This page covers two different methods by which equipment can be modified, as described on page 37 of the Scum and Villainy SWSE rulebook and in the Starships of the Galaxy rulebook. It is possible for an item to be modified by both of these methods in combination.
Equipment can by modified by installing upgrades into the item's empty upgrade slots. See Equipment Upgrades for the full list of possible modifications.
Devices, weapons, and light armor typically have 1 free upgrade slot by default, medium armor has 2, and heavy armor has 3. A piece of equipment can gain more free upgrade slots by being "stripped", i.e. by having its functionality reduced in some way; see Equipment Stripping Methods for the full list of methods for gaining more upgrade slots.
The time, parts, and Mechanics checks needed for stripping or upgrading equipment is given in the table below:
| Procedure | Time | Parts | Mechanics Check | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stripping Equipment | 8 hours | item's base price / 2 | DC 20 | |
| Installing Upgrade | 0 Upgrade Points | 10 minutes | — | DC 10 |
| 1 Upgrade Point | 1 hour | — | DC 20 | |
| 2 Upgrade Points | 8 hours | — | DC 30 | |
| Removing Upgrade | 0 Upgrade Points | 1 minute | — | DC 5 |
| 1 Upgrade Point | 10 minutes | — | DC 15 | |
| 2 Upgrade Points | 1 hour | — | DC 25 | |
All Mechanics checks listed above can only be made by characters trained in the Mechanics skill, and it is possible to take 10 or take 20 on the check. On a failed check, half the required time and parts are wasted.
The rules for installing upgrades into cybernetic prostheses generally follows the same process as given above. See Cybernetic Prosthesis Upgrades for details.
Unlike with equipment and vehicles, droids do not have any hard limit on how many upgrades they can accommodate. The only limiting factors for droids are the cost of upgrades and the encumbrance due to the weight of additional systems. See Droid Systems and Accessories for a full listing of possible upgrades.
The time and skill checks needed for installing, replacing, or removing systems and accessories is given in the table below:
| System Type | Time | Skill Check(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Locomotion | 1 day | DC 25 Mechanics |
| Processor | 1 day | DC 20 Mechanics and DC 20 Use Computer |
| Appendage | 1 hour | DC 20 Mechanics |
| Accessory | 1 hour | DC 15 Mechanics |
| Mounted Tool/Weapon/Instrument | 10 minutes | DC 15 Mechanics |
Droids can modify their own systems, but take a -5 penalty on the Mechanics check to do so. Droids cannot modify their own processors.
The Mechanics check DC increases by 5 when installing a weapon on a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 5th-degree droid.
Droids can also have their trained skills, feats, and talents reassigned. Reprogramming in this way requires 30 minutes of work, a Use Computer check (DC = [droid's Will] for skills, or DC = [droid's Will] + 5 for talents), and (if the programmer does not have the skill, feat, or talent in question themselves) the required droid data package (100 credits for a skill package, or 1000 credits for a feat or talent package). Droids can reprogram themselves, but at a -5 penalty.
Vehicles smaller than starships don't have standardized rules for installing upgrades, and may be treated either as devices or as starships depending on which seems to make the most sense for the vehicle and upgrade in question.
For starships, every ship comes with a specified number of unused emplacement points which can be used for installing new systems (as described in the Starship Modifications section of the Houserules page). See Starship Emplacements and Starship Weapons for the full lists of possible upgrades.
The time, credits, and/or Mechanics checks needed for installing or removing emplacements (either by hand or at a repair shop) is given in the table below, where "EP" is the number of emplacement points used by the emplacement in question:
| Procedure | Time (in hours) | Credits | Mechanics Check | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emplacement Installation | By Hand | EP x cost modifier x 10 / workers | — | DC [20 + EP] |
| Shop | EP x cost modifier x 5 | EP x cost modifier x 200 | — | |
| Emplacement Removal | By Hand | EP x cost modifier / workers | — | DC 10 |
| Shop | EP x cost modifier / 2 | EP x cost modifier x 20 | — | |
The second method for modifying equipment uses the feats in the Tech Specialist tree (Tech Specialist, Signature Device, Hasty Modification, Superior Tech, and Starship Designer). See Tech Specialist Modifications for the list of possible modifications that can be made to devices, weapons, armor, droids, and vehicles.
For all modifications using feats from the Tech Specialist tree, the amount of parts needed is reduced by 5% for every point by which the Mechanics check succeeds. Thus, a result of 40 when using the Tech Specialist feat would mean that no parts are needed for the modification.
It is possible to take 10 on the Mechanics checks, but not to take 20. On a failed check, half of the time and parts used are wasted, but each successive attempt has a cumulative +2 bonus to the Mechanics check.
The templates listed in the Equipment Templates page are not modifications per se; instead they represent variants of common weapons and armors that are distinguished by their origin or manufactured characteristics (e.g. a "Bothan blaster pistol" or "prototype battle armor"). These templates and the equipment modifiers that come with them cannot be installed in existing items; rather, new items being bought or encountered in a campaign might come in the form of one of these templates, with the associated stat modifications already applied.