Weapon Upgrading

Weapon Upgrading is a gameplay mechanic introduced to Fortnite: Battle Royale with Chapter 2: Season 1. Throughout most of its lifetime, weapon upgrading has been completed via the Upgrade Bench for materials, but with the introduction of Characters in Chapter 2: Season 5, Weapons are now upgraded with Bars.

Current Weapon Upgrading Mechanic
Currently, weapons are upgraded following Crafting recipes. They can also be upgraded via interacting with certain Characters across the Apollo island. Depending on the Weapon, the available rarities of it, and also the amount of Bars a player has, a player can upgrade their weapon to a higher rarity, increasing its stats and effectiveness. Only some Characters offer this feature. Weapons can be upgraded one tier at a time for increasingly higher numbers of Bars. The only non weapon item that can be upgraded is the Fishing Rod to a Pro Fishing Rod, on top of this, it is the only item which upgrades multiple rarities at once. Weapons cannot be sidegraded currently.

Note: The to  upgrade is exclusive to the Fishing Rod to Pro Fishing Rod upgrade. Weapons cannot be upgraded to or. All weapons that are currently available can be upgraded. If a weapon has a variant which is higher rarity, but is vaulted, it cannot be upgraded further.

Crafting
Main Article: Crafting (Battle Royale)

Crafting is a mechanic introduced in Chapter 2: Season 6. It uses a new system of resources and items to upgrade weapons, to create new ones. Animal Bones as well as Mechanical Parts are used to upgrade Makeshift weaponry into Primal or Mechanical Weapons respectively (Mechanical weapons are standard weapons, such as the Assault Rifle or Revolver). Unlike weapon upgrading, it does not use Bars, or materials. Furthermore, Crafting will only create new weapons, and cannot upgrade the current rarity of a weapon, as all crafting advances a weapon by a rarity, but creates a primal or makeshift weapon. Crafting is done in the player inventory.

Players can still upgrade weapons using bars, alongside this system.

Old Weapon Upgrading Mechanic
Upgrade Benches could be found in key locations across the Island, primarily in named POIs, but still often found in other areas across the map. Using an Upgrade bench allowed players to upgrade or sidegrade their weapon using materials. Not every weapon had a sidegrade function.

Note: The to  upgrade is exclusive to the Fishing Rod to Pro Fishing Rod upgrade.

The higher the rarity the more expensive the upgrade and the longer it took. Weapons could not be upgraded to. The list of Upgradable Weapons were as follows. Although some weapon rarities go lower than stated, their lower rarities lacked the functionality to be upgraded. Sidegrading a weapon of any kind always costs 20 of each material. All Detailed weapons are vice-versa.