Skip to main content

How to upgrade weapons in Saints Row

If you’re looking to survive the mean streets of Santo Ileso, you’re going to need to upgrade your guns. Saints Row gives you a few different options when it comes to customizing your weapons, and you'll want to make use of everything it has to offer.

Difficulty

Easy

Duration

15 minutes

What You Need

  • Saints Row

Here’s a closer look at upgrading your weapons in Saints Row, along with how to customize their look and unlock special abilities.

A player navigating the weapon upgrade menu at Friendly Fire.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

How to upgrade your weapons in Saints Row

Saints Row can become surprisingly difficult if you’re not upgrading your weapons. Upgrade tiers are unlocked every five levels, with each upgrade bringing more firepower to the battlefield (and costing more money). Here are the three upgrade tiers and their associated costs.

  • Tier 1 (Level 5): costs $5,000 per weapon
  • Tier 2 (Level 10): costs $25,000 per weapon
  • Tier 3 (Level 15): costs $100,000 per weapon

Note that these upgrades are per weapon – if you want every weapon in your arsenal to be Tier 3, you’ll be spending well over a million bucks.

Once you’ve got the funds and have reached the appropriate level, head over to your local Friendly Fire store to start the upgrade process.

Step 1: Head to Friendly Fire. These can be easily spotted on the map by looking for an icon with a gun in the center.

Step 2: Enter Friendly Fire and talk with the cashier.

Step 3: Select the weapon you’d like to upgrade. At the bottom right of your screen, you’ll see the stats that’ll increase when upgrading to the next tier.

Step 4: Click the Upgrade button to confirm your purchase.

Unlock a weapon’s Signature Ability in Saints Row

Beyond improving the stats of each weapon, you can unlock a Signature Ability. These are unique skills that change how a firearm functions in combat. Some abilities might push targets back upon impact, and others might replenish your ammo. Unlocking and using Signature Abilities is key to staying ahead of the competition and surviving end-game firefights.

Step 1: To unlock a Signature Ability, you’ll need to complete an associated challenge. Challenges vary from weapon to weapon (such as getting kills while riding on the roof of a car or killing enemies from behind). These tasks can be found when selecting the weapon at Friendly Fire or when equipping your weapons using the radial Weapon Menu.

Step 2: Once you’ve completed the corresponding mission, the Signature Ability will be unlocked for your weapon. Simply head over to Friendly Fire, and you’ll have the option to enable or disable the effect.

A player changing their gun color at Friendly Fire in Saints Row.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

How to customize weapons in Saints Row

Upgrading weapon tiers and unlocking Signature Abilities will improve your combat prowess – but they won’t make you look good on the battlefield. For that, you’ll need to customize your weapons.

Step 1: Once again, head back to Friendly Fire.

Step 2: Select the weapon you want to modify, then select the Customize option.

Step 3: From here, you’ll have access to a wide variety of cosmetics. You can change the color of components, equip a pattern to your weapon, change the gloss of your gun, and more.

Editors' Recommendations

Jon Bitner
Jon Bitner is a writer covering consumer electronics, technology, and gaming. His work has been published on various websites…
How to upgrade potions in Final Fantasy 16
Final Fantasy XVI Camp

Potions are the default healing items in nearly every RPG. These mysterious tonics usually are the weaker of the healing items and are eventually replaced with stronger ones like Hi Potions, but while Final Fantasy 16 does have Potions, Hi Potions, and even Elixers, you will rely on the most basic version most of the time. As you level up and get stronger, they will start to feel less and less effective, even if you've upgraded your carrying capacity. Rather than spending more money to stock up on more expensive healing items, you can make your Potions heal for more. Here's how you can upgrade all your Potions and tonics in Final Fantasy 16.

Read more
Payday 3 plays great, but that’s not the biggest challenge this shooter faces
Four players fight in Payday 3.

When Payday 3 launches this September, it’ll have been over a decade since the release of its predecessor. A follow-up to one of the most popular games on Steam, Payday 3 looks to update the cooperative heist experience by deepening the interactions players can have before and after the cops arrive with character and weapon customization, as well as a new story. I went hands-on with Payday 3 following its gameplay reveal at the Xbox Games Showcase and found it executed solidly on all those fronts.

PAYDAY 3: Gameplay Trailer

Read more
How to repair weapons in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Rock Octorok in Tears of the Kingdom.

Weapon durability can be tough to deal with in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. However, there's a little trick you can do to actually fix your weapons, shields, and bows -- and it's relatively easy to perform. In this guide, we'll show you how to repair weapons in Tears of the Kingdom with one easy trick.
How to repair weapons

If you played The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, you might know where this is going. What you need to do is visit a Rock Octorok, which can be found around Hyrule. Specifically, this enemy can be found just northeast of Goron City in the spot on the map above. This Octorok spawns here consistently, so it's an easy method to get the trick to work.

Read more