Character Creation & Upgrade Guide

== INTRODUCTION ==
Greetings!  This guide is to get all information regarding creating a character build in TACS in one place!  This guide will not include tips on other design elements such as choosing names, backstories, or writing profiles.  This is just the nitty-gritty, numbers-heavy TACS guide.
Before we begin, a few things to note:
* The information provided in this guide is not a be-all end-all.  Some of the rules or restrictions mentioned have been bent for certain circumstances - or some characters are so old that they have builds made before certain guidelines were implemented.
* Since the AP to CP conversion has changed before, it may change again, so all costs will be listed in CP (more about CP vs AP later)
* This guide was written by Tachyglossus and some comments or opinions may not reflect the comments and opinions of other staff at TDE
* A Character Creation Worksheet, via Google Sheets, can be found here (you must make your own copy to be able to edit it).
== CHARACTER CREATION ==
Okay, so you want to design your own character build.  Although this guide focuses on the mechanical design, do make sure you have a solid character concept before getting into the nitty gritty stats.
=== CHARACTER COSTS ===
When we talk about character costs, or costs, we are referring to a value in Character Points (CP). A character cost is the total value of all stats, abilities, and attacks. Here are some ballpark figures of how much to aim for depending on your character type. Keep in mind you don't have to limit yourself to exactly these ranges, but keeping close to them will improve your chances of your build being approved.
* OC: 80-100 CP
* SFC: 80-100 CP
* FC: 90-120 CP
* DFC: 110-130 CP
* EFC: 120-150 CP
Keep in mind, Triple changers will have higher character costs, but they are also rarer.
You can see a breakdown of the Character cost of any other characters you own by typing !charcost.  However, if you have had upgrades, then this won't reflect the initial cost of your character.
==== MODES ====
Transformers typically have a primary mode and alternate mode.  The primary mode, Mode 1 in the code, is always going to be called the Robot mode in the code.  Yes, even for tape-bots.
Modes do not have a flat CP cost in addition to the cost of that mode's abilities, attacks, and mode-dependent stats.  So adding another mode will add to your character cost, unless it's a size 5, immobile mode with no armour, no abilities, and no attacks. But why would you do that?  Don't do that.
Anyway, the first step is to decide on a mode, but designing that mode will be discussed as part of the later sections.
==== STATS ====
There are 13 stats, technically.  However, they are divided into different types of stats: core stats, mode-variable stats, and mode-dependent stats. 
Stats are assigned ranks from 0-10. However, stats below 3 or higher than 9 are restricted.  Also be aware that 2's and lower are not just "poor" but outright handicapped. Chances are with the war going full swing, anyone with such low stats would already be dead. Therefore, your character should be reasonably well balanced, no min-maxing.
Here's a breakdown of the different stat categories:
===== Core Stats =====
* These are the same in all modes
* Consist of Endurance, Intelligence, Leadership, Courage, Technical, and Energon
* Each costs 1 CP per rank*
===== Mode-variable stats =====
* Can change by up to 2 ranks between modes (ideally)
* Consist of Strength, Firepower, Accuracy, and Agility
* Each cost 1 CP per rank*
* You do not buy these stats per mode, but variation in these stats across modes must be balanced.
** For example, if your agility in mode 1 is 6, and you want it be to be 7 in mode 2, then you need to reduce another stat by 1 rank. Say you choose Firepower. In this example, while your agility goes from rank 6 to 7 in mode 2, your firepower goes from rank 8 to 7.
** To check just add up the total ranks of mode-variable stats in both modes.  They total value in each mode for these stats should be equal.
* You cannot use this as an exploit to increase a stat beyond 10.
** If you already have strength 9 in mode 1, you can't increase it to 11 in mode 2, even if you drop another stat down by 2.
===== Mode-dependent stats =====
* Is different across modes
* Consist of Velocity, Armor, and Size
* Velocity and Armor cost 0.5 CP, while size CP cost is on a scale.  See the size section for more information.
* These stats are purchased per mode.
An explanation on each stat is as follows:
====== Strength (STR) ======
* Physical prowess. How much force you can physically exert.
* Provides a damage modifier to Melee Attacks
* Average rank is 6
====== Firepower (FRP) ======
* How much energy you can convert to raw power in weapons and gizmos
* Provides a damage modifier to Ranged Attacks
* Average rank is 6
====== Accuracy (ACC) ======
* Perception and hand-eye coordination
* Determines your to-hit score
* Sometimes used interchangeably with Intelligence to perceive or investigate something
* Average rank is 6
======Agility (AGL)======
* Maneuverability and fine motor skills
* Helps you dodge attacks!
* Average rank is 6
======Endurance (END)======
* Constitution and resilience
* Endurance score represents your Max Hit Points
* Average rank is 6
======Intelligence (INT)======
* Mental acumen - how well you learn and apply information and skills.  Note that an uneducated character can have high intelligence - it's just untapped potential!
* Affects critical hit chance and important in a bunch of other abilities
* Average rank is 5
======Leadership (LDR)======
* One's ability to inspire others - essentially charisma or presence.
* Used for the Inspire ability. Otherwise used in role-play skill checks.
* Average rank is 5
======Courage (COU)======
* Courage isn't the absence of fear - it's pushing forward in spite of fear!
* Determines how low your hit points can go before becoming SCARED.  
* Average rank is 5
======Technical (TECH)======
* How well you understand how things work - your engineers, inventors, medics, and hackers will likely need high tech scores!
* Affects how much energon you regain when you pass. Several abilities use TECH.
* Average rank is 5
======Energon (ENG)======
* How much energy you have. 
* Energon is the resource pool that is depleted by attacking or using certain abilities.
* Energon is a derived stat based on a specific formula. So it doesn't actually factor into character cost. Just leave it alone - it will be handled for you.
======Velocity (VEL)======
* Actual speed.  How quickly you can get from point A to point B.
* Determines successful retreats and damage for velocity attacks. It can also be factored into to-hit and evasion of melee attacks.
* Standard velocity for primary mode is 4. If you are very large it may go up (longer strides), or down if you are very small.
* Velocity rank 6 is the minimum for aircrafts.
======Armor======
* How well protected you are against attacks.
* Determines damage reduction of attacks.
* Average rank is 5
======Size======
* How big (or small) you are.
* Melee damage and to-hit scale with the difference in size between two targets. 
** If your target is larger than you, you get an accuracy bonus but do less damage with melee attacks.
** If your target is smaller than you, you get an accuracy penalty but do more damage with melee attacks.
* Average rank is 5
* The CP cost of size is unusual. Size 5 costs 0 CP. For each rank lower, the cost decreases by 1. For each rank above 5, the CP cost increases by 2. So a size 4 costs -1 CP, but a size 6 costs 2 CP. 
* There is a helpful size guide on the MUSH. Check out +news Size
A character should be balanced and have weaknesses along with their strengths. Please don't send in a character with mostly 8's and 9's. Try to aim for the cost of all your stats being between 50 and 75 for OC's, SFC's, and FC's. DFC's and EFC's will have higher stats but all 10's still isn't going to get approved.
A note on stat ranks vs stat scores: A stat rank is a number from 0-10 (usually). The score is the number you see on your !profile. When a character is run through chargen for the first time, it takes the rank, multiplies it by 10, then adds a randomly generated number between 0-9. So a rank 7 firepower will end up with a score from anywhere between 70 to 79.
* The costs of stat ranks are different in character upgrades - see the upgrade section
==== ABILITIES ====
There are several abilities that characters can have which may give them advantages in various situations.  Most of these abilities are combat abilities. 
Abilities are bought per mode. Abilities are also not inclusive. Having repair does not automatically grant you the recalibrate ability. Having Space-flight does not grant you flight.
Some of the abilities listed in !combatinfo are defunct and do not work on TDE!  The table here only includes functional abilities.
Ability 	Description 	CP
Bodyguard 	Always successful at covering. 	2
Enhanced_Senses	Reveal a hidden target. 	6
Radar* 	Reveal multiple hidden targets simultaneously. 	8
Charge 	4 	
Generate* 	Double energon regained during !passes 	6
Evade* 	Bluff opponent, dodge all attacks. Consumes ENG rapidly. 	9
Forcefield 	Cast around self or ally to use ENG in place of END. 	6
Holograms 	Produce large convincing holograms which can take one hit.	6
Inspire 	Raise the COU of one or more allies, using LDR. 	3
Swim 	Improve AGL in water rooms, using VEL. 	1
Dive 	Improve AGL underwater, using VEL. 	2
Flight 	Improve AGL at high altitude, using VEL. 	2
Space-flight 	Improve AGL in space, using VEL 	4
Space-walk 	Slightly improve AGL in space, using VEL. 	2
Pilot 	Pilot vehicle objects. (Untested) 	2
Construction 	Rebuild and patch vehicle and base objects, using TECH 	4
Recalibrate✝ 	Patch general stat damage, using INT + TECH. 	4
Refuel✝ 	Refuel allies' ENG. Fuel reserve based on TECH. 	4
Reinforce✝ 	Patch ARM damage, using INT + TECH. 	4
Resupply✝ 	Reload ammo for self or ally more often than NPCs. 	4
Repair 	Revive, repair and patch player characters. 	5
Hide 	Hide at will; no sneak attack on reveal. 	5
Sneak* 	Hide once before combat, gain sneak attack on reveal. 	8
Cloak* 	Hide at will, sneak attack on reveal. 	10
Crackshot 	Take aim for self or ally, using INT. 	4
Scout 	Boost damage for self or ally vs. target, using INT. 	5
Demolition 	Build bombs and grenades, using TECH. 	4
Weaponsmith* 	Build weapons for self and allies. Allied use consumes AP.	7
* These abilities are rare and will be met with greater scrutiny. Since they are powerful they should be used to compensate for weaknesses, such as cloak being used for physically weak characters.
✝ If you have repair, you can purchase these abilities for half of their cost.
==== ATTACKS ====
Attacks are probably the more involved and complicated portion of a character build. Attacks have 6 attributes: Name, Level, Attack Type, Damage Type, Effects, and Ammo. Ammo is further subdivided into Ammo Type and Bin Type. Most of these facets will affect the total CP cost of an attack. The total CP cost of a single attack will be referred to as the Attack Value. 
Attacks are set per mode. So if you have an attack in one mode, you do not automatically have it in your other modes. If you wish to have the same attack in both modes you need to enter it twice and pay for it in CP twice.
A quick technical note: Attacks require a lot of attributes to be set to a character bit. As such, having a lot of attacks increases the chance of bugs and errors, especially when going in and out of training rooms. Please try to limit your total amount of attacks, across all modes, to 8.
===== Attack Name =====
You can name your attack anything you want, but please keep them appropriate. Since TACS does partial matching, you can type just the first few letters of the attack you wish to use.  Because of this, you should not have multiple attacks in the same mode that start with the same word or several letters.  Avoid attacks starting with "a" or "the" as well. This also applies to attack names that match global attacks (type !global for a list of global attacks). For example, you can not have a "Ram" attack, or a "Ramming Speed" attack, because either one would conflict with the "Ram" global attack.  So be sure to keep the names of your attacks varied.
===== Attack-Type =====
Attack type is a category that determines how many targets can be hit and what stat is used to calculate damage. Most attacks will be melee or ranged.
Type 	CP	Stat	Targets
Melee 	0 	STR 	Single
Ranged 	0 	FRP 	Single
Area-Melee 	2 	STR 	Multiple
Area-Ranged	2 	FRP 	Multiple
Velocity 	0 	VEL 	Single
Science* 	1 	TECH	Single
*Science attacks are rare and will likely receive a higher level of scrutiny during staff’s review.
===== Level =====
The Damage Level measures the strength of the attack. Along with the stat that powers the Attack Type, Damage Level determines the damage an attack does. Here are some things to know about Damage Levels:
* Each rank of Damage level costs 1 CP. So a Level 4 attack adds 4 CP to the attack value.
* Level 8 and higher are restricted and will be met with greater scrutiny, especially if the associated damage stat is also 8 or higher. So a level 8 velocity attack on a mode with 8-10 velocity is going to require justification.
* Each level of damage consumes 3 energon.
===== Damage Type =====
Damage types are the kind of damage an attack deals. Think of it as types in Pokemon or elements in a lot of magic systems. Damage types, other than Impact, Energy, and Misc, can have protections or weaknesses, so it doesn't hurt to have a variety of damage types scattered across your attacks. Note the following:
* All attacks have at least one damage type. The first damage type is free.
* Additional damage types cost 1 CP each. However, putting too many nonsensical damage types on an attack will likely raise questions.
* Most Melee attacks will have the Impact damage type
* The available Damage types are: Energy, Impact, Ballistic, Fire, Explosive, Air, Sonic, Water, Acid, Magnetic, Plasma, Electric, and Misc
** For more information on Damage types, see the chart under Protections and Weaknesses
===== Effects =====
Effects are ways, other than damage, that your attack may impact you or your target. While some of them either buff your attack or debuff the opponent, some of them do other things.  There are both positive and negative effects..
* Effects with a negative cost are penalties. They make an attack risky or less effective and reduce the attack value, to a minimum of 1 CP.
* Each positive effect (except Drain, Feed, and Efficient) increases the attack's energon consumption by the CP cost times 3. For example: Blind, which costs 2 CP, will consume 6 additional energon when it is used.
* Most positive effects can be !canceled but negative effects cannot be !canceled. See Attack Creation Tips section for details on canceling effects.
* Some effects are mutually exclusive. For example, you should not have lucky and unlucky on the same attack;they cancel each other out. 
* Attacks should not have more than 2 positive effects without a negative effect
The following table lists Effects. You can also view !combatinfo effect for the same list.
Effect 	CP	Description
Accurate 	2 	Accuracy with this Attack is excellent.
Backfire 	 	
Attack occasionally backfires: full damage to yourself. 	 	
Blind 	2 	Temporarily impairs your opponent's Accuracy.
Confuse 	5 	Confuses your opponents, making their attacks go wild
Control 	0 	Allows others to use this attack.
Corrupt 	4 	Damages a random sub-system (stat) of your target
Cripple 	2 	Slows your opponent; temporarily impairs Agility
Disintegrate 	6 	Severely damages your target's armor
Dizzy 	2 	Temporarily mildly impair opponent's Agility and Accuracy.
Drain 	3 	Attack will deplete your target's energon.
Efficient 	2 	Reduces energon consumption of attack by 3.
Faulty 	 	
Attack jams sometimes. 	 	
Feed 	3 	Attack refills your energon stores.
Heavy 	2 	Temporarily makes your opponent's attacks OVERPOWERED
Inaccurate 	 	
You have poor Accuracy with this Attack 	 	
Lockon 	4 	If hit, your target is unable to dodge the next incoming attack
Lucky 	1 	Raises chance of critical hits.
Mini-Corrupt 	2 	Slightly damages a random sub-system (stat) of your target
Mode-Lock 	5 	Your target cannot transform for two turns.
No-Armor 	2 	Attack ignores armor when dealing damage
No-Size 	2 	Attack ignores size when dealing damage. Intended for small (size 3 and under) characters.
Ouch 	 	
Attack does partial damage to yourself when it hits. 	 	
Overpowered 	 	
Attack consumes 3 more energon than usual. Also affects AMMO Attacks. 	 	
Overpowered2 	 	
Attack consumes 6 more energon. Also effects AMMO Attacks. 	 	
Recoil 	 	
Attack does partial damage to yourself when used, whether or not it hits.	 	
Repeat 	4 	This Attack will continue to damage your target over time.
Risky 	 	
Attack occasionally stuns you. 	 	
Shatter 	3 	Damages your target's armor
Stuck 	 	
Attack occasionally makes you unable to transform. 	 	
Stun 	5 	Your target is immobilized: Unable dodge or attack.
Trauma 	3 	Randomly applies Heavy, Mini-Corrupt, Drain, Corrupt, or Mode-Lock
Unlucky 	 	
Lowers your chance of making a critical hit. 	 	
Unnerve 	2 	Attack lowers the target's courage.
Volatile 	3 	Randomly Cripples, Blinds, Stuns, Confuses, or Shatters
Vulnerable 	 	
Attack always leaves you temporarily stunned 	 	
Wild 	 	
Attack occasionally goes "wild" and hits a different target. 	 	
=== Rare and Restricted Attacks ===
==== Rare ====
These types of attacks are "rare" and will receive heavy scrutiny. Characters of a tier lower than EFC aren’t likely to get approved with more than one rare attack.
* Attacks that cost over 8 CP total
* Attacks that have more than 2 positive effects without a negative effect.
* Area-Attacks with a damage level of 5 or higher
* Attacks with 3 or more damage types
==== Restricted ====
These types of attacks are restricted and require heavy justification and majority approval from staff:
* Any attack with a damage level higher than 8
* Any attack that costs more than 10 CP total
* Area-Attacks with the Repeat, Stun or Confuse effect
* Any attack the uses both no-size and no-armor
==== Ammo-based Attacks ====
Ammo based attacks use ammo rounds rather than energon, which means they have a set number of charges. Here are some considerations and rules regarding ammo attacks.
* Ammo attacks will reduce your total energon by half the attack's energon cost
* Amount of rounds an ammo attack can have is 11 minus attack’s CP cost
** For example, if an attack costs 6 CP, it would have 4 rounds.
** This also means ammo attacks cannot exceed an attack value of 10.
* Unlike energon, ammo will not regenerate on its own, either via a !pass or over time outside of combat. A player or NPC with the Resupply is necessary to restock charges.
* Ammo 'type' is a name for the ammo of your choosing.  For example, if an attack is called Missile Barrage, then the ammo type would be missiles.  Some other ideas for ammo types are bullets, slugs, rounds, shots, torpedoes, rockets, mortars, bombs, and charges.
==== Special Ammo Bins (or Bin-size) ====
* Half bin
** Reduces CP cost of an attack by 25%
** Reduces round of ammo by half
** Does not affect energon
* Double bin
** Doubles CP cost of an attack
** Doubles rounds of ammo
** Doubles max energon reduction
* Shared or empty bins
** Allows multiple attacks to share the same ammo bin
** Primary attack costs full CP, but secondary or 'shared' attacks costs half CP
** Energon reduction only applies to primary attack, secondary attacks do not reduce energon further
** All attacks that are shared MUST have the same Attack Value (total CP cost)
** All attacks that are shared MUST have the same ammo type
* Standard is the default
==== Attack Creation Tips ====
You can "pull" your attacks to lower damage levels. So it is pointless to have both a Level 2 Energy attack and a Level 4 Energy attack that have the same or no effects. Just buy the Level 4, and whenever appropriate, "pull" it to level 2 (or 3 or 1 or even 0). You can even rename it on the fly. 
You can toggle your positive effects on and off using !cancel. So it is pointless to have both a vanilla Level 3 Energy attack and Level 3 Energy + Effect attack. Whenever you want to use the "vanilla" version, just cancel the effect before you attack. 
Consider using some of the negative effects (like Overpowered or Inaccurate) to offset your higher-cost attacks and add flavour.
If you have differences in your strength and firepower between modes, stack your ranged attacks in the mode with higher firepower and melee attacks in the mode with higher strength.
== PROTECTIONS AND WEAKNESSES ==
There are several damage types on TDE. Therefore, there is an opportunity to have particular protections against or weaknesses to certain kinds of damage. Protections and weaknesses do not cost any CP as long as they are properly balanced. Here are the rules.
* Each damage type has a weight based on its prevalence.
* Every protection must be balanced by a weakness.  And every weakness must be balanced with a protection.
* One may not divide the value of one damage type between two others.  Therefore, if one has +10 protection to Fire (which is a value or weight of 50) they cannot break it up with weaknesses to -2 Explosive (30) and -2 Ballistic (20).  They would have to go with +10 fire and -5 Ballistic.
* One can choose more than one protection/weakness pairing so long as they independently balance each other out.
* If a protection does not have a weakness to balance it, then it will cost its weight in CP, which can get extremely expensive.  It will also require an explanation in the app under the Skills & Abilities heading. So a +5 protection against fire with no matching weakness will cost 25 CP.  That's a lot.
* Conversely a weakness will reduce its weight in CP.  Since this is exploitative the max CP reduction you can achieve with a weakness without a protection to balance it is 5, and must be explained in the Weaknesses section of your application.
* You cannot have protections or weaknesses against Energy, Impact, or Misc.
=== Damage Type Table ===
Weight	Name 	Description
n/a 	ENERGY 	Standard Energy-based Attacks (e.g. lasers, cannons)
n/a 	IMPACT 	Physical Attacks (e.g. swords, fists, claws)
10 	BALLISTIC	Projectile Weapons (e.g. machine gun, rifle)
5 	FIRE 	Fire/Heat Attacks (e.g. fireball cannon, flame breath)
15 	EXPLOSIVE	Warhead Attacks (e.g. rockets, missiles, bombs)
1 	AIR 	Air/Wind-based Attacks (e.g. cyclone cannon, rotorblades)
5 	SONIC 	Sound-based Attacks (e.g. sonic boom, siren/music blast)
1 	WATER 	Water/Non-Acidic-Liquid Attacks (e.g. glue gun, ice)
1 	ACID 	Acidic/Venomous/Corrosive Attacks
1 	MAGNETIC 	Magnetism-based attacks
5 	PLASMA 	Plasma/superheated gas attacks (plasma rifle/pistol)
5 	ELECTRIC 	Electricity-related attacks (e.g. lightning, shocks)
n/a 	MISC 	Everything else!
== SKILLS ==
Skills don't really have any coded effect and are just there for flavour. Nonetheless, there are some situations where GMs may give skills more relevance and afford difficulty adjustments or re-rolls.  This is not coded into the system but it is at the GMs discretion. Pricing for skills are as follows:
* All characters can start with three skills for free.  If you do not specifically request skills, admin may fill these slots with skills scoured from Skills & Abilities, Profile, or Background.
* Additional skills can be purchased at 0.5 each or 3 for 1 CP.
NOTE
While there are several restrictions or guidelines established in this guide, they were assembled over time, trial and error.  If you notice a character that has a build that does not follow these rules, that may be because the character was built before current guidelines were in effect. It may also be because the character is a TP character, or because that build was well justified.  Nonetheless, if you find certain kinds of attacks or combinations of abilities are unbalanced and exploitative, you may contact staff about your concerns.  But understand that TACS is not a balanced system in and of itself and some attempts to balance it one way will often unbalance it in another, far more undesirable way.
== CHARACTER UPGRADES ==
Character builds can be upgraded.   Upgrades require Advancement Points (AP).  You can gain AP through role-playing and receiving votes. For details on how voting works in relation to AP rewards, see the Character Sheet Modifications section of Character Policy.
Check the wiki at the above link  for the current AP to CP conversion rate. As of writing this guide, 1 AP = 0.2 CP (or 1 CP = 5 AP). Because AP to CP conversation can fluctuate, this guide will speak in terms of CP only. 
=== STATS ===
Stats are upgradable with the exception of Energon.  Energon can never be modified as it is a derived stat.  Size is also unlikely to be approved for an upgrade, however it may be for a rework.
When a character is first created, each Stat rank only costs 1 CP.  However, for upgrades, the cost scales so that upgrading to higher stats costs more. The cost increase scales as follows (this information is also available in +news upgrades):
* Any upgrade to a level of 5 or less will simply cost you the difference in CP. For example, if you were upgrading from 4 to 5, then you would simply need to spend 1 CP.
* Any upgrade to level 6 or 7 will cost the difference in CP plus 25%. So if you were upgrading from level 4 to 7, then it would cost you 3CP + (3 x 0.25)CP which is 3.75 CP.
* Any upgrade to levels 8-10 will cost the difference in CP plus 50%. For example if you were upgrading from 4 to 9, then it would cost 5CP + (5 x 0.5)CP which is 7.5CP
* Mode-dependent and mode-variable stats (strength, agility, firepower, accuracy, armor, velocity) must be upgraded separately for each mode. 
If the price scaling confuses you, there is a chart that lists prices in AP on the MUSH under +news upgrades/ap cost table.  The chart below is in CP only.
The top row represents the rank you want to upgrade to.  The leftmost column is the rank you already have in that stat. 
 	1 	2 	3	4 	5 	6 	7 	8 	9	10
1 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
1 	2 	3 	4	6.25	7.5	10.5	12	13.5	 	
2 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
1 	2 	3 	5	6.25	9 	10.5	12	 	 	
3 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
1 	2 	3.75	5	7.5 	9 	10.5	 	 	 	
4 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
1 	2.5	3.75	6	7.5 	9 	 	 	 	 	
5 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
1.25	2.5	4.5 	6	7.5 	 	 	 	 	 	
6 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
1.25	3 	4.5 	6	 	 	 	 	 	 	
7 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
1.5 	3 	4.5 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
8 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
1.5 	3 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
9 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
1.5 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
10 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
Don't forget to convert this number to AP afterwards.
=== ABILITIES ===
Upgrading abilities is pretty straightforward.  Just find the ability you wish to add to your character, find the cost in CP, and convert it to AP. Guidelines about abilities during character creation also apply to upgrades.
Removing an ability and replacing it with something else requires a rework in most cases. However, one exception involves Hide, Sneak, Sneak and Cloak, as they are innately connected to each other.. For example, if you wanted to replace Hide with Sneak, you do not need a rework. You just need to pay the difference in CP cost between the two abilities. This only applies to the Hide → Sneak → Cloak progression.
For information about reworks, see the Character Sheet Modifications section of Character Policy.
===ATTACKS ===
When upgrading, you can either add a new attack or upgrade an existing attack by increasing its damage level, adding a damage type, adding positive effects, or removing negative effects. You cannot change the attack-type or change an attack from energon to ammo based.  This would require a rework, which this guide does not cover. You can also request a name-change in an upgrade - don't worry, it doesn't cost anything.
Most restrictions listed in the Attacks portion of the Character Creation portion of the guide apply here. However, you can remove negative effects on attacks with an upgrade while keeping your positive effects intact. 
For upgrading attacks, you just need to pay for the cost of whatever is being added.  You also need to pay the absolute value of negative effects to remove them.  For example, in order to remove Inaccurate from an attack, which costs -2 CP, then you would have to pay the AP equivalent of 2 CP (10 AP, assuming that 5 AP = 1 CP). 
===PROTECTIONS & WEAKNESSES===
Protections and weaknesses are best left to reworks.  The reason for this is that due to the weighting system of some damage-types, increasing a protection or decreasing a weakness is very expensive.  Say you wanted to completely eliminate a -3 to Explosion damage.  Due to its weight, that would be 45 CP. 
== FINAL NOTE ==
Hopefully this guide was useful.  And remember, your character is more than its build!  So go out there and have fun, and don't obsess over the details and numbers.
If you require any clarity or this guide has become outdated, contact Tachyglossus or other staff.  Feedback about wording and formatting is welcome - whatever it takes to make creating a character build less confusing!
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