Using the Workbench
The Workbench gives you the invaluable ability to craft new ammo, health and recovery items, as well as upgrade your weapons.
Crafting
Here’s where you spend all of those Component pickups you’ve been gathering as you move through Union. Workbench crafting lets you fashion ammo for every weapon in your Arsenal, including bolts for your Warden Crossbow. You can also create Medical Syringes and Kits from the healing Herbs you’ve collected. Crafting can be critical for success; it’s hard to find enough ammo and health items to survive without making some of your own.
Weapon Upgrade
The weapons you find as you progress through Union start out a bit underpowered, and become more so as you encounter tougher enemies later. But you can remedy that at any Workbench by using all the Weapon Parts you find to boost the capability of your guns and crossbow. You can upgrade each weapon’s Firepower, Ammo Capacity (how many bullets in the clip before you have to reload), Fire Rate, and Reload Time up to a certain level with just Weapon Parts. But then you need High-Grade Weapon Parts to unlock higher level enhancements.
We recommend that you focus on boosting your Handgun’s Firepower up through Level 2 first, so that you can take out the ubiquitous Lost foes with just a couple of headshots. Gaining the Critical 1 upgrade helps a lot too, giving you a 30 percent chance to kill a Lost with a single headshot. Your Handgun fires fast enough that you can focus on raising its Ammo Capacity next, then Reload Time, saving Fire Rate upgrades for last.
As soon as you acquire the Sawed-Off Shotgun, start again by boosting its Firepower. But upgrading its Fire Rate can be very helpful when facing multiple enemies, so consider doing that next, before raising its Ammo Capacity.
Your Sniper Rifle starts out with enough punch to kill most low to mid-level foes with a single headshot, so weapon upgrades are not quite as important for this gun. More useful are the Combat skill upgrades that steady your hands for less sway when targeting through your scope.
Field Crafting
Your Arsenal Menu includes a Field Crafting option, which gives you full access to all Crafting menus; you can replenish your ammo even in the heat of battle, without going to a Workbench. However, the Component cost of field-crafting is much more expensive than at a Workbench. Use this option only in an emergency where you can’t make it to a Workbench but desperately need more ammo or health items.
