Wolfenstein: Youngblood weapons and upgrades guide

Wolfenstein: Youngblood gives you the option to extensively upgrade and modify your weapons. The five standard weapons, the Kraftwork weapons, and even the heavy weapons dropped by supersoldats all have five components to modify — and those five components each have three brands to choose from. It gives you a staggering number of options to choose from.

Careful choices about which upgrades and modifications you equip will give you huge bonuses to your weapons’ stats, so it’s important to understand how they work. This guide will talk about all the ways you can increase the damage you cause to Nazis with your guns.

There is no best weapon

You’ll be switching between weapons a lot while playing Youngblood. You have to match weapons to enemy barriers like we discussed in our beginner’s guide. Certain Kraftwork weapons are the only way through some doors or into some crates. Or you might just run out of ammo and have to switch out of necessity. No matter the reason, you’ll never be relying on just one gun — and that makes it impossible to call any one better than any other.

Adding extra damage before upgrades

Before we get into upgrades and modifications, there are two ways you can increase damage for your weapons without spending any money or equipping anything extra.

• Player level. As you level up by earning XP, you’ll get an added damage buff of 2% with each level. This adds up quickly — by the mid-to-late-game when you hit level 35, you’ll be dealing 170% damage from where you started.
• Weapon Mastery. Killing Nazis with a weapon progresses you through Weapon Mastery levels, which add further damage bonuses. For example, after you kill your first 40 Nazis with a weapon, you’ll move to Weapon Level 2 which adds 24% damage.

No matter what, you’re going to get stronger as you play and earn XP without having to do anything extra. And the weapons you use the most will also cause more damage just because you use them the most.

The other side of this is to remember to switch up the weapon you’re using so you don’t end up with any one that’s too weak.

Weapon upgrades

There are five upgrades to add to each weapon: receiver, sight, magazine, barrel, and grip. Cycling through them, their effects on your weapons’ stats will show up in the bottom right corner of the screen.

The upgrades come from three brands, each of which is associated with general categories of your weapon stats — Nadel (accuracy), Tempo (speed), and Stier (power).

Where these brands become important is Brand Bonuses. Equipping three of any brand will add a Brand Bonus on top of any other bonuses and stat increases. Three Stier upgrades, for example, will add 10% extra damage. You only need three to trigger the Brand Bonus — and there are five upgrade slots total — so you can still mix and match for those last two slots.

Weapon modifiers can make a big difference

Beyond stat upgrades and Brand Bonuses, certain weapon upgrades add Modifiers. These might be simple like adding a flashlight to the muzzle, or they might fundamentally change the way a weapon behaves. Changing the receiver on the Sturmgewehr (your heavy rifle), for example, switches it from single-shot, semi-automatic to fully automatic.

Modifiers will appear in the upper right of the Weapons upgrade menu, and they're listed under the weapon’s stats on the main weapon menu.

You can change your modifications at any time

Since the modifiers and upgrades have such a profound effect on weapon behavior, it’s always smart to have options. Upgrades that make your shotgun fast aren’t going to be as useful in the Underground as adding a flashlight, for example. There’s plenty of money to be found and earned in Wolfenstein: Youngblood, so don’t hesitate to buy as many weapon upgrades as you can afford.