Sublight Armoury & Unlocks Guide: Research Tiers and Meta Progression
How Sublight Armoury progression works: run-earned meta currency, research tiers, ships, weapons, tools, permanent upgrades, and why some unlocks stay unavailable.
The Armoury is Sublight’s between-run progression layer. Runs earn meta currency that unlocks weapons, tools, ships, and permanent upgrade tracks. Some content is research-tier gated, and later demo patches added clearer UI showing which mission unlocks the next tier. If something remains locked, do not assume buying the previous node is enough; check the research requirement.
What changed in 0.17.0
The 0.17.0 overhaul introduced the current Armoury model and intentionally gated some early content to make onboarding clearer. This is the backbone of long-term build variety.
Research tiers
Patch 0.17.6 explicitly added an Armoury element showing which mission has the next research-tier unlock and whether the next tier was unavailable in the demo. That is the key troubleshooting step.
What to buy first
Spend for build access, not collection completion. Unlock a weapon family, ship, or equipment option that supports a playstyle you already understand. Broadly buying one node in every category gives you more menu entries but not necessarily a stronger run.
Difficulty and unlock incentives
For each unlock, read the mission and research-tier requirement shown in the Armoury before choosing a harder run. A locked node can require mission progress as well as currency.
0.20.0 changed how weapon unlocks and bans work
Three rules from the October 8 patch change what is worth buying and banning:
- Unlocking a weapon type now unlocks all of its tiers. If you were buying tiers one at a time, you no longer have to — and the patch includes a one-time refund of credits for tiers already purchased.
- Bans now scale with weapon purchases: you receive one additional ban for each new weapon bought after the first six, so a tightly focused pool is a legitimate plan rather than a handicap.
- Research now supports multiple weapon types and adds new weapon variants based on which research you pick, so a research line can now change the guns you see rather than only your stats.
Also from this patch: weapons can be merged mid-run to raise their damage, and low-tier chests stop offering weapons as a run goes on, so the passives they give are the predictable reward.
Mines and Scatter-gun research in 0.20.02
Mines and Scatter guns now have research options. Open their Armoury research lines before planning a run around those families, and use the cost and requirement shown by the selected node. Match that node to the mission and research tier available on your save.
For an unlock that still looks unavailable, check the mission or tier requirement shown by the Armoury, then return to ship select and inspect the three starting equipment slots. Unlocking a weapon family, selecting its research and choosing starting equipment are separate decisions.
Compare the new research families before spending across unrelated branches.
Patch details: official 0.20.02 notes (October 31, 2026, UTC).