Void Bastards

There are 79 upgrades to construct (not including the regulator given at the start of the game): that's 49 separate items, some with multiple upgrades. You do need to construct all upgrades for each item, you cannot just build the first level of all 49 items. The Workbench is a skill tree, you will mostly need to buy a previous upgrade to unlock others. This achievement cannot be done on any game started with restrictions that prevent the use of certain weapons (perhaps need to be confirmed, maybe Unarmed mode requires less upgrades if weapons are not available).

Getting parts to build upgrades
On the work bench screen, highlight an item to see what parts are needed. Parts are obtained by;
- Looting them from containers on ships (highlighting a ship in the Star map will tell you what part can be found there). Once on the ship, it will be in one loot container, if the ship has a helm (ie it isn't a station) then downloading the map from the helm will show the part on the full map as a large star.
- Capturing a garbage ship (see )
- Finding, killing and looting a Pupbot (see )
- Authorising a locked loot container for a random part available on that class of ship.
- Navigating to a Hungry Hermit on the star map (they look like an asteroid with a crashed ship.). The hermit will give a random part but steal all your food.
- Given free as part of the care package when completing Action Items
- Building them from materials in the parts locker

Materials can be found:
- Recycling junk found on ships in containers, lying around or dropped by certain enemies.
- Floating adrift in the star map (icon is of four boxes)
- Purchased from Krell-Marts
- Recycled from unneeded parts in the Parts Locker Recycle Mode

Also note that you can upscale junk at FIX modules on certain ships. junk items are recycled for various amounts of materiel upon return to S.T.E.V. and up scaling them in a FIX module will give you a similar item with a higher yield. You have to find the right kind of junk on the ship to use the work benches. Easiest to leave the FIX till last as you will more likely have all the junk you need

What Upgrades to buy first
Apart from items that will help you survive and clear out ships. Some upgrades help in the scavenging of parts and materials. Most important is the Part Locator which will show on the Star Map the closest ship containing parts you need for any item you select.

Other useful upgrades to buy sooner than later:
- Cargo Manager - Cheaper and faster locked container authorisation
- Merit Badge>Garter - Chance of an instant free authorisation
- Disassembler>Decompiler>Deconstructor>Demoleculator - 5% chance of scavenging bonus junk

NB. Spending Merits on locked containers is useful early on for random parts found in locked containers. Later on, it gets less useful as you are less likely to get the rarer parts you need for the best upgrades.

Rarity
All parts have what I am calling a rarity value. This can be seen in the parts locker as black hexagon with one to five yellow circles. The more circles, the rarer the part. Rare parts are generally found deeper in the nebular. If a ship has a part that you need for any unlocked upgrade, it will have a rarity symbol over it on the Star Map