Vertigo 2: All Weapon Mods Guide

The base pistol offers 5 upgrades.

Extended Magazine – Useful upgrade as it gives you more shots per magazine and therefore more shots overall as the ammo synthesizes at the same rate.

Overclocker (requires Extended Magazine upgrade) – Also useful as it increases the damage output of your shots.

Holographic Sight – Useful for long range shots as it aids with aiming if you are less proficient with the iron sights.

Smart Plasma (requires Holographic Sight upgrade) – Adds a module on the side of the Ionizer that will steers your shots at a target that you have locked onto with the device.

Suppressor – A silencer for the Ionizer that allows you to kill enemies with stealth.

Because you can grab the Annihilator (shotgun) before using the first Mod Station, my personal preference is to ignore the Ionizer upgrades and save your early Mod Stations for upgrading the shotgun and Altershock (revolver). Your personal preference, of course.

With some upgrades, the shotgun can easily become your bread and butter weapon for most close-to-medium combat situations.

Holographic Sight – Not particularly useful to add a sight to a shotgun, but required for the next upgrade.

Tuned Coils (requires Holographic Sight upgrade) – Reduces the spread on the shotgun making it a far better medium range weapon. Personally, I find this indispensable.

Bottle Efficiency – Another great upgrade that increases the ammo capacity from 6 to 8 and therefore increases your overall ammo count.

Pellet Resonator – Damage upgrade for the shotgun which is also very useful.

Semi-Auto (requires Holographic Sight + Tuned Coils or Bottle Efficiency + Pellet Resonator) – A must-have upgrade that eliminates the need to rack the shotgun after each blast, enabling you to one-hand the weapon with ease.

Personally, I prefer doing the ammo+damage upgrades first and then immediately getting Semi-Auto. The Holographic Sight is basically useless, and while the reduced spread is a critical upgrade, you have to pick and choose and I find it can wait a bit.

This weapon will quickly replace your Ionizer for medium-to-long range combat with the right upgrades and solid aim. It only holds 6 bullets per magazine so you have to make them count.

Laser Sight – Indispensable upgrade that allows you to nail headshots while hip firing. Also required before getting any other upgrades on the weapon.

Heat Sink (requires Laser Sight) – Increases the fire rate of the gun which is also very necessary.

Entropy Accumulator (requires Laser Sight + Heat Sink) – Excellent upgrade that makes the final bullet in your magazine do triple damage.

Gyro Stock (requires Laser Sight) – Interesting upgrade which may or may not be useful depending on your play style and abilities. When you partially press your trigger, it steadies your hand such that your hand movements are slower, allowing you to more accurately hit your headshots.

Scope (requires Laser Sight + Gyro Scope) – I find this to be not all that useful but paired with the Gyro Stock it can help you nail headshots from very far away. Especially useful against snipers in Off A Rail, but then you would have to forgo your shotgun upgrades till later. More useful in The Diplomat mission, though the power of the weapon is lacking against many of the enemies you face.

Personally, I grab the Heat Sink and Entropy Accumulator for firing rate and damage and forgo the accuracy upgrades till later in the game. With a steady hand and moving closer to the snipers and faction foes, you can pick them off fairly easily with the Laser Sight only, but they can definitely be useful, regardless.

I find the Trident to be the least useful of the 6 upgrade-able weapons in the game, but since you will encounter 15 Mod Stations prior to getting the Phage, you will certainly want to upgrade and make use of it.

Wave Harmonizer – Probably the most useful upgrade as it increases the damage of the triple-barrel shots. I typically only use this weapon against bosses and this is helpful when you run out of ammo in your other weapons.

Flow Cycler – I basically never use the rapid-fire mode on the Trident so I typically skip this one until I run out of useful upgrades.

Holographic Sight – Fairly useless though it does help to aim the weapon as it doesn’t have a great base sight.

Inertial Sink (requires Wave Harmonizer or Flow Cycler upgrades) – Pretty useful in boss battles as it reduces recoil allowing you to one-hand the weapon more easily.

Heat Sink (requires Wave Harmonizer + Inertial Sink or Flow Cycler + Inertial Sink) – Increases the fire rate of the weapon which is again useful during boss battles.

Smart Eject (requires Holographic Sight) – Fairly useful upgrade that ejects a spent mag entirely so that you don’t have to knock it out with the new mag.

As I mentioned, there are 15 Mod Stations available before you get to the Phage, and there are 21 upgrades available between the 4 weapons you have received thus far, so you can pick and choose what’s important to you, but you’ll want to prioritize the Phage Launcher and Meat Nailer upgrades as soon as you get them.

One of the most useful late-game weapons as it eliminates the need for grenades to disable turrets, sticks to their targets, is extremely powerful, and has AOE damage.

Laser Sight – Indispensable upgrade that shows how your projectiles will arc. Very useful for long range shots to land them exactly where you want them.

Magnet Bombs (requires Laser Sight upgrade) – This upgrade can be both fantastic or an annoyance, but I recommend using it regardless. After firing, the phage projectile can wildly change its trajectory to land on a target if your aim wasn’t quite right. It can also crawl around the shields of the Heavy Security Bots and attach to them making them very useful in those battles. Unfortunately, it will sometimes go far away from where you want it to so you may end up wasting ammo at times.

Ammo Counter – The weapon holds 4 projectiles and this will give you an ammo counter to see how many shots you currently have.

Ammo Upgrade – Increases the rate of ammo regeneration which is very useful, as you will find this weapon to be critical in the last few chapters.

If you save your Mod Stations in chapters 12-14 exclusively for the Phage Launcher, you can have it fully upgraded right at the start of Chapter 14. Personally, this is what I do and it immediately becomes useful against Shielded Heavies, the cloaked ninjas, and all of the close quarter battles where its AOE comes in very handy. Another critical use of it is if Cyberjoesph ever grabs you, a Phage blast or Meat Nailer shot will get him to let go.

Truly an awesome weapon that is powerful both against the final boss, as well as quickly eliminating multiple threats at a distance both one at a time or simultaneously.

Ammo Upgrade – Much like the Phage Launcher upgrade of the same name, this increases the regeneration speed of your ammo.

Temporal Focus (requires Ammo Upgrade) – A fantastic upgrade that slows down time as you half press the trigger, allowing you to accurately nail your shots. There is a circular meter on the side of the gun that drains as you use the ability, and recharges when you are not. If you drain it completely, it has to recharge to full before using it again, so be mindful of this.

This weapon is incredibly useful in both the Cyberjoseph battle, as well as the preceding battle where you are attempting to gain entry to the core. I highly recommend both upgrades to help keep you alive. As with the Phage Launcher, a Meat Nailer shot will get Cyberjoseph to release you if he ever grabs a hold of you. It can also pass thru multiple enemies to wipe out a large group in a line.

Everyone’s play style is different and the upgrade order I have chosen is reliant on solid accuracy with the Altershock at long range, while heavily leveraging the Annihilator at close-to-medium range. If you want to go more stealthy, get the Ionizer upgrades earlier with the Suppressor. Each Mod Station is listed below with the Chapter they can be found in and in what order in the chapter they are located. I also note when each weapon is acquired.

Chapter 1 – Ionizer
Chapter 2 – Annihilator
Mod 2-1 – Annihilator – Bottle Efficiency (hold more ammo)
Chapter 3 – Altershock
Mod 5-1 – Altershock – Laser Sight (Hip firing headshots)
Mod 6-1 – Annihilator – Pellet Resonator (damage increase)
Mod 6-2 – Annihilator – Semi-Auto (no need to rack the shotgun and great before both Chapter 6 boss battles)
Mod 6-3 – Annihilator – Holographic Sight (Not very useful but needed for the next upgrade)
Chapter 6 – Trident
Mod 7-1 – Annihilator – Tuned Coils (reduces spread)
Mod 7-2 – Altershock – Heat Sink (increased firing rate)
Mod 8-1 – Altershock – Entropy Accumulator (last shot in mag does triple damage)
Mod 8-2 – Trident – Wave Harmonizer (damage increase for triple-barrel shot)
Mod 9-1 – Altershock – Gyro Stock (slows hand movement on trigger half-press)
Mod 9-2 – Altershock – Scope (useful in The Diplomat for long-range firing
Mod 10-1 – Trident – Inertial Sink (reduces recoil for one-hand firing)
Mod 10-2 – Trident – Heat Sink (increases firing rate)
Mod 10-3 – Trident – Holographic Sight (can be useful for aiming)
Mod 12-1 – Trident – Smart Eject (makes reloading easier)
Chapter 12 – Phage Launcher
Mod 12-2 – Phage Launcher – Laser Sight (arcing laser sight for better aim)
Mod 13-1 – Phage Launcher – Magnet Bombs (projectile redirects to stick to target)
Mod 13-2 – Phage Launcher – Ammo Counter (displays ammo count inside launcher)
Mod 14-1 – Phage Launcher – Ammo Upgrade (increases ammo regeneration speed)
Mod 14-2 – Ionizer – Extended Magazine (increases ammo capacity in mag)
Mod 14-3 – Ionizer – Overclocker (damage increase)
Mod 14-4 – Ionizer – Holographic Sight (better sight)
Mod 14-5 – Ionizer – Smart Plasma (bullets track to target)
Chapter 15 – Meat Nailer
Mod 15-1 – Meat Nailer – Ammo Upgrade (increases ammo regeneration speed)
Mod 16-1 – Meat Nailer – Temporal Focus (Slows down time on trigger half-press)
Mod 17-1 – Trident – Flow Cycler (damage increase for rapid-fire shots)
Mod 17-2 – Ionizer – Suppressor (Shots cannot be heard by enemies)