Treasure

As the GM, it's your job to distribute treasure to the player characters. Treasure appears throughout an adventure, and the PCs obtain it by raiding treasure hoards, defeating foes who carry valuable items or currency, getting paid for successful quests, and any other way you can imagine. The game's math is based on PCs looking to find, buy, or craft items that are the same level as them—this includes improved weapons and armor, weapon and armor upgrades, augmentations, magical items, tech items, consumable items, and items that help with the PCs' favorite skills or tactics. A PC who gets the item at that level will typically be ahead of the monsters, hazards, and skill DCs briefly, before their challenges start to catch back up. The guidelines for awarding treasure, meanwhile, have you give the party items 1 level higher than the PCs. This means the items found on adventures are more powerful than those a PC could make (which are capped at the PC's level). The treasure assignment is measured across a level instead of per encounter because some encounters won't have treasure, some will have extra treasure, and some treasure hoards or rewards might be found outside encounters entirely. You always have the freedom to assign extra treasure for a high-powered game, less treasure for a gritty survival horror adventure, or any amount in between. As you choose treasure, look at the flow of treasure in the campaign, and see which PCs are ahead and which are behind. It's usually best to mix “core items,” treasure linked to a PC's main abilities, with treasure that has unusual, less broadly applicable powers. For instance, the party's envoy might not go out of their way to purchase a diva's microphone, but they'll likely use it if they find it. These items should always be useful—a party without a close-quarters martial character won't have much use for hardlight handwraps. The number of core items to give out depends on you, but make sure the characters have plenty of core options. Consider opening up other options for parties traveling to other parts of the galaxy or visiting other planes.