How to not su- I mean how to choose your upgrades

This guide will give my thoughts on weapons and other upgrades, and when and why you should use certain things over others. Given that the average person I fight alongside in coop seems to be obsessed with flame breath, I think that it is worth trying to help people not be so dependant on that weapon, and use others depending on situation

Introduction

It has come to my attention when playing co-op that many people tend to rely on one weapon near exclusively when playing the game, and this only works to their detriment. As such, I am making this guide to teach people when and why weapons should be used, as exclusively using one weapon leaves you very vulnerable, especially as you get to Uranium and Insanium difficulties. Mk5 bots are brutal, and do not play around - sticking to one weapon alone is likely to result in you becoming a wreck of burning bits of metal on the ground. Please note that I will be basing this off of my own experiences and the opinions formed from them. It maybe that my playstyle suits itself to strategies that don't work for you, however I can speak to many long co-op runs and getting far into insanium on my own. Also, many strategies that work against regular robots don't work against the emperor's finest, so I will be assuming that the average fight is against the top tier of bots. One last thing - this applies to endless mode and fighting against AI bots - this may not be applicable to last bot standing or duels, though they can still work with a little modification to your tactics. Ready? Ok, here we go.

Flame Breath

I hate to say it, but this really isn't a good weapon. It certainly has its uses *cough*command bots*cough*, but against your average enemy, most other options do a better job.

The main downside to the fire breath is the vast energy consumption. Even a relatively short blast of fire costs a full segment of the energy bar, and the pulse is way too short to do anything consistently. To deal damage more consistently, hold down F for a little bit, and watch your energy collapse into the dust. When fighting mk5 robots, running out of energy is REALLY bad, as they can catch up to you and force you to fight without dashes or jetpack. And this is why its not a good idea to use this weapon in high difficulties.
However, its not all bad, as this weapon has proper ranged ability without being deflectable, which is the biggest flaw of the bow. In fact, nothing will protect against flame breath for any extended period, with armour being the best defence there is. Unfortunately, this short period might be enough for a mk5 hammer to drastically alter your facial structure. Still, this does make it a decent finishing off weapon when you don't want to deal with getting into melee range of that one sword bot that is still alive.
Depending on how you adapt to it, the fact that the fire shoots constantly where you are looking my be seen as a downside - you will be looking at the enemy, so your fast movement options (Jet and dash) will send you towards the enemy you are trying to kill. Turning aside will waste the flame breath, so it makes it more than a little awkward to dodge. Compare to the fire and forget nature of the bow, and you find that using flame breath makes you vulnerable while you use it. This is why I recommend always equipping the sword with block arrows while breathing fire, as its the only defence you have. Bow and hammer have no innate defences, and the spear shield is held off to the side and does not work while using flame breath.
I know I have been negative about the flame breath, so where does it shine? It shines against enemies that move in a straight line - not many at all. Mk 1 sword of course, but those are much more quickly and easily dealt with by the hammer. Almost every other non-stationary robot can strafe, and seems to do so in response to flame breath. And stationary bots are easy targets for the bow.

There is one type however, that will move in straight lines for extended periods - the fleet command bots when they charge. Trying to melee these bots is an exercise in frustration - mind space and infantry will usually not be in range and even when they are it is difficult. Fighting warfare bot in melee will result in you spending more time on your back than your feet. And logistics bot will chop you in half without a second thought. You may ask, why not use bow against them - simple, they are a pain to hit. Its worth a try, and you might get one occasionally. Normally, you will miss, and this is where flame breath really shines. When they charge, move backward and breath fire as they approach. This often breaks their head armour, stopping them charging, and you may even ignite their head, which will kill them. If the head armour is already gone, its an easy kill. Even when they are not charging, flame breath can provide that extra reach needed to end these nightmare robots. Although fleet command bots can appear as early as gold, they rarely come in dangerous numbers until uranium, so flame breath is a low priority.

Overall, flamebreath is an overused weapon that I don't think deserves the use it gets. It also seems to rarely be used at the optimum time, making it look even less useful than it actually is

Do: Use to finish off that last robot
Fend off a charge from a command bot
Don't: rush to get it by silver, it isn't worth it
Try to use it against robot that can dash

Hammer

The 3 sizes of hammer:
Size 1, 2 and 3 in ascending order


The best melee combat weapon, hammer should be a priority after obtaining the bow. Until you get hammer 3, I suggest sticking to the sword, as the slower swing speed make you vulnerable without having reach to back it up - size 1 is awful, size 2 is a match for the sword, size 3 is extremely powerful. Still, when facing opponents in melee, you will struggle to find something with more killing power. Hammer does insane amounts of damage, with a body or head hit being a consistently lethal source of damage. Hitting the feet sometimes kills, and sometimes just takes off a leg. Knockback with this weapon is very high if it doesn't kill, so it can sometimes send enemies into lava or other traps.
The high reach of this weapon allows for killing many enemies in a single swing, and it's large damage hitbox makes it easier to hit jumping enemies. Hammer works great with both dash and jetpack, it becomes a matter of timing to ensure that you reach your enemy right as the swing starts. Due to the lower swing speed, it is easier to get the hang of the timing, and you can take advantage of the extra reach to avoid putting yourself in as much danger as a sword or spear attack.
When you hit armour or a shield, enemies will be sent flying, and will be knocked down, allowing you to follow up with an overhead swing into their torso. The hammer seems to ignore the shield a large majority of the time, and I'm not sure if this has something to do with how I play or if the shield is just bad (though I lean towards the latter). Fire on the hammer is usually not necessary, it's nice to have. but most hits will kill anyway. Fire just ensures they die

The slow swing speed of the hammer is its greatest weakness, making it dangerous to use against bow robots. Alone among the melee weapons, it has no defensive abilities, however its extra reach helps counteract this. Use it to sweep aside hordes of weaker robots or to give yourself a bit of extra room for error against the high end melee bots. This weapon helps you endure the most brutal levels by letting you stay away from the fastest, most sudden attacks. And do make sure to remember that the angle that your character is facing affects where you swing - swing at the wrong angle, you will hit the floor, turn away from the direction you are swinging and you will have a very short arc. Angling it right can allow you to greatly increase your swing arc or hit things that you would otherwise have missed. This applies to all melee weapons, but the slower speed of the hammer makes it matter more

Do: Use against melee bots
Keep your distance
Don't: Use against archers or really whenever they are too close
Get complacent about the extra reach - the dash of a mk5 can still doom you

Bow

I'm going to be perfectly honest here, this is by far the best weapon in the game. Not because of its power, but because of its versatility. This weapon has so many ways that it can be used that make it my most used weapon, even if it isn't always the most exciting, and this makes it an immediate pick

When buying the bow, get the basic bow and fire 1. The rest isn't needed until later on, and is nice to have but hardly essential. Bow without fire is generally very weak - it doesn't do the damage it needs to do, and usually has no functional effect on robots it hits - it just goes straight through them without any consequences. Having fire spring up around the wound turns this from a meh weapon to amazing, allowing it to easily maim or kill robots that would otherwise brushed it off as nothing, and makes it way easier to aim - no need to go for the head anymore. Arrows can be rotated using the mouse wheel, which is useless with smaller arrows, but actually very good for high width ones, allowing you to get around a shield or get a better chance of hitting certain opponents
Lets get the weaknesses out the way first:
Energy consumption - half a segment of energy is used whenever you draw the bow. Firing it has no cost, but switching to a different weapon will lose you the arrow. Energy regenerates while the bow is drawn, allowing you to have 3 shots at 1 energy. Getting energy upgrades is essential to maximising this weapon's potential, particularly the energy recharge.
Block arrows - sadly nothing you can do here - mk 3,4 and 5 sword bots, as well as mk 3 and 4 bow robots (with swords drawn) cannot be shot with the bow, save from behind. This is maybe possible in co-op, but near impossible in single player. There may be a couple of other bots that cannot be shot, generally, if it has a sword and is a powerful enemy, it can probably block arrows. Still, these enemies are in the minority, and the majority will be killed by arrows

Now for the many ways this can be used to devastate your enemies
Killing archers - pretty self explanatory. Instead of having to get close to archers, why not burn them from afar with the bow's infinite range. Fire two arrows, with a 1-second delay between them to prevent them being dodged by a jump. This is extremely important when facing mk 5 bows. When these guys are stationary, say your thanks to the robot emperor for showing mercy, as half the threat of a mk 5 is its acrobatic leaps. When you get this opportunity, shoot the archer. They are generally very smart about jumping over arrows, so send them in delayed pairs as stated above. Trying to kill them in melee will activate them, and then they will start hopping around the map. Don't be that guy who tries to melee the archers, you will only make them more dangerous. They will nearly always jump away before you can hit them, so always shoot them before anyone you are playing with decides that they want to melee the mk 5
Aerial bombardment - some maps have jump pads that can be used to jump back and forth between them. This can allow you some respite to recharge, safe from being hit, and possibly allowing you to rain fiery death on you enemies. Line up your shot at a particular angle, and spam fire. Don't try to adjust your aim after the first shot, just keep shooting arrows. This isn't super effective, but can allow some respite and will thin the herd of big, powerful enemies
Fight in melee - who said that the bow was only a ranged weapon? The short draw time can make it ideal for fighting large enemies up close. In fact, the draw time is so short that it can sometimes be better to use it in melee than other weapons. When enemies are right on top of you, the hammer is probably better, and the energy cost is prohibitive when trying to use this for long periods, but this can still be used to devastating effect against most robots - weak sword bots, any hammer bot or spear bot among numerous others. This works best against hammers due to their size. Aim, spam a couple of arrows and watch them burn and fall apart. Works great. Spears require more effort to hit due to their shield. Wait for them to strafe, then aim at the arm holding the spear. Once it is hit, the fire should do the rest and burn it off, killing the bot. With larger width arrows, rotate the arrow so that it doesn't hit the shield. After the first shot, spam a couple extra arrows after the first, which may help do that little extra damage you need, or they can take advantage of the staggering effect of losing armour (when staggered, shields do nothing)
Take out annoying enemies - don't you hate the spider tron bombs with their knockdown and completely random and inconsistent damage? Don't you want to avoid the lasers from the captain and overseer? The bow helps deal with both of these. Spamming arrows at spider tron 5000 will ensure you hit it eventually. Hit 6000 between the eyes and the fire will do the rest. When you hear the laser about to fire, spam a load of arrows at the now immobile enemy, then find cover. All of these techniques allow for taking out some very dangerous enemies which would otherwise be a big problem
Shoot them while they are down - If you find that an enemy is on the floor and for whatever reason you can't get to them in time to smash them, switch to the bow and spam a couple of arrows. Enemies on their backs cannot block arrows and are thus much easier to kill - this is the only way to beat bow only without relying on stage RNG to let you kill blocking robots in other ways.

Do: Buy ASAP
Play bow only challenge in order to unlock the essential fire upgrade
Use this weapon intelligently - this one more than any other requires skill and creativity to use, and has a shockingly high skill ceiling
Don't: Waste all your energy on taking out one robot - you need energy for more than just the bow
Fire at robots that can block, you could get yourself or a teammate killed

Sword

A decent weapon, outclassed by the hammer but still useful in several circumstances, the sword is the weapon you start with in most playthroughs. Its main strength is its speed, and the fact that it can still hold up in combat without upgrades. The other 3 weapons cannot say the same. Dash works excellently with this weapon as well, and it is the only weapon that is not hampered by the loss of the left arm (hammer, bow and shield become unusable without the left arm)
The sword has a unique advantage over the hammer and spear in terms of how it interacts with the jetpack - the hammer swings as normal, and the spear is just held out in front of you, doing decent but not amazing damage and leaving your shield useless. The sword, on the other hand, can be held out in front (less useful, best against kick bots) or to the side (very useful, use against most enemies) in order to cut through enemies very effectively and without the need for a windup period. This is most useful against enemies that cannot deflect the sword: Mk 1, 2 and 5 bow, stationary Mk 4 bow and all hammer bots, and just for fun you can spin around quickly and become a blender (TBH this isn't very effective, but fun all the same). Just be wary using it against armoured robots, as hitting the armour will cause the sword to bounce off and the attack to end. Likewise, sword bots frequently block these attacks, making it very difficult to use it effectively against them. And for your own sake, don't ever use it against anything above a Mk 1 spear, the shield is just going to end that attempt very quickly. Another thing to watch out for is the environment, it is very easy to accidentally hit the sword on an obstacle and have to restart the attack. Try to avoid looking down too much, this tends to make it more likely to knock into something.

Fire on the sword is decent but by no means amazing. Many hits will kill (or not) anyway, but it is nice to have that little extra creeping damage that might turn a scratch lethal. This does work well with the jetpack, where precision is difficult, and many hits will cut deep but not be lethal. Fire makes this much more likely to kill. It also interacts very nicely with block arrows, where deflected arrows are set on fire, making them far more lethal than they would otherwise be. Overall, I would consider that the fire upgrade to the sword makes far more difference than for the hammer, but less difference than for the spear and far less than for the bow.

If you want to know what the best part of the sword is, it is block arrows - this upgrade alone makes this worth using in combat. If you are being targeted by archers, it is much safer to fight with the sword than the hammer, though you should absolutely prioritise killing the archers to get back to using the hammer, as the short reach of the sword is not ideal for fighting powerful enemies. Block arrows sees its main use against archers (I never would have expected that) and spider trons. No other upgrade allows you to charge headlong into a group of archers and promptly shred them all. And I mean no other upgrade (I'll get to that in the spear section). You can just jetpack or walk at them and not have to worry about getting cut in half by a stray arrow. The first level is the best, going from 0 to 90 degrees block angle makes much more of a difference than going from 90 to 180 as archers do not lead their shots, so a shot from the side usually misses anyway. At the first two levels, arrows deflect like light off of a mirror (its the only quick analogy I can think of, I know it sounds weird). At level 3, arrows are deflected towards a target, generally the one you look at. They can however be stubborn and insist at deflecting towards a target close in front of you, but this isn't super common - you will have to deal with it from time to time. The other thing to watch out for is that block arrows interrupts your attacks, be they normal or jetpack, and that it doesn't work while staggered or knocked down
Block arrows can also deal with spider tron shrapnel. You may be aware of this feature (and internally scream in rage every time it kills you), you may not. Regardless, randomly, spidertron bombs release shrapnel, which can hit and do a lot of damage to you or another robot. I despise this, as it is extremely inconsistent and impossible to predict (if someone has any idea how these work, tell me please). The shrapnel is visible as white lines leaving the bomb, which by the way can travel further than the knockdown effect. But here's the catch - very few of these actually do damage or have any impact whatsoever on the game. Those that do can randomly catch you out and kill or cripple you without any warning - stay the hell away from those bombs. But if all else fails, block arrows can block the shrapnel and send it flying a short distance. I have never damaged anything with deflected shrapnel and I suspect I never will even if it is technically possible. Just make sure you are facing towards the bomb and not close enough to get knocked down, and shrapnel will be deflected.

The sword is a very useful weapon, but lacking in raw power. Its speed make it excellent for the early game, and fire combos excellently with jetpack to chase down archers (if someone activates a Mk 5 before you can take them down with the bow, this is how you deal with the ensuing chaos). Block arrows is excellent and helps secure this weapon's place as the anti-archer weapon

Do: get block arrows fairly early on
use before you unlock the hammer
use with jetpack to fight archers
Don't: use to fight late game robots
forget that you haven't bought block arrows yet

Spear

Oh boy, my least favourite weapon, yet one that sees a surprising amount of use in co-op. Let me make it clear, normally, I like playing defensively in my games. I tend to fortify rather than expand in strategy games, and I like static defences and chokepoints. Unfortunately, this really doesn't work at all in clone drone in the danger zone. Sure, being cautious helps (this is something the hammer exemplifies best), but the best way to make sure that you don't die is to kill your enemies first, rather than relying on defences to save you (again, something the hammer does really well). And the problem with the spear is that it is too defensive and just doesn't do enough damage - you can kill, at most, one bot per attack in the overwhelming majority of cases, and several enemies have unfair advantages that make the shield useless. However, if you must use it, the spear is generally decent against most enemies without the crippling downsides of fighting archers with a hammer, or fighting certain robots (mk 2 kick bot especially) with the sword. But why on earth would I use the spear when I can switch between sword and hammer with the shortest of delays, changing my strengths and weaknesses at the drop of a hat?

Using the spear
When the spear is equipped, you will see a dot in the centre of the screen - this is where the spear point will hit when you attack. This dot should be on your enemy's face at all times. Without the fire upgrade, this is the only way you can consistently deal damage with the spear, as it is extremely difficult to sever arms or legs with this weapon. As such, you should get the fire upgrade immediately to make the weapon not utterly terrible, and its is still best to go for the head. Now you can actually kill something (sometimes). It will work fine against mk 1 robots which rarely strafe or jump. However, the moment that you start facing enemies which intelligently strafe and dodge, it becomes increasingly hard to hit them, and for me at least, I start yearning for the hammer with its wide arcs and devastating damage. The nature of the spear poke makes it much harder to hit enemies while jumping, strafing or really do anything which results in you moving relative to them in any direction other than forward or backward. You will be walking backward a lot, slowly picking off the herd one at a time (make sure you watch where you are going). It is also a little awkward against stationary bots, and takes practice to get it past shields (jump and slash at the head with the sword, or laugh at their puny shield as the hammer just ignores it, or sends them flying where they are easily finished off). You can do some slightly strange things with it like twitching the spear head to hit more of the body, which can make up for the low damage, but, well you can probably guess what my retort to that will be.
This thing is useless against spider trons, just use the bow or hammer. It can be decent against sword or jetpack bots as it is a forward thrust, just be careful. It also can be useful in the same situation as flame breath, where a command bot charges you, its just more difficult to hit and you risk being knocked over. Jetpack spear is decent, but just use the sword, you retain your defensive capabilities instead of losing them, and will hit harder - its a win win
Spear is actually quite good at circumventing armour, as you can hit the head or torso without any risk of armour getting in the way.

The shield
Oh, boy, this has to be the thing I have the most issues with. Lets start with the positives - shield bash is amazing, having a dash kick is very effective and absolutely something I want. Also, the shield is the only way to block hammer and spear without losing armour. Now lets get to the bad bits. Let's start with an easy one - the shield is held off to the side when you attack, and it is useless for that time. So to attack, you lose all protection you had right as you are about to get closest to your opponent. Oh dear. But this isn't the worst problem by a long way.
The main problem - oh boy is shield ever inconsistent. Please never use this against hammer bots, the spear is not good at killing them due to their massive size, and it doesn't have the reach to be safe from retribution from the hammer, which seems to go through the shield way too often. You can turn towards the hammer to increase the chance of survival, in which case you go flying, but I would rather turn away and dash or jetpack out of reach, then counter attack. "oh but I don't have enough energy." Don't be in melee combat then. Simple (ok fine, this isn't always possible, but jumping and wildly skillfully swinging is the main way to survive long enough to get out of this. Incidentally, the spear isn't so good while jumping). The shield is much more consistent at blocking spears, which I can actually give it some praise for, and its ok for swords. Or it would be if it wasn't for unbalance. All sword bots above mk1 have an unbalance ability where you are staggered if their sword collides with your sword or shield. During this time, you lose all defensive capabilities and have to dodge everything. You also cannot attack or switch weapons. So spear can save you from a sword strike, but it won't save you from two in quick succession. You can also use the shield to block arrows, but please refer to the sword which is just better. Arrows can sadly get around your shield and hit your right arm, which is a fatal injury if destroyed, so don't rely on it. Archers tend to fire centre mass, but slight deviations in your or their motion could cause your death.
While the spear is much better with the shield than without it, the shield is just not very good. Arrows can be blocked much more effectively and safely with the sword, and in a game like this, your gameplay style should never revolve around getting hit - any hit can be fatal, so assume every hit will be fatal, and stay out of range, going into range only to attack. The shield has a negative psychological effect on you, you are more likely to take a risk if you think you have some kind of protection against it, even if that protection is very poor - applies in real life too, and can explain why you are more likely to be hostile or outright act violently if you have a weapon on you. Tangent aside, don't rely on the shield to save you, it usually won't.

Sorry for being so negative, but sadly the spear has little that it can do that other weapons cannot do better. I almost never use this weapon due to that. It isn't bad per sae, but it just cannot be used as effectively as other weapons due to its lack of a swing arc.

Do: use against charging command bots (if you can't firebreath for whatever reason)
use in the early game as a general all rounder (if you really don't want to grab the specialist weapons)
use shield bash, it is the best thing about this weapon
use as a meme weapon, or for a challenge
Don't: ever use this weapon, there is always something else that can do its job better, and you can gather more than enough upgrade points to get everything you need before things get really hard
rely on the shield, it usually fails you

Kick

Ok, I have very mixed feelings on this one. It can work very well with the sword, and excellently with the spear in the form of shield bash, but it does have some significant downsides - when you kick, you put your leg in danger, and if you lose a leg, you cannot kick and are stuck hopping on one leg, probably soon to be dead. Enemies will strafe around this as well, so watch out and don't get killed.

Where it is good
Weak enemies fall easily to this, and it is lightning quick, allowing you to send stationary bots flying into traps. When they get up, enemies tend to roll randomly, possibly treating themselves to a nice warm bath or acupuncture session, and as a result you no longer have to deal with them. Knocked down enemies are helpless, and easily shattered or incinerated with the hammer or fire sword, even if they have armour in the way (overhead slash is great here). Although kick power sends enemies further away, which some see as a downside, I would be inclined to disagree - it can remove enemies from fights for an extended period, allowing you to take out the rest more easily. Power kick not only sends enemies flying further back, it keeps them on the floor for longer. You can still kick them against a wall, which will keep them down for just as long while still keeping them more or less stationary. It is also surprisingly easy to chain kicks together using the jetpack to catch up, and making sure that they never get long on their feet before going back down (don't forget enemies can roll out of the way, just be ready to respond). Or if you don't want to keep kicking a robot down, you can just smash it to pieces in the time it takes to get up. Kick power sends enemies flying towards other enemies, which is a little inconsistent, but can be nice, resulting in them taking an arrow to the head or knocking down multiple enemies. Jetpack kick is good as well, and you can take down multiple enemies quickly even if they don't hit each other. Kick also works on spider trons and other huge robots, and nothing is more satisfying than kicking a 6000 into lava and watching it slowly melt.

And lets not forget the best part of kick by a long shot - get up. This has to be one of the best upgrades in the game and is utterly essential vs a lot of robots - kick bots, spider trons, command bots, flame raptors, hammer bots (if you have armour) and basically anything and everything that might knock you down. Get this upgrade, you won't regret it.

Where it is bad
The main thing to remember is that this is is not in any way lethal - you will only kill enemies by putting them in the way of danger, and not by actually kicking them. It can make enemies vulnerable and thus easier to kill, but it is often better to just take a hammer to them (hey what can I say, simple problems have simple solutions). As mentioned before, you put your leg in a lot of danger by kicking, and might lose it to an unlucky miss. High level enemies have a nasty habit of strafing out the way of your kicks, and a mk 5 sword bot might follow that up with a dash and slash you across the back. Cue fire. Cue "clone activated". And never attack spear bots with this, there are far too many ways this can go wrong. They could stab, hitting you in the foot and ending your sorry existence. Alternatively, mk 3 and 4 might shield bash, which does get priority over kick, so you will end up on the floor for them to stab you. Similar things happen against a command bot charge (oh and knocking over command bots is damn near useless, they can still move and seem to do so in a much more evasive way). Higher level bots recover very quickly, giving you a small window of opportunity to hit them, but it still helps.

Do: use early on
buy get up
take down certain annoyances (just pay attention to the level layout, this works better for levels with plenty of lava
Don't: attack spear bots
leave yourself wide open for a counter attack
forget that this isn't lethal

Jetpack

This upgrade cannot do damage on its own, but it a massive upgrade over the dash simply because it is continuous. This allows for high mobility on ground and in air, and interacts well with all melee weapons. Sword and spear can be held out in front or at an angle to do a constant attack against your foes. The extra speed allows you to stay just a little further from your enemies and still be able to attack at a moment's notice. My advice for this weapon is simple - get both levels at once (level 1 is too slow to be effective in combination with melee weapons), and after you have energy recharge. Make sure not to forget that you have got this upgrade as you cannot dash after unlocking this upgrade. It also allows you to get away from enemies you don't want to deal with at the moment, which is oh so critical in insanium. Overall, this is great after the earlier difficulties. Not much more to say on it to be honest

Energy

Rightly described by analysis bot as the ultimate synergy, this upgrade chain gives a massive boost to basically any playstyle, be it using dash to increase the effectiveness of a melee weapon, longer jetpack usage or more arrows to spam. In my opinion, energy recharge is superior to having more capacity, so just ignore energy 4 until you need flame breath or the levels get really hard. You can't really go far wrong with this upgrade path, it's just good - the more energy consuming abilities you have, the more powerful this upgrade path is. Just make sure you always have a little left for emergencies. Again, I have little to say on this, so let's move on

The Miscellaneous - armour, clone, repair

These are certainly a bit of a stretch to call upgrades, but you can buy them with upgrade points so I don't care. These upgrades primarily work as consumable survivability upgrades, but can also have some negative affects on your gameplay (remember what I said about shield? - this goes double for these upgrades)

Armour: This is a very good upgrade, as it allows you to take hits to the arms or legs and not be damaged. There are 4 segments, each covering one limb. However, the head is not protected, and if you catch fire, armour cannot stop it for long and you will probably still lose the limb the fire is affecting. Lucky or skillful hits can also go through the gap between the arm and leg armour pieces, and the head can be aimed at to completely ignore armour. Any hit to an armour segment will cause it to be lost and you will briefly be staggered. Its better than being dead, but you cannot attack or defend. Don't think that you are invulnerable because you have armour - hits can still go through if aimed well, and fire tends to strip armour very quickly. Still, being resistant to one or two hits can make a world of difference. Hammer strikes are the bane of armour, knocking you over as if you were kicked, and often removing two armour segments at once

Clone: Its an extra life - pretty self explanatory. I would avoid getting this early on as it doesn't affect combat ability, and you need those for uranium and insanium. There is also a 10 clone limit to make sure you cannot last forever. Team retry in co-op has a 3 limit and only comes into play if everyone dies, but I would generally consider it very similar in when you should buy it - later on once team wipes become more likely

Repair: You will be given a new body with no damage, and if your original body has armour left, the new one has full armour. This does not count towards your maximum number of purchasable clones. This upgrade is only available if you have a non-functioning limb. This is (for some reason) not available in co-op, but you can just jump into lava at the end of a level, which will result in you losing an upgrade point and being restored to a fresh robot body. This does not recover your armour and is of course stage dependant

These upgrades, as I said, are mainly survivability. They do not help you fight in any way. And there is a crippling downside to them all - they are temporary. Armour breaks, clones die and damage is taken. This means that the points you invested are lost over time. Normal upgrades cannot be taken from you - when you die, your clones have all your upgrades. But with these three, it is different. Investing points in them early makes you weaker. This can result in you being too weak to fight, and keep taking damage or even dying. If you are not careful, you risk forming a cycle of dying, buying a new clone and dying again the next level. This can apply to armour as well, and sometimes to repair.
This is only made worse by the potential psychological effects of having these extra protections - you are more likely to take risks, and thus get yourself killed. The only way to counteract this is to act like every life is your last, and every hit will kill. Such is the way of clone drone in the danger zone.

[Robetion]

the main reason i get flame breath is so i dont die when i lost my arms

[ashbearh11]

personally i like the spear,i find it easier to stab robots in the head instead of meeleing them,plus i onehit the fleet commander with a lucky hit that managed to peirce the armor,so ive probably just got good experiences

[you]

repair should NOT be used if you are going for tis just a scratch badge

[Pizza]

"of a mark 5 hammer drastically changing your facial structure" that got me good man

[yoxxy]

I fell like the reason people rely on one weapon so much is because the game doesn't really punish you for it until uranium, and most challenges end at titanium.

[Sleepless™]

I've got a really good aim with the spear where I can near hit anything perfectly with it, and its kinda crossed over with fire breath. So I see where you coming from with your opinion i just love fire breath tbh, its my first choice in one weapon per person challenge.

[famalex]

I suppose that it has been quite a while since this has been updated, so I can't say much about how fire breath fares against zombies. I may have been a little harsh on it, but my main issues with it are the crazy energy consumption for what it does and the rather short range. Sure, if you can hit with it, it will really hurt, and I can't deny its effectiveness against armour, certainly flame raptors have a nasty habit of burning off limbs. Unfortunately, I don't know why you would not just use a bow in 90% of instances - slower but so much safer. Once you drain your batteries it probably isn't even that much slower because of arrows needing less energy. As for arrow-deflecting robots, I suppose it is a fair choice, just be extremely careful with mk5 sword bots or anything else that can dash. As you might guess, I like the hammer for them, long reach, very lethal and good at stripping armour

[Sleepless™]

Fire breath is great for getting rid of zombies, and anything with armor. But I suppose I'm just better ,built different as the "Yugguns" say it.

[TitaniumSword3000]

My opinions on the weapons from a late game perspective:

The sword is really good against everything except spear bots, mk 5 bows and laser raptors because it's fast and can block swords and arrows, so it's very reliable but not always the best choice. The bow is kind of literally the opposite to sword. The bow is excellent against spear bots, mk 5 bows and laser raptors but due to the quite huge quantity of high tier sword robots it can be flaming hot garbage in some levels, in conclusion the bow is a situation specific tool. The hammer is also a very situation specific thing but is more of a weapon than a tool compared to bow, it's basically designed for spear bots (ESPECIALLY fire island) and it can be great against most other robots except bow bots, never ever ever ever ever ever EVER use hammer when trying to kill bow bots. The spear is strange, i'm not really sure what to say about it. It is really good against everything but NEEDS practice, and a lot of it.

[kesterscandrett]

But I still hate the bow the sword and hammer are good enough for me