to need some tools in order to start working on the first upgrade to the Pistol, and these are them. A Jensen POE, a Screwdriver, a Notum Chip or a Notum Fragment, and lastly but not least, we'll need a Robotic Self-Preservation System.     Jensen Personal Ore Extractor     Screwdriver       Robotic Self-Preservation System     Notum Chip or Notum Fragment   The Screwdriver and the Jensen POE you can find in the Tools for Electrical and Mechanical Engineering booth. The Notum Chip/Fragment you can obtain through either finding one as mission loot, or simply by hunting. They're not all too rare nowadays after all what with the demand for them skyrocketing after the release of tradeskill armors such as CAS, Barter and so forth. The Notum Chip you are looking for needs to be at least 0.9 times the QL of the Ore Extractor. The very same goes for the Robotic Self-Preservation System. You might get lucky and find one of these on a robotic mob. The droprate is the real problem since they don't really drop too often, but then again - no pain, no gain! Good places to hunt robotic mobs can be found in our guide on how to make the Mechanical Analyzer (which you will also need in a later stage for the next upgrade to the gun, so reading that guide will do you only good. If you have been hunting Mechdogs for your Alvin Pads, there's another good place to start too, so the mobs are there just waiting for you. Now lets start working on the pieces we have, shall we? The first thing we need to do is to remodify our POE to a preservation system as opposed to an extraction system and the first step towards doing so is using our Screwdriver on the darned thing (where are the DIP-switches I ask?) and we'll end up with a Modified version of the extractor.   + =   Modified Jensen Ore Extractor The connection between the Active Gravity Wave Sensors and the multiple picometer-accurate monomolecular drilling arms on this extractor has been cut. Next, by adding the Robotic Selfpreservation System to the modified extractor, we'll end up with an Unstable Preservation System. This system will help 'keep maintenance' on the weapon as its description says.   + =   Unstable Preservation System This device is built on a prototype robotic self-preservation unit. If it was less unstable it could have been tuned to 'keep maintenance' on its host. After we've added that its time to add or Notum Fragment/Notum Chip to the Preservation system thus making it a tad more stable to work with.   + =   Stable Preservation System This device is built on a prototype robotic self-preservation unit. It can be used to 'keep maintenance' on its host with nanobots. And the last step in making the next upgraded Solar-Powered pistol, is of course adding the Stable Preservation System to our Solar-Powered Pistol to create the 'Tinker' variant of the gun.   + =   Solar-Powered Tinker Pistol This gun is built from the ordinary solar-powered gun that is handed out to many of the new citizens arriving at Rubi-Ka. The Tinker pistol that you now own is upgradeable by right-clicking on it - it becomes a levelling item that goes all the way up to level 39, so with a bit of Weaponsmithing skills for each level and you'll be wandering around with your Tinker version in no-time. The requirement of Weaponsmithing goes hand in hand with your pistol skill, rarely leaving its side, so if you want to be able to keep upgrading it, you will need quite an amount of Weaponsmithing for the later stages. But for now - lets take a look at the finished QL39 version to admire our handywork shall we..   Solar-Powered Tinker Pistol QL39       Attack time 1.7 s Recharge time 1.2 s Range 15m Clip n/a Damage 14-80 (77) Fire AC Requirements Pistol 187 Multi Ranged 156 Effects Max Health +20 Tutoring +7 Max Nano +43   A beautiful sight to behold surely. Especially the Modifiers are nice and the best part is that as you upgrade it further, they will grow in power (as well as numbers as you will see later on). Solar-Powered Mender Pistol If you're already the proud owner of a Mechanical Analyzer, then this step will be fairly uncomplicated. However, if you have no idea what this is, now is the time to read our guide on how to get one. Originally we posted that here, but felt it bloated the guide for no real reason. While you're at it, it might be a good idea to get an extra one, since the Mechanical Analyzer we have will be part of the gun and therefore vaporize faster than an atrox's lunchmoney in a donut shop.   Mechanical Analyzer This computer aids the user by analyzing the mechanical properties of any given object. Connect it to your preservation system to fully utilize its potentional. Back from reading that and getting your Mechanical Analyzer ready? Goody! What we need to do is to slide our Mechanical Analyzer into the Solar-Powered Tinker Pistol without using too much force and we should have our next upgrade all finished and ready to spank some mutants.   + =   Solar-Powered Mender Pistol This gun is built from the ordinary solar-powered gun that is handed out to many of the new citizens arriving at Rubi-Ka. The Solar-Powered Mender version of the pistol is also a levelling item which goes up to QL99 and requires you to have Weaponsmithing skills in order to upgrade it. Added to the effects from the Mechanical Analyzer you can now find a bonus to your Mechanical Engineering skill as well as the other bonuses have been raised somewhat just like we promised they'd be.   Solar-Powered Mender Pistol QL99       Attack time 1.7 s Recharge time 1.2 s Range 15m Clip n/a Damage 28-160 (168) Fire AC Requirements Pistol 468 Multi Ranged 396 Effects Max Health +50 Tutoring +18 Mechanical Engineering +9 Max Nano +109   With our finished Solar-Powered Mender Pistol its now time to take a look at the next upgrade in this rather epic series - namely the Solar-Powered Mechanic Pistol. Solar-Powered Mechanic Pistol As you should have been getting used to by now we'll need to get a few items from our local store. We'll also need to do a little bit of hunting for a rarer piece of equipment, the Disposal Unit Electrical Toolset. However, lets visit the stores first.     Electrical Engineering Tutoring Device     Hacker Tool       Disposal Unit Electrical Toolset           You'll need a Hacker Tool and an Electrical Engineering Tutoring Device. Make sure that the Tutoring Device is at least QL100 for this. You'll find the Hacker Tool in the Tools or Devices booth and the Electrical Engineering Tutoring Device in the Bookstore booth. The next item is harder to come by, the Disposal Unit Electrical Toolset. You can find this item by killing the R-2000 Vermin Unit Disposal Unit in Greater Tir County. Its also been reported that our old friend Jack Legchopper and his clones might drop these. Apparen'tly good ol' Jack has a few tricks up his sleeve walking around with this one. The first step is to hack the tutoring device with our hacking tool.   + =   Hacked Electrical Engineering Tutoring Device The 'lock' on this device has been removed, as well as some other minor gizmos. What is left is mainly the Electrical Engineering library and the CTM-transmitter. This requires 4.25 * QL of the Tutoring Device in Breaking & Entering and 4 * QL in Computer Literacy skills and will land you with a Hacked version of the tutoring device. What we need to do now is add the Hacked Electrical Engineering Tutoring Device to our Disposal Unit Electrical Toolset, and rework it slightly moodifying it to fit better into our pistol. This procedure will make the Toolset NODROP, so make sure you aren't lending it out to someone else to do the tradeskilling for you.   + =   Modified Electrical Toolset This nano-toolset was originally used by a vermin disposal robot to disassemble electrical components on items that the robot was supposed to eliminate. The last step is to simply insert the Modified Electrical Toolset into our gun, which by all standards should be looking something like a swiss armyknife by now with bits and pieces sticking out everywhere. However - due to the miracle that is nanobots, the shape of the gun somehow manages to stay the same.   + =   Solar-Powered Mechanic Pistol This gun is built from the ordinary solar-powered gun that is handed out to many of the new citizens arriving at Rubi-Ka. Our very own Mechanic Pistol! Isn't it a wonderful feeling? As with the other versions, this too is a levelling item that goes from QL100 to QL139 and will require weaponsmithing skills to upgrade it. The effects from the Modified Electrical Toolset is also more apparen't here as the gun will now add a slight bit to your Electrical Engineering skills.   Solar-Powered Mechanic Pistol QL139       Attack time 1.7 s Recharge time 1.2 s Range 15m Clip n/a Damage 56-220 (228) Fire AC Requirements Pistol 654 Multi ranged 556 Effects Max Health +70 Tutoring +25 Mechanical Engineering +13 Electrical Engineering +13 Max Nano +153   Time to get jiggy with the next step! There's no slowing down now. Well. There is slowing down obviously since the items we'll need become more rare but you know what we mean. Hell would freeze over before we get stopped now! (Is that a snowflake over there?) Solar-Powered Machinist Pistol Time for another trip to the shop! What we need this time around is another Hacker Tool as well as two Field Quantum Phystics All-Purpose Tools. We'll also need a Notum Threaded Zodiacal Blanket, but more about that in a little while.     Field Quantum Physics All-Purpose Tool - Two of these     Notum Threaded Zodiacal Blanket       Hacker Tool           You'll find the Hacker Tool in the Tools or Devices booth and the QFT Tool in the General Tools booth. Be sure to get QFT Tools that are at least QL140. As for the Zodiacal blanket, which is the iffy part, you'll need to get it from Medusas, since these are the ones that drop them. You can either hope to get some Medusas in your next mission, albeit the chances are slim, or you can opt to go hunting. Personally we vote for the latter, since trying to get enough medusas crammed into a mission can get rather tedious. There are excellent places to hunt Medusas in Eastern Foul Plains in the northern part and Deep Artery Valley at the far east portion of the zone. Medusas will aggro you on sight if you are atrox or male, however, females may roam there freely, so put on your best pokerface and head out there. And no - just simply wearing a dress wont work, as Twicer found out.. The first thing we need to do is to hack our Field Quantum Physics Tool with our Hacker Tool, providing us with a Hacked Field Quantum Physics Tool.   + =   Hacked Field Quantum Physics Tool This is a hacked Field Quantum Physics All-Purpose Tool. It is no longer operational. The next step results in a NODROP item, so be sure that you have a Notum Threaded Blanket ready as well if you're letting someone else do this for you. Now we'll need our other QFT Tool (you did get two didnt you?) and use it on the one we have already hacked, producing an Unstable Space Reduction Chamber. This chamber is going to be storing our zodiacal blanket shortly.   + =   Unstable Space reduction Chamber This is a tiny space reduction chamber. If it hadn't been so unstable it could perhaps have been used to store medium sized objects. With our Unstable Space Reduction Chamber all ready for some action, all we need to do is to tuck in the Zodiacal blanket in there And we'll end up with a nifty little item all by itself, called the Notum Threaded Backpack. We'll have a guide up on this as soon as the icon in the game is fixed and rework this guide to a shorter one referring to the Notum Threaded Backpack guide but for now, we wont get into the details of the Backpack itself.   + =   Notum Threaded Backpack This backpack contains a tiny space reduction chamber, kept stable by the notum threads in the fabric. Last but not least, we need to combine the Notum Threaded Backpack with the pistol in order to create the Solar-Powered Machinist Pistol.   + =   Solar-Powered Machinist Pistol This gun is built from the ordinary solar-powered gun that is handed out to many of the new citizens arriving at Rubi-Ka. Our newbie pistol most certainly isn't very newbie anymore... The Machinist pistol levelling range is up to QL179 and adds a fair bit to your Quantum Physics skill.   Solar-Powered Machinist Pistol QL179       Attack time 1.7 s Recharge time 1.2 s Range 15m Clip n/a Damage 56-280 (288) Fire AC Requirements Pistol 843 Multi ranged 716 Effects Max Health +90 Tutoring +32 Mechanical Engineering +16 Electrical Engineering +16 Quantum Field Tech +16 Max Nano +197   The bonuses are now starting to gather up quite nicely and its time for the next upgrade that'll make us the Solar-Powered Engineer Pistol. Solar-Powered Engineer Pistol Oddly enough you wont need to visit the shops for this step (yay!) however you will need to do a fair bit of hunting (argh!) and you'll be bumping into some old friends of ours most likely if you have a Virral Triumvirate Egg.     Experimental Nanobot Classifying Computer     Mist Filled Jar   While you can find the Mist-filled Jar in missions as slightly rare loot from chests, the Experimental Nanobot Classifying Computer might get rougher to find. While you might get lucky and find one of these in a high level mission, the easiest way to get hold of them is to go out and dismantle some Slayerdroids. Yes - thats right - Slayerdroids! Lovely shiny Slayerdroids! If you have no idea where to find Slayerdroids, we recommend that you read our guide to the Virral Triumvirate Egg since we point out a few places where you can find them - but hot tips are the Omni-Tek outpost near the Ferry in Pleasant Meadows and Lush Resort. If you're a clanner you might want to bring a calmer friend of yours since guards wont take kindly to your prescence there. Once you've obtained both these items, you'll need to pour the contents of the Mist-Filled Jar into the Experiemental Nanobot Classifying Computer (wear a mask, the fumes are poisonous) and you'll end up with an Energized Nanobot Transmitter.   + =   Energized Nanobot Transmitter This computer can only be used to apply energized nanobots to the small notum pieces fired by a Solar- Powered Machinist Pistol, to change the damage it inflicts - into energy damage. Once you've done this, its a simple step to slide the Energized Nanobot Transmitter into your existing Machinist Pistol and thusly upgrading it to the next step.   + =   Solar-Powered Engineer Pistol This gun is built from the ordinary solar-powered gun that is handed out to many of the new citizens arriving at Rubi-Ka. As far as tradeskills goes, this one is an epic one like noted before, but its almost done now. The Engineer pistol is able to level up to QL199 where it will stay taunting you until the next step, making it into a Master Engineer variant. By now it also adds a fair bit to Nanoprogramming as well.   Solar-Powered Engineer Pistol QL199       Attack time 1.7 s Recharge time 1.2 s Range 15m Clip n/a Damage 56-310 (318) Cold AC Requirements Pistol 936 Multi ranged 796 Effects Max Health +100 Tutoring +36 Mechanical Engineering +18 Electrical Engineering +18 Nanoprogramming +18 Quantum Field Tech +18 Max Nano +219   Now to the final step - the Master Engineer pistol. Drooling yet? Solar-Powered Master Engineer Pistol We'll need two items for this - an Accelerated NCU and a Crystalized Medusa Queen Hippocampus. Since we already have a guide up on how to make an Accelerated NCU, we recommend that you go read that one in order to get to know how to create that item.     Accelerated NCU     Crystalized Medusa Queen Hippocampus   As far as the Medusa Queen Hippocampus goes, it drops from the Hollow Island ringspawn event, so you will need quite the team for that one. More information about Hollow Island and the mobs there can be found at Faunlore's section about Guardians. What we need to do is to combine the Accelerated NCU with the Medusa Queen Hippocampus in order to create a Symbiotic NCU which we will use to further boost the strength of the pistol.   + =   Symbiotic NCU This weird NCU Memory is possibly best described as a kind of combination of nano- and biomech technology. Once this step is completed, the rest should be fairly simple and self-explanatory. Simply insert the Symbiotic NCU into the Solar-Powered Engineer Pistol and you'll upgrade it to the Master Engineer version.   + =   Solar-Powered Master Engineer Pistol This gun is built from the ordinary solar-powered gun that is handed out to many of the new citizens arriving at Rubi-Ka. This version is the final product, and its really quite a nifty item with a trucklload of bonuses as you can see below. The Master Engineer pistol not only adds some NCU and XP-modifying bonuses to its array of extras, but also adds a small boost to Mat metam, Matter Creation and TimeSpace skills as well as some small boosts to your AC values.   Solar-Powered Master Engineer Pistol QL200       Attack time 1.7 s Recharge time 1.2 s Range 15m Clip n/a Damage 120-420 (320) Radiation AC Requirements Pistol 1000 Multi ranged 800 Title Level 6 Effects Max Health +100 Tutoring +36 Mechanical Engineering +24 Electrical Engineering +24 Nanoprogramming +24 Quantum Field Tech +24 Max Nano +220 XP Modifier +2% Mat Metam +4 Matter Creation +4 Time & Space +4 Energy AC 150 Melee AC 150 Poison AC 150 Chemical AC 150   Once you've gotten this far in tradeskilling, there's no stopping you. You've been through most of what tradeskills have to offer and should be adept at combining a lot of different items, such as the Notum Threaded Backpack, the Accelerated NCU, the Mechanical Analyzer to name a few. You're now no longer looking into the eyes of other tradeskillers as "combine plz" but rather as a peer *dramatic music* so cue the choir and let loose the drumrolls and enjoy that pistol of yours because its definitely one bugger of a gun to obtain! Last updated 16.July 2003 Contributors Caprici, Atlantean See what others have said about this article, or post your own comments regarding this in our forums.