how bad is the meta progression in this game

[Meatball Ron]

it feels like one of those games that unless you've played for 40 hours then you arent gonna make any progress
do i really need to lose 1000 times before before being able to make a dent into the waves

[Dire]

Yep ...

[HippieJesus]

You can technically get farther every run if you're doing well and you dont need 1000s of runs, but yes you do need meta currency upgrades to see meaningful progress.

It took me about 15 hours to beat wave 30, which didnt feel too bad.