Kin and Conquest Weapon Upgrades

Weapon upgrades in Kin and Conquest translate mining income into power spikes that keep pace with floor health scaling. Coins from shattered ore nodes pay vendor upgrades and unlock floor-tied recipes as you descend the mountain toward the Evil Geomancer. Spending coins wisely matters as much as picking Blessings—under-upgraded gear turns guardian fights into unnecessary damage checks.

This guide explains upgrade pacing, recipe timing, competition with skill tree purchases, and recovery when you enter a floor under-geared. Read the Mining guide for coin income and the Weapons tier list for which weapon lines to prioritize.

How upgrading works

Between dungeon runs, visit town vendors with coins in your inventory. Upgrade options depend on which weapons you unlocked and which floor recipes you discovered. Each upgrade increment raises baseline damage or utility stats for your equipped weapon type.

Upgrades persist across attempts within your save file progression. Failed guardian runs still keep purchased levels as long as you do not reset the save.

Kin and Conquest unlocks six weapon types gradually—stick to one primary upgrade line per floor push unless a newly discovered recipe clearly counters local enemies.

Coins: the upgrade fuel

Every upgrade level consumes coins earned primarily from ore nodes during runs. Mining tempo from the Mining guide directly sets upgrade speed:

• More ore broken per room equals faster upgrade curves.
• Coin merge behavior does not reduce pickup-triggered bonuses, so collect merged stacks thoroughly.
• Partial floor clears for farming remain valid when a guardian attempt would waste coins on retries without upgrades.

If upgrade buttons gray out, you either lack coins or lack the recipe unlock for that weapon tier.

Floor recipes and power bands

Each floor introduces enemies tuned to an expected weapon power band. Recipes tied to that floor let you craft or unlock the appropriate weapon tier—Staffs, Books, or advanced melee depending on progression.

Early demos punished players who entered a new floor without the local recipe. Balance updates softened that requirement: upgrades on existing gear can bridge gaps, but floor-matched recipes still feel like the largest jump.

Recommended flow:

1. Reach a new floor in exploration or Normal clear.
2. Identify the vendor recipe available for that floor.
3. Mine until you afford the recipe plus at least one upgrade level.
4. Attempt the guardian with the new baseline.

Upgrade versus skill tree spending

Coins also buy Survival and Cunning skill nodes and occasional respecs. Splitting income evenly slows both systems. General rules:

• First guardian on a floor — bias coins toward weapon upgrades if damage feels low.
• Repeated deaths to same telegraph — bias toward Survival nodes or defensive Blessings before more raw damage.
• Comfortable clears but slow kills — bias toward Cunning haste or offensive nodes.

Respec costs mean skill experiments need mining buffers; do not respec twice without earning coins back in ore rooms.

Upgrade versus Blessing power

Blessings scale on level-ups during runs and reset when the run ends depending on mode structure. Weapon upgrades persist in town meta. Prioritize upgrades when the same Blessing offers appear but fights still drag—persistent stats fix baseline DPS.

Prioritize leveling when guardian attempts fail despite upgraded gear—new Blessings add multipliers upgrades cannot.

When to delay upgrades

Delay big purchases when:

• You are one room away from a recipe unlock that jumps tiers instead of incremental levels.
• You plan to switch from melee to Books and Staffs on the same floor and do not want sunk costs.
• Coin hoarding for a totem shop option before a guardian matters more than plus-one damage—rare, but run-dependent.

Do not delay so long that you attempt guardians with C-tier carryover gear described in the tier list.

Guardian prep spending plan

Before a guardian attempt, aim for:

1. Weapon at or above the floor’s typical upgrade checkpoint.
2. Two to four meaningful skill nodes purchased in one tree.
3. Ten to twenty percent coin reserve for emergency buys after failure.

Pair spending with totem plans from How to Beat Bosses so gold is not sitting idle while activations are underpowered.

Multi-floor upgrade roadmap

Floor 1 — upgrade starter weapon quickly; learn mining rhythm.

Floor 2 — craft floor recipe; begin Survival or Cunning commits.

Floor 3 and deeper — integrate Books or Staffs; maintain upgrade parity before descending.

Exact costs shift with patches—compare vendor prices each session rather than memorizing demo numbers.

Common upgrade mistakes

• Chasing perfect ore clearance instead of affordable upgrade thresholds.
• Splitting coins across three weapon lines without mastering one.
• Ignoring recipes while stacking incremental levels on obsolete gear.
• Skipping upgrades to gamble on Blessings alone during guardian fights.

After a failed guardian

Return to the prior floor room layout mentally: which ore clusters were skipped? Remine or partial clear until the next upgrade tier is affordable. One upgrade level often moves a guardian from impossible to learnable without changing Blessings.

Related guides

Weapons hub overview, Tier list priorities, Books and Staffs transition, Mining income, Combat Basics for using upgraded range effectively.