Many of you are asking yourself which rifle you should buy to upgrade after you have had some time to decide which direction you want to go. Upgrading your airsoft rifle is a long time investment in your hobby, and you should consider these points before making a decision.

Brands

The most significant indicator for a long-lasting rifle is the brand you buy from. For example, Krytac is known for making guns that are heavily built and capable of taking a beating for a long time. On the flip-side, G&G is known for making the best polymer guns which last a long time because they figured out the perfect material composition. The new CYMA Platinum Series is probably the best value-price gun on the market, while VFC and G&P are known for making the best externals. We leave the final choice up to you, but you can ask us any time if you feel unsure.
Our Suggestions: KRYTAC, G&G (high end), CYMA (Platinum), VFC

Material

Now that we got the brands out of the way, you should double-check what material your rifle is made of. The best would be getting a full CNC milled receiver and handguard, as those have fewer material impurities than their casted counterparts. However, none of those standard base rifle brands mentioned above offer that, so your options are limited to metal casted or injection molded polymers. If you can, always go with a full metal rifle, as those are known to last longer, while some are still prone to cracking. If you are sticking to our suggested brands, you should be fine but feel free to Email us if you have a question.

Gearbox

If you have been playing Airsoft for a long time, you will probably know that some brands out there sell cheap plastic guns with plastic internals — you all can probably imagine how long that will last. Getting a gun with great internals has become more accessible in recent years as all of the brands mentioned above have upgraded their internals. You will likely have to upgrade things like the Piston (e.g. CYMA Platinum), as some companies still use partially plastic pistons. If you don't have any experience working on your gun yet, we don't suggest doing it yourself, but this would be the best first upgrade to enhance your rifle to enhance its lifetime. Some guns may require changing out the gearset or only the bevel gear (for example, when upgrading the motor). All the brands mentioned above have great gearboxes ready to play.

 

MOSFETs

When buying a new gun, you probably already heard that MOSFETs is the best upgrade in Airsoft today. All companies are installing some basic MOSFET in their gun these days (it didn't use to be that way) to improve their rifle's trigger response and protect their electrical components. However, a great MOSFET is so much more than that — if you are looking into upgrading to something like a GATE Titan or ASTER, you will get many more features like Burst Fire or Sniper Delay, which you will not see with stock guns for the time being. We highly recommend upgrading to one of these as they will change how your gun feels entirely.

Motors

All stock guns come with standard brushed motors, which wear out quickly and get super hot (especially when using a MOSFET, using active braking, or spamming semi-auto) and have an overall terrible performance compared to their Brushless counterparts. Installing a brushless motor is super easy and can be done by anyone. If you are not upgrading your MOSFET, you will have to be careful. Most guns' MOSFETs still need to be compatible with Brushless motors with a dedicated MOSFET inside them. The onboard MOSFET inside a brushless motor is often incompatible unless you use a GATE that already has a new feature to combat these issues. In case you want to invest, a Brushless motor alone will give you insane performance boosts with better trigger response, less heat, and a much higher rate of fire. If you are doing the upgrade, however, you should also upgrade your bevel gear at least to take the higher stress from the more potent motor.

Barrels & HopUps

Your barrel system is the most important in your gun, and the right combination of the HopUp and the barrel will govern how well your rifle will perform. All stock guns use pretty standard plastic rotary hop-ups, which are great for what they are. If you are just getting started, they won't be in your way of a fun experience. However, if you want to get the most range and accuracy out of your build, you should consider upgrading. Some high-end brands are out there, such as MaxxModel, Prometheus, and surely our handmade barrels here at Umbrella (shameless plug). Unfortunately, upgrading just your barrel may not be enough — depending on the quality of your compression system (cylinder, cylinder head, nozzle, Piston, and piston head) you might be getting super inconsistent power output. If you run into this issue, you will have to overhaul your whole internals, which can get expensive and laborious.

Conclusion

If you stick with the suggested brands, you will have a good time out of the box and plenty of opportunities to upgrade down the line. Like with a good computer, you can also get all the parts installed professionally upfront, so in case you can spare the difference, try to get everything you want out of your rifle done when you first get your new rifle. If you are learning how to work on your gun yourself, you can even get into some of the more advanced upgrades yourself, which will spare you loads of mine, but requires a lot of time.

Like with any other hobby — the more time you invest into it, the more you know what you want to be going for.

Enjoy Playing!