What to Upgrade First in Abyss — A New Player Priority Guide

Abyss has three main upgrade paths: your gun, your race, and your artifacts. Most new players face a choice between them early, and most new players make the wrong call — not because the game is confusing, but because the upgrade that looks most rewarding is not the one that compounds fastest.

This article is for players who are within their first few hours of the game and want to know which upgrade to prioritize without having to read through everything.

The most consistent recommendation across published guides is: gun first, artifacts second, race last.

The reason is compounding. A better gun improves every single run you take from that point forward. An artifact upgrade improves runs where you have that artifact equipped. A race reroll changes your passive but does not improve your raw farming speed in the same way.

Concretely: upgrading from the Starter Gun to the Air Rifle Gun is the single most impactful thing most new players can do in the first two hours of gameplay. It is worth more than any race passive change in that window.

There is an exception. Once you have a decent gun but are still dying to enemies that feel faster or stronger than expected, artifact upgrades start to matter more than an incremental gun upgrade.

The most commonly recommended early artifact focus is Cooldown Reduction — it makes your gun charge faster, which effectively increases your damage output without needing a better weapon. For players who are already comfortable with their gun but are hitting a survival wall, a cooldown artifact is usually the faster fix.

Race rerolling is the upgrade most new players prioritize too early. Most published guides suggest waiting until you have reached at least the second zone before spending currency on a race change.

The main reason is that race bonuses are zone-specific. A race that feels weak in Forgotten Deep can become powerful in Ocean, and vice versa. Until you know which zone you are most comfortable farming in, committing to a race is premature.

Good race reroll timing based on public references: after you have a reliable gun setup for your current zone and have confirmed which zone you want to spend the most time in.

1. Can you afford the Air Rifle Gun? If not, save until you can. Only buy the Beginners Gun as a placeholder.

2. Do you have a cooldown reduction artifact? If not, prioritize getting one before a second weapon upgrade.

3. Have you confirmed which zone you want to farm long-term? If yes, research which race matches that zone before spending on a reroll.

4. Only after steps 1-3 are stable should you consider incremental gun upgrades beyond the Air Rifle or race changes.

The Air Rifle Gun at 2,150 is the most consistently recommended first major upgrade across Game8, Beebom, and ProGameGuides.

Cooldown Reduction artifacts are the most frequently recommended first artifact upgrade.

Most published guides recommend waiting until mid-game before investing in race rerolls.

Gun prices and artifact stats can be rebalanced in updates.

New zones and mechanics can change which race is most useful at a given progression point.

Weapon additions can make the Air Rifle less relevant for future players.