Star Citizen Alpha 4.7 Crafting Guide: Item Fabrication
Alpha 4.7 marks a significant step forward in player agency, bringing hundreds of blueprints and the debut of item fabrication — the ability to craft custom FPS items with improved handling and performance determined by the quality of the materials you use. This is a system built to grow, designed to connect the efforts of every kind of player across every aspect of Star Citizen's gameplay.
Whether you're the miner collecting raw materials, the salvager hunting unique components, the refiner producing the highest-grade commodities, the hauler getting everything where it needs to go, or the mercenary tracking down the rarest blueprints — the crafting journey that begins in Alpha 4.7 is one of the most significant additions to the universe this year. Below is everything that's live now, and a detailed look at where the system is headed.
Resources and Quality
Crafting starts with resources gathered through vehicle and FPS mining. Every resource in the 'verse now carries a quality value between 0 and 1000, and that value is instrumental in determining the traits of any item crafted from it. Putting in the effort to source high-quality materials has a direct and measurable payoff, making the search itself a worthwhile endeavour.
While every resource in the game now has a quality value, only some feed into blueprints in Alpha 4.7. The intention is for every resource to make its way into the crafting loop in later iterations.
Blueprints to Collect and Craft
Blueprints are digital recipes for crafting — they tell you which resources are required and at what quality to produce a given item. A small collection is made available to every player automatically and can be accessed through the screen on any Item Fabricator, meaning there's nothing stopping you from getting started right away. The real adventure, though, lies in collecting the majority of blueprints out in the 'verse through mission contracts.
In Alpha 4.7, available blueprints focus on FPS weapons and armor, including many variants of base items you may already be familiar with. It's worth noting that blueprint requirements are subject to change in future patches as the system evolves to include additional game loops like refining, salvage, and research, and as newer blueprints are added.
Item Fabricator
The Item Fabricator is your crafting machine. It can be purchased from select shops in landing zones and space stations and, like all large inventory items, is retrieved and stored via the freight elevators. If you participated in the recent Lifeline for Levski event, you may already have one waiting for you.
It moves easily with a tractor beam and attaches to cargo grids, allowing it to be placed in certain ships for crafting on the go, and it serves as your primary interface for your blueprint library and the crafting process as a whole. Inside is a cargo grid for the input and output of resources and items — and when placed in your hangar, the unit also has direct access to your local inventory.
At present, there are two key functions of an Item Fabricator: Crafting and Dismantling.
Crafting
To craft an item, select a blueprint from the interface — those you've already collected are highlighted among the ones still waiting to be discovered. Once selected, you'll see the full list of required materials. Quality matters here, so it's worth being deliberate: manually assigning materials from your local inventory lets you control exactly what goes in, with the displayed item stats shifting up or down in real time based on your choices. If you'd rather let the system decide, the autofill function will handle material selection for you. Mixing qualities may result in an averaged quality value on the finished item.
Once your blueprint and materials are confirmed, the crafting job can begin. Crafting times vary depending on the size and quality of the item, and multiple jobs can be queued up to run in sequence. Completed jobs appear in the history log tab within the queue screen.
Crafting and dismantling each run on their own distinct queues, so multiple crafting and dismantle jobs can run simultaneously.
Dismantling
Dismantling converts items back into resources. In this first release, most FPS items — whether found in shops, looted in the field, or crafted by players — can be dismantled.
For items found as loot or purchased in shops, dismantling returns materials at their default quality values. For player-crafted items, dismantling returns materials at the same quality used in the original construction, but at a reduced quantity — some material is lost to the manufacturing and dismantling process itself.
The Future Of Crafting
Crafting will continue to grow and evolve through every subsequent release, connecting more and more aspects of life in the 'verse and giving players greater agency over their experience than ever before. What follows is a detailed — though not exhaustive — look at what's already in development.
GENERAL EXPANSION
The range of craftable items will expand significantly, including vehicle components and weapons, with base building eventually supporting the crafting of entire vehicles. All craftable items will receive additional stats to provide greater variety and customisation options. Catalysts will also be introduced — optional items that can be included in crafting jobs to unlock additional benefits. On the economy side, NPC shops will pay more for higher-quality materials. Crafted gear will begin appearing as loot on select NPCs and inside crates, and dismantling that loot will return appropriate quality values on the recovered materials. Player trading will support transactions of both quality materials and crafted items, and base building will bring additional support for player-operated stores and advertisements.
BLUEPRINT ACQUISITION
The ways to acquire blueprints will expand well beyond mission contracts. Physical datapads found in the 'verse will be able to grant blueprints — they're one-time use, but can be sold or gifted to other players before being activated. Blueprints will also become available as reputation rewards and can be purchased directly from NPC stores.
BLUEPRINT TIERS
Most craftable items will have Tiers 1 through 3, while vehicles expand up to Tier 5. Higher-tier items have access to increased stat ranges, but higher-tier blueprints also carry more complex requirements. Reaching a higher blueprint tier requires the completion of research tasks. Items can be upgraded from one tier to the next using a specialist upgrading blueprint, with those upgraded items gaining access to increased stat ranges. That said, it will always be more efficient to craft a higher-tier item from scratch than to upgrade the same item from Tier 1 all the way to its maximum.
INTERFACE
A dedicated blueprint library app is on the way, alongside new folder-style management for materials of the same type that exist at different quality levels. Players will also be able to split and merge resource containers within the inventory, with quality averaging out across any merged containers.
ITEM FUNCTIONALITY, DEGRADATION AND REPAIR
Without items degrading and needing to be replaced, the crafting economy loses much of its purpose — craft something once and you'd never need another. That's not the direction the system is heading.
Items will degrade with usage, and that degradation directly impacts their functionality. Repairs can restore some functionality, but every repair also reduces the item's maximum functionality ceiling. As functionality drops, malfunctions become more frequent. Items will also accumulate damage separately, and repairs can restore their integrity on that front as well. Critically, item recovery and claiming will not reset functionality — what's been worn down stays worn down. Pledge items are subject to the same degradation, repair, and maintenance cycle but will never become permanently unusable, and paths to fully restore functionality will be available.
PLEDGE GEAR AND CRAFTING
Any item obtained via pledge will be a Tier 1 quality item that will never degrade to zero. If a pledge item carries a unique livery, the owner will receive a cosmetic paint item that allows that livery to be applied to the same item going forward. Owning a pledge item does not grant the blueprint to craft it — that must still be earned in-game. Pledge items cannot be traded or dismantled.
CRAFTING VEHICLES
Dedicated in-vehicle crafting machines are in development, along with the ability to input and output both materials and items using vehicle cargo grids.
ADDITIONAL FABRICATOR TYPES
Three additional fabricator types are in development beyond the standard Item Fabricator. A Food Fabricator will handle the crafting of consumables like rations and water. A Medical Fabricator will cover med pens, medicine, and drugs. A Construction Fabricator — operating at hangar scale and tied to base building — will be used for crafting spaceships.
SALVAGE
Salvage is being integrated directly into the crafting supply chain. Construction materials will split into the specific refined components that vehicles are made from, and certain materials will be exclusive to this method. Salvaging alien ships, for example, will yield alien metals unavailable through any other means.
NEW REFINING SYSTEM
The current refining loop is being replaced with a new system built around alloys and composite materials. Rather than a simple one-to-one conversion — iron ore becoming iron — the new system produces a primary output alongside a secondary byproduct. Iron ore, for instance, becomes iron as the primary product and carbon as the secondary. The quality of the primary input determines the quality of the refined product, while the quality of the secondary determines how much of it is required in the process. Creature harvestables will also become usable inputs for creating new materials in a grounded and believable way, and select exotic materials will require unlockable blueprints to produce.
Source: RSI Comm-Link
Latest Articles
Secure purchases backed by experience and support.
The Impound is a secure store, not a marketplace. Every item comes from our own stock and is backed by our customer protection policy, fast delivery standards, and a support team made up of veteran Star Citizen players.
Most items are delivered in around 6 minutes, with standalone ships and vehicles usually delivered in under 30 minutes.
We have been serving the Star Citizen community for over 13 years, giving buyers confidence in our process, consistency, and long-term reputation.
Secure store
The Impound is not a marketplace. All items come directly from our own stock and are fully protected by our customer protection policy.
Extremely fast delivery
Our delivery is extremely fast, with an average of around 6 minutes for most items and under 30 minutes for standalone ships and vehicles.
Veteran support team
Our support team is made up of veteran Star Citizen players who understand the game, the buying process, and the details customers care about most.
Over 13 years
We have been on the market for more than 13 years, giving customers a stronger sense of trust, stability, and experience.
Helpful pages
Here are some useful guides and articles in case you want to learn more!