List of weapon upgrades?

[Tal Maru]

Is there a list of all the weapons upgrades and what they do floating around?

[Stormfox]

Yeah, a list of weapons, upgrades and enemies would be nice. You kinda get the hang out of most of them after a few hours, but an overview would be nifty. As long as this does not take away much time from development of more important stuff, it would be nice to see some ingame help page soon.

[TwoCables]

There was, but it's outdated now. Give them time to write documentation. Nothing is truly finalized yet. They're still 4-5 months away from finishing the game (according to their current estimates). Knowing them, the documentation and whatnot will be excellent. I can tell you that things like this are on their roadmap and they plan to do top-quality work on it (but that's normal quality for them).

[CHILLYBUS]

This isn't official or comprehensive, but I think this covers most everything. For purposes of this post, it's assumed un-upgraded and + variants of each weapon are functionally identical. The exceptions, as far as I'm aware, are the Devastator, where the + upgrade allows the player to detonate a fired missile in midair with another press of the fire button, and the Reflex, where the + upgrade adds a slight homing ability. The + is the starting point for each weapon in Challenge Mode. I've added parentheticals for what I'm assuming are the intended full names of these upgrades...but I haven't puzzled them all out.

1. Impulse: Two blue lasers that fly straight to their targets. RF (Rapid Fire) upgrade increases fire rate. Q (Quad) upgrade adds another set of lasers to the original two, but also increases energy consumption.

2. Cyclone: Three yellow lasers that spread at an angle from a single point. 4X (4 Projectiles) adds a fourth laser that supplements the bottom hardpoint. F (Fast) increases the fire rate and tightens the spread considerably.

3. Reflex: Alternating green lasers that fire rapidly and bounce from wall to wall. Lasers will target and point to nearby enemies within a ~15 degree angle when they reflect off of walls (but will not track targets as they move). RF (Rapid Fire) upgrade significantly upgrades the fire rate. L (Large or Long) upgrade increases flight time, homing radius to 25 degrees, and possibly projectile size and damage.

4. Crusher: Consumes ammo to create an instantaneous screen of projectiles, as if it were a shotgun. DX (Damage-maX) increases damage output considerably. AF (Automatic Fire) removes semi-automatic limitation and improves accuracy, but with the tradeoff of fewer projectiles per shot (and thus ammo consumed) by half.

3. Driller: Consumes ammo to fire slugs at incredible speed with near-perfect accuracy (heads up these aren't hitscan and can still miss). DX (Damage-maX) increases damage output considerably. M (Machine gun) increases fire rate to be closer to a machine gun, but at the cost of half damage (and thus half ammo).

4. Flak: Consumes ammo rapidly to create small explosions at a short distance in front of the player. DX (Damage-maX) increases damage output considerably. VK (Vulcan) upgrade introduces a spinup time when firing but increases the overall fire rate, accuracy, and range.

5. Thunderbolt: Fires large purple lasers that can pass through robots, which can be charged to deal very high damage. MX (MaX) decreases charge time and increases damage. RT (??-Tracker) introduces a tracking ability to each laser (these will continually seek targets if possible until they hit a wall).

6. Falcons: Standard dumbfire rockets. MX (Mercury or MaX) upgrade increases fire rate and missile speed considerably, and damage slightly. T (Tracker) introduces a moderate tracking ability on each projectile.

7. Missile Pods: Rapid-fire missiles with a homing ability. XS (eXtra-Strength) increases damage output. XT (eXtra-Tracking) improves the tracking ability and shrinks the missile's turn radius.

8. Hunter: Two smaller homing missiles, each able to track targets independently in rare situations. XT (eXtra-Tracking) upgrade improves the tracking ability and shrinks the missile's turn radius. W (salvo shape -- 3 points) adds a third missile into each launch.

9. Creepers: Small red mines that seek hostiles for a short period. XS (eXtra-Strength) upgrade increases damage output. XT (eXtra-Tracking) upgrade improves the tracking ability and survival time of each mine.

10. Devastator: Large missile that can be detonated mid-flight. MX (MaX) improves damage output considerably and increases maximum ammo count. PT (Power Thrusters) greatly increases flight speed and also increases maximum ammo count.

11. Nova: Large missile that creates tracking projectiles on impact with a wall. Collision with a robot is typically enough to kill it instantly, but no projectiles are created. XB (eXtra-Bolts) greatly increases the number of tracking projectiles that are produced in an explosion. CL (Cluster) changes the missile into a short-range bomb, which detonates after a short distance and flowers out projectiles away from its flight vector.

[TwoCables]

The + variants aren't functionally identical at all. It's an upgrade, but I don't feel like trying to list them all out right now. You can get an idea though of what the + upgrade does (the first upgrade) by looking at the upgrades that you can get in Story Mode.

[Stormfox]

Really thorough, thanks. Is there a quick way to see which upgrades you have during challenge mode besides inferring from what you notice when firing? In fact, I have no idea by what rules you gain them, only that you somehow do after a certain time or number of kills.

[TwoCables]

Yeah, it's displayed right on your HUD.

I don't know what determines what or when you get upgrades, but you are told which upgrade you received right on the HUD, and the weapon displays on the bottom left and bottom right tell you which weapons are upgraded and which upgrades you have.

[DarkwingDiva]

Originally posted by Stormfox:

Really thorough, thanks. Is there a quick way to see which upgrades you have during challenge mode besides inferring from what you notice when firing? In fact, I have no idea by what rules you gain them, only that you somehow do after a certain time or number of kills.

I believe you get an upgrade every 25 kills. You'll see the letter designation for the upgrade next to the weapon name in your HUD.

[raptur6dof]

You get secondary upgrades every 50 kills, starting at 25 (so 25, 75, 125, ...) and primary upgrades every 50 kills starting at 50 (50, 100, 150, ...). *which* upgrade you get seems to be random, except you won't get a primary upgrade for a weapon that you don't currently have.

[DarkwingDiva]

Ah, thanks for adding that raptur, very informative! :)

[Tal Maru]

Originally posted by Mr. Necktie:

This isn't official or comprehensive, but I think this covers most everything. For purposes of this post, it's assumed un-upgraded and + variants of each weapon are functionally identical. The exceptions, as far as I'm aware, are the Devastator, where the + upgrade allows the player to detonate a fired missile in midair with another press of the fire button, and the Reflex, where the + upgrade adds a slight homing ability. The + is the starting point for each weapon in Challenge Mode. I've added parentheticals for what I'm assuming are the intended full names of these upgrades...but I haven't puzzled them all out.

1. Impulse: Two blue lasers that fly straight to their targets. RF (Rapid Fire) upgrade increases fire rate. Q (Quad) upgrade adds another set of lasers to the original two, but also increases energy consumption.

2. Cyclone: Three yellow lasers that spread at an angle from a single point. 4X (4 Projectiles) adds a fourth laser that supplements the bottom hardpoint. F (Fast) increases the fire rate and tightens the spread considerably.

3. Reflex: Alternating green lasers that fire rapidly and bounce from wall to wall. Lasers will target and point to nearby enemies within a ~15 degree angle when they reflect off of walls (but will not track targets as they move). RF (Rapid Fire) upgrade significantly upgrades the fire rate. L (Large or Long) upgrade increases flight time, homing radius to 25 degrees, and possibly projectile size and damage.

4. Crusher: Consumes ammo to create an instantaneous screen of projectiles, as if it were a shotgun. DX (Damage-maX) increases damage output considerably. AF (Automatic Fire) removes semi-automatic limitation and improves accuracy, but with the tradeoff of fewer projectiles per shot (and thus ammo consumed) by half.

3. Driller: Consumes ammo to fire slugs at incredible speed with near-perfect accuracy (heads up these aren't hitscan and can still miss). DX (Damage-maX) increases damage output considerably. M (Machine gun) increases fire rate to be closer to a machine gun, but at the cost of half damage (and thus half ammo).

4. Flak: Consumes ammo rapidly to create small explosions at a short distance in front of the player. DX (Damage-maX) increases damage output considerably. VK (Vulcan) upgrade introduces a spinup time when firing but increases the overall fire rate, accuracy, and range.

5. Thunderbolt: Fires large purple lasers that can pass through robots, which can be charged to deal very high damage. MX (MaX) decreases charge time and increases damage. RT (??-Tracker) introduces a tracking ability to each laser (these will continually seek targets if possible until they hit a wall).

6. Falcons: Standard dumbfire rockets. MX (Mercury or MaX) upgrade increases fire rate and missile speed considerably, and damage slightly. T (Tracker) introduces a moderate tracking ability on each projectile.

7. Missile Pods: Rapid-fire missiles with a homing ability. XS (eXtra-Strength) increases damage output. XT (eXtra-Tracking) improves the tracking ability and shrinks the missile's turn radius.

8. Hunter: Two smaller homing missiles, each able to track targets independently in rare situations. XT (eXtra-Tracking) upgrade improves the tracking ability and shrinks the missile's turn radius. W (salvo shape -- 3 points) adds a third missile into each launch.

9. Creepers: Small red mines that seek hostiles for a short period. XS (eXtra-Strength) upgrade increases damage output. XT (eXtra-Tracking) upgrade improves the tracking ability and survival time of each mine.

10. Devastator: Large missile that can be detonated mid-flight. MX (MaX) improves damage output considerably and increases maximum ammo count. PT (Power Thrusters) greatly increases flight speed and also increases maximum ammo count.

11. Nova: Large missile that creates tracking projectiles on impact with a wall. Collision with a robot is typically enough to kill it instantly, but no projectiles are created. XB (eXtra-Bolts) greatly increases the number of tracking projectiles that are produced in an explosion. CL (Cluster) changes the missile into a short-range bomb, which detonates after a short distance and flowers out projectiles away from its flight vector.

Originally posted by raptur6dof:

You get secondary upgrades every 50 kills, starting at 25 (so 25, 75, 125, ...) and primary upgrades every 50 kills starting at 50 (50, 100, 150, ...). *which* upgrade you get seems to be random, except you won't get a primary upgrade for a weapon that you don't currently have.

Can someone with a gold name pin this as a sticky?

[Valkyrie Celes]

Story Mode Upgrades to Weapons/Missiles are the same as Challenge Mode Upgrades, as 2C said above. So as more levels open up there, you'll be able to see more of them. But in the meantime, the current upgrades are described as below (note that these may change over time for balance, etc). Also, not *every* change is listed due to limited space, simplicity, and also that some are mostly assumed (Crusher Auto-Fire upgrade deals less damage/shot, etc). But this at least gives you a good idea what they do (combine this list with Necktie's list for a more complete view).

IMPULSE:
- STANDARD DUAL ENERGY SHOTS
+ MORE DAMAGE AND IMPACT FORCE PER SHOT
Q FOUR SHOTS AT ONCE WITH REDUCED RATE OF FIRE
RF HIGHER RATE OF FIRE, FASTER SHOTS, AND LOWER ENERGY USE

CYCLONE:
- TRIPLE-FIRING HIGH-SPEED ENERGY BLASTS
+ SHOTS TRAVEL MUCH FARTHER
X4 ADD CENTRAL SHOT AND WIDER FIRING ANGLE
F HIGHER RATE OF FIRE, FASTER SHOTS, AND REDUCED FIRING ANGLE

REFLEX:
- ALTERNATE-FIRING BOUNCING ENERGY SHOTS
+ SHOTS REDIRECT TOWARDS NEARBY ROBOTS BY UP TO 25 DEGREES
RF HIGHER RATE OF FIRE
L SHOTS FLY FARTHER, BOUNCE MORE, AND REDIRECT UP TO 45 DEGREES

CRUSHER:
- SEMI-AUTO HIGH-POWERED WIDE BLAST
+ REDUCED FIRING DELAY
DX HIGHER DAMAGE AND IMPACT FORCE, AND REDUCED FIRING ANGLE
AF AUTOMATIC ALTERNATING FIRE, WITH A REDUCED FIRING ANGLE

DRILLER:
- LONG-RANGE EXPLOSIVE SHOT
+ HIGHER RATE OF FIRE
DX HIGHER DAMAGE AND IMPACT FORCE
M SMALLER, MUCH FASTER FIRING SHOTS, WITH REDUCED AMMO USAGE

FLAK:
- RAPID-FIRE SHORT-RANGE MICRO-EXPLOSIVES";
+ HIGHER RATE OF FIRE
DX HIGHER DAMAGE AND IMPACT FORCE
VK RAMPED RATE OF FIRE, AND SHOTS FLY FARTHER

THUNDERBOLT:
- DUAL CHARGING EXOTIC ENERGY CANNON
+ SHOTS PASS THRU ROBOTS AND CAN HIT MULTIPLE TARGETS
MX HIGHER MAX POWER AND CHARGING RATE, AND FASTER SHOTS
RT SHOTS TRACK TOWARDS ROBOTS

Mysterious Final Weapon:
;)

FALCON:
- FAST-MOVING MID-SIZED MISSILE
+ HIGHER DAMAGE, LARGER EXPLOSION, AND MORE MAX AMMO
MX HIGHER DAMAGE AND RATE OF FIRE, AND FASTER SPEED
T MISSILES TRACK TOWARDS ROBOTS

MISSILE_POD:
- SMALL RAPID-FIRE MISSILES
+ MISSILES TRACK TOWARDS ROBOT
XS HIGHER DAMAGE AND MORE MAX AMMO
ST BETTER TRACKING ABILITY

HUNTER:
- SMALL DUAL-FIRING ROBOT-TRACKING MISSILES
+ HIGHER DAMAGE
W FIRE THREE MISSILES AT ONCE
XT BETTER TRACKING, FASTER SPEED, AND HIGHER MAX AMMO

CREEPER:
- SLOW-MOVING MINES THAT TRACK ROBOTS
+ LONGER TIME UNTIL DETONATION
XS HIGHER DAMAGE AND MORE MAX AMMO
ST BETTER TRACKING AND LONGER TIME UNTIL DETONATION

NOVA:
- MEDIUM EXPLOSION WITH ROBOT-TRACKING ENERGY BLOBS
+ HIGHER DAMAGE, BETTER BLOB TRACKING, AND FASTER SPEED
XB HIGHER BLOB DAMAGE, MORE BLOBS, AND MORE MAX AMMO
CL FAST EXPLOSION, BETTER TRACKING, HIGHER DAMAGE, MORE MAX AMMO

DEVASTATOR:
- MASSIVE DUMBFIRE MISSILE WITH EXPLOSIVE SHRAPNEL
+ MANUALLY DETONATE WITH SECOND PRESS WHILE IN-FLIGHT
PT ROBOT PIERCING ABILITY, FASTER SPEED, AND MORE MAX AMMO
XS HIGHER DAMAGE, BIGGER EXPLOSION, MORE SHRAPNEL AND MAX AMMO

Semi-Mysterious Missile:
:)

Mysterious Final Missile:
¯\_(ツ)_/¯