Are base upgrades worth it?

CSD

Value: ★★★★★

CSD increases max stamina, stamina recovery speed and downed movement speed. Chasing or evading players is massively improved with this upgrade.

Firing Range > lvl 2

Value: ★★

Firing range increases your max load, this is how much you can carry before your character is massively slowed. Less important than CSD but still provides a competitive advantage in certain situations. Leveling this past lvl 2 only gives you the max load increase which is not as important as the other upgrades.

Central Command HQ lvl 4-5

Value: ★★★★

Central Command HQ increases the amount of items you can sell at once. Personally I found upgrading past lvls 4/5 is not worth it. This is a quality of life upgrade that can save you time when selling items. Couple this with lowering the price a few stops of every item you list and you can sell a full stash pretty quickly.

Stash

Value: ★★★

Stash upgrades are very much personal preference. Personally I sell nearly every item I find right away which keeps my stash empty, making level 3/4 suffice. You lose money from tax doing this though as I am likely rebuying items I sold at a higher price. Be cautious that some upgrades only unlock crate slots, nearly all crates are 2M+ so for most players this is not worth it. There is a cheap crate "Rookie's Material Crate" for about 150k that I use to keep my Collector quest items in for the 3x3 safebox so I don't accidentally sell them.

Workbench

Profit Estimate: 300k/8hrs

Value: ★★★★★

Craft ammo. With a maxed work bench crafting the most optimal ammo, (currently Gold AP), you can make craft 120 bullets for 350k, which sells for 670k. This is around 300k every 8 hours.

Armor Bench

Profit Estimate: 150k/13hrs

Value: ★★★★

Craft a purple vest every 13 hours for 50k, sells for 200k. This is around 150k every 13 hours. Not quite as good as the ammo crafts but still worth upgrading. The profit seems to be less on the gold armor so probably only worth upgrading until you unlock purple vests

Firing Range lvl 2

Value: ★★★★★

Firing range lvl 2 unlocks "Intermediate Repair" which lets you repair your armor for more efficiently. A cheap upgrade that is worth it for the repair efficiency alone.

Cyber Warfare

Profit Estimate: 10-30k/4hrs

Value: ★★

Craft guns and attachments. Currently with the most optimal crafts you can make about 10-30k every 4 hours. Would take a long time to recoup your upgrade investment.

Pharmacy

Profit Estimate: 0

Value: 💩

Currently creating any item using the Pharmacy is not profitable. This is a waste of alloys and should be completely avoided.