Upgrade-able Weapons

Ionizer (pistol)
Annihilator (shotgun)
Altershock (revolver)
Trident (plasma rifle)
Phage Launcher (grenade launcher)
Meat Nailer (railgun)

Faction Weapons (cannot be upgraded)

AK47
Hammer & Sickle
Blafaladaciousnesticles (sword)
Enlightenment

Secret Weapons (cannot be upgraded)

Finger gun
Annihilator Prototype (super shotgun)
Kauboi's Revolver (requires NG+ to use except in some custom levels)
Nostalgic Pistol
Gordle Pun (portal gun)
Ætherian Quad Bow

Other Weapons

Grenades
Extinguisher Grenades

Use Duz's text/picture guide located here: https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2959513013

For each weapon, I will describe the base damage and critical hit damage in their corresponding sections in the guide.

Base damage is any hit to the torso of an enemy.
Critical hit damage is to the head, eyes, or other critical area which is typically triple damage.

Hits to extremities inflict reduced damage. Approximately 25% less the legs and 33% less to the arms.

Everyone's play style is different and the upgrade order I have chosen is reliant on solid accuracy with the Altershock at long range, while heavily leveraging the Annihilator at close-to-medium range. If accuracy isn't your strong suit, definitely focus on Ionizer upgrades early, especially the Smart Plasma module which will make all your shots hit their target after locking on (super useful during The Great Sea battle with the speedboats). If you want to go more stealthy then get the the Suppressor for the Ionizer as well, though I've rarely found that to be not very useful in most situations. You need to kill an enemy with one hit or they will alert their squad-mates. Each Mod Station is listed below with the Chapter they can be found in and in what order in the chapter they are located. I also note when each weapon is acquired.

Chapter 1 - Ionizer
Chapter 2 - Annihilator
Chapter 2 - Gordle Pun
Mod 2-1 - Annihilator - Bottle Efficiency (hold more ammo)
Chapter 3 - Altershock
Chapter 4 - Key for Annihilator Prototype
Mod 5-1 - Altershock - Laser Sight (Hip firing headshots)
Chapter 6 - Nostalgic Pistol
Mod 6-1 - Annihilator - Pellet Resonator (damage increase)
Mod 6-2 - Annihilator - Semi-Auto (no need to rack the shotgun and great before both Chapter 6 boss battles)
Mod 6-3 - Annihilator - Holographic Sight (Not very useful but needed for the next upgrade)
Chapter 6 - Trident
Mod 7-1 - Annihilator - Tuned Coils (reduces spread)
Mod 7-2 - Altershock - Heat Sink (increased firing rate)
Mod 8-1 - Altershock - Entropy Accumulator (last shot in mag does triple damage)
Mod 8-2 - Trident - Wave Harmonizer (damage increase for triple-barrel shot)
Chapter 8 - Ætherian Quad Bow
Mod 9-1 - Altershock - Gyro Stock (slows hand movement on trigger half-press)
Mod 9-2 - Altershock - Scope (useful in The Diplomat for long-range firing)
Chapter 10 - Faction Weapons
Mod 10-1 - Trident - Inertial Sink (reduces recoil for one-hand firing)
Mod 10-2 - Trident - Heat Sink (increases firing rate)
Mod 10-3 - Trident - Holographic Sight (can be useful for aiming)
Mod 12-1 - Trident - Smart Eject (makes reloading easier)
Chapter 12 - Phage Launcher
Mod 12-2 - Phage Launcher - Laser Sight (arcing laser sight for better aim)
Chapter 12 - Annihilator Prototype (use the key from Chapter 4 after exiting the fish)
Mod 13-1 - Phage Launcher - Magnet Bombs (projectile redirects to stick to target)
Mod 13-2 - Phage Launcher - Ammo Counter (displays ammo count inside launcher)
Chapter 14 - Finger Gun
Mod 14-1 - Phage Launcher - Ammo Upgrade (increases ammo regeneration speed)
Mod 14-2 - Ionizer - Extended Magazine (increases ammo capacity in mag)
Mod 14-3 - Ionizer - Overclocker (damage increase)
Mod 14-4 - Ionizer - Holographic Sight (better sight)
Mod 14-5 - Ionizer - Smart Plasma (bullets track to target)
Chapter 15 - Meat Nailer
Mod 15-1 - Meat Nailer - Ammo Upgrade (increases ammo regeneration speed)
Mod 16-1 - Meat Nailer - Temporal Focus (Slows down time on trigger half-press)
Chapter 16 - Kauboi's Revolver
Mod 17-1 - Trident - Flow Cycler (damage increase for rapid-fire shots)
Mod 17-2 - Ionizer - Suppressor (Shots cannot be heard by enemies)

Base Damage - 8

The base pistol offers 5 upgrades but wears out its welcome fairly early on due to its low power. If you play on easier difficulties you might find it to be useful all game, but on Normal or Hard you'll be far more efficient using the shotgun which you grab in Chapter 2. Easy to one-hand and aim with iron sights, but can be two-handed for a marginal increase in accuracy.

Extended Magazine - Useful upgrade as it gives you more shots per magazine and therefore more shots overall as the ammo synthesizes at the same rate.

Overclocker (requires Extended Magazine upgrade) - Also useful as it increases the damage output of your shots by 25%

Holographic Sight - Useful for long range shots as it aids with aiming if you are less proficient with the iron sights.

Smart Plasma (requires Holographic Sight upgrade) - Adds a module on the side of the Ionizer that will steers your shots at a target that you have locked onto with the device. This is massively useful during The Great Sea speedboat battle if you are having trouble. In practice during large battles (for example in the area with the three locks in chapter 6), I found it to be more annoying than useful as it sometimes locked onto a different enemy as I was trying to headshot another. One of the reasons I stop using this weapon entirely fairly early on. Also, it will not track to Stealth Bots or Sniper Bots because they have jammers. However, this feature can be useful for locking on and shooting around walls, or for hitting far away targets. Again, in practice it's not all that great especially because the weapon is incredibly weak, but at lower difficulty levels you may find it useful. This is one module that I sometimes activate and deactivate for use in niche situations.

Suppressor - A silencer for the Ionizer that allows you to kill enemies with stealth. Unfortunately, most encounters involve enemies being aware of you immediately and this has very limited usage, IMO. I did try to do a stealth run at one point but on Hard Difficulty it really doesn't pay off well, though you might get some good use out of it on Story, Easy or Normal as long as you instakill your target with a single shot. Wound one or miss near them and they will immediately alert their squad-mates.


Because you can grab the Annihilator (shotgun) before using the first Mod Station, my personal preference is to ignore the Ionizer upgrades and save your early Mod Stations for upgrading the shotgun and Altershock (revolver). If you are not very precise with your aim, then continuing to use this weapon with the Smart Plasma upgrade can be very useful.

Base Damage - 56 (7 dmg x 8 projectiles)

With some upgrades, the shotgun can easily become your bread and butter weapon for most close-to-medium combat situations. You'll need to two-hand it until you get the Semi-Auto upgrade, after which you can accurately one-hand it especially with Tuned Coils. If you prefer two-handing, you may want to skip Semi-Auto entirely since you'll be able to shoot 3-4 times faster without it.

Holographic Sight - Not particularly useful to add a sight to a shotgun, but required for the next upgrade.

Tuned Coils (requires Holographic Sight upgrade) - Reduces the spread on the shotgun making it a far better medium range weapon. Personally, I find this indispensable.

Bottle Efficiency - Another great upgrade that increases the ammo capacity from 6 to 8 and therefore increases your overall ammo count.

Pellet Resonator - 50% Damage upgrade for the shotgun which is also extremely useful.

Semi-Auto (requires Holographic Sight + Tuned Coils or Bottle Efficiency + Pellet Resonator) - Eliminates the need to rack the shotgun after each blast, enabling you to one-hand the weapon with ease. While you can rack the shotgun and shoot more rapidly without this, it frees up your other hand to focus on dodging in sticky situations. Ignore this upgrade entirely if you prefer the higher fire rate and are comfortable two-handing it as a trade-off.


Personally, I prefer doing the ammo+damage upgrades first and then immediately getting Semi-Auto. The Holographic Sight is basically useless, and while the reduced spread is a critical upgrade, you have to pick and choose and I find it can wait a bit. Again if you are fine two-handing and want a faster fire rate, skip Semi-Auto or activate/deactivate it whenever the situation requires.

Base Damage - 28

This weapon will quickly replace your Ionizer for medium-to-long range combat with the right upgrades and solid aim. It only holds 6 bullets at a time so you have to make them count. Very accurate one-handed and can be two-handed for a marginal increase in accuracy. Stick to the Ionizer with Smart Plasma if you are not very accurate in VR.

Laser Sight - Indispensable upgrade that allows you to nail headshots while hip firing. Also required before getting any other upgrades on the weapon.

Heat Sink (requires Laser Sight) - Increases the fire rate of the gun which is also very necessary.

Entropy Accumulator (requires Laser Sight + Heat Sink) - Excellent upgrade that makes the final bullet in your magazine do triple damage. This attack will also penetrate the shield of a heavy security bot.

Gyro Stock (requires Laser Sight) - Interesting upgrade which may or may not be useful depending on your play style and abilities. When you partially press your trigger, it steadies your hand such that your hand movements are slower, allowing you to more accurately hit your headshots. However, I found it to be more of a hindrance in medium-range combat situations as my hand moved too slowly as compared to my real life movements. A bit immersion-breaking and not ideal for me, but YMMV.

Scope (requires Laser Sight + Gyro Scope) - I find this to be not all that useful but paired with the Gyro Stock it can help you nail headshots from very far away. Especially useful against snipers in Off A Rail, but then you would have to forgo your shotgun upgrades till later. More useful in The Diplomat mission, though the power of the weapon is lacking against many of the enemies you face, especially on Hard Difficulty.


Personally, I grab the Heat Sink and Entropy Accumulator for firing rate and damage and ignore the accuracy upgrades entirely. With a steady hand and moving closer to the snipers and faction foes, you can pick them off fairly easily with the Laser Sight only, but the accuracy upgrades can definitely be useful in certain niche situations.

Base Damage (rapid fire) - 5.5
Base Damage (triple fire) - 16.5

I find the Trident to be the least useful of the 6 upgrade-able weapons in the game, but since you will encounter 15 Mod Stations prior to getting the Phage Launcher, you will certainly want to upgrade and make the most of it, especially against bosses. You need to two-hand this weapon and not hold the trigger down to make it accurate enough to use against normal-sized enemies, while against large bosses you can typically one-hand it. For normal-sized enemies, you can consider it a weaker and less accurate version of the shotgun, and make some use of it at short to medium range. It's fairly inaccurate at long range.

Wave Harmonizer - Probably the most useful upgrade as it increases the damage of the triple-barrel shots by 33%. As I said, I typically only use this weapon against bosses and this packs a decent punch, and is helpful when you run out of ammo in your other weapons. I used it heavily against the Igneosaur and Saplord, but less so against later bosses.

Flow Cycler - Increases the rapid-fire damage by 33% which can be useful when dealing with a crowd of enemies or trying to shatter a Centaur's shield.

Holographic Sight - Fairly useless though it does help to aim the weapon as it doesn't have a great base sight.

Inertial Sink (requires Wave Harmonizer or Flow Cycler upgrades) - Pretty useful in boss battles as it reduces recoil allowing you to one-hand the weapon more easily. It still has significant recoil even with this upgrade so again it's best used against large bosses or two-handed.

Heat Sink (requires Wave Harmonizer + Inertial Sink or Flow Cycler + Inertial Sink) - Increases the fire rate of the weapon which is again useful during boss battles. This does increase the need to two-hand the weapon if you want to take advantage of the higher fire rate.

Smart Eject (requires Holographic Sight) - Fairly useful upgrade that ejects a spent mag entirely so that you don't have to knock it out with the new mag.


As I mentioned, there are 15 Mod Stations available before you get to the Phage Launcher, and there are 21 upgrades available between the 4 weapons you have received thus far, so you can pick and choose what's important to you, but you'll want to prioritize the Phage Launcher and Meat Nailer upgrades as soon as you get them. Once you get the faction weapons in Chapter 10, the Trident becomes pretty redundant and you'll probably stop using it.

Base Damage - 200 with ~ 3 meter AOE effect (does not do critical damage)

One of the most useful late-game weapons as it eliminates the need for grenades to disable turrets, the projectiles sticks to their targets, it's extremely powerful, and has AOE damage. Inaccurate and shoots in an arc so it will take some getting used to. This weapon can be loaded in two ways: Through the slit on the side, or through the mouth on the front (thank you Info Man for the heads up).

Laser Sight - Indispensable upgrade that shows how your projectiles will arc. Very useful for long range shots to land them exactly where you want them.

Magnet Bombs (requires Laser Sight upgrade) - This upgrade can be both fantastic or an annoyance. After firing, the phage projectile can wildly change its trajectory to land on a target if your aim wasn't quite right. It can also crawl around the shields of the Heavy Security Bots and attach to them making them very useful in those battles. Unfortunately, it will sometimes go far away from where you want it to so you may end up wasting ammo at times. I recommend toggling this upgrade on and off based on the situation, but most often leave it off.

Ammo Counter - The weapon holds 4 projectiles and this will give you an ammo counter to see how many shots you currently have loaded.

Ammo Upgrade (requires Ammo Counter upgrade) - Increases the maximum amount of ammo you can have generated from 3 to 4.


If you save your Mod Stations in chapters 12-14 exclusively for the Phage Launcher, you can have it fully upgraded right at the start of Chapter 14. Personally, this is what I do and it immediately becomes useful against Shielded Heavies, the cloaked Stealth Bots, and all of the close quarter battles where its AOE comes in very handy. Another critical use of it is if Cyberjoesph ever grabs you, a single Phage blast or Meat Nailer shot will get him to let go.

Base Damage - 200 to all enemies in a line (does not do critical damage)

Truly an awesome weapon that is powerful both against the final boss, as well as quickly eliminating multiple threats at a distance both one at a time or simultaneously. Perfect accuracy even when one-handed, but can be two-handed for comfort.

Ammo Upgrade - Much like the Phage Launcher upgrade of the same name, this increases the maximum amount of ammo you can generate from 3 to 4.

Temporal Focus (requires Ammo Upgrade) - A fantastic upgrade that slows down time as you half press the trigger, allowing you to accurately nail your shots. There is a circular meter on the side of the gun that drains as you use the ability, and recharges when you are not. If you drain it completely, it has to recharge to full before using it again, so be mindful of this. Note that if you are running the game on an alternative timescale, using temporal focus will revert the timescale to 1 every time you use it and then let go.


This weapon is incredibly useful in both the Cyberjoseph battle, as well as the preceding battle where you are attempting to gain entry to the core. I highly recommend both upgrades to help keep you alive. As with the Phage Launcher, a Meat Nailer shot will get Cyberjoseph to release you if he ever grabs a hold of you. It can also pass thru multiple enemies to wipe out a large group in a line.

Base Damage - 13

Very accurate weapon granted to you by General Sintho before the Battle for Autonica. Can be one-handed and remain fairly accurate for short-to-medium engagements, while two-handing it makes it very accurate. Holds 30 rounds, to reload you must pull the mag out and insert a new one, and you must rack the slide on the side of the weapon if you have fired the final bullet in the chamber. You can also hit the catch on the spent mag with a new mag to knock it out and make the process even quicker, but doing that consistently requires a bit of practice.

This weapon's fairly high damage and fire rate make it very lethal in the hands of an accurate player, and you'll find yourself using it in a wide range of conventional and boss battles.

Base Damage (melee) - From either weapon, 60 with a full strength swing and as a low as 10 with the lightest swing the game will register as causing damage
Base Damage (projectiles) - 25 with either weapon's energy projectiles

The only dual-wielded weapon in the game, the Hammer in one hand and the Sickle in the other, that can be used for both melee purposes as well as flinging projectiles that aggressively track toward targets. Melee damage is dependent on the strength of the swing, and will do critical damage. The projectiles fade after about 10 meters so the range is limited. You can fire 4 projectiles from each weapon in rapid succession, and then they will need a full second or two to charge back up. There's a circular dial on each that indicates the amount of ammo available. The weapon charges itself and doesn't require you to load synthesized ammo. Unlike the sword, this weapon cannot deflect attacks back at the enemy.

Base Damage - 13

Very accurate weapon granted to you by L'Resa before the Battle for Autonica. Can be one-handed and remain fairly accurate for short-to-medium engagements, while two-handing it makes it very accurate. Fires a continuous beam that does damage as quickly as the AK47, but gets wildly inaccurate after about 5 seconds before the ammo crystal shatters (you can let go of the trigger once during the life of a crystal to avoid the inaccuracy issue). While in Autonica the weapon never needs to be reloaded as it's powered by the Holy Hypercube, so the crystal will never shatter, and you'll have to lay off firing for a short time to have its accuracy return to normal. After you leave the chapter, you have to reload it as normal and you will synthesize ammo.

Like the AK47, This weapon's fairly high damage and fire rate make it very lethal in the hands of an accurate player, and you'll find yourself using it in a wide range of conventional and boss battles.

Base Damage (melee) - 60 with a full strength swing and as a low as 10 with the lightest swing the game will register as causing damage
Base Damage (projectile) - 800 damage after discharge and 20 on the initial hit which can do critical damage

A one-handed sword that can be used for melee purposes, deflecting certain enemy attacks back at them, as well as causing massive damage with its trigger attack. Melee damage is dependent on the strength of the swing, and will do critical damage. When you click the trigger, the sword will fire a projectile about 1-2 meters and do a small amount of initial damage, following the same torso, critical area, extremities rule that most other weapons follow. Once the connection is made, you can let go of the trigger and move away from the enemy; the sword will inflict massive damage after 4 full seconds no matter how far away you have run. Being that the weapon does 800 damage no matter what in the second phase, it's not important to get a critical hit when making the initial connection for powerful enemies. However, if you are able to kill an enemy with the initial hit, it will disengage and not waste the ammo. Furthermore, if you accidentally connect with the wrong enemy, or decide you don't want to waste the ammo after a connection is made, just switch to another weapon and the ammo won't be used.

Ammo for the secondary attack is generated, and does so very slowly. Great against bosses and tough conventional enemies.

Base Damage - 14

Found early in Chapter 2, this is the first secret weapon that you can acquire and it packs a pretty good punch, plus it never requires reloading. When you get a kill with it, it winks the enemy out of existence with a cool portal effect. In practice, the weapon is difficult to aim, has a slow fire rate, and therefore will be of very limited use. However, it does have the ability to create portals on any surface that you would recognize from Valve's Portal series, and a single item will pop out of the portal after doing so. You can switch between blue and orange portals, which while they don't affect the weapon's damage to enemies, does affect the items that pop out of any portals you create. Blue tends to provide health items while Orange will provide grenades and other explosives, but both will also often spit out useless things as well. Handy for filling up your inventory if you can find a portal surface to use.

Base Damage - 18 (will be cut in half in a future update; enjoy it at this damage level while you can)

Acquired at the start of Chapter 6, this classic weapon from Vertigo Remastered is very accurate, reloads quickly on its own without the need for synthesized ammo, and does high damage. The slowness of the projectiles is its main drawback making it difficult to use against even fairly slow moving targets. Useful in niche situations, especially when you've run out of ammo in your more favored weapons.

Base Damage - 80

Easily my favorite secret weapon and can be acquired at the end of Chapter 8. Held in your off hand, you pull back the string on your weapon hand until it makes a sound and the arrow glows red. If you don't pull back completely, the arrow will do only 28 damage. Because the arrow arcs with gravity, this requires a lot of skill to aim medium-to-long distance, making it a fun challenge where practice makes perfect. Unlimited ammo and never needs to be reloaded, so you can continuously pull back and fire without worrying about readying the weapon in any other way.

Base Damage - 104 (13 dmg x 8 projectiles)

Acquire the secret key in Chapter 4 to open the chest containing the shotgun at the end of Chapter 12.

A double-barreled shotgun that's fun to reload, does twice the damage of the regular shotgun, but like most secret weapons will be used sparingly. Only holding 2 shells at a time means that you can easily exceed the overall damage inflicted by using more shells from the regular shotgun in less time. You'll also run out of ammo for it fairly quickly in any decent-sized engagement. After firing both shells, click to open the shotgun and then load two new shells before flipping it closed. The reloading mechanic is certainly fun to use, and I find the weapon to be effective in certain boss battles, as well as against enemies like boneheads who charge quickly past you.

Base Damage - 15

Can be found in a special mission at the start of Chapter 14. The Finger Gun might have been a decent weapon if found earlier on in the game, but by the time you acquire it at this stage, you have far better weapons to use. Aiming is difficult and it becomes very inaccurate much like the trident if fired rapidly. Reloading involves injecting your finger with the ammo which does a small amount of damage. You get 12 shots per injection and cannot see your current ammo count.

Base Damage - 1600 w/ ~ 1 meter AOE (does not do critical damage)

Acquired from Kauboi in Chapter 16 after solving his puzzles. To synthesize any ammo for this weapon, you must play on NG+ after beating the game once already on your save slot. Because of the extremely slow ammo regeneration, you will only have 2 shots of it available at any one time, and then have to wait over a minute for a new round to be generated. Great in boss battles and can even disable the Igneosaur with a single shot, but not something you will use in other situations.

Base Damage - 100 w/ ~ 2 meters AOE (does not do critical damage)

Useful for crowd control but generally hard to find throughout the game. The Orange portals from the Gordle Pun can produce these, but there are only a handful of locations where you can find them in the wild. As a result, you'll find them primarily useful only in niche situations. In Chapter 7 they are absolutely critical to use, especially against the turrets which cannot be taken down any other way at this stage. Later on, the Phage Launcher will be your preferred method of dealing with turrets.

You can hold 2 per inventory slot in your BAMM, so consider having 2 or 4 with you and then 2 or 4 health items.

These have a very niche use on Chapter 6 as they are required for removing fire barriers and defeating the Igneosaur. Outside of that, they are essentially useless, though they can also kill the Ember Soul enemies in a single blast. In practice, you'll likely never use them for that purpose.

You can hold 5 per BAMM slot, and it's a good idea to stock up on these before facing the Igneosaur. After defeating that boss, you can dump them from your inventory as you'll never need them again.

Fish nugget for creating the test map with Officer 13

TeamSpen210 for providing previous assistance as well as the following additional info which I incorporated into this guide:

* You can hit the catch on the AK with another mag to knock the one in the gun out, speeding up reloads.
* If you kill enemies with the initial stab from Blafalaciousnesticles' long-range, it won't use up the ammo. Similarly you can just put it away briefly to cancel the charge attack and conserve the ammo.
* For the Gordle Pun, yeah the colors have different pools. Blue is health items, orange is grenades and explosive barrels.
* Extinguisher Grenades do instakill Ember Souls, but probably not worth carrying around for that.

If you have anything to add, or noticed any errors, please report in the comments section.