Season 2 is here, and with it came a SIZABLE rework to the Faction Upgrade system. I’ve spent the last few days updating all of the upgrades in the site to make sure that our Progression Tracker, Faction Details, and all new Cheat Sheet pages were ready to roll for Season 2, and while I was doing all of that I jotted down the first 5 upgrades I think you should aim for in the first few weeks of the season!

Cradle Efficiency - Sekiguchi Rank 10

The first upgrade I want you to be aware of is Cradle Efficiency. This is the single best upgrade in the game. Each tier of this upgrade boosts your Cradle XP gains by 5% from the Matter Converter and Contract rewards.

If you’re not aware, The Cradle is Season 2’s new system for increasing your Runner stats - faction upgrades no longer increase stats in any way. You can use the Matter Converter to breakdown unwanted gear into Cradle XP, or earn Cradle XP via completion of Contracts.

Runner stats are extremely important - the increase the baseline of what your shell can do regardless of the gear you’re carrying into a Run. Last Season, when Faction Upgrades could give stat boosts, I suggested that you go after those stat boost upgrades ASAP. This season isn’t much different: The Cradle = increased stats, Cradle Efficiency = faster Cradle unlocks, increased stats = instant advantage over Runners that do not have them yet!

This upgrade will require Rank 10 with Sekiguchi as well as 19 Fractal Circuits and 4 Storage Drives, so just keep this in the back of your mind while playing early in the season. The rest of the upgrades in this guide are going to be more focused on ensuring that you’re properly set up with the bare minimum requirements to be successful in the game, and they will be much easier to unlock, but Cradle Efficiency should be your first major goal to work towards!

Expansion - CyberAcme Rank 1

More Vault space is always a good thing, and this season not only did Bungie increase the default amount of Vault space, but they’re also essentially giving us 8 free extra row for free as well with Expansion’s first tier. This upgrade requires CyberAcme rank 1, no materials at all, and only costs 750 credits which you start out with on a fresh account! This is a no brainer upgrade to get instantly.

Safeguard / Restore - NuCaloric Rank 1

It’s always good to have more Shield Charges and Patch Kits, and so unlocking both Safeguard (gives you free daily Shield Charges) and Restore (gives you free daily Patch Kits) early on is solid. This will cost 20 total Unstable Biomass, which shouldn’t be too hard to find in the early game.

These two upgrades also unlock the rest of the Shield Charge / Patch Kit upgrades, which will allow you to purchase Advanced Shield Charges and Patch Kits, as well as increasing the amount you can purchase per day.

Carrier Barter - CyberAcme Rank 4

An Enhanced Backpack is essential for any run that’s not using a Free Kit, and you probably don’t remember how annoying it is to not be able to even barter for a green Backpack until Season 2 reminds you! To rid yourself of that annoyance, get rank 4 with CyberAcme, find 7 Unstable Biomass and 3 Unstable Gunmetal and unlock Carrier Barter to give you an Armory option for backpacks for the rest of the season.

Shielded Barter - NuCaloric Rank 5

While Faction Agent level up rewards tend to reward Shield Implants fairly regularly, and Night Marsh seems to be dropping Shield Implants at a decently high rate so far, being able to buy Shield Implants when you need them is still necessary. Basically any loadout that isn’t a Free Kit will at minimum need an Enhanced Shield Implant, and Shielded Barter unlocks the ability to barter for these in the Armory.

This upgrade requires level 5 with NuCaloric, and you’ll need 10 Reclaimed Biostripping and 5 Sparkleaf.

With these upgrades unlocked you have set yourself up to always be able to build out a decent green loadout, as well as get the ball rolling on increasing your Runner Stats in an impactful way. I hope this guide helps, be sure to check out the new Cradle Planner Tool as well as the Faction Upgrade Progression Tracker tool to help assist in your journey in Season 2.

I’ll see y’all on Tau Ceti!