Upgrades

Upgrades

Upgrades are the main Coin-spend progression in the Shop (Normal mode). They define your core combat, defense, and economy scaling.

Base vs Increase (important)

Every Upgrade has two separate level tracks:

• Base level
  • Increases the starting/base stat value
  • Example: higher starting Damage, Health, Coins per Enemy, etc.

• Increase level
  • Increases the per-upgrade-step growth (the scaling part)
  • Makes each additional level of that stat scale harder over time

Key point: Base affects base stat only. Increase affects increase/scaling stat only. They are different levers and should be balanced.

Simple example

If an upgrade behaves like:

• Final Stat = BaseValue + (Current Upgrade Level × IncreaseValue)

Then:

• leveling Base raises `BaseValue`
• leveling Increase raises `IncreaseValue`

So Base gives stronger immediate floor, while Increase improves long-run scaling.

Upgrade categories

Upgrades are grouped by type:

• Attack (Damage, Attack Speed, Range, Crit, Stun, Charge, etc.)
• Defense (Health, Health Regen, Defense, Shield, Counter-Hack, etc.)
• Utility (Coins/Bits gain, Speed Divider, Virus Scanner, etc.)

Some upgrades require category progression before they appear (Attack/Defense/Utility unlock progression).

Costs and buying

• Currency: Coins
• Base and Increase each have their own cost progression
• Shop buy modes apply to both tracks (`1x`, `10x`, `100x`, `max`)
• You cannot buy past each track’s max level

How Upgrades stack with other systems

Upgrade stats are further multiplied by other systems (when available), such as:

• Boosts
• Downloads
• Modules
• Executables
• Prestige Upgrades
• Gem Upgrades
• Daemon Protocol bonuses (for relevant stats)

So a strong build usually invests in both:

1. solid Base levels (immediate strength)
2. strong Increase levels (better scaling)