Making Junksword More Affordable?

I've been struggling a bit with my Dawn of Flame PC whose character sheet can be seen here.

I created her specifically with junksword as her weapon of choice to save credits on buying weapons and fusions and because it worked better for her comparatively low base attack bonus compared with the other members of her party.

But now I'm feeling like this isn't sustainable, as we're needing to take ten-minute rests between fewer and fewer encounters, meaning my junksword wears off and I have to cast it again at each encounter, and it's burning through my spell slots quickly, meaning I can't also cast the defensive spells I need like displacement and mirror image. I can't really think of any way to maintain this; in Starfinder spell gems take the place of things like scrolls and magic staves that a caster would use to have spells they needed to cast regularly on hand, but having enough spell gems to have my at-level junksword handy throughout the day seems like it would be prohibitively expensive, and if I just buy a dueling sword I'm losing out on damage and the ability to hit due to my relatively middling strength. The Junk Arsenal magic hack from Tech Revolution can make junksword last for an hour, but I'm uncertain if I can use it on myself, given the way it's worded and it requires an RP to use each time.

So...what do?

Although I also play a Technomancer build around the Junksword spell, I mainly play Starfinder Society so some things I'm going to say might not translate well to an Adventure Path. Just as disclaimer.

Having a Junksword is quite fun and can deal lots of damage, but be aware that the amount of damage starts to lack at some point during the levels. At lvl 1-6 it is a great tool, around 7-10 it still good, but after 10 the regular weapons start to catch up and gain in damage. So it is not strange to have a back-up weapon here and there at higher levels. It is also not mandatory mind you, so if you want to keep at it with the Junksword then just do it. Maybe get a Natural Weapons Graft and roleplay it as an arm made of junk, with the Junksword spell casted to "augment" your arm?

The other problem you face is indeed the story pacing of adventure paths. This can be a big strain on casters who really need to plan things out. Which unfortunately also means that you cannot fully rely on your defensive spells and sometimes just need to take the hit. Raising armor class and gathering resistances is something I would recommend. Gaining Shield Proficiency and a good shield, the Armor Savant Graft, getting the resistance armor upgrades, and later maybe the Extend Runtime magic hack to extend multiple castings of Resistant Armor. (The Extend Runtime magic hack doesn't work on Junksword though, because it needs to be a spell that targets you and not junk).

Speaking of Magic Hacks, Junk Arsenal doesn't work on yourself. It grants you the ability to allow another player to profit from junk-spells for an hour when you cast junk-spells for yourself. Also keep in mind that due to your archetype your next Magic Hack is gained at level 11. You gain Cache Capacitor at level 8 instead of 6, and lose the level 8 Magic Hack. As a frontliner, I would highly recommend Extend Runtime as your level 11 Magic Hack.

Looking at your build there are several things that caught my attention. Do with my points what you like, it is your character after all, but it might be worth mentioning anyway:
1: You placed your upgrades as +2 Strength and +4 Int. I would try to turn that around. You hardly have any spell that requires a save and as frontliner without Full-bab you NEED to hit. Yes, this means you have less Resolve and less computers/engineering, but combat-wise you need to hit and deal with the enemy.

2: You have the Improved Demoralize feat, which might be a bit redundant considering your Challenge ability. I do not know when you picked the feat up, but if you can still change it with the Mnemonic Editor I would. Maybe something as Shield Proficiency (for more AC) or Improved Unarmed Strike (in case you'd go with a Natural Weapon Graft).

3: You have one level 3 spell too many. Your archetype makes you lose one spell known from the highest spell level you can cast. So at level 7 you only know one level 3 spell.

4: As I understand it, you use Empowered Weapon to upgrade your to hit (and damage). This eats away at your spells in a rapid fashion. You might want to try for other accuracy boosters. Weapon Focus is great, and though it is probably impossible to get Weapon Focus (Junksword), with two feats you can have Weapon Focus (Basic) and then Versatile Focus. That gives you a +1 (later +2) on your to hit.

I'm 99.9% sure that you can count yourself as a 'willing creature touched as part of casting the spell' for junk arsenal which should take care of the problem entirely.

Also, shouldn't you be able to get through at least a couple of encounters per casting? It lasts 70min at your level, how much travel time are you taking between encounters?

I'm 99.9% sure that you can count yourself as a 'willing creature touched as part of casting the spell' for junk arsenal which should take care of the problem entirely.

Also, shouldn't you be able to get through at least a couple of encounters per casting? It lasts 70min at your level, how much travel time are you taking between encounters?

Looking at it again, I realize that one could choose themselves. So I was wrong at that point. But then I'm wondering what would it do for oneself? One uses it when one casts Junk Sword/Junk Armor, which then allows one to have a second sword / armor on themselves for an hour next to the one they get from the spell (which lasts longer). So yes, one could use it on themselves, but it doesn't really do much for them either.

Garretmander wrote:

I'm 99.9% sure that you can count yourself as a 'willing creature touched as part of casting the spell' for junk arsenal which should take care of the problem entirely.

Also, shouldn't you be able to get through at least a couple of encounters per casting? It lasts 70min at your level, how much travel time are you taking between encounters?

Looking at it again, I realize that one could choose themselves. So I was wrong at that point. But then I'm wondering what would it do for oneself? One uses it when one casts Junk Sword/Junk Armor, which then allows one to have a second sword / armor on themselves for an hour next to the one they get from the spell (which lasts longer). So yes, one could use it on themselves, but it doesn't really do much for them either.

Misread it, I though it went to 1 hour per level which would be useful, not just 1 hour.

I'm 99.9% sure that you can count yourself as a 'willing creature touched as part of casting the spell' for junk arsenal which should take care of the problem entirely.

Also, shouldn't you be able to get through at least a couple of encounters per casting? It lasts 70min at your level, how much travel time are you taking between encounters?

Oh God, don't tell me I've been misreading the duration as 1 minute per level this whole time! >_<

Garretmander wrote:

I'm 99.9% sure that you can count yourself as a 'willing creature touched as part of casting the spell' for junk arsenal which should take care of the problem entirely.

Also, shouldn't you be able to get through at least a couple of encounters per casting? It lasts 70min at your level, how much travel time are you taking between encounters?

Oh God, don't tell me I've been misreading the duration as 1 minute per level this whole time! >_<

10 minutes per level, yes.

I assumed you were locked in the 10-15 encounter dungeons, or the one encounter per hour settings (with 5 or 6 encounters per day). But playing it as 1 minute per level does indeed burn your spellslots away rapidly.

Something else I wanted to ask about:

3: You have one level 3 spell too many. Your archetype makes you lose one spell known from the highest spell level you can cast. So at level 7 you only know one level 3 spell.

So does this mean that you retroactively gain an extra spell known when your highest spell level changes, or does that essentially mean you'll always be one spell known shorter at EVERY level afterwards?

4th Level: For the highest level of technomancer spell you can cast, reduce the number of technomancer spells you know by 1. For example, at 5th level, this means you know only two 2nd-level spells and four 1st-level spells, and at 6th level, you know three 2nd-level spells and four 1st-level spells. At 7th level, you know four 2nd-level spells, but you know only a single 3rd-level spell (as 3rd level is now the highest level of technomancer spells you can cast), and so on.

Which means yes, you do retroactively learn a 2nd level spell the moment you learn to cast 3rd level spells.

So at level 7 you should know five 1st level spells, four 2nd level spells, and one 3rd level spell