Crafting in Atomic Heart Explained

After a long period of delays, Atomic Heart is finally here, with developer Mundfish looking to deliver a unique take on history where synthetics take over the USSR. You assume the role of Major P-3 who finds himself in the thick of the conflict, and you’ll need to bust out every trick possible to survive, which conveniently involves crafting weapons and upgrades. Here’s everything you need to know about crafting in Atomic Heart.

How to Craft in Atomic Heart

Crafting in Atomic Heart is simple, as you’ll need to gather resources from looting fallen foes or through world exploration. Once you have amassed enough resources, you’ll take them to the raunchy red vending machine, Nora. You’ll find Nora in “Breakrooms,” which are the places that hold save points, but you can occasionally find the machine outside of those spaces for story purposes.

Crafting in Atomic Heart

When you’re ready to start crafting, head up to Nora and interact with it to open up a dialogue track. Selecting the first option will allow you to upgrade your arsenal, while the second allows you to upgrade your skills.

Starting with the easy part, upgrading your skills requires you to gain Polymer. This material is earned by defeating foes, which will let you spend Polymer at Nora for skills and augments to improve your skills. Each crafted upgrade can be refunded with no limitations, so it’d be wise to experiment with different skills and upgrades to discover new ways of taking down your foes.

Aside from skills, most of your crafting will focus on your arsenal, which is broken down into four different subcategories: weapons, consumables, ammo, and cartridge guns. As the category implies, weapons let you craft a weapon provided you have the complete blueprint to make it, which is found through world exploration. Consumables range from healing to energy providers, ammo crafts bullets for your weapons, and cartridge guns are specialized ammo such as fire rounds.

As mentioned, you gain resources to craft from defeating various foes in the field and through looting. Seven materials power the crafting economy, with certain foes increasing your chance of finding said material. While there isn’t an in-game option to pin a particular item you’re looking for, scanning foes with P-3’s glove reveals what a foe will drop when you defeat them. The materials are:

• Metal Parts
• Synthetic Material
• Biomaterials
• Superconductor
• Chemistry
• Microelectrics
• Energy Module
• Neuromodule

Whenever you’re at Nora, you’ll notice a resource counter at the top right indicating how many materials you have. When you want to craft a weapon, a blue font will say “Sufficient Resources,” indicating you can craft a weapon of choice. Conversely, it won’t indicate that you can craft upgrades, so you’ll have to navigate over to the Upgrade tab to discover if you have the resources needed.

With that, that’s everything you need to know about crafting in Atomic Heart, and you are now a certified craftsman. Check out our related section below for more tips and tricks to help you survive the robot apocalypse.