Ten of fifteen weapon levels were empty. A look at what changes per level: levels 1 through 5 turn several dials — barrel count, fan width, blast radius, beam width, pierce, homing. From level 6 on, leveling up only changed the damage number. A Pulse Gun at level 14 played exactly like level 6, just with bigger numbers.
Every weapon now gets three real jumps in the late game, at levels 8, 11 and 14:
| Weapon | Level 8 | Level 11 | Level 14 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pulse Gun | 4 barrels | 5 barrels | 6 barrels |
| Spread Shot | 7 pellets, wider | 8 pellets | 9 pellets, almost a half-circle |
| Ion Laser | 3 targets | 4 targets | 5 targets |
| Homing Missiles | 3 missiles, bigger crater | bigger crater | 4 missiles |
| Snake Gun | pierce 5, sharper homing | pierce 6, more momentum | pierce 8 |
| Drone Swarm | 5 drones | 6 drones | 7 drones |
That’s eight levels per weapon that actually feel different now, instead of five.
The DPS budget stays what it was. When a weapon gains a barrel, the damage per shot drops to compensate, calculated back from the target damage curve (+12% per level up to 10, then +10%). Otherwise the curve would have jumped by a third at three points and broken the difficulty balancing from earlier patches. Cross-checked: the Pulse Gun at level 15 still sits at 291 DPS, same as before, but with six barrels instead of three.
The ship screen’s level preview now names what each jump actually brings — targets, pierce, homing and momentum weren’t listed there before.
The ion chamber stores Resonance, not ions. Both were called “ions,” but they were really two different things: the currency for the hangar, and the storage for captured shots. The fix wasn’t to rename the device — “the last ion chamber” is the story’s core and the reason the ship exists — but to rename what’s inside it. The chamber collects Resonance: the vibration of the shots it captures. That fits the reprise (a musical repeat), the “Graze Resonance” skill, the “Resofield” duo, and the underlying nature of the captured shots — and it’s physically accurate too: energy is absorbed, vibrates, and comes back, instead of being spent.
The HUD bar now reads “Resonance · V”; ions remain the currency. The help text spells out the difference explicitly.