Wasteland 3: How to Unlock Recipes and Craft with Scrap

Open the crafting menu from inventory

The released 1.4.0 update adds crafting for mods, weapons, gear and mystery items through the inventory screen. The earlier feature preview supplies the detailed recipe rules below; the release confirms that the system shipped. [1]

There is no separate Crafting skill to raise. A recipe and its components are the stated prerequisites. [2]

Steps

1. Open inventory and use its crafting menu. [1]

Inspect recipe unlocks before spending a skill point

Some basic recipes unlock automatically as character skills increase. First Aid is the developer’s example for Med Hypos and Medic Packs. The skill interface shows what the next point unlocks, while some skills have no associated recipes. Inspect the next-point preview before investing only for a recipe. [2]

The preview and skill exception are explicit. [2]

Steps

1. Check the next skill point’s recipe preview, then raise the relevant skill when it unlocks a recipe you need. [2]

Buy recipes or search containers and safes

Vendors sell recipes for standard equipment such as higher-end mods and grenades. Containers and safes can also hold recipes; exotic and unique gear is found across Colorado. This is an additional acquisition route, so skill progression alone is not the complete catalogue. [2]

Steps

1. Inspect vendor stock and search containers or safes for recipes beyond the basic skill unlocks. [2]

Use the notification for a mystery ingredient recipe

Picking up a strange or special ingredient can reveal an unknown recipe. Its notification lists the other required components, but the finished item remains unknown until all ingredients are combined. Follow that ingredient list when pursuing a mystery recipe; its unknown result is part of the documented system. [2]

Collect scrap and keep useful former junk

Scrap is the main crafting component. The preview names enemy corpses, containers and field-stripping unwanted weapons as its principal sources. Other components mostly come from bodies and containers too. Some items previously treated as junk gain a crafting use, so inspect requirements before selling the needed pieces. [2]

Additional components have their own collection requirements. [2]

Account for recipe discovery limits in an existing save

Players near the end may need to buy previously sold ingredients back from vendors. The preview warns that already-opened crates and already-contacted NPCs are tapped and will not gain the newly added recipes. That limits what an older playthrough can discover even though the crafting feature itself is available. [2]