Every flight starts with your chosen equipment at a low level. What it becomes is up to you along the way.
Levels and skill points
Defeated enemies drop XP cores. Every level grants a skill point, fully recharges your shield and patches up 10 % of your hull. New points show up as a marker right on the ship (“SKILLPUNKTE · TAB”) until you have opened the skill tree once.
Tab or Start opens the skill tree. It has three branches — Attack, Protection, Maneuver — plus your weapon card. Hover over a skill and it shows what it actually changes: not as a formula, but as a number before and after (“DPS 16 → 18”). The second tab, SHIP, shows all your stats, your weapon and, in Orbit, the module slots. After a guardian, the skill tree opens on its own if you still have points left.
Weapon levels
Your weapon levels up in two ways:
- When you level up: every level rolls whether a weapon level is added — never twice in a row, and after three misses it’s guaranteed. That gets you to the top level around level 50. The Lucky Core hangar upgrade raises the chance.
- In the skill tree, for skill points: 1 point per level, 2 from level 5, 3 from level 10.
How high a weapon can climb during a flight is set by your ship level: at most three levels above it. More in the hangar article.
Boons
Every five levels, after every guardian and when you salvage a wreck, the game offers boons: three cards, one each from weapon, maneuver and utility. You take one, or decline and get a wreck part.
- Rarity costs wreck parts: common is free, rare 1, epic 2, legendary 3. Rarer boons are stronger.
- Cargo hold: every new boon takes a slot — 4 on Cadet and Pilot, 5 on Veteran, 6 on Legend, plus the Cargo Hold hangar upgrade. Once it’s full, you are only offered upgrades to boons you already have.
- Stacking and transforming: identical boons stack. At the third stack many of them transform into a stronger form — Spiral Fire becomes Vortex Fire.
- Every boon works with every weapon. The shot boons (Spiral Fire, Seeker, Rear Gun, Crossfire, Burst Fire) do something of their own with the laser, the swarm or the snake — the card tells you what happens with your weapon. On top of that, some boons only appear with a specific weapon.
- Companions: ion satellites, minefield, lightning arc and drone swarm work regardless of where you’re facing.
Core boons
They rewrite a basic rule, come at most once per flight and are always legendary: Glass Cannon (no shield, double damage), Ion Chain (XP only from grazes), Battering Ram (contact hurts enemies), Slow Motion (everything 30 % slower, half ions), Berserker (damage grows with your combo) and Pacifist (your weapon falls silent, the reprise deals triple damage).
Duo boons
With two matching boons, a duo boon can appear that combines both — for example Shatter (Stasis Nova and Warhead: frozen enemies explode) or Rail Storm (Rail Shot and Volley Rhythm: the broadside consists of rail shots).
Relic boons
In Orbit, decoded relics offer boons you can’t get anywhere else: Tractor Beam, Mining Laser, Gravity Anchor, Solar Sail and Ore Resonance. They are free and don’t take a slot.
Sets
Three different boons sharing the same trait unlock a set bonus. Collect with purpose and you get more than the sum of the cards.
| Set | Trait | Bonus |
|---|---|---|
| Dancer set | Graze | Grazes on the beat count double, larger graze radius |
| Armor set | Shield | A shield break erases projectiles nearby |
| Echo set | Chamber | Every kill charges resonance, reprise +50 % damage |
| Phantom set | Phase jump | Two jump charges |
| Frost set | Slow | Slowed enemies take 30 % more damage |
| Blast set | Explosion | All explosions 40 % larger |
| Nova set | Nova | A nova recharges every 45 s |
| Fleet set | Companion | Companions deal 40 % more damage |
| Precision set | Crit | +15 % crit chance, crits give double combo |
| Focus set | Focus | In focus, projectiles near you are 25 % slower |
Your weapon’s levels
Every weapon grows over fifteen levels:
- Levels 1–5 — the base form gets stronger: more barrels, pellets, width or punch, depending on the weapon.
- Level 5 — you choose one of three upgrade paths. The direction shapes every level after it and holds for the whole flight. If you’re not ready yet, you can postpone the choice — it comes back with the next boon offer.
- Levels 8, 11 and 14 — the weapon changes shape: the Pulse Gun gains barrels, the laser holds more targets, the swarm more drones, the missile a bigger crater. In between, every level adds damage.
- From level 10 — the improved form: +50 % damage and +20 % fire rate. It appears as a card once your path is chosen and a boon for your weapon has three stacks, and it costs 3 wreck parts.
In focus, every weapon also switches into a mode of its own — see Focus. All paths are listed on the Weapons page. With element stones you permanently strengthen individual paths, with talents the weapon itself — both in the hangar.