Best Prestige Upgrades
Prestige is best spent on the problem that keeps coming back after resets. Early PP should shorten the opening loop; later PP should improve den rewards, mithril, gates, and ascension scaling.
Start Here
Section titled “Start Here”| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| First useful target | Prestige around 14-15 PP if the run is slowing down. That lets you spend 12 PP to open Tier 2 and still buy one Tier 2 upgrade. |
| First buy | Swift Start if ore collection is slow; Ancestor's Picks if mountain damage is slow. |
| If you are stuck | Spend PP on the bottleneck that repeats every run. Do not buy a weapon prestige for a weapon line you are not actually using. |
| When to pivot | Once basic clears are stable, move PP toward den rewards, mithril-luck, artifact carryover, route unlocks, and special gate support. |
Prestige by Phase
Section titled “Prestige by Phase”| Phase | Best Buys | Payoff |
|---|---|---|
| First 1-6 PP | Swift Start first if ore collection is slow; Ancestor's Picks first if mountains are slow; Marching Orders once runner travel time is the repeated bottleneck. | Do not spend just because a button is cheap. Pick the upgrade that fixes the first five minutes of the next run. |
| Early stability | Fleet-Footed And Rock-Hard · Orequake Finger · Heirloom Inheritance | Useful when basic runs still need help surviving hazards, clearing ore, or starting with a useful artifact. |
| Dens and artifacts | Fated Finds · Undermined Foundations · Vault of Kings | Take these when den clears are reliable enough that better den rewards and artifact carryover change the next run. |
| Mithril | Greyglitter Leylines · Holy Pickaxe · Ascended Mithril Cache | These help when mithril is the currency bottleneck, either through luck, holy pickaxe procs, or ascension-starting mithril. |
| Damage specialization | Powder Keg Lineage · Ballista Lore · Infernal Fortune · Deep Penetration | Pick the line that matches your actual build. These are strongest when they support the damage branch you are already funding. |
| Gate and ascension prep | Key Master · Ascetic Rites · Yeeti Arms · C.L.U.S.T.E.R.P.I.C.K. | These matter when the goal shifts from clearing another normal mountain to special gates, rituals, and deeper permanent scaling. |
Bad Prestige Habits
Section titled “Bad Prestige Habits”| Habit | Better Read |
|---|---|
| Buying every cheap permanent upgrade immediately. | Cheap is only good if it changes the next run. A cheap bonus to the wrong system can wait. |
| Taking a weapon prestige for a weapon you are not using. | Weapon prestige should follow your active damage branch. |
| Waiting too long on den/artifact prestige. | If dens are already dying, guaranteed artifact and lower-den-HP effects can snowball quickly. |
| Ignoring start-of-run upgrades. | Starting with runners, artifacts, mithril, or soul can remove dead time from every future run. |
Prestige Unlocks That Change Routes
Section titled “Prestige Unlocks That Change Routes”| Prestige | Route Change |
|---|---|
| Manufactorum | Adds the machine route: Bulldozers, Gyrocopters, anti-rock support, and heavy hauling. |
| Cyberdwarf | Opens the Cyberdwarf chain in the Grand Laboratory, including runner cyber upgrades and C.L.U.S.T.E.R.P.I.C.K. setup. |
| C.L.U.S.T.E.R.P.I.C.K. | Turns Miners into a late pickaxe-splitting branch after Cyberdwarf tier 2. |
| Alchemy | Opens the Grand Laboratory route toward Philosopher's Stone, one of the Great World Spire artifacts. |
| Ritual Power | Opens Ritual Power tiers and the rituals that scale from those tiers. |