Weapon Customization (武器カスタム, Buki Kasutamu?) is a gameplay feature in Star Ocean: Anamnesis based on the Synthesis feature of previous games in the series. It enables to boost a 5☆ weapon's stats, or to transfer one of its factors into another weapon. The process is done with gears and with Bernie the Bunny's collaboration.
Weapons come with two or three empty slots (スロット?) where gears can be inserted. A single gear may occupy up to three slots. If a gear is put into an occupied slot, the original gear will be overwritten. (For example, if a three-slot gear is already in place and a single-slot gear is inserted, the three-slot gear will disappear to give way to the new one.) Gears can be removed by using Welch's Special Grease; doing so will ensure that the gear is not destroyed in the process, and that the player is able to transfer it.
There are two types of gears:
- Factor Gears carries over a factor of the player's choosing and can be created by sacrificing a weapon.
- Status Gears give a significant status boost, and can be created by simply combining gears into one another to produce a higher quality and more potent gear. The produced gear's Weapon type depends on the material used to create it (e.g. if all five materials were Tome gears, the result will almost guarantee a Tome status gear). If various weapon-type gears are used, the result will be random.
Gears can be refined by giving gears and 5☆ base weapons to Bernie. He will have a mood each day; if gear purification is done when he is in a good mood, it increases the "Bunny Chance" for a 5☆ Status Gear. In any case, the resulting gear is random, but the probability can be influenced based off the materials used. For example, gear extraction probability can be raised the higher the weapon's Limit Break is. The gear produced will extract a random factor unless the player uses a Carrot. For example, a carrot with a «2» will extract the weapon's second factor. Hidden factors will not be available for transfer unless the weapon has been Limit Broken accordingly, whereas locked factors (i.e. battle skill damage +%, or weak status boost +%) cannot be transfered.
Initial Factor Gear success rate is based on the weapon's Limit Break: LB0 is 20%, LB1 is 40%, LB2 is 60%, LB3 is 80%, LB4 is 90%, LB5 is 100%. It isn't necessary to level the weapon, as only Limit Breaks affect the percentage.
A Factor Gear can be successfully obtained by minimally having a LB 3 weapon starting with 80% chance success, using status gears to increase the % success rate, and five pieces of 5☆ gears to have extra duplicates to take more of Factors. Additionally, not maxing a weapon can be beneficial: if the player just wants one of the two initial factors (and one is locked), they can get the desired factor without using a carrot.