You acquire raw materials from blowing up...well, pretty much anything (after you get out onto the first highway--nothing drops raw materials in the starter area). You also loot broken armor/weapons/etc from creatures, you can buy it from various junk dealers, or you can take useable gear and break it for crafting through Reverse Engineering.
You take your broken gear (which will show what materials and components are needed to repair it) and your raw materials to a refinery. There you refine your raw materials and any components necessary. After you have the stuff you need, you take the broken item to a fabrication plant, control center, or reactor--depending on the type of item--and you then repair the broken item into a useable state. In the process, you can Experiment on it by adding combinations of refined materials and components, resulting in various bonuses and improvements. The newly repaired and/or experimented item can also sometimes be memorized so you can craft a number of copies without needing new broken versions.
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You acquire raw materials from blowing up...well, pretty much anything (after you get out onto the first highway--nothing drops raw materials in the starter area). You also loot broken armor/weapons/etc from creatures, you can buy it from various junk dealers, or you can take useable gear and break it for crafting through Reverse Engineering.
You take your broken gear (which will show what materials and components are needed to repair it) and your raw materials to a refinery. There you refine your raw materials and any components necessary. After you have the stuff you need, you take the broken item to a fabrication plant, control center, or reactor--depending on the type of item--and you then repair the broken item into a useable state. In the process, you can Experiment on it by adding combinations of refined materials and components, resulting in various bonuses and improvements. The newly repaired and/or experimented item can also sometimes be memorized so you can craft a number of copies without needing new broken versions.
That's it in a nutshell.