Starfield: Best weapon mods, ranked

Weapon modifications, or simply weapon mods, in Starfield, allow you to customize the weapon of your choice by adding or removing specific traits to your liking. 

These traits can be anything from bonus damage to additional effects on attack. Depending on how you mod your weapon, you can turn it into a specialized killing machine or a multipurpose monster, it all depends on your creativity. 

Here are our picks of the best weapon mods in Starfield.

Best weapon mods in Starfield

Weapon mods in Starfield revolve around damage, defense, and utility. However, the best weapon mods that stand out over the others involve a healthy mix of all three. There are several different weapon mods to choose from, but only a few of them actually stand the test of time when the late game and post-level 50 come around.

So to make it easier to choose, we have ranked the top 10 weapon mods in ascending order of their usefulness in battle.

10) Med Theft

Med Theft allows you to gain a Med Pack when you kill an enemy. While this might sound great on paper, there are a few conditions here. First, the slain enemy has to be human, and in a game where you will be fighting robots and alien creatures, always finding humans can be difficult.

Secondly, Med Theft is a chance-based modifier, which means that even if you kill the appropriate human enemies, there is a chance you might not get your Med Packs. This means that if you’re unlucky, you might need to kill several human enemies just for a glimpse of a Med Pack.

Because of these reasons, this mod makes it to the bottom of our list. Inconsistency breeds unreliability, and this is exactly what Med Theft does. However, when it works well, the mod ensures you will never run out of Med Packs in prolonged encounters.

9) Space Adept

Space Adept allows your weapon to deal bonus damage when fighting enemies in space. In a game that revolves around space exploration and battle, this mod might seem like a no-brainer, but as before, there are conditions attached to this bonus. While the damage is great, it’s not always reliable.

The first condition is that this bonus only applies when fighting in space, which usually means fights in space stations. These instances are considerably rarer compared to battles on planets, where this damage bonus doesn’t apply at all. It is quite the opposite.

Which brings us to our second condition. The damage bonus is reversed when you are fighting on planets. Not only does this effect make the mod weaker, but also highly situational. In most cases, you will need to swap out weapons depending on where you fight, which is not always ideal.

8) Incendiary/Lacerate

Incendiary and Lacerate fall under the same entry because both cause similar effects. Both of these effects cause damage over time when you hit an enemy with your rounds. The only difference between them is that Incendiary deals fire damage over time while Lacerate bleeds them out.

Damage over time effects can be strong when you’re fighting tankier enemies with a lot of health or armor. While there are better mods down this list that deal with armor early in the game, having damage over time can be a godsend if you run into powerful enemies.

In the end, it comes down to a matter of preference. If you prefer slowly burning out enemies, go for Incendiary. It is considerably better against inorganic enemies like robots since they can’t bleed out. Against humans and aliens, Lacerate would generally be a better choice, so it is up to you.

7) Anti-Personnel/Disassembler/Exterminator

Once again, these three mods pretty much do the same thing, depending on the type of enemy you’re fighting. Anti-Personnel deals bonus damage to human enemies, Disassembler deals bonus damage to robots and inorganic targets, and Exterminator deals bonus damage to non-human alien targets.

Since each of these mods turns your weapon into a specialization, we recommend using three different weapons to make the most of them. Depending on your playstyle, you can mod close combat or ranged weapons with any of these three to take down their appropriate enemy type.

This mod can be combined with the next mod on the list to make quick work of the appropriate type of enemy in the early-mid stages of the game.

6) Extended Magazine

Extended Magazine grants you increased magazine capacity on the weapon you mod it with. Since it doubles the magazine capacity of any weapon, it can be amazing on certain rifles with a high rate of fire because you won’t need to reload as often. You will always be prepared for a long fight.

With how easy it is to find or buy ammo around the settled systems, this weapon mod is always useful. Not having to reload as often as you normally would gives you enough time to finish off an enemy before finding cover to reset for round two.

This means the time you spend not killing enemies is reduced by half, making this a very efficient mod in combination with others down this list.

5) Rapid

Speaking of combining with other mods, Extended Magazine synergizes amazingly well with Rapid. This weapon mod allows you to deal increased damage by improving the rate of fire of the weapon it is equppied on. Rapid makes slower weapons faster, and faster weapons shred enemies in no time.

While this mod stands out on its own, it shines combined with different mods. Incendiary and Lacerate will proc much more often on targets while Anti-Personnel, Disassembler, and Exterminator will hit even harder with a rapid rate of fire.

Rapid works best with weapons that have a lot of ammo. This means rapid-fire rifles that burn through your ammo quickly will be significantly boosted by Rapid, which is why we recommend combining it with Extended Magazine. Feel free to experiment with various mods to make your own combinations.

4) Skip Shot

Skip Shot is a powerful DPS increase mod to have on any weapon. It allows you to fire a fifth shot in rapid succession after every four shots you fire. This can be great for pistols and shotguns in close quarters but is even better for rapid-firing rifle weapons.

Firing a fifth shot automatically after four shots boosts your damage output by 25 percent. When used on a rifle, you’re basically firing faster and more than your magazine normally allows, making short work of your enemies in no time. Since this applies to all types of enemies, there are no limits here.

Skip Shot is mostly combined with other DPS mods, but it can also synergize well with the top three mods still to come on this list.

3) Hitman

The final three mods on this list are great in conjunction with each other. Hitman essentially adds to the bonus damage that Anti-Personnel, Disassembler, and Exterminator provide you by granting you a flat bonus damage increase whenever you use the sight on your weapon to aim.

And yes, this mod fully stacks with the other damage-increase mods, making it great for a specialty weapon. The damage boost also stacks with any other kind of damage mod, making Skip Shot and Rapid a lethal trifecta if you find a perfect weapon to mod it all together with.

However, you might want to keep your mod slots open because the rest of the mods on this list synergize even better with Hitman, propelling your damage output even further in the late game.

2) Shattering

Shattering is another great mod that goes well with Hitman. If you have a weapon that dishes out heavy damage, but the enemy has layers of heavy armor, what do you do? That’s where Shattering comes in because this mod allows you to pierce through enemy armor with each shot of your weapon.

While the other top mods on this list sync well with rapid-fire weapons, Shattering usually works better with slower, harder-hitting weapons. While the mod still performs great on faster-firing weapons, the armor-piercing aspect packs a bigger punch on a heavy pistol or perhaps even a shotgun.

However, if you want to really mix things up, you can combine Shattering with damage over time effects or even Rapid and Skip Shot. As great as the mod is, we feel the final one on our list performs better in most situations.

1) Instigating

Instigating comes at the top of our list because of its utility potential in many different situations. This mod is best equipped on shotguns, pistols, and especially snipers, as itallows your weapon to deal double damage on the first shot you fire upon an enemy.

This makes high-powered weapons even more effective. Provided you deal enough damage per shot, Instigating will make that damage skyrocket on your first shot, killing most enemies. This effect is especially effective on non-armored enemies since you have the potential to one-shot them.

Combining this effect with mods like Hitman for additional damage and Shattering for armor pierce will take Instigating to the next level. Equip this and have fun decimating groups of enemies in no time.