Devil's advocate: If the crafting-enhanced item becomes an amalgam of chrome and plastic, then replacing it with something sturdier could take more resources. What you put there initially may have to be completely discarded, and what you replace it with may be more expensive, harder to manufacture (electronics vs a hinge), or harder to use. Considering the junk which can be broken down into components (playing cards, stress ball, perfume, stapler) it's surprising that anything more complicated than a bat can be upgraded between fights, let alone an electric rifle for example. V is a super-MacGyver.

Player's advocate: yes, it can be annoying to need to find or craft a new base item because the "already upgraded" counter gets too high on your favorite gear. Especially before the "Waste Not Want Not" perk unlocks to recover thoroughly embedded mods.

Actually, Genjiroh is much better than Skippy stat-wise. Also Electrical damage, but with higher magazine capacity and base damage. Also higher rate of fire and slightly higher Critical Chance.

Only thing Skippy has going for him (yes, "him" and not "it", if you have read the books ^^) is the auto-targeting (no need for Smart Link cyberware) and the quirky attitude with the verbal responses.

I wonder if spawning a bunch of him will eventually give me a version with Electrical damage again. Just a pity CyberCat doesn't work at all right now (and likely won't be made working with patch 1.5), as all the Skippy's come with a quest tag.

At least he does for me, since I have progressed as far as to deliver him to Regina - which is a really odd way to do it, since he has his own spot in the gun gallery in V's apartments... And now I cannot even put him on the shelf because of the quest tag.

As for the resources, I just gave myself 300.000 of each before patching again (made a backup to check things, and reverted afterwards), once I learned the updated state of Skippy.

I have not read the books, and I am now afraid to. If somebody embedded a full GAI (or, Dog forbid, an actual brain download) into a bleeding pistol, I will set their testicles on fire the moment I meet them. And if they don't have testicles I am going to grow them a pair, then set them on fire.

That said, I did mentioned that Skippy's only good feature was the ability to keep up with V as s/he leveled up. Now that that is gone, nobody is going to use Skippy, and they'll finish the quest the intended way.

Silver linings, right?


Sigh.


BTW, I believe thaere are mods to remove the quest tag from equipped items.

Skippy certainly isn't useful anymore as a (reliable) combat weapon, that's true.
As for the silver(hand) lining, we at least get €eddies when we deliver him to Regina.

Gotta look into the mod. I gave myself Silverhand's gun through CyberEngine as a test, and it too comes with a quest tag.
CyberCat did all this so smoothly, with a simple to use GUI and a lot of useful features (like removing pointless vehicles with a simple check box system) and a named list of the inventory for removal of duplicate items and cyberware.

It offered a dead-simple way of adding component resources and €ddies as well. CyberEngine does this as well, but not nearly as intuitive. CyberCat could edit quest facts too, with the click of a button (like a grumpy Skippy or rude Fingers). And it could manually add stats to a weapon - 1000 Damage Defender, or 63.000 DPS Crusher? No problem, CyberCat had you covered.

I can recommend the books btw., if you're into Sci-Fi. It's a 13-book series (plus spin-offs) called "Expeditionary Force" by Craig Alanson.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07F7T8NPK?binding=paperback&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tpbk
Unlike George R.R. Martin and his Take a Crap on All The Thrones-series (yes, I saw all of the series, and I don't care who's to blame for the failure that was the last 2 episodes), Craig actually finishes things.

EDIT:
Good news!

Weapons, like Skippy, added through CyberEngineTweaks can now be disassembled! You'll get a warning before it's gone too. And Skippy appears satisfied with my service as well, even though I just delivered him to Regina (and gave myself another one through the console). He's just humming along. <3

This is a golden lining for sure! ^^
Quick, to the bat cave! And stuff him on the wall!

I meant to check this while I was at it, but I forgot about it. Did a quick google check to see where I buy the different ones, and the description says the following on the various types:

The Blue Gorilla Arms (Rare) provide a bonus of 2 to the Body Attribute checks.
The Purple Gorilla Arms (Epic) provide a bonus of 4 to the Body Attribute checks.
.

So it's documented. That's great. Less guessing.

I haven't tested the numbers though, but I think we can trust them (finally).

But now I need to check the Microgenerators again.

I'm past this point in the game now, but with regard to the Microgenerators (sends out a shockwave dealing 40 % of target HP when V's health goes down to 15 %), I could not get past Buck (one of the Beat on The Brat missions), because the moment he hit me and the Microgenerator triggered, he died instantly.

Both the Rare, Epic and Legendary ones said "deals 40 % of target HP when you go down to 15 % HP". And regardless of how much remaining HP Buck had, he died on the spot using the Legendary one. Which is not supposed to happen to Buck specifically, as there is a "round 2" when he refuses to pay up what he bet on the fight.

So I had to go to a ripper and have him tear out a lot of the gear I had specifically for the Beat on The Brat missions, basically handicapping myself in the fights, because I couldn't trust the gear to not bug the mission permanently.
If I "killed" him (which would happen if I took a single hit from him), I was locked inside the ring with him, waiting for a conversation that would never happen and I couldn't progress or get anywhere. This was on patch 1.31.

Rather regret not taking on Razor Hughes now, the final brat boss, while the game was on 1.31 and the gear was busted. Buck is the only part of that quest series that would have this issue.

I suspect it would be a case of 40 % damage for the Rare, 50 % damage for the Epic and 60 % damage for the Legendary Microgenerator, but the description (in patch 1.31) said 40 % on all of them. I don't know what it says now.

EDIT:
For the Microgenerators, the description is now:
Uncommon (Green): [...] Deals damage equal to 30 % of the target enemy's max Health.
Epic (Purple): [...] Deals damage equal to 40 % of the target enemy's max Health.
Legendary (Orange): [...] Deals damage equal to 50 % of the target enemy's max Health.

I don't have the others on hand (since we can sell cyberware now, I got rid of a bunch for less clutter), but I think the Microgenerator goes down all the way to Common (White).

Just a final confirmation that the description for the Gorilla Arms matches the numbers.
Found a Body 20 door. Was labeled in red saying "Body 18 / 20. Locked."

With Body 12 and +6 through the legendary Gorilla Arns, this has got to be the first time ever in this game that I actually trust the numbers. ^^

That was some pretty good investigating. So at least with Gorilla Arms we can trust the numbers. But that Microgenerator seems to be a problem. Oh well, at least the direction is to the better.