The gameplay of Ghostrunner is undoubtedly one of the more complicated systems in the game. Not only are your powers and enemies numerous to test your reflex, but the game’s Booster Module upgrade system is its Tetris-style block puzzle to provide an additional and confusing mental challenge.
Knowing what fits together and which upgrades are worthwhile are vital parts of the game, and it can be extremely confusing navigating this menu early in the game. There are ten abilities in particular that you’ll likely be immediately stronger with, both for your initial playthrough and any replays you want to try differently.
10 Dash: Extra Charge
The standard dash ability can be slightly confusing the first time you play Ghostrunner. It’s not the same as your sensory boost, which is the bullet time mode you enter when holding the dash command in the air. Instead, this is the instant jolt forward when hitting that button lightly.
The sensory boost is great for ensuring you aim properly in midair, but sometimes it’s just as important to dive away from enemies into cover while you get a glimpse of the surroundings. This upgrade lets you do that far easier, as two dashes are usually enough to get through any platforming area or dodging any enemy bullets.
9 Deflection: Reflect
For a more serious upgrade, it can’t be stressed how much Reflect can help you in this game. This allows you to knock bullets with your sword, letting you narrowly avoid death while flailing your sword while running or during sensory boost.
You’ll need more Deflection upgrades to deflect bullets with the intent to kill enemies, but Reflect on its own can essentially give you a small shield. If you’re near an enemy and going to be shot right before you’re in range to slice them up, deflecting the bullet from a few feet away will either let you get closer or land it right in their chest.
8 Overlord: Duration
The special ninja-style powers you get throughout the game are incredibly helpful for taking on challenging rooms, but the upgrades on them aren’t always worth it. Since they charge so slowly, you’re not likely to switch between each power frequently, so it’s usually best to only upgrade one power that you intend to use frequently.
For the late-arriving Overlord power, the best choice is undoubtedly the Duration upgrade. This lets mind controlled characters remain under duress for much longer, and while they might just kill nearby enemies and stand around, they won’t shoot you until it wears off. This gives you an extra bit of safety while leaping through the area before you have to kill your minion later on.
7 Blink: Range
Due to the game being a first-person perspective, distance can be somewhat difficult to gauge in stressful situations. Using your sword to kill enemies means you’ll have to get extremely close to them, and your powers will likely be most useful when you utilize them from far away.
Blink is one of these, letting you shoot through one or more enemies in a single invincible dash. Setting it up can be incredibly precarious, though, so the Range upgrade is vital to your ability to use it without dying. This will not only let you take down enemies from further away, but also strike through longer linear chains of enemies when they conveniently line up for you.
6 Surge: Size
Surge has a nearly identical upgrade, letting you create an energy slice fire out in front of you and instantly killing anyone in its path. Unfortunately, this power is somewhat narrow in range when it starts out, so it’s essentially useless in most situations without an upgrade.
This makes the Size upgrade for it even more vital, as you can now safely use it on wider formations of enemies. If Tempest is your go-to power, you’ll likely be able to set up scenarios where you’ll eliminate entire rooms without any challenge.
5 Tempest: Multikill Refund
The other go-to upgrades for your powers are anything that refunds the ability, as they usually need a full combat room of enemies to recharge. Tempest gets the most substantial of these, with Multikill Refund allowing you to recharge it immediately when killing enough enemies at once.
This is extremely easy to accomplish, as most enemies will be killed instantly with Tempest and many rooms involve multiple enemies standing close to each other. If you enjoy using force powers just like a skilled Jedi, then you’ll desperately want this upgrade to ensure you can use it any time necessary.
4 Skills: Overclock
If you do enjoy swapping between all your powers, you might also want to consider the abilities that affect all your speedy and powerful skills. All of these upgrades will surely give you a major boost to your speed and damage output, but Overclock is undoubtedly the all-star of your choices.
This upgrade will let you passively charge your powers substantially faster than normal. It can be painful going into rooms without a power in case of emergency, so using Overclock means you’ll always have all the tools you need to beat enemies in the most stylish way possible.
3 Map: Sensory Boost Slowdown
While it can be fun to use the strange powers you get throughout the game, your usual best routes with upgrades will tend to revolve around your main functions. The most important of these is your sensory boost, letting you slow down time to aim yourself and dodge bullets.
The standard sensory boost is pretty sufficient, but bullets still move at a speed that can sometimes catch you off-guard. This is why Sensory Boost Slowdown is so helpful, as it stops your enemies at much more of a halt while you figure out your next move and prevents stray bullets from hitting you while you think.
2 Dash: Sensory Microbooster
Rather than longer sensory boosts, some players with quick fingers might also want to try having as many sensory boosts as possible. Without upgrades, this is most doable by remaining in the air at all times, essentially jumping with each slice of an enemy to make sure you can always activate it.
The Sensory Microbooster takes out that button-pressing, giving you a brief moment of sensory boost whenever you kill an enemy. This can make clearing rooms much more fluid, and prevents you from dying in the parkour sections by giving yourself a final saving jump in mid-air.
1 Map: Tactical Overlay
The undoubted best upgrade in the game is one that you should absolutely install early, and that would be Tactical Overlay. This ability lets all seen enemies glow red, meaning you can pick them out from the background much easier and gauge their distance with much more accuracy.
This seems unnecessary, but the effect is incredibly substantial given how frustratingly dark this game’s visuals are. Enemies are often armored in the same colors and style as the industrial environments, meaning it’s impossible to tell where they are without seeing their bullets. With this upgrade, that visual problem is eliminated.
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