What the Repair Bench Does
The Repair Bench is a cheap deployable -- crafted for just 125 Metal Fragments, and its blueprint is known by default (no research). Pick it up any time by holding a Hammer and pressing E on it; it takes no durability damage on pickup, so you can shelve it in your inventory to save base space.
It does two jobs: - Repair damaged or broken items (as long as they're still repairable). Drop the item into the slot and press Repair. - Change skins -- apply any skin you own to a matching item for FREE, no resources and no blueprint needed. That second job is why even a freshly looted gun goes on the bench: re-skinning costs nothing.
Repair Cost & the Condition Penalty
Repairing is far cheaper than crafting new. The bench screen shows EXACTLY how much of each resource the item needs for its current condition -- only a fraction of the original craft cost. It pulls the raw materials the item was crafted from; assembled components like metal pipes and blades aren't required, though their base materials may be.
The catch that makes gear mortal: every repair permanently lowers the item's MAXIMUM condition (commonly cited at ~20% off the ceiling per repair), shown as a growing red section on the durability bar. A repaired item will never hit 100% again, and after enough repairs it's not worth saving. Plan to retire gear, not repair it forever.
The Blueprint Rule
Whether you can repair an item depends on its tier:
- Tier 1 items: no blueprint needed -- repair freely.
- Tier 2 / Tier 3 items: you must KNOW the blueprint to repair them. Without it, the bench shows "You don't have this item's blueprint" in red and the repair is blocked.
The important exception: changing a SKIN never needs the blueprint. So you can re-skin a high-tier gun you can't yet repair -- you just can't fix it until you've learned (tech-tree'd or researched) the blueprint. This is one more reason to push your workbench progression: it unlocks repairs, not just crafting.
When to Repair vs Replace
There's a popular myth that you should never use a tool below 50% durability. For cheap tools that's wrong -- because a repair only costs a fraction of a new craft, you can keep repairing and using a tool until it drops below ~20% (a fifth) of its durability, then just run it into the ground and craft a fresh one.
The real decision is value vs cost: for expensive gear (guns, armor) the per-repair resource cost plus the shrinking max-condition ceiling eventually makes a new craft the better deal. Watch the red "lost" portion of the bar -- when an item's usable ceiling has been eaten down, stop pouring resources in and replace it.
Getting One & Locations
You don't always have to craft a bench -- many monuments have one you can use for free:
- Safe zones: Outpost (look for the "Repairs" sign) and Bandit Camp (upstairs near the Air Wolf shop).
- Monuments: Mining Outpost, Airfield (next to the recycler), Launch Site (admin building), Power Plant (two, in the warehouse), Train Yard (central red warehouse, second floor), and Water Treatment.
No-bench fix: a Hammer also repairs deployables like a Workbench directly -- stand next to it with the resources and hit it with the hammer until the health bar fills. Handy before you've deployed your first repair bench. (Monument layouts shift between updates, so a bench's exact spot can move.)