WHAT?

There are four types of fragments:

- Light Weapon Fragments: Needed for upgrading Shotguns and Assault Rifles.
- Heavy Weapon Fragments: Needed for upgrading Cannons and Sniper Rifles.
- Sidearm Fragments: Needed for upgrading Pistols, Sawed-Offs, Knifes and Swords.
- Tech Fragments: Needed for upgrading Launchers, Gremlins, Arc Throwers and Holotargeters.

There are also two types of upgrade components:

- Tier 2 Upgrade Components: Needed to upgrade any of the weapons from tier 1 to tier 2.
- Tier 3 Upgrade Components: Needed to upgrade any of the weapons from tier 2 to tier 3.

HOW MANY?

Every upgrade requires some number of fragments and upgrade components according to the previous post.

Light Primary Weapons:
--> tier 2:
- 2 Components, 20 Fragments
--> tier 3:
- 2 Components, 30 Fragments

Heavy Primary Weapons:
--> tier 2:
- 3 Components, 20 Fragments
--> tier 3:
- 3 Components, 30 Fragments

Secondary Weapons
--> tier 2:
- 1 Component, 10 Fragments
--> tier 3:
- 1 Component, 20 Fragments

Launcher
--> tier 2:
- 2 Components, 20 Fragments

These numbers can be adjusted in the XComGameData_WeaponData.ini in my mod folder in "Config" -> "Loot".

WHERE?

These are the ways to get the stuff:

- From enemies.

Most enemies can drop some sort of fragments and/or components with their body. As a rule of thumb, fragments come from ADVENT enemies while upgrade components come from aliens. This "rule" is broken often, though. For example, Captains have a chance for an upgrade component and Mutons can drop everything.

Note that this means that you won't get any of the stuff on missions where you also don't get to keep the corpses.

Also, if you kill the enemy with explosives, you get nothing.

- From dropped loot.

In addition to what drops with the corpse, many enemies also have chances to drop these new items in their timed loot.

- From the black market.

Each month, the market will have one stack of fragments and a few components for sale.

- From dismantling ADVENT weapons.

Flammenwerfers and SMGs dismantle into Light Weapon Fragments. Smartguns and Scoutrifles break down into Heavy Weapon Fragments. Additionally, tier 2 and tier 3 versions of those weapons also yield one of the upgrade components. This can be done in the research screen.

- From Elerium Cores

Upgrade Components can also be gained by letting Tygan tinker with an Elerium Core for a day.

Other random musings:

- It's fully intentional that heavy weapons are harder to upgrade than light weapons and that tech fragments are more rare than sidearm fragments.

- This change does not affect Spark Rifles (those were already changed to require MEC wrecks to upgrade) , psi amps (they are built individually and don't upgrade) or the weapons of faction soldiers (they don't use XCOM tech, they bring their own). I am still undecided on the Alien Hunter weapons. For now they are unchanged.

- If you are currently in the mid of your campaign, this change might put you into a position where you can't afford the next upgrade because you obviously weren't able to stockpile these new things yet. I suggest circumventing this issue by editing the XComGameData_WeaponsData.ini in "Config" -> "Loot" and reducing the costs to zero or whatever else you can or want to afford.

- Balancing the numbers of droprates versus what the upgrades require is going to be a process and i don't expect to have hit the sweet spot right away. I did however play a whole campaign with this change and the numbers were at least in the right ballpark.