Upgrade Menu

The **Upgrade Menu**, also called the **Choice Menu**, is the screen that allows the player to choose their animal for the next tier. It is one of the basic functional parts of Mope.io, and will appear once a player has reached the maximum XP requirement for whichever tier they are on, allowing them to proceed to the next one.

The Upgrade Menu was initially introduced December 12, 2016; prior to then, players could not choose to play as animals from different biomes to the one they were in. In October 2021, multiple updates were made to change the user interface of the upgrade menu, which were initially met with backlash.

## Technical

The current Upgrade Menu has been in-game since August 3, 2023. It looks a lot like the Store in terms of style; It has a rounded dark green background with tabs for each biome to categorize the selectable animals. The tabs that can appear are: Land, Desert, Ocean, Arctic, Volcano and Forest, which are represented with picture logos. Each biome's logo is a tree, cactus and sun, wave, snowflake, volcano, and 3 trees, respectively. While Land and the Forest both have trees as their icon, the Land tab is light green while Forest is a darker green with 3 trees. If a Rare Animal appears on the upgrade menu, an additional yellow tab with a star icon will be present.

In each tab, there are the Animals belonging to the respective biome and any owned skins corresponding to those animals. An Animal's respective skin is listed after the default animal unless it is a gold trim or classic skin, in which it replaces them. The player may select an Animal and click the play button to upgrade to that Animal. When an Animal is clicked, a larger box on the right of it shows its Special Ability (if it has one) and the run (called dash in the box) function. It will automatically default to the tab of the biome the animal came from/is in, unless a Rare is present, in which it defaults to the first Rare animal in the tab.

The player can use number hotkeys to jump to a particular biome tab (1-6) and letter hotkeys (starting from Q, avoiding W and S) to jump to a particular skin or animal. The respective key is shown in the lower corner of said tab or animal/skin. This does not display on handheld devices, as seen in this section's image.

Unlike its most recent predecessor, the current Upgrade Menu is more rectangular-shaped and centered. Also unlike its predecessors, the player's team is not displayed — The player must spawn to know their team.

### Old mobile version

This Upgrade Menu only appeared on the handheld version of Mope.io from March 7, 2023 to August 3 2023. It was much more compact, composed of a box showing tier and team (regardless or not the player was in Team Mode) and small boxes colored accordingly to biome. Each box had an image of an animal of the next tier with a downwards arrow beneath it. These boxes were plastered in a row across the top of the screen. When an animal is clicked, its biome and special abilities are shown.

### October 20, 2021 - August 3, 2023

This iteration of the Upgrade Menu, called the "October 21 Upgrade Menu" by the community, was the most upright of them all, with a lighter green color scheme, and floated to the left of the screen. Like its modern equivalent, it has tabs for each biome, although until November 24 2021 Forest's tab icon was identical to the Land's. It was adjusted several times, the most notable changes being the removal of a timer at the top right sometime in later 2021 or 2022 and an indicator of the player's team in Team Mode.

The handheld version of Mope.io used this Upgrade Menu from October 20 2021 to March 7 2023.

The auto-upgrade timer was significantly shorter at its release and all older versions of the Upgrade Menu, only lasting 15 seconds. It was extended to an unknown amount due to player criticism in later months.

The Upgrade Menu on its release, leveling up from tier 3 to 4.A more modern Upgrade Menu showing the upgrade options for tier 1 in Team Mode.
#### October 14, 2021 – October 20, 2021

The October 14 Upgrade Menu is not very dissimilar to the current one in terms of style. It is a light green rounded box with tabs for each biome where the tier has animals in. The tabs that can appear are: Land, Ocean, Arctic, Volcano, Desert and Forest. It will automatically default to showing the Land tab first, no matter what biome the player's Animal belongs to.

In each tab, there are the Animals belonging to the respective biome, where the player may select an Animal and click the play button to upgrade to that Animal. When an Animal is clicked, a larger box on the right of it shows its Special Ability and run (called dash in the box) function. However, notable differences are that it lacked hotkeys to upgrade, a timer showing the amount of time before auto-upgrading occurs, and was a lot larger than the current upgrade menu.

The October 14 version was replaced by the current version on October 21, 2021 due to community demand.

#### December 12, 2016 – October 13, 2021

The oldest Upgrade Menu was in-game from the Upgrade Menu's initial introduction until October 14, 2021. It comprised of a row of small boxes dropping down from the top of the screen once the required XP to the next tier was hit; each containing the picture of the animal, with the animal's name written at the top of the boxes. The player could either click a box or use a hotkey to select the Animal. The default Animals use number hotkeys (1-10), but any Skins use letter hotkeys (a–z; avoiding `W`).

Custom skins are shown beneath the default skins, categorized in rows depending on what update were they released. Having many Skins potentially lagged the game with the amount of boxes, and can temporarily obstruct gameplay.

The original and oldest upgrade menu had a row of larger boxes before it was changed in 2021.

### Other features

#### Upgrade Shell

The **Upgrade Shell**, also referred to as the **Upgrade Egg**, was added in the "*Season 2*" update on February 1, 2022, replacing auto-upgrade. It is an object that will form around players when the upgrade menu appears for them, protecting them from the outside world and making them unable to move while trapped inside. The Upgrade Shell has a Health Bar that decreases on its own, acting as a timer; the shell will begin to crack as it loses health, taking anywhere from 30–90 seconds depending on the player's tier to lose all health and cause it to break open into yolk, killing the player. Other animals (including AI) can physically manipulate the shell and ever so slightly decrease its Health Bar, but not to the extent that it would force the player to pick an upgrade option too quickly. The Upgrade Shell will break and release the player if they choose an option on the upgrade menu prior to the alotted time.

#### Auto-Upgrade

Auto-upgrade is a feature that existed on the upgrade menu from its inception until the "*Season 2 (Release 1)*" update on February 1, 2022, being removed with the Upgrade Shell's addition. According to the changelog, if the player does not choose an upgrade option within 15 seconds, they will automatically upgrade to any rare animal in the upgrade box. If no rares are on the upgrade menu, they will upgrade to the next animal in the first box, which will be whatever biome their current animal resides in. For example, suppose someone is playing as a Fennec Fox (a Desert animal) and has the upgrade menu open. If they do not select anything and have no rare options, the Warthog will be chosen as it is the next upgrade in the biome's tier line.

In the oldest Upgrade Menu, the amount of time before auto-upgrading went into effect was displayed next to the "`Choose an upgrade:`" text. It would turn red and flash each second once it reached 7 seconds. If the player is respawning/spawning with the Upgrade Menu, the amount of time is not displayed although the text will still turn red and the player will auto-upgrade if they don't select a spawning Animal. The Upgrade Menu from October 14 did not show the auto-upgrade timer ‒ however, it does auto-upgrade the player eventually.

Auto-upgrading or waiting about 10 seconds on the Upgrade Menu will allocate an additional 10 Mopecoins to the player.

#### Powerups

*Main article: Powerups*

Powerups are purchasable buffs that appear for logged in players under the Tier 1 Upgrade Menu when a game session is first initiated.

## Gallery

### Assets

The Upgrade Shell cracking in multiple stages.The Upgrade Shell, with no cracks, in its initial spawn stage.First state of protective shell when upgrading.Second state of protective shell when upgrading.Third state of protective shell when upgrading.Fourth state of protective shell when upgrading.Fifth state of protective shell when upgrading.Sixth state of protective shell when upgrading.Seventh state of protective shell when upgrading.Eighth state of protective shell when upgrading.Ninth state of protective shell when upgrading.Tenth state of protective shell when upgrading.The Upgrade Shell having broken. Takes this appearance when the player chooses an option from the Upgrade Menu.The Upgrade Shell having broken with a yolk. If the player dies inside the upgrade shell, it will take on this appearance, with the yolk representing the deceased player.A fragment of the Upgrade Shell.Another fragment of the Upgrade Shell.A third fragment of the Upgrade Shell.The outline that the Upgrade Shell has in the Land and Forest biomes.The outline that the Upgrade Shell has in the Ocean.The outline that the Upgrade Shell has in the Arctic.The outline that the Upgrade Shell has in the Desert biome.The outline that the Upgrade Shell has in the Volcano.
### In-game

A player being injured by a Honey Bee whilst attempting to upgrade.A Vulture with the pre-October 2021 upgrade menu giving the option of upgrading to the Golden Eagle.The October 14 upgrade menu for tier 2.An Elephant upgrading to Apex tier, with the additional rare options of The Snowman and The Snowgirl.An older mobile upgrade menu as it appeared on a phone screen.Upgrade screen for tier 9 on an accidental dev server,s showing all the Rares.Upgrade screen for tier 11 on the same dev server.
## History

### Criticism

Very few visual changes have been made to the Upgrade Menu since the feature's release. The first major change was when the Storefront Update minimized the size of the Upgrade Menu, likely to fit more Skins on the screen. This caused some complaints about animal names occasionally not showing up on one's screen, complaints that continued all the way until the UI Update.

The biggest, and arguably most controversial change was added with the "*Version 3 UI*" update on October 14, 2021. It completely changed the Upgrade Menu to use biome-organized tabs. Many have argued about the excessive amount of time it takes to upgrade (previously, it only took a couple seconds), and that is very easy to miss Rares if all tabs are not checked. One focal point is how the Upgrade Menu blocks a large part of the screen; combined with the fact the player needs to click on a tab to select their animal, leaves the player in a very vulnerable position to predators and hazardous terrain such as lava.

In response to backlash surrounding the October 14 changes, the Upgrade Menu was altered again in the "*Hotfix 3.1*" update on October 21, 2021. Now, it takes up less space on one's screen, has a timer to represent how close auto-upgrade is of occurring, has the protectional Upgrade Shell feature to give players time to select their animal, and reinstated the feature of hotkeys. The October 21 upgrade screen has had a more positive reception than its most recent predecessor ‒ however, the majority of the community still prefers the earliest version due to its simplicity and being able to see all possible animal options at the same time.

The developers additionally implemented the Upgrade Shell to prevent players from dying while selecting an option from the Upgrade Menu. This feature was also poorly received by many players, being deemed an unnecessary interference in gameplay due to it constricting movement when selecting an upgrade option.

## Trivia

* Before the upgrade menu was added, players that reached the necessary XP to enter the next tier would automatically have the next animal of whichever biome they were in selected for them.

### Glitches

* In the Beta testing of the new UI, clicking another tab when upgrading to tier 12 would cause all the UI (including the Upgrade Menu) to disappear. This was not seen on the live release.

* Some Animals or Skins don't load on the new upgrade menu, leaving an image placeholder and/or becoming an orange/black blob in-game without other assets. The latter has known to have occurred with the Markhor (and its sknins), The Bigfoot, and Smile Spider skin.
	+ Similarly, some Skins loaded the incorrect Skin or a completely different Animal at release. These bugs were later patched with the October 21 update, but still sometimes occur when switching between biomes.
* A bug caused the upgrade menu to not appear at all when upgrading to tier 14, always auto-upgrading the player. It temporarily broke the XP bar and caused the Leaderboard to disappear for the duration it was supposed to be on screen. It was fixed several weeks later.
* In the most recent predecessor, the player's team was indicated regardless or not they were playing Team Mode.

## Footnotes

### References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://www.reddit.com/r/mopeio/comments/q8oyk9/my\_feedback\_on\_the\_new\_ui/ (October 15, 2021). Retrieved on July 7, 2022
2. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/mopeio/comments/q8m3ve/new\_ui\_update\_feedback/ (October 15, 2021). Retrieved on July 7, 2022
3. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/mopeio/comments/qdhv8f/hotfix\_32\_feedback/ (October 23, 2021). Retrieved on July 7, 2022
4. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/mopeio/comments/qabo2w/ui/ (October 18, 2021). Retrieved on July 7, 2022.
5. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/mopeio/comments/v461s4/changes\_koa\_should\_make\_to\_revive\_the\_game/ (June 4, 2022). Retrieved on July 7, 2022
6. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/mopeio/comments/wtytef/please\_remove\_eggs/ (August 21, 2022). Retrieved on September 15, 2022
7. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/mopeio/comments/xdgf1k/guide\_for\_devs\_on\_how\_to\_revive\_mopeio/ (September 14, 2022). Retrieved on September 15, 2022

### Notes

1. ↑ This does not apply to players upgrading from tier 16 to tier 17 (Monster to Black Dragon tier) or if King Dragon is obtained, as the only tab visible in this scenario will be for the Volcano.
2. ↑ Players that used low-graphics mode would have a slightly different Upgrade Menu; it only showed the animal image in the box, and not the animal's name