How much do weapon upgrades affect my guns?

Question

This is mostly relating to multiplayer. Single player it's easy enough to upgrade the gun I want to be using...

I'm wondering how much of an effect the weapon upgrades (i.e. I, II, IV, VII, X, etc) have on the guns. Mostly in the damage department. For example, say we are comparing the M-8 Avenger to the Phaestron. My Avenger is level IX. My Phaestron is level IV. So... which should I be using? The Phaestron has a clear advantage in fire rate and mag size, but that's somewhat irrelevant if the Avenger deals more DPS.

Another comparison would be the Widow vs the Mantis. They function nearly identically (albeit with different reload times and weight values), but if my Widow is level I and my Mantis is level X, is the Mantis going to be the better choice?

Answer 1

I can't answer both questions exactly, because I do not have the numbers in front of me because I am at work. But there are clear differences between each level of your weapon, they are rather slight though.

Every blue bar, should increase or decrease slightly with each weapon upgrade, the problem is it is such a small difference its hard to notice. It becomes more difficult when you get to the point of using a weaker weapon with faster fire rate or stronger weapon with slower fire rate. •If can wait 6-8 hours, can give you an exact answer based on fire rate and damage as to which gun is actually higher DPS.

For the sniper rifles, the above applies but with reload and clip size instead of fire rate (my favorite is the Widow, I will take one shot kill over faster shooting). But when comparing the Black Widow to the Mantis you also have to think about penetration, if that matters for you for guardians or cover/glass. So if the blue bar is higher for the black widow than level 10 mantis, the black widow will do more damage. For sniper rifles its more about personal likes, unless you want to compare the incisor or raptor for semi-auto snipers.

I can not find the phaestron in the listing, unsure why...(under assault rifles there is Argus, Avenger, Cobra, Collector, Falcon, Geth, Mattock, Reckoning, Revenant, Saber, Sentryturret, Valkyrie, Vindicator)

• Avenger has 38 damage at I and 48.2 at X . So each level damage increases by 1.02
• Avenger has rate of fire "500" at I and X
• Avenger has reload time of "0.8" believe its seconds
• Mag size is 30
• Max spare ammo is 210 or 262 (unsure how to obtain difference)
  
  
• Geth has 21.9 damage at I and 27.4 at X. So each level damage increases by 0.55
• Geth has rate of fire "900" at I and X
• Geth has reload time of "2.9"3
• Mag size is 80
• Max spare ammo is 400 or 500 (same as above)
  
  
• Saber has 350.1 damage at I and 437.6 at X. So each level damage increases by 8.75
• Saber has rate of fire "80" at I and X
• Saber has reload time of "2.9"
• Mag size is 8
• Max spare ammo is 40 or 50
  
  
• BlackWidow has 514.1 damage at I and 642.6 at X. So each level damage increases by 12.85
• BlackWidow has rate of fire "60" at I and X
• BlackWidow has reload time of "2.97" believe its seconds
• Mag size is 3
• Max spare ammo is 15 or 25
  
  
• Mantis has 615.6 damage at I and 769.5 at X. So each level damage increases by 15.39
• Mantis has rate of fire "70" at I and X
• Mantis has reload time of "2.97"
• Mag size is 1
• Max spare ammo is 9 or 19
  
  
• Widow has 867 damage at I and 1083.8 at X. So each level damage increases by 21.68
• Widow has rate of fire "70" at I and X
• Widow has reload time of "2.97"
• Mag size is 1
• Max spare ammo is 7 or 17

Answer 2

An hour of internet searching (NoName's lead on the coalesced.bin helped immensely -- thanks!) came up with the following spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aor1WdVV3kD6dGw1SlNDUzFjODlheGl5a3JLdXZZVXc#gid=0

It contains detailed stats for every weapon, including level 1 and level 10 numbers for weight, damage, and maximum spare ammunition, as well as a large number of static (and a few derived) stats, such as recoil values and damage-per-second (DPS calculations appear to be based on Level X stats). I'm not very clear what some of it means but it's an excellent resource for anyone who wants cold, hard numbers to work with, instead of vague bars.

As relating to my original question, it appears damage and spare ammo seem to get a uniform 25% increase by Level X with all weapons. Weight reduction, however, is dependent on the weapon's initial weight - with assault rifles, the lightweight Avenger and Vindicator receive a full 50% reduction in weight by Level X, while the heavier guns - Argus, Revenant, Saber and the like -- only lose 30%. Weapons in the middle get somewhere in between; for example, the Phaeston drops 40% of it's weight by Level X. The highest reduction in weight I can find belongs to the Predator and Shuriken, both of which start at a weight value of .5 and end at .2 -- a 60% reduction.

Answer 3

For the specific example you gave:
Phaeston IV deals 37.2 damage, 372 DPS w/o reload, 292 DPS w/ reload
Avenger IX deals 47.1 damage, 393 DPS w/o reload, 321 DPS w/ reload
This is without attachments or damage improving abilities taken into account, however, since they improve damage by a percentage, the ratio between their DPS will remain the same.
If their levels were equal the Phaeston would have a slight DPS advantage.

If you want to make other specific comparisons you'd have to use the data in the spreadsheet and calculate the exact stats, since a spreadsheet for all weapon levels would be huge and impractical.

Here are the general improvements from weapon upgrades:

Level 10 weapons deal 25% more damage than level 1 weapons, so weapon damage improves by 2.(7)% per level. This applies to all weapons in single player, and with the exception of a few errors, all weapons in multi player as well.

Weapons with more than 40 spare ammo at level 1 improve it by 2.(7)% per level(25% total), and the ones with less improve it by 1 per level and 2 at level 10(10 total).

The Valiant is the only weapon that does not improve ammo reserves(likely an error and an intended 20 to 30 spare ammo capacity).

Weight upgrades are not consistent among all weapons and have several different "categories":
Level 1 weight - level 10 weight - upgrade per level - weapons in category
250% - 200% - 5.(5)% - Black Widow, Widow, Javelin, Claymore, Crusader
200% - 140% - 6.(6)% - Falcon, Revenant, Saber, Argus, Graal, Geth Plasma Shotgun, Raider, Valkyrie, Collector Assault Rifle
175% - 100% - 8.(3)% - Mantis, Indra, Chakram, Valiant, Raptor
150% - 90% - 6.(6)% - Geth Assault Rifle, Scimitar, Incisor, Talon, Scorpion, Arc Pistol, Katana, Eviscerator, Wraith, Mattock, Phaestom, Viper
100% - 50% - 5.(5)% - Disciple, Hurricane, Vindicator, Avenger, Hornet
75% - 35% - 4.(4)% - Paladin, Carnifex, Tempest, Locust
60% - 25% - 3.(8)% - Phalanx, Eagle
50% - 20% - 3.(3)% - Predator, Shuriken

These are the single player stats. For up to date changes of weapon stats in multi player visit http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/343/index/9544143/1

So it's between 3.(3)% and 8.(3)% per level

Shepard has 75% starting weight capacity, which can be increased by upgrading his passive skill(adept and engineer up to 125%, soldier up to 175% and the rest up to 145%).

Formula for recharge speed from weight is:

200% + weight capacity - weight of all carried weapons

It's capped at +200% and -200%(other recharge speed bonuses do not adhere to this cap).

Answer 4

By my calculations, if level I has 1 * value and level X has 1.25 * value it follows that, provided the factor is invariant from one level to the next: 1.25 ^ 1/9 = ~1.025 Note the approximation! So:

Level Factor
1      1
2      1.025 
3      1.05
4      1.07
5      1.1
6      1.13
7      1.16
8      1.19
9      1.22
10     1.25