Nearly everything is against you in The Callisto Protocol. Resources are scarce, enemies feel unbeatable at points, and certain bosses can even take you out in just one hit. While there’s no way to become overpowered, there are a couple of things you can do to make your life a bit easier as you explore Black Iron Prison. Specifically, knowing how to use the upgrade system effectively will certainly give you a fighting chance — though the game doesn’t make this easy. Here are two essential upgrade tips The Callisto Protocol doesn’t tell you.

2. Prioritize upgrading your baton

While The Callisto Protocol offers a variety of ranged guns to experiment with, the Stun Baton is a crucial part of your loadout. You should prioritize enhancing this weapon, especially since its later upgrades give the Baton more damage.

You’ll likely encounter numerous situations in which you have little to no ammo, meaning you’ll need to rely on the Stun Baton to get by. In fact, most of the game is designed for you to use ranged weapons in conjunction with the Baton, since there’s very little ammo to go around.

Likewise, the game has a couple of bosses that require the use of the Stun Baton, so having it upgraded as much as possible will make your life easier. It does no good to fire a max-leveled assault rifle at a foe that doesn’t take damage from bullets.

1. Focus on a few weapons

Still, you shouldn’t downright ignore upgrading your other weapons. But given the way the game introduces currency and new guns, you might be tempted to spend your credits on whatever you can, which isn’t as efficient.

Instead of having several “half-upgraded” weapons, we advise pouring your credits into just a few of them, so you can unlock their high-powered alt-fire modules. For instance, the BI-55 Pistol “Hand Cannon” offers the powerful TK23 “Boom Bullets” upgrade that does an immense amount of damage. It’s very expensive, but you’ll be glad to have it, especially during the second half of the game.

Specifically, we recommend you focus on upgrading the Hand Cannon, Riot Gun, and the Assault Rifle. They all have tremendously effective alt-fire modules that will get you out of a bind against hordes of biophages and even some bosses. You can then sell ammo for weapons you aren’t using much, which will get you closer to those powerful upgrades.

The Callisto Protocol is available now for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.