Space is huge and there is a lot of downtime while you are in hyperspace between planets. Most of us like to spend this time productively by souping up our gear and optimizing it. Of course, there is always the danger that you’ll go too far in sharpening your Vibraknife and it will just snap.

The upgrade portion of the campaign turn gives everybody a chance to attempt to upgrade a module or piece of personal equipment.

To upgrade a module, you need to be in it (although you need not be at a Battlestation).

Make an Engineering Skill check vs. 11. If successful, the module will perform at its upgraded level. Failure breaks the module.

Upgraded Life Support Modules support 5 crew instead of 4. All other modules reduce the difficulty of Battlestation actions in that module by 1.

To upgrade a piece of personal equipment, you must be adjacent to it or have it in hand. Make a Science Skill check vs. 11. If successful, the item functions at the upgraded level. Failure destroys the item.

Upgraded items generally give a bonus of reducing the skill check needed to use them by one. Items that don’t require a skill check to use reduce their mass in half when upgraded. Exceptions are noted in the item descriptions on pages 74 to 99.

A character with a special ability allowing them to perform multiple upgrades must be adjacent to any personal equipment or bots they are upgrading and equidistant between modules they are upgrading. If there are multiple equidistant squares, they may choose between them.

A module loses its upgrade if it becomes slagged (has two damage markers on it).

Upgraded Personal Equipment keeps its upgrade until it is destroyed (doubly broken).