Cortosis weave armor/weapon > current lightsaber.

Still depends on the amount of Soak Value the target has.

Soak Value of 5 (Brawn 3 + laminate or heavy battle armor) still means that at least 6 points of damage is getting through on a successful attack with a ligthsaber. And so long as 1 point gets through and the 'saber wielder has a few Advantage to spare, that means a critical injury with a pretty good modifier to the roll, on top of the weapon's Vicious quality.

Saw an instance where a decently-trained Jedi Knight-in-training only scored 1 success vs. a Soak Value 7 opponent (Phase 2 Dark Trooper) that only did 4 damage... but he had 7 Advantage on the roll, and used that for a crit with a +80 modifier to the roll. The exact same sort of thing could occur with a Brawn 4 Marauder with a couple ranks of Ferocious Strength and a properly modified vibro-ax, and that vibro-ax is a lot easier to acquire and upgrade than a lightsaber would be.

The main statistical downside to a lightsaber that I voiced above is that you can't upgrade a lightsaber due to the 0 hard points; though of course acquisition favors the vibro-ax too and if anything makes it the weapon that you should be aiming for in melee unless you're specifically trying for "lightsaber-wielder" as the character's "in-combat" concept.

The main statistical downside to a lightsaber that I voiced above is that you can't upgrade a lightsaber due to the 0 hard points; though of course acquisition favors the vibro-ax too and if anything makes it the weapon that you should be aiming for in melee unless you're specifically trying for "lightsaber-wielder" as the character's "in-combat" concept.

A vibro-ax with a Serrated Edge (+1 Vicious), fully modified mono-molecular edge (Critical 1, +2 Pierce), and fully modified balanced hilt (Accurate 2, -1 encumbrance) is a pretty freaking nasty weapon, and costs far less than a lightsaber on top of not drawing anywhere near the same kind of attention.

I don't think that we're in disagreement there, though of course either will draw more attention than a vibrosword, and a vibrosword more than a vibroknife...

Incidentally, Star Wars #8 (the 2013 series) has an interesting scene where Luke reveals to Wedge two months after the Battle of Yavin that Ben Kenobi's "these aren't the droids you're looking for" moment inspired the direction he'd take as a Rebel operative... or so his explanation goes for why he breaks open his left boot to reveal Anakin Skywalker's disassembled lightsaber.

The main statistical downside to a lightsaber that I voiced above is that you can't upgrade a lightsaber due to the 0 hard points; though of course acquisition favors the vibro-ax too and if anything makes it the weapon that you should be aiming for in melee unless you're specifically trying for "lightsaber-wielder" as the character's "in-combat" concept.

Spot on with the zero hard points. Eventually you can acquire 10+ soak and do 20+ damage with a vibro axe where the lightsaber in it's current form can only ever do 10 damage.

Mind you, you're counting Jury Rigged I'm sure which doesn't exempt lightsabers, so only the bit about attachments and modifications thereof stands.