What to know
- Use Upgrade Components to prioritize firmware upgrades for your primary unit, then hacking, then your suit.
- Spend Luna Filament first on thrusters, the shockwave gun, and object scan; then expand mod and node slots and certain hacking abilities.
- The grip gun and shockwave gun are your core damage dealers, while thrusters and defensive tools reduce the need for heavy suit investment.
- Object scan and extra mod/node slots become important for both completion and tuning your combat style later in the game.
Pragmata gives you multiple upgrade paths early on, but a few key systems dramatically improve survivability and damage output. Picking up the right firmware and weapon upgrades first can turn a struggle into a smooth run without overloading your resource pool.
Upgrade Progression Details
| Upgrade type | First‑tier priority | Secondary options |
|---|---|---|
| Firmware (Upgrade Components) | Primary unit → Hacking → Suit | Later, keep suit 2–3 points behind primary & hacking |
| Unit‑printer (Luna Filament) | Thrusters → Shockwave gun → Stasis net | Object scan, extra mod/node slots, hacking nodes |
| Hacking nodes | Decode, multi‑hack (with caution) | Freeze, confuse, auto‑hacking (lower priority) |
How to spend Upgrade Components first
The Firmware Updater in the shelter lets you improve three interconnected systems: your suit, your primary unit (grip gun), and hacking. Your first Upgrade Components should flow in a strict order: primary unit first, hacking second, suit last.
The Grip Gun is your most consistent source of damage early on because enemy encounter density and difficulty quickly overwhelm ammo‑limited attack‑unit weapons. Even with big shots from the shockwave gun, tougher robots often need multiple hits, so an upgraded primary unit keeps you reliable when you cannot or do not want to burn special weapons.
Upgraded Hacking directly improves enemy‑open windows, which scales with how many blue open nodes you hit during hacks. Extra time to target weak points matters far more than small damage bumps or heat‑generation tweaks, so firmware upgrades here pay off in both safety and burst output.
Suit‑related firmware upgrades add health and defense, but Pragmata already offers enough defensive tools – thrusters, stasis net, and enemy‑control hacks – that you can often avoid getting hit outright.
For that reason, keep suit firmware roughly two to three levels behind your primary unit and hacking lines; you cover durability without wasting rare components.
Where to invest Luna Filament early
At the unit printer, Luna Filament fuels movement, weapons, and utility systems. Because your options are limited at first, the order is clear: thrusters first, then the shockwave gun, then object scan and slot expansions.
Thruster Charges
Once you start upgrading the shelter, you can bank Thruster upgrades three times, giving you four dodges instead of one.
This burst of mobility is crucial as more robots gang up on you and Diana at once, and the extra dashes help even in platforming‑heavy sections where precise maneuvering is needed.
Shockwave gun
This weapon offers the highest single‑target damage for much of the early and mid‑game.
When you get in close and line up shots on an enemy’s weak point, the upgraded Shockwave gun can quickly melt through otherwise “spongy” health bars, making certain boss‑like encounters dramatically easier.
Stasis Net
While not the first priority, keeping the Stasis Net topped up is a major quality‑of‑life decision. Used correctly, it neutralizes dangerous enemies—especially the more annoying smaller bots—turning them from active threats into temporary sitting ducks you can pick off at your own pace.
Object scan, mod slots, and node slots
After you clear the second area and upgrade the shelter, Object Scan unlocks at the Unit Printer.
This ability overlays nearby items on your map using Diana’s scan, revealing Luna Filament drops, upgrade components, and repair cartridges. It does not cover every collectible (for example, mini cabins are excluded), but for general progression it is indispensable for stockpiling resources and healing charges.
By the time you reach the third main area, you can also purchase Additional Mod and Node Slots. More mod slots let you equip more powerful modifiers at once, which significantly changes your moment‑to‑moment combat feel; more node slots just give you more room to tweak hacking patterns.
Many players put mod slots slightly ahead of node‑slot upgrades, since stacked mods can quickly outpace small node gains.
If you lean into hacking‑heavy play, recommended nodes are Decode and Multi‑hack, though multi‑hack can feel underused because enemies are so durable that you rarely clear multiple bots per hack.
Confuse and Freeze are lower‑priority, as confuse mainly boosts friendly‑fire damage between robots, and the stasis net already outperforms freeze in most crowd‑control situations.
Hacking remains a core pillar of Pragmata’s combat, but not every ability deserves early investment. Outside of firmware‑based open‑window boosts, certain unit‑printer‑linked upgrades stand out.
Once you unlock Diana’s Auto‑Hacking ability, it becomes a convenient way to skip the hacking mini‑game and open enemies quickly, at the cost of two bars of her hacking gauge.
Higher levels simply make the auto‑hack animation faster, not more effective. Because baseline auto‑hacks are already serviceable, this is best upgraded later, once you have surplus Luna Filament and no urgent weapon or mobility upgrades left.
Confusion‑level upgrades are similarly best left towards the back burner. Extra Confuse levels mainly increase the damage bots deal to each other when they “friendly‑fire” one another, but that effect is inconsistent and often minor. Confusion is more useful as a displacer—a way to pull a dangerous or flying enemy off‑track for a few seconds—so earlier upgrades are better spent elsewhere.
When to circle back and rebalance
Once you have fully upgraded thrusters, shockwave gun, object scan, and a solid set of mod and node slots, you can start redistributing Luna Filament and Upgrade Components to match your preferred playstyle.
If you like staying aggressive, you can funnel extra components into your primary unit and shockwave gun tiers, or into decode and auto‑hacking for faster, safer enemy‑open sequences. If you prefer a more defensive approach, you can finally lean into suit firmware and hack‑support nodes, such as stasis or freeze‑related mods, without sacrificing the core survivability backbone you built earlier.
TL;DR
For the smoothest Pragmata experience, prioritize your primary unit firmware first, then hacking firmware, leaving the suit slightly behind. Use Luna Filament to max out thrusters, then the shockwave gun and stasis net; shortly after, pick up object scan and expand mod and node slots. This loadout gives you strong damage, excellent mobility, reliable crowd control, and better resource visibility, letting you tackle both main encounters and side‑content far more comfortably.
