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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.

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.

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.

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Jon Bitner
Jon Bitner is a freelance journalist whose gaming addiction began with the SEGA Genesis. His work has been published on…
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