Whatever you collect during a flight, you keep. The hangar (Werft) in the main menu is where it turns into permanent progress. On top of that, your ship level grows with every flight — the reason your tenth flight takes you further than your first.
Ions
Ions are the main currency. Kills and copper ore drop them as green crystals; you have to collect them yourself, and they vanish after eighteen seconds. In Orbit you also sell ore at the stations, and some achievements pay out ions.
Cadet gives half ions. Veteran and Legend pay more per enemy and send more enemies — together roughly triple and almost seven times the yield. Mutators add a little extra, and the Ion Collector hangar upgrade 20 % per level.
The hangar
The hangar has two menus, switched in the header. That’s also where your ions, element stones and ship level are shown.
- Upgrade ship — the category on the left, its modules at the bottom, the explanation on the right: what a module does now, what it does after the upgrade, and what it costs.
- Arsenal — the weapon on the left, and at the bottom its unlock, its three talents and its three upgrade paths. Everything about one weapon in one place.
On your first visit, a short six-step introduction walks you through the hangar; the ? in the top right starts it again at any time. The markers on the ship show what’s currently fitted — weapon at the nose, protection on the hull, jump at the engine, lab in the core. Clicking one jumps to the matching category.
| Category | What’s in it |
|---|---|
| Hull | Armor plating, shield cells, nova depot, escape pods, emergency protocol — and the three defenses Armor, Parry and Phase Hull |
| Weaponry (Bewaffnung) | Weapon core (+10 % damage per level) and workbench (weapons start one level higher, at most two) |
| Drive | Thrusters, tractor coils, resonance hull — and the jumps Blink, Impact and Decoy |
| Lab | Lab (more XP), prior knowledge (skill points at take-off), Lucky Core (weapon levels drop sooner), Ion Collector |
| Hangar | Upgrades by ship level (see below) |
Upgrading takes a moment: the button fills up over a little more than a second while a tone rises, and you only pay once it’s full. Next to it sits a small dismantle button: it removes one level and refunds half the price — the exact amount is in its tooltip. Its spot is always reserved so nothing shifts while you buy, and nobody dismantles by accident. Everything takes effect from your next take-off.
Ship hulls no longer exist. You always fly the RAYCION; your play style comes from weapon, jump and defense. The former hull category is now the Hangar category, the upgrades by ship level.
Ship level
Every flight pays ship XP, even an aborted one — most of it from waves, plus kills, flight time, guardians and victories. The bar appears at the end of every flight and at the top of the hangar.
The ship level sets three limits:
- Weapon level: during a flight, a weapon climbs at most three levels above your ship level. From ship level 12 the way to level 15 is open.
- Weapons: every weapon except the Pulse Gun unlocks at a certain ship level and then costs ions.
- Hangar: the modules in this category open up level by level.
| Weapon | from ship level | Ions |
|---|---|---|
| Pulse Gun | — | free |
| Heavy Gun | 3 | 4,500 |
| Ion Laser | 6 | 5,000 |
| Homing Missiles | 9 | 5,000 |
| Snake Gun | 12 | 5,500 |
| Drone Swarm | 15 | 5,500 |
| Hangar module | from ship level | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Filter system | 3 / 6 / 10 | Zone plagues in Orbit 22 % weaker per level |
| Starting companion | 5 | You start Orbit with an ion satellite |
| Reserve tank | 7 / 12 | The ion chamber starts with 15 resonance charges per level |
| Cargo hold | 9 / 17 | +1 boon slot per level |
| Test bench | 14 | +1 element stone per trial passed |
| Work dock | 20 | Weapons start two levels higher than the workbench allows |
Weapon talents
In the Arsenal, every weapon has its own permanent talent tree. You pay for it with a resource that only comes from flying that weapon — and flying it the way it wants to be flown:
| Weapon | Resource | earned by |
|---|---|---|
| Pulse Gun | Rail dust | kills |
| Heavy Gun | Shard cores | kills, plus every pellet that passes through an enemy |
| Ion Laser | Burning glass | seconds the beam stays on a target |
| Homing Missiles | Fuse heads | missiles that hit |
| Snake Gun | Venom glands | kills, including by decay |
| Drone Swarm | Swarm chips | kills by the swarm |
It’s credited continuously — whatever you earn in a flight stays, even if you abort. Every weapon has three branches with three ranks each (15, 35 and 70):
- Force: +5 % base damage per rank
- Tempo: +4 % fire rate per rank
- Signature, unique per weapon: Pulse Gun +1 pierce, Heavy Gun +10 % range, Ion Laser reaches full heat 12 % sooner, Homing Missiles +15 % blast radius, Drone Swarm hunts 10 % further and faster, Snake Gun +1 decay stack
Talents work from the very first shot. Respeccing is possible at any time, one rank back, with a 70 % refund.
Element stones
Element stones are the rare currency. They only come from trials — special challenges within a flight, such as five guardians in one run or ten Orbit minutes without a hit. A trial grants two to five stones, one more with the test bench. They are credited immediately, not at the end of the flight.
In the Arsenal you use them to strengthen one specific upgrade path: three ranks per path, costing 1, 2 and 3 stones. These upgrades can’t be chosen during a flight — they take effect as soon as you take the path. What each path gains is listed on the Weapons page; the trials are under Achievements & trials.
Other unlocks
- Jumps and defenses — one option each is free, you unlock the other three in the hangar for ions. Overview under Equipment.
- Difficulty levels — Veteran opens once you reach sector 6 as a Pilot, Legend once you reach sector 10 as a Veteran.