Ship level. Until now there was only progress within a flight (level 1–50) and money for the hangar. Now the ship itself grows too: every flight pays into experience, even an aborted one. Ship level sets the ceiling for how high a weapon can level up during a run at all — weapon level ≤ 3 + ship level.
The two systems complement each other instead of overlapping:
- Your in-flight level rolls weapon levels while you fly (since 0.75.0).
- Your ship level decides how far that can go at all.
Without the cap, ship level would just be a second number sitting next to the first. With it, it’s the reason your tenth flight goes further than your first, even if you fly exactly as well both times.
Experience comes from waves (the most), kills, flight time, guardians and victories. Calibrated against three player profiles — flights needed to reach the full weapon cap (ship level 12):
| Profile | XP per flight | Flights to level 12 |
|---|---|---|
| Beginner, wave 6 | 312 XP | ~60 |
| Solid, wave 12 | 708 XP | ~27 |
| Good, wave 22 | 1,406 XP | ~14 |
The cap shapes the early game without getting in the way once you’re solid — and a beginner has gotten better by flight 60 anyway. Cross-checked in-game: an in-flight level of 40 (which would otherwise unlock weapon level 14) correctly stayed capped at weapon level 6 with 1,200 ship XP.
The end-of-flight screen now shows the XP bar under your flight stats, and the weapon card in the skill tree now names the required ship level instead of just “MAX.”
Hangar redesign mockup. A prototype shows what the hangar could look like, with three tiers of controls:
- left: the main category — Hull, Arsenal, Propulsion, Lab, Bay
- bottom: that category’s modules, the row switching with the selection (Hull has 8: Armor Plating, Nova Depot, Shield Cells, Escape Pods, Emergency Protocol and the three defense types · Arsenal has 7: Weapon Core, five weapon unlocks, Workbench)
- right: an explanation of the selection — description, current effect, effect after upgrading, cost, upgrade button. With nothing selected, it shows a ship overview instead.
The ship sits in the middle with markers at the points where each system attaches (Arsenal at the nose, Propulsion at the stern, storage in the middle), with ship level shown at the top.
Upgrading is now a process, not a click. The button fills with a loading bar over 1.4 seconds, a percentage counts up from 0 to 100 alongside it, and a rising tone plays as it charges. Only after that does the level increase, ions get deducted, and the tile, rail, header and panel redraw.
Modules now span the full width. The detail panel now sits above the module row instead of beside it, so modules run across the full width of the stage. Every tile has enough minimum width that even “Defense: Phase Hull” fits fully; if not everything fits, the row scrolls sideways.
Not playable yet, but not a throwaway mockup either: categories, perks, prices, descriptions and levels all come live from the game’s real data. The category color runs through the whole interface — rail, tab, module tile, panel border and upgrade button. The visual language matches the main menu (beveled hex edges, double borders, the same font). Space for the hangar artwork is already reserved.