Upgrade unlock schedule
Every aircraft has up to nine upgradable systems, and each system has tiers that open as the aircraft levels up. This is when each tier becomes available, straight from the wiki's upgrade planner page.
This tells you when a tier unlocks. What each tier does to the aircraft is worked out in the build calculator. What it costs is published nowhere anything outside the game can read.
Which systems an aircraft has depends on what it carries: no rockets means no rocket system, and a cannon-less airframe has no cannon systems. The schedule is the same for every aircraft that has a given system.
Planning an actual upgrade? Use Starform's planner.
Starform runs the official upgrade planner. It logs in with your Metalstorm account and mirrors your real hangar progress, so it can tell you what an upgrade does to your aircraft. This tool covers base level 1 stats only and cannot see your hangar.
Tier by aircraft level
Read across a row to see when that system's tiers open, and down a column to see what a level unlocks. Systems start at aircraft level 6 and the tiers run to 8.
| System | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fuselage8 tiers | 1+2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | ||||||||
| Engines8 tiers | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |||||||
| Avionics8 tiers | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |||||||
| Internal Cannons8 tiers | 1+2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | ||||||||
| External Cannons8 tiers | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |||||||
| Radar Missiles8 tiers | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |||||||
| Heat-Seeking Missiles8 tiers | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |||||||
| Manual Missiles8 tiers | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |||||||
| Beam Riding Missiles8 tiers | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |||||||
| Rockets8 tiers | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
Column headings are aircraft levels. A cell holds the tier that becomes available at that level, so two tiers on one level means both open together.
- Fuselage
- T1 6T2 6T3 8T4 10T5 12T6 14T7 16T8 18
- Tier 8 at aircraft level 18, the last of them.
- Engines
- T1 6T2 7T3 9T4 11T5 13T6 15T7 17T8 19
- Tier 8 at aircraft level 19, the last of them.
- Avionics
- T1 6T2 8T3 10T4 12T5 14T6 16T7 18T8 20
- Tier 8 at aircraft level 20, the last of them.
- Internal Cannons
- T1 6T2 6T3 8T4 10T5 12T6 14T7 16T8 18
- Tier 8 at aircraft level 18, the last of them.
- External Cannons
- T1 6T2 8T3 10T4 12T5 14T6 16T7 18T8 20
- Tier 8 at aircraft level 20, the last of them.
- Radar Missiles
- T1 6T2 7T3 9T4 11T5 13T6 15T7 17T8 19
- Tier 8 at aircraft level 19, the last of them.
- Heat-Seeking Missiles
- T1 6T2 7T3 9T4 11T5 13T6 15T7 17T8 19
- Tier 8 at aircraft level 19, the last of them.
- Manual Missiles
- T1 6T2 7T3 9T4 11T5 13T6 15T7 17T8 19
- Tier 8 at aircraft level 19, the last of them.
- Beam Riding Missiles
- T1 6T2 8T3 10T4 12T5 14T6 16T7 18T8 20
- Tier 8 at aircraft level 20, the last of them.
- Rockets
- T1 6T2 8T3 10T4 12T5 14T6 16T7 18T8 20
- Tier 8 at aircraft level 20, the last of them.
Where these numbers come from
Transcribed from two wiki pages that are not per-aircraft. The wiki warns that Starform tunes mechanics without notice, and marks the planner page a work in progress. Reproduced under CC BY-SA 4.0 as the page stood on 2026-08-18, which makes this the community's best record rather than a specification.