Endless Journey weapon upgrades vs. skills

# Endless Journey: weapon upgrades versus skills

Note: The videos linked from this page (made by little\_blaine) were all taken using version 1.7.23 of Wing Fighter on android.

For quite some time, it's been known to Wing Fighter players that skills are more valuable than upgrades in Endless Journey, and in earlier versions of the game it was believed that weapon upgrades were actually broken and had no effect in the damage inflicted upon enemies.

**TL;DR**: Upgrades do have some effect, but skills are about 10x more impactfull.

The videos below were taken to verify or challenge these assertions. All three videos have these things in common:

* They all were taken on the same account with no changes in overall power during the time the videos were recorded.
* The same fighter, a high-level Thanos, was used.
* The only equipped weapon was a batarang. No other weapons were used.
* The material recorded in Endless Journey was: fighting the mini-boss of level 111, and then the big boss of level 120.
* All 3 videos were specifically recorded on runs featuring the same sea level 90-120 sea stage, so that the enemies presented are the same in all three.
* In all 3, the skills used liberally (when available/needed) were healing and magnet. Other skills varied as per level descriptions.

## No skills, no weapon upgrades

This is the baseline. No skills (other than healing and magnet) were purchased, and no weapon upgrades. Overall time to beat level 120 boss: 3 minutes and 20 seconds. One batarang blast to the boat turrets does about 2.4% of damage.

https://youtu.be/RGSjJ7i1FYw

## No skills, all weapon upgrades

This run shows what happens by spending all stars on weapon upgrades. This got batarang to red level 150. Overall time to beat level 120 boss: 2 minutes and 50 seconds. One batarang blast to the boat turrets does about 3.2% of damage, a 33% increase over baseline.

https://youtu.be/XEPq749rKTI

## All skills, no weapon upgrades

This run is with all available skills purchased leading up to level 120. This was the universe of skills applicable to batarang (Critical, Increased Attack, Fire Rate, Fire Rate, Ricochet, Increased Size) - these skills were no longer offered after this point. Overall time to beat level 120 boss: 50 seconds. One batarang blast to the boat turrets does about 30% of damage, a 330% increase over baseline.

https://youtu.be/\_W-7\_PyLwOQ

## Conclusion

The notion that weapon upgrades are broken in Endless Journey is now disproven. They actually do work, as evidenced by the differences in the first two videos, as it was easier and faster to beat the level 120 boss. However, there is absolutely no doubt what available stars should be used for first: skills. Skills have about 10x the benefit than weapon upgrades, and not just in single-shot power but also in the overall attack speed and number of enemies affected.

With this evidence in mind, the recommended strategy for endless actually doesn't change: Equip a maingun (at start of Journey), quickly buy a missile, and then all available skills. When you run out of skills to buy, purchase other equipment (winggun, shield) and then start upgrading, maingun, missile, winggun and shield in that order. Good luck!