Pragmata Unit Printer Guide — What to Upgrade First

by Krushna Vasudeva · April 20, 2026

Table of Contents

TL;DR

The Unit Printer is in the Shelter. Use it to print and upgrade weapons, hacking nodes, abilities, and attachments with Lunafilament and Pure Lunum.
A separate terminal — the Firmware Updater — handles suit, primary weapon, and hacking efficiency upgrades using Upgrade Components.
Upgrade Diana’s hacking first. Almost every enemy has armor that blocks raw gunfire — hacking damage and exposure duration matter more than gun stats early on.
Upgrade the Suit second. Bosses and elite bots hit hard. More HP gives you margin for error.
Print the Shockwave Gun early and keep it upgraded — it is your most reliable burst damage tool across the whole campaign.
Add Mod Slots and Node Slots early. More slots mean more passive effects and more hacking options active at once.
Do not waste Lunafilament on weapons you never use. Print only what fits your playstyle.

How the Upgrade System Works in Pragmata

Pragmata has two separate upgrade terminals in the Shelter, and it is important to know what each one does before you start spending resources.

The Firmware Updater handles upgrades for Hugh’s Suit, his Primary Unit (the Grip Gun and later the Pulse Carbine), and Diana’s hacking efficiency. You spend Upgrade Components here — the yellow resources found by exploring sectors, defeating enemies, and completing specific objectives. The maximum upgrade level at each Firmware Updater tier is capped by story progression. You cannot max everything out before it unlocks naturally as you clear bosses and advance.

The Unit Printer handles everything else — printing new weapons, hacking nodes, abilities, and attachments. You spend Lunafilament here for most purchases. Some of the best abilities and late-game upgrades also require Pure Lunum as an additional cost before you can then pay in Lunafilament. This matters because Pure Lunum is scarce. Spending it carelessly on lower-priority upgrades is one of the biggest mistakes a new player can make.

New blueprints unlock in two ways: raising your Shelter Level by defeating bosses at the end of each sector, or finding Data Shards scattered through sectors, which unlock one specific upgrade each. Data Shards are reasonably plentiful, so check what has unlocked at the Unit Printer every time you return to the Shelter.

Once you print a weapon, it appears on your loadout screen at the Tram Terminal when you leave the Shelter. Until a weapon is printed, you cannot equip it in your starting loadout — even if you have picked it up and used it many times in the field. Always print new blueprints as soon as you have the Lunafilament.

Firmware Updater — What to Prioritize

Before going through the Unit Printer tab by tab, the Firmware Updater deserves its own section because the upgrade order here has the biggest impact on early survival.

Diana s Hacking Upgrade This First Pragmata

1. Diana’s Hacking — Upgrade This First

This is the most important upgrade in the game and the one most players deprioritize by mistake. Almost every enemy in Pragmata has reinforced armor plating that blocks or heavily reduces raw gunfire. Guns alone are not enough. Hacking is what makes enemies vulnerable — and upgrading Diana’s hacking increases both her damage output after a completed grid and how long the weak point stays exposed for Hugh to shoot into.

Longer exposure windows mean more shots land before the enemy recovers. Higher hacking damage means fewer grids required to kill tougher enemies. Both scale into every fight you play from Sector 1 through the final Red Zones.

Upgrade Diana’s hacking at the Firmware Updater whenever Upgrade Components are available. Keep it ahead of your other investments during the first half of the game.

2. Hugh’s Suit — Upgrade This Second

Suit upgrades raise Hugh’s maximum HP. On Standard difficulty, bosses and elite bots can knock you down in a few hits if your positioning is not clean. More HP gives you room to make mistakes, stay in fights longer, and not need to burn Repair Canisters constantly.

Prioritize Suit upgrades right after hacking. You will notice the difference immediately in Sector 2 and beyond, where enemies hit significantly harder than anything in Sector 1.

3. Primary Unit — Upgrade This Third

Primary Unit upgrades improve the Grip Gun’s damage, stagger potential, ammo capacity, and rate of fire — and later apply to the Pulse Carbine once unlocked. Each upgrade level only improves one or two stats at a time rather than boosting everything at once, so returns feel incremental.

The Primary Unit is still worth upgrading — it is your constant fallback weapon — but it should come after hacking and suit. Your Primary is supplemental damage in most fights. It fills gaps between Attack weapon uses and finishes weakened enemies. Do not pour your early Upgrade Components into it expecting it to carry fights by itself.

Unit Printer — Tab by Tab Breakdown

Weapons Tab

This tab lets you print permanent copies of weapons you have found in sectors. The initial print costs 100 Lunafilament per weapon and unlocks it for your loadout. Further upgrades at increasing cost improve damage, ammo capacity, fire rate, and other stats depending on the weapon.

What to print first:

Print the Shockwave Gun as soon as it appears. It is the first Attack weapon you find and the best general-purpose burst option available for most of the campaign. Its combination of high damage, stagger, and ease of use makes it the natural first candidate for both printing and upgrading. Hack an enemy, close the distance, fire the Shockwave Gun into the exposed weak point — that loop works on almost everything in the game.

Print the Stasis Net right after. Freezing enemies is one of the most reliable ways to make fights manageable, especially when you are still learning enemy patterns and hack timing.

Print new blueprints as soon as you find them, but focus Lunafilament upgrades only on weapons you actually use in your loadout. Upgrading a weapon you do not run is a waste of a scarce resource. For a full breakdown of every weapon and where to find each blueprint, see our Pragmata all weapons — complete list guide.

Upgrade priority order for weapons:

The Shockwave Gun benefits most from early investment — more ammo capacity and faster reload make it more forgiving to use in extended fights. The Charge Piercer should get its upgrades focused at Levels 3 and 6, which are the breakpoints that meaningfully reduce charge time. The Stasis Net’s freeze duration upgrade is worth prioritizing because longer freeze time directly extends the window for hack and burst cycles. For the full breakdown of which weapons are worth investing in most heavily, see our Pragmata best weapons and loadout guide.

Hacking Tab

This tab lets you print hacking nodes — the modifiers Diana passes through on the hacking grid during combat. Each node you print adds to a pool that randomly appears in grids. More nodes available means more chances to see your preferred options during real fights.

You can also upgrade individual nodes to increase their power, adding more copies to the grid or boosting their effect strength.

What to print first:

Decode is the single most important hacking node in the game and the right first print in this tab. Decode increases damage dealt to an enemy after a hack is completed. This means every successful hack hits harder. Decode remains powerful against single targets throughout the entire campaign and stacks well with weapon damage from exposed weak points. Upgrade Decode whenever its upgrade becomes available.

Multihack is the second priority. It spreads the effect of your other hacking nodes across multiple enemies simultaneously, which makes group fights significantly more manageable. One hack sequence can debuff the whole room rather than just one target.

Additional Node Slots are critical. Each new node slot allows you to run one more hacking node in your active loadout. More slots means more effects active during each grid, more damage, and more utility options. Upgrade Additional Node Slot every time a new tier unlocks — treat this as a standing priority rather than something to do after specific weapons are maxed.

Expose extends the duration of the vulnerable state after a hack. This directly increases how many shots you can land in each damage window. Pairs especially well with slower weapons like the Charge Piercer that need more time to charge before firing.

Abilities Tab

The Abilities tab includes movement upgrades and combat techniques that improve how Hugh performs in general — not just in specific weapon situations. Some of the strongest early investments are here.

Thruster Charges — Every upgrade level adds one extra dash charge, reducing gauge consumption and letting you dodge more frequently. Dodging is how you avoid damage in Pragmata. More dodges directly reduces how often you get hit, which extends your Repair Canister reserves. Start upgrading Thruster Charges early and keep doing so across the whole campaign. Late-game enemies attack fast and in combinations that punish limited dodge resources.

Fast Moves (Perfect Dodge) — This ability unlocks a brief invincibility window when you dodge at the last possible second, similar to a parry timing mechanic. It costs Pure Lunum to unlock initially. The timing is demanding early on, but once you have the reflex down, it is a powerful defensive tool that lets you stay aggressive without taking constant chip damage.

Item Scan — Diana can scan nearby areas to highlight collectibles, including REMs, Safe Boxes, and Upgrade Components. This is not a combat upgrade, but it is extremely useful for completionists who want to hit 100% in each sector without missing items. If you are going for all collectibles, unlock Item Scan early. For all REM locations across every sector, see our Pragmata all REM locations guide.

Repair Up — Increases how much HP you recover from each Repair Canister use. Enemies hit hard in every sector from Sector 2 onward. Getting more value from each heal directly reduces how quickly your Repair Canister stock depletes during long fights. Keep Repair Up leveled at each tier as it unlocks.

Attachments Tab

Attachments are passive upgrades that affect specific stats or mechanics across your whole loadout rather than individual weapons or nodes.

Mod Slots — Every Mod Slot upgrade adds one more slot for equipping Mods on Hugh’s loadout. Mods are passive perks you find throughout sectors — things like bonus damage in certain conditions, better hacking synergies, and combat boosts. You find many Mods while exploring, but you cannot use more than your current number of Mod Slots. Unlock Mod Slot upgrades consistently throughout the game so that as you collect better Mods, you have room to run them. For a full breakdown of which Mods are worth equipping, see our Pragmata best mods guide.

Node Slots — Same logic as Mod Slots, but for hacking nodes. Each new Node Slot lets you equip one additional node in your active hacking loadout. More nodes active means more effects appear in each enemy grid. Upgrade Node Slots consistently across the whole campaign.

Critical Shot — A late-game attachment that adds a Critical Shot node to the hacking grid when an enemy is low on health. Landing it delivers a finishing blow with bonus damage. Combine with the Collateral Damage Mod to also hit nearby enemies with that final shot. Worth unlocking once you have the core upgrades established, but not a first-day priority.

Upgrade Priority Order — Full Summary

If you want a simple sequence to follow from the start of the game to the end, this is the recommended order:

Phase 1 — Sectors 1 and 2:

Start at the Firmware Updater and put Upgrade Components into Diana’s Hacking first, then Hugh’s Suit. At the Unit Printer, print the Shockwave Gun immediately, print the Stasis Net as soon as it appears, and buy the first Additional Node Slot upgrade. Print the Decode hacking node and upgrade it once. Unlock the first tier of Thruster Charges.

Phase 2 — Sectors 2 and 3:

Continue Firmware Updater investment in Hacking and Suit. Begin putting some Upgrade Components into the Primary Unit. At the Unit Printer, buy a second Node Slot and Mod Slot. Print the Charge Piercer when it becomes available and upgrade it at Levels 3 and 6. Print Multihack. Unlock Repair Up and upgrade it at each new tier. Unlock Additional Node Slot upgrades as they appear.

Phase 3 — Sectors 4 and 5:

By this point you should have your core weapons, nodes, and slots established. Focus Pure Lunum investment on abilities like Fast Moves and on weapon upgrades for your most-used Attack weapons. Print the Code Generator once you earn it from the Specialist Stamp Board — it becomes one of the most valuable tactical tools in the late game. Upgrade the Stasis Net freeze duration. Fill remaining Mod Slots with the best Mods you have collected.

What Not to Upgrade First

A few common mistakes are worth naming directly so you can avoid them:

Do not max out the Primary Unit at the Firmware Updater before upgrading Hacking and Suit. The Primary is your fallback gun — useful but not your main damage source. Sinking early Upgrade Components into it while your Suit is fragile and your hacking is underpowered makes Sectors 2 and 3 significantly harder than they need to be.

Do not print weapons you will not use. Every print costs 100 Lunafilament. Printing a weapon just to have it and never equipping it is wasted currency that could have gone toward Decode upgrades or a Mod Slot.

Do not spend Pure Lunum on weapon upgrades before abilities. Pure Lunum is rare. Fast Moves and the initial print cost for late-game abilities require it. Spending it all on weapon upgrade tiers before unlocking core abilities locks you out of meaningful combat tools later in the game. Finding more Pure Lunum means clearing Red Zones — see our Pragmata red keys and red zones guide for every location.

Do not ignore Node Slot and Mod Slot upgrades. It is tempting to spend Lunafilament on flashy weapon upgrades and skip the slot expansions. But slots are what allow all your other investments to actually be active during combat at the same time. More slots make every weapon and node you have already bought more valuable simultaneously.

More Pragmata Guides

Pragmata is available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC via Steam. Visit the official Pragmata website for more from Capcom.

Pragmata Unit Printer Guide — What to Upgrade First

TL;DR

How the Upgrade System Works in Pragmata