Upgrades and progression systems play a vital role in the farming genre, and Lightyear Frontier is no different. After all, what good is having a mech suit if it can't be upgraded? Upgrades in Lightyear Frontier mean gaining the ability to explore new areas, harvest new resources, and progress through the story.

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Each upgrade must be crafted from materials gathered throughout the world, grown in a gardening plot, or processed with the help of a handful of machines. Some upgrades are optional, focusing on quality-of-life improvements, while others are essential. For players looking to jumpstart their alien farming life, here are the best upgrades to prioritize.

1 Spike Saw Power

Preparation For Stronger Resources

In Lightyear Frontier, the Spike Saw acts as a powerful multi-tool, capable of harvesting ore, crystals, trees, and bushes. As it plays such a key role, its upgrades should remain high on players' priority lists. Though the damage upgrades that allow it to break material in fewer hits, and saving the player a little extra time are tempting, they are not nearly as essential as the power upgrades.

Increasing the Spike Saw's power will allow it to break stronger materials, which in turn will unlock new crafting recipes essential to progression.

2 Vacuum Harvester Power

Suck Up Stronger Weeds And Clear More Areas

Key to unlocking new areas throughout the world of Lightyear Frontier, the Vacuum Harvester Power upgrades are essential. Each new area must be restored before any of its materials begin to appear for harvest, and getting rid of noxious weeds is a common task in the restoration process.

Weeds vary in strength depending on the area, but for players that stay on top of upgrading their vacuum, they're an easy mess to clean up. Additionally, removing weeds provides players with plant fiber, a helpful resource for crafting plant oil, creating compost, or selling to the merchant for a little extra cash.

3 Irrigation Hose Power

Wash Away Even The Strongest Slime

Just as weeds act as a roadblock towards restoration, so too does noxious slime. Washing away slime with a hose is a little more time-consuming than sucking up weeds, as players will have to constantly refill their water tanks and be a little more precise in their actions.

Still, in order to progress, focusing on hose power upgrades is a necessity. Players will have to upgrade their spike saw's power to craft the initial upgrade in this pipeline, but it quickly pays off.

4 Water Tank Capacity

Save Time By Avoiding Refills

Once their irrigation hose power is upgraded, players will likely want to increase their water tank capacity. Not only is this time-saving when cleaning out slime, but it is also extremely beneficial for keeping plants watered.

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Depending on how many crops players have been growing, the morning watering routine might include two or three trips to a water source to refill. And for players located far away from a water source that doesn't have wells yet, this may be much more of a hassle than it sounds. Upgrading water tank capacity is in no way essential, but pays off massively in convenience.

5 Inventory Capacity

Avoid Becoming Bogged Down

In Lightyear Frontier, when a player becomes over-encumbered, they lose the ability to run and use their jetpacks, causing travel to slow down significantly. Though it can seem like just a minor inconvenience at first, the more areas a player unlocks, the further their travels will likely be, meaning that the slow walk back to the farm becomes longer and longer.

Additionally, more areas mean more tempting resources to gather. Upgrading inventory capacity goes a long way in speeding up map traversal and making the most out of those resource-gathering trips.

6 House

Decorations Should Not Be Skipped

Though house upgrades aren't explicitly explained, they are incredibly beneficial to maximizing daily resource gathering. Each new home that players unlock will have new levels associated with it called coziness levels. To increase coziness levels, players must build decorations within the homes' designated area of influence.

The more decorations a player builds, the higher the level of their home becomes, giving them useful but simple bonuses such as finding more resources or the chance for harvested crops to have a higher yield. The costs of building upgraded homes and placing the required decorations to level them up are high, but the passive bonuses pay off in the long run.

7 Sprint Speed

Moving Faster Means Getting More Done

Like many farming sims and cozy games, there are a lot of daily tasks to accomplish in Lightyear Frontier. One of the best ways to make these tasks more manageable is to upgrade the Sprint Speed of the mech.

Moving a little bit faster between locations makes days feel much less cramped, and allows players a little bit more time to explore and farm before the sun goes down for the night. This upgrade becomes especially useful after players have unlocked the entire map.

8 Field Plow

Bigger Farms, Higher Productivity, And No More Farm Plots

For the majority of the early game, players will be regulated to grow their crops in farm plots. Farm plots vary in size and require a handful of resources to build. However, later in the game, players will have the chance to upgrade their mech with a Field Plow. This gives the mech the ability to till the soil, eliminating the need for farm plots and opening up the possibility of creating massive fields of crops.

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These plowed fields make much better use of space, and growing a large field of wheat is a great way to spruce up a homestead's appearance.

9 Lock On Targets And Hydro Splash

Two Mutually Beneficial Farming Upgrades

These two upgrades go hand in hand. Farming in Lightyear Frontier starts a little on the tedious side. Each seed must be aimed and shot at individual spots on farming plots and then watered similarly.

These two upgrades focus on streamlining that experience. Lock On Targets allows players to quickly select multiple tilled spots, up to 64 with its highest upgrade, and plant seeds in them all at once. Similarly, Hydro Splash allows players to use their hose to create large pools of water capable of watering large areas of crops.

10 Spike Saw Damage

Save Time While Mining Ore And Chopping Trees

The stronger materials get, the longer they take to break down. Upgrading the damage of the Spike Saw helps speed this along. Though it is beneficial for collecting late-game ores, it particularly shines when collecting some of the more basic resources, such as trees.

This damage upgrade combined with the swing action of the Spike Saw makes quick work of forests, aluminum deposits, and whatever else players might be trying to break. This upgrade is not essential, but as more and more tasks build up, saving some time on the most basic actions goes a long way.

Lightyear Frontier

Platform(s)

PC , Xbox One , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S

Released

March 19, 2024

Developer(s)

Frame Break , Amplifier Studios

Genre(s)

Open-World , Adventure , Farming