Upgrade Station

Upgrade Station

“

When a robot kills a human, we erupt into a pleading mist of blood, meat particles and tears, which you can't really trade for anything. But when a robot dies, he explodes in a shower of money, which, during between-wave lulls, you can exchange at any Upgrade Station for weapon, item and ability upgrades. — Saxton Hale

”

An Upgrade Station is a place for players to buy weapon upgrades, abilities, and Power Up Canteen buffs in Mann vs. Machine. Players may access one of the two kiosks in the base at any time to purchase upgrades with collected credits. The cost of each upgrade does not increase with a repeated purchase. Between waves, players may modulate the number of levels in an upgrade by pressing the + and - buttons to redistribute their credits if they have made a mistake before accepting the upgrade. Once accepting the upgrade it cannot be revoked in normal circumstances.

During the setup of the first wave of the mission, upgrades can be sold back if the player wants to change weapons, classes, or buy a different upgrade. However, from the moment the first wave starts and onward, all upgrades will be nonrefundable until the team obtains a refund token. A Wrench icon () will appear next to a class in the Class Selection Menu if that class already has upgrades applied to it. Weapon upgrades apply to only a single weapon but take effect for all classes that can equip the weapon. Un-equipping a weapon will deactivate all upgrades associated with that weapon, but they will be regained if the player re-equips it. Disconnecting from a server and rejoining will allow the player to retain the player current amount of credits and upgrades if the player chooses the same class.

Failing to complete a wave will refund the credits spent before that wave to give the player a chance to use a different strategy. Otherwise, credits will not be refunded after accepting the upgrades. (Until refund tokens are available to the team.)

Since there are no Resupply Cabinets in the base, purchasing an upgrade from an Upgrade Station will restore health and ammo without needing to switch classes. Players cannot heal using the Upgrade Station during waves.

User Interface

Upgrade Stations are accessed by walking up to them. By default, the primary weapon slot is selected. The UI automatically shades upgrades in a slot if the player cannot afford them. Players may hit the "Cancel" button at any time or simply walk away from the kiosk before accepting an upgrade to regain the credits used during the session.

Class

Classes' upgrades
Upgrade	Classes	Cost	Level	Notes
+25% Blast Resistance	All classes	300	3	Take less damage from explosions, including rocket and sticky jumps.
+25% Bullet Resistance		300	3	Take less damage from hitscan weapons and taunt attacks.
+10% Movement Speed		200	3	Adds 10% to movement speed.
+2 Health Regen		200	5	Regenerates health every second.
+20% Jump Height		100	3	Jump higher.
+25% Fire Resistance		150	3	Take less damage from fire and afterburn.
+30% Crit Resistance		150	3	Take less damage from critical hits.
+5 Metal Regen	Engineer	200	5	Metal is regenerated every 5 seconds.

Weapon

Primary

Primary weapons' upgrades
Upgrade	Weapons		Cost	Level	Notes
Destroy Projectiles	Heavy Minigun (Iron Curtain) Natascha Brass Beast Tomislav Huo-Long Heater		400	2	Bullets destroy Rockets and Grenades mid-flight. Increased accuracy and frequency per level. Level decreases cooldown (0.3 / 0.1 seconds) and how many hits it takes to destroy a projectile (2 / 1). Crits take one hit to destroy a projectile regardless of level.
Knockback Rage			350	3	Generate Rage by dealing damage. When fully charged, press the Special-Attack key to activate knockback. Activation cuts damage by 50%.
+1 Projectile Penetration			400	3	Projectiles penetrate an additional enemy player.
+20% Damage	Demoman Grenade Launcher Loch-n-Load Loose Cannon Iron Bomber		500	4
+25% Projectile Speed	Demoman Grenade Launcher Loch-n-Load Iron Bomber		150	4, 3
Rocket Specialist	Soldier Rocket Launcher Direct Hit Black Box Rocket Jumper Liberty Launcher Cow Mangler 5000 Original Beggar's Bazooka Air Strike		300	4	+15% rocket speed per point. On direct hits: rocket does maximum damage, stuns target, and blast radius increased +15% per point.
+25% Damage	Scout Scattergun Force-A-Nature Shortstop Soda Popper Baby Face's Blaster Back Scatter	Soldier Rocket Launcher Direct Hit Black Box Rocket Jumper Liberty Launcher Cow Mangler 5000 Original Beggar's Bazooka Air Strike	400	4, 3
	Pyro Flame Thrower (Nostromo Napalmer) Backburner Degreaser Phlogistinator Rainblower Dragon's Fury	Sniper Sniper Rifle (AWPer Hand) Huntsman (Fortified Compound) Sydney Sleeper Bazaar Bargain Machina (Shooting Star) Hitman's Heatmaker Classic
+2 Clip Size	Soldier Rocket Launcher Direct Hit Black Box Rocket Jumper Liberty Launcher Original Beggar's Bazooka Air Strike	Demoman Grenade Launcher Loch-n-Load Loose Cannon Iron Bomber	400	4
	Medic Crusader's Crossbow
+50% Clip Size	Scout Scattergun Force-A-Nature Shortstop Soda Popper Baby Face's Blaster Back Scatter	Soldier Cow Mangler 5000	400, 200	4
	Engineer Shotgun Frontier Justice Pomson 6000 Rescue Ranger Panic Attack	Medic Syringe Gun Blutsauger Overdose
Projectile Penetration	Scout Scattergun Force-A-Nature Shortstop Soda Popper Baby Face's Blaster Back Scatter	Engineer Shotgun Frontier Justice Widowmaker Rescue Ranger Panic Attack	400, 200	1	Projectiles penetrate enemy players.
	Medic Crusader's Crossbow	Sniper Sniper Rifle (AWPer Hand) Huntsman (Fortified Compound) Sydney Sleeper Bazaar Bargain Machina (Shooting Star) Hitman's Heatmaker Classic
Explosive Headshot	Sniper Sniper Rifle (AWPer Hand) Sydney Sleeper Bazaar Bargain Machina (Shooting Star) Hitman's Heatmaker Classic		350	3	Headshots (lethal or otherwise) damage and slow enemies near target. Rank increases damage (150 / 170 / 190), explosion radius, slow strength (50% / 65% / 80% slow) and duration (2 / 3 / 4 seconds).
+25% Faster Charge			200	4
+5s Bleed On Target	Sniper Huntsman (Fortified Compound)		200	3
+50% Ammo Capacity	All classes All ammunition-using Primary weapons		250	3	Ammo pickups grant more ammo proportionately.
+20% Reload Speed	Scout Scattergun Baby Face's Blaster Back Scatter	Soldier Rocket Launcher Direct Hit Black Box Rocket Jumper Liberty Launcher Cow Mangler 5000 Original Beggar's Bazooka Air Strike	250	3
	Demoman Grenade Launcher Loch-n-Load Loose Cannon Iron Bomber	Engineer Shotgun Frontier Justice Pomson 6000 Rescue Ranger Panic Attack
	Medic Crusader's Crossbow	Sniper Sniper Rifle (AWPer Hand) Sydney Sleeper Bazaar Bargain Machina (Shooting Star) Hitman's Heatmaker Classic
+10% Firing Speed	Scout Scattergun Shortstop Baby Face's Blaster Back Scatter	Soldier Rocket Launcher Direct Hit Black Box Rocket Jumper Liberty Launcher Cow Mangler 5000 Original Beggar's Bazooka Air Strike	200, 350, 100	4
	Demoman Grenade Launcher Loch-n-Load Loose Cannon Iron Bomber	Heavy Minigun (Iron Curtain) Natascha Brass Beast Tomislav Huo-Long Heater
	Engineer Shotgun Frontier Justice Widowmaker Pomson 6000 Rescue Ranger Panic Attack	Medic Syringe Gun Blutsauger Crusader's Crossbow Overdose
+25 Health On Kill	All classes All damage-dealing Primary weapons		200, 100	4
+25% Burn Damage	Pyro Flame Thrower (Nostromo Napalmer) Backburner Degreaser Phlogistinator Rainblower		250	4	Afterburn damage bonus.
+25% Burn Time			250	4	Afterburn duration. Defunct on Flamethrower weapons but still works on applicable Flare gun weapons.
+25% Airblast Force	Pyro Flame Thrower (Nostromo Napalmer) Backburner Degreaser Rainblower Dragon's Fury		100	4
Mad Milk Syringes	Medic Syringe Gun Blutsauger Overdose		200	1	Syringes deliver a highly concentrated dose of Mad Milk. Duration increases per hit to a max at 4 seconds.

Secondary

Secondary weapons' upgrades
Upgrade	Weapons		Cost	Level	Notes
+20% Damage	Demoman Stickybomb Launcher Scottish Resistance Sticky Jumper Quickiebomb Launcher		500	4
+50% Clip Size	Scout Pistol (Lugermorph, C.A.P.P.E.R) Winger Pretty Boy's Pocket Pistol	Soldier Shotgun Reserve Shooter Righteous Bison Panic Attack	200, 400	4
	Pyro Shotgun Reserve Shooter Panic Attack	Demoman Stickybomb Launcher Scottish Resistance Sticky Jumper Quickiebomb Launcher
	Heavy Shotgun Family Business Panic Attack	Engineer Pistol (Lugermorph, C.A.P.P.E.R)
	Sniper SMG Cleaner's Carbine	Spy Revolver (Big Kill) Ambassador L'Etranger Enforcer Diamondback
Projectile Penetration	Scout Pistol (Lugermorph, C.A.P.P.E.R) Winger Pretty Boy's Pocket Pistol	Soldier Shotgun Reserve Shooter Panic Attack	200	1	Projectiles penetrate enemy players.
	Pyro Shotgun Reserve Shooter Panic Attack	Heavy Shotgun Family Business Panic Attack
	Engineer Pistol (Lugermorph, C.A.P.P.E.R) Short Circuit	Sniper SMG Cleaner's Carbine
	Spy Revolver (Big Kill) Ambassador L'Etranger Enforcer Diamondback
+25 Health On Kill	All classes All damage-dealing Secondary weapons		100, 200	4
+50% Ammo Capacity	All classes All ammunition-using Secondary weapons		125, 250	3, 2	Ammo pickups grant more ammo accordingly.
+20% Reload Speed	Soldier Shotgun Reserve Shooter Righteous Bison Panic Attack	Pyro Shotgun Flare Gun Detonator Reserve Shooter Scorch Shot Panic Attack	250	3
	Demoman Stickybomb Launcher Scottish Resistance Sticky Jumper Quickiebomb Launcher	Heavy Shotgun Family Business Panic Attack
+15% Recharge Rate	Scout Bonk! Atomic Punch Crit-a-Cola Mad Milk (Mutated Milk) Flying Guillotine	Pyro Gas Passer Thermal Thruster	250	4	Gas Passer only: Recharge rate is also applied to recharge rate done by damage, while also increasing the base rate that builds over time.
	Heavy Sandvich (Robo-Sandvich) Dalokohs Bar (Fishcake) Buffalo Steak Sandvich Second Banana	Sniper Jarate (Self-Aware Beauty Mark) Razorback
+25% Buff Duration	Soldier Buff Banner Battalion's Backup Concheror		250	2
+10% Firing Speed	Scout Pistol (Lugermorph, C.A.P.P.E.R) Winger Pretty Boy's Pocket Pistol	Soldier Shotgun Reserve Shooter Righteous Bison Panic Attack	100, 200	4, 2, 1
	Pyro Shotgun Flare Gun Detonator Reserve Shooter Manmelter Scorch Shot Panic Attack	Demoman Stickybomb Launcher Scottish Resistance Sticky Jumper Quickiebomb Launcher
	Heavy Shotgun Family Business Panic Attack	Engineer Pistol (Lugermorph, C.A.P.P.E.R) Short Circuit
	Sniper SMG Cleaner's Carbine	Spy Revolver (Big Kill) Ambassador L'Etranger Enforcer Diamondback
-35% Speed On Target	Scout Mad Milk (Mutated Milk)	Sniper Jarate (Self-Aware Beauty Mark)	200	1	Does not stack.
+100% Charge Recharge Rate	Demoman Chargin' Targe Splendid Screen Tide Turner		150	4
-30% Push Force On Wearer			100	3	Reduced the push force from enemies attack.
+25% Burn Damage	Pyro Flare Gun Detonator Scorch Shot		250	4	Afterburn damage bonus.
+25% Burn Time			250	4	Afterburn duration.
Explode on Ignite	Pyro Gas Passer		400	1	Explosion deals up to 350 splash damage.
Able to re-launch while already in-flight	Pyro Thermal Thruster		400	1
Stun enemies when you land			300	1
+25% ÜberCharge Rate	Medic Medi Gun Kritzkrieg Quick-Fix Vaccinator		300	4, 3, 1
Projectile Shield			300	2	Build energy by healing teammates or healing teammates attacking. When fully charged, press the Special-Attack key to deploy a frontal projectile shield. The shield damages robots who touch it. Level 2 upgrade increases the shield width.
+2s Über Duration			250	3
Overheal Expert			250	4	+25% more Overheal, +50% longer duration per point
Healing Mastery			250	4	+25% heal rate for patient, +25% faster revive rate, and +25% self heal rate, per point
Canteen Specialist			200	3	Share Canteens with your heal target, +1 duration, -10 Canteen upgrade price per point (minimum cost of 5). Must confirm upgrade for price reduction to work.

Melee

Melee weapons' upgrades
Upgrade	Weapons		Cost	Level	Notes
+10% Attack Speed	All classes All melee weapons but Wrap Assassin and Sandman		200	4	Increasing the Engineer's melee speed allows him to build, upgrade, resupply, and repair buildings faster.
+25 Health On Kill	All classes All Melee weapons		100, 200	4, 3, 2
+25% Damage	Demoman Eyelander (Horseless Headless Horsemann's Headtaker, Nessie's Nine Iron) Scotsman's Skullcutter Claidheamh Mòr Half-Zatoichi Persian Persuader		400	4, 3	Upgrade only appears if the Demoman equips a Shield. If the Demoman equips any Stickybomb Launcher, this upgrade no longer appears; however, any previously purchased levels still apply.
Armor Penetration	Spy Knife (Sharp Dresser, Black Rose) Your Eternal Reward (Wanga Prick) Conniver's Kunai Big Earner Spy-cicle	All classes3 Saxxy Golden Frying Pan Prinny Machete	400	4	Allows backstabs against giant robots at X% (out of 750) damage.
+2s Crits On Kill	Demoman Bottle (Scottish Handshake) Eyelander (Horseless Headless Horsemann's Headtaker, Nessie's Nine Iron) Scotsman's Skullcutter Pain Train Ullapool Caber Claidheamh Mòr Half-Zatoichi Persian Persuader	Spy Knife (Sharp Dresser, Black Rose) Your Eternal Reward (Wanga Prick) Conniver's Kunai Big Earner Spy-cicle	350	2	2 seconds of 100% Critical hit chance per level; switching weapons retains critical hits.
	All classes3,4 Frying Pan1 Saxxy Conscientious Objector1 Freedom Staff1 Bat Outta Hell1 Memory Maker1 Ham Shank1 Golden Frying Pan Necro Smasher2 Crossing Guard1 Prinny Machete
+15% Recharge Rate	Scout Sandman Wrap Assassin		250	4, 2	Faster baseball/bauble recharge rate.
+100% Max Misc Ammo			100	6	Gives the Scout one extra baseball/bauble per level.
Ball Marks Target	Scout Sandman		500	1	One target at a time is marked for death on hit with either the Sandman or its baseball projectile. The time is reduced to 7 seconds if the target is a giant robot.
Notes	1 Usable by all classes except Engineer and Spy.
	2 Usable by all classes except Spy.
	3 Only when equipped by Spy.
	4 Only when equipped by Demoman.

Other

Sapper

Building weapons' upgrades
Upgrade	Weapons	Cost	Level	Notes
Robot Sapper Power	Spy Sapper (Ap-Sap, Snack Attack) Red-Tape Recorder	350	3	Increases robot Sapper radius and duration. The first level does not increase duration, but gives the sapper 200 Hammer units of range, while higher levels increases sapper duration by 1.5 seconds and the range by 25 Hammer units.

Buildings

These are available only to the Engineer.

Buildings' upgrades
Upgrade	Buildings	Cost	Level	Notes
+1 Disposable Sentry Gun	Engineer	500	1	Gives the player a disposable Mini-Sentry, which is built by choosing to build a Sentry Gun when the player's primary Sentry already exists. This Mini-Sentry cannot be upgraded, repaired, resupplied, or wrangled. It is slightly smaller than the Combat Mini-Sentry from the Gunslinger and fires at the rate of normal level 1 Sentry Gun. Once it runs out of ammunition, it self-destructs. Not affected by building health upgrades.
+50% Max Metal Capacity		200	4	+50% metal to the Engineer, not the buildings.
+100% Building Health	All Buildings	400	3
+10% Sentry Firing Speed	Sentry Gun Combat Mini-Sentry Gun	350	3	10% faster sentry fire rate.
2-Way Teleporters	Teleporters	250	1	Allows players to stand on a Teleporter Exit and teleport to the Entrance in addition to the normal Entrance-to-Exit functionality. Both directions use the same charge meter. If there is a player on each end, whoever got there first is teleported to the other side.
+100% Dispenser Range	Dispenser	100	3	Players can stand further away from the Dispenser to gain Ammo, Metal, and Health.

Power Up Canteen

These are available to any class with a Power Up Canteen, Battery Canteens, or Kritz or Treat Canteen in their Action Slot. Canteens can have a maximum of three charges and only one charge type at a time.

Canteen's upgrades
Upgrade	Classes	Cost	Notes
Become Crit Boosted	All classes	100	Crits user and triples Sentry Gun fire rate for 5 seconds.
Become Übercharged		75	ÜberCharge and puts a Wrangler shield that blocks 90% of incoming damage around your Sentry for 5 seconds. This Wrangler shield does not stack with existent Wrangler shields.
Refill Clips and Ammo		25	Instantly refills almost all weapons' clips and ammunition. Refills metal for Engineers and Sapper for Spies. Does not refill the charge for Gas Passer, Demoman Shields, Lunchbox items for Heavy, Energy-based weapons aside from the Phlogistinator, the Razorback, or Cloak.
Teleport to Spawn		10	Instantly teleport to spawn and grants a 5 second speed boost.
Building Upgrade	Engineer	50	Upgrades all existing buildings to Level 3 and fully restores their health.

Note certain weapons cannot be upgraded. These include:

• Gunboats
• Mantreads
• Ali Baba's Wee Booties
• Bootlegger
• Wrangler
• Razorback
• Darwin's Danger Shield
• Cozy Camper

Related achievements

Mann vs. Machievements

Maximum Performance Max out all resistances on a single class.

System Upgrade Max out all primary weapon upgrades.

Update history

August 15, 2012 Patch

• Added Mann vs. Machine.

August 17, 2012 Patch

• Fixed a client crash related to the Mann vs. Machine upgrade panel.
• Fixed seeing incorrect upgrades in the Mann vs. Machine upgrade panel.
• Updated upgrade icons to remove numbers.

August 23, 2012 Patch

• Fixed the Metal Regen upgrade displaying a percentage instead of an incremental value.

September 4, 2012 Patch

• Fixed a client money display issue when purchasing or selling bottle charges after changing classes.
• Fixed Sniper Rifle reload upgrade not reducing the time delay from hip shot to scoping.

September 21, 2012 Patch

• Added the ability to buy projectile penetration for the Crusader's Crossbow.
• Fixed the Medi Gun overheal duration attribute causing the overheal effect to decay faster, rather than slower.
• Fixed the Demoman shields not saving their upgrades upon round reset.

September 27, 2012 Patch

• Fixed a bug where players could only buy 1 upgrade at a time from the upgrade station.

October 9, 2012 Patch

• Balance changes:
  • Explosive Headshots
    • Damage is now 150 regardless of upgrade level.
    • Damage is done in one tick instead of the previous six.
    • Added a slowing effect based on upgrade level (50%-80% slow, 2-4 second duration).
    • Radius still scales with upgrade level (unchanged).
  • Marked For Death duration reduced to 7 seconds from 15 seconds when the target is a giant robot.
  • Reduced the "effect bar recharge rate increased" upgrade from 20% increments with an 80% cap to 15% increments with a 60% cap.

Unused content

• There are many additional sound files for Projectile Shield upgrade, they're referred into the game files as "prefix_burn_suffix", those probably would be used when multiple projectiles have been protected by the Projectile Shield. There is also another unused sound that would be used if the user retracted the shield after switching weapons.

Bugs

• Changing a weapon via loadout screen before walking up to the upgrade station, then buying a single upgrade, will prevent buying or selling any upgrades.
• The descriptions for the reload speed and firing rate upgrades are slightly misleading. Rather than making these actions a set percentage faster, they actually reduce the function time by the stated percentage. E.g. A weapon with a cumulative 60% faster reload time will reload in 40% of the normal time (i.e. 100% - 60%), not 62.5% (100% / 1.6).
• Occasionally, when on the Canteen charges page, clicking once on any upgrade's + sign will give the player two charges for the Canteen, at the same cost of purchasing one charge twice, though only one circle fills. The player will end up with those two charges upon clicking "accept", and the interface returns to the correct number of circles filled the next time the player goes to the kiosk.
• The upgrade screen will suddenly disappear for the Engineers if their teleporter is taken during this time. Any upgrade the Engineer was purchasing will be lost, but the money will not be returned.

Trivia

• There are several items visible inside the Upgrade Station, the most notable being the Bear Trap and the Frag Grenade, both canceled grenade weapons.
• Inside the game files, there are 3 upgrades to be found that are not currently in the game; They include a radius of Sentry Gun upgrade, regeneration of a percent of a mercenary's max ammo every 5 seconds upgrade, and gaining more credits through an additively stacking percent multiplier upgrade.
• There is an unused song in the game's files that would possibly be played while the player used an Upgrade Station.

See also

• Credits

External links

• "The Mercs" update page