Universal upgrades can be used on a wide range of gear. Most universal upgrades can be applied to any type of equipment, though some have limitations, or special rules when applied to armor or weapons.
Modification Upgrade Slots Cost
Cheater 1 500
Cloaked 1 750
Droidification 2 3,000
Dual gear 1 1,000
Electrograpple handle 1 1,000
Environmental sealing 1 400
Extra power source 1 200
Miniaturized 1 500
Recognition system 1 200
Remote activation 0 100
Secret compartment 1 600
Silverplate 1 2,500
Spring loaded 1 300
Storage capacity 0 100
A cheater is a hand-held device designed to allow you to cheat at the popular gambling game of sabacc. Because they are illegal (and likely to get you killed to boot), cheaters are usually disguised and added to another piece of functional equipment.
While you use a cheater, you gain a +2 bonus on Gambling rolls. You have to make an opposed Stealth roll with a +4 bonus to conceal the use of a cheater. Generally, cheaters are placed in devices such as credit chips or comlinks. However, if anyone ever beats your Gambling roll with a raise, that person realizes you must be cheating somehow (though they won't know exactly how - often leading to a demand for a search of your possessions).
A cheater installed into a rigged sabacc card is called a skifter.
Cloaked equipment has its energy signatures baffled, any noises it makes muffled, and its appearance camouflaged and slenderized, and it comes with a case that allows it to be placed in an inconspicuous location. When not in use, such equipment imposes a -4 penalty on any Electronics or Notice rolls made to detect it. When in use, it imposes only a -2 penalty on such rolls. Weapons are obvious when in use, even if cloaked. Cloaked armor does not help with Stealth rolls made to sneak, but it applies when you make a Persuasion roll to produce a deceptive appearance (such as making the armor appear as ordinary clothing).
Droidification is an extensive process that turns a common piece of equipment into a fully functioning droid. The equipment can either act as a droid with access to the equipment it was built from, or conceal itself as a normal piece of equipment. While concealing itself as normal equipment, the droid can't take any actions and a Notice roll with a -2 penalty is required to realize the equipment is unusual.
The droidified equipment uses the statistics of an ASP Labor Droid. The droid is automatically considered to have the equipment it is built out of, and gain a d6 in relevant skills needed to use itself as equipment.
Only devices can receive this upgrade. Weapons, armor, and vehicles cannot be droidified.
If any additional droid equipment or systems are added to the droidified equipment, it becomes obvious that the device is a droid rather than the original item.
One piece of equipment can be built into another as an upgrade, but it is impossible to place a larger piece of equipment into a smaller piece - you can't cram a blaster cannon into a lightsaber. Dual gear can act as either piece of component gear without penalty. Normally, such equipment can't act as both pieces of equipment at once. You must pay the full price for the piece of equipment being added to the primary object as dual gear. If either piece of equipment requires a power pack or other energy source, it must have its own (items combined with this modification cannot share power packs or other energy sources).
An electrograpple handle is a magnetized section of equipment designed to fly toward a specially attuned grapple gauntlet (the cost of which is included in the upgrade cost). A piece of equipment with an electrograpple handle can be retrieved by a character wearing the attuned grapple gauntlet as a move action out to a range of 6 squares. If the equipment is held or strapped down, the grapple gauntlet allows a Strength roll with a +2 bonus to rip it free. This is used as an opposed Strength roll to remove it from someone holding it.
This is most often used on a weapon. This allows a character to throw down a weapon to "prove" he is disarmed, only to retrieve it at range when trouble starts.
Environmental sealing places gaskets, protective coatings, nonreactive materials, and airtight seals throughout a piece of equipment to ensure that it does not fail because of environmental conditions. The equipment works normally in a vacuum, underwater, after being packed in dirt or sand, or in a snowstorm. It does not take damage from corrosive or toxic atmospheres, extreme temperatures, normal fires (as opposed to fire-based weapons, which deal damage normally), or radiation.
Any equipment that runs on energy cells or power packs can be modified to have two such power sources, doubling the duration the device will function (or the number of shots a weapon can make before being recharged). It is possible to make this modification more than once, adding an additional energy cell or power pack each time. The energy cells or power packs are typical for the device upgraded, and each is replaced at the normal cost.
Equipment with the miniaturized upgrade weighs half as much. A melee weapon that is miniaturized has its damage dice reduced by one step (d6s become d4s, d4s have -1) because it lacks the mass and striking surface area to deal more damage.
Equipment with a recognition system can identify its owner and won't function for anyone else. Fooling a recognition system takes 1 minute with a successful Hacking roll. The owner of gear with this upgrade can deactivate it as a free action; optionally, the recognition system can have a code phrase that allows anyone to deactivate it.
This upgrade allows a piece of equipment to be activated with a signal from a comlink or similar communications device. Although typically associated with explosives or security systems, remote activation can be used to set a droid to activate, a fusion lantern to flare to life, a computer to start running a program, or a holoprojector to begin a recorded projection. Activating a remote is a free action, which includes entering the special command code.
The range of remote activation is determined by the comlink or other communication device used. Any comlink can be used to activate the gear, sending a signal with a specific code along a specific frequency. A character aware of a piece of remotely activated gear can find the necessary frequency and activation code with a successful Electronics roll.
Like storage capacity, this upgrade allows gear to carry smaller gear within it. However, the gear carried in a secret compartment is concealed. It takes a Notice roll with a -4 penalty to notice the compartment when it is used, and a -2 penalty to find it with a close, hands-on examination. Equipment with a secret compartment upgrade can hold a single item smaller than the equipment itself. Thus, a blaster pistol with a secret compartment can hold an object such as a comlink or frag grenade.
Silverplate is a special chroming process that adds a layer of tough composite material (often dallorian alloy) across the surface of any piece of gear. In addition to looking stylish, this doubles the hardness of the gear. Armor with silverplate does not grant its hardness to its wearer, but does gain it against attacks directed specifically at the armor.
Any equipment that can be held and used in one hand can be spring-loaded. Readying a spring-loaded piece of equipment is a free action. It is most common for pistols to be spring loaded, but anything from grenades to datapads can use this upgrade.
This upgrade allows gear to carry smaller gear within or on it, in an obvious compartment. Equipment with the storage capacity upgrade can hold multiple items smaller than the equipment itself, as long as their total weight is less than the equipment with storage capacity. Thus, a blaster rifle with storage capacity might hold nine frag grenades securely in external straps and pouches.