Saros: Which Armor Matrix Upgrades to Unlock First

by Krushna Vasudeva · May 12, 2026

TL;DR

Unlock Drive nodes first to earn more Lucenite every run — it compounds fast.
Get Second Chance as early as possible using Halcyon — one free revive per cycle is huge.
Grab Proficiency Enhancements to start every run with stronger weapons from the start.
Unlock Artifact Slots using Halcyon once Second Chance is secured.
Save Halcyon for high-impact purple nodes only — do not waste it on small stat bumps.
Avoid spending Lucenite on Attribute Enhancements early — the value-per-Lucenite drops sharply past 1,000.
Unlock Aether Upgrades after Bastion — better healing means longer runs and more resources.

The Armor Matrix is the permanent upgrade system in Saros. Every Lucenite and Halcyon you spend here carries over between runs. Spend in the right order and each run gets meaningfully stronger. Spend in the wrong order and you will feel underpowered for far longer than you need to be.

This guide covers the best Armor Matrix upgrades to unlock first, the order that makes sense, and what to avoid spending early. If you are brand new to the game, our Saros beginner tips guide covers the basics of how combat, resources, and runs work before you get into the upgrade tree.

Table of Contents

How the Armor Matrix Works

You access the Armor Matrix through Primary in the Passage hub. The tree is mostly linear with branching paths as you progress deeper. Every node you buy is permanent — upgrades do not reset between runs and cannot be refunded. Think before you spend, especially with Halcyon.

There are two currencies. Lucenite is the main currency. It drops from enemies, sits in exploration paths, and funds most of the tree. You also earn Proficiency during runs by collecting Lucenite — so Drive upgrades affect both your in-run power and your between-run bank.

Halcyon is rarer. It appears as a white-and-purple orb and cannot be lost on death — which makes it one of the safest resources to collect. Only the purple nodes on the Armor Matrix cost Halcyon. These are the most impactful upgrades in the tree and the ones that take the longest to reach. Do not spend Halcyon on low-impact nodes. Save it for the ones that actually shift how your runs feel.

The three main stats in the tree are:

Resilience — Increases Arjun’s maximum HP.
Command — Increases maximum Shield HP and Power Weapon capacity.
Drive — Increases how much Lucenite you collect from enemies.

These stats also affect your runs in a second way. Enemies will occasionally drop temporary attribute boosts after kills, once you unlock the relevant Armor Matrix nodes. These give on-the-fly boosts to Resilience, Command, or Drive during a run and stack on top of your permanent stats.

upgraded equipment proficiency armor matrix upgrades saros

Priority Order — What to Unlock First

1. Drive Nodes

Drive is the first stat to invest in. Every time you upgrade Drive, you increase how much Lucenite falls from enemies and how much you find while exploring. More Lucenite per run means your Proficiency meter climbs faster mid-run, which means stronger weapons sooner. It also means you leave each run with more to spend at the Armor Matrix.

The benefit compounds. More Lucenite leads to faster enemy clears. Faster enemy clears generate more Lucenite. Higher Proficiency gives you better weapon drops. Better weapons clear rooms faster. The whole loop accelerates once Drive is high enough. This is why it is the single best first investment.

When the Armor Matrix branches and gives you a choice between Drive, Command, or Resilience, always pick Drive first in the early game. Command and Resilience have their place later, but Drive pays dividends from the very first run you invest in it.

2. Second Chance (Halcyon)

Second Chance is the most important Halcyon upgrade in the game for most players. It gives Arjun a free revival once per cycle after death. One extra life can save an entire run that would otherwise end at a difficult Overlord fight or a dense wave room. The sooner you unlock it, the more runs it saves.

Path toward Second Chance as your first major Halcyon spend. You will pass through the Shield Amplifier node on the way, which costs 1 Halcyon and lets you absorb yellow corrupted projectiles with your shield during Eclipse sections — similar to how blue ones work. It is worth having as a stepping stone and you will path through it anyway.

Once Second Chance is unlocked, your next Halcyon targets should be Artifact Slot expansions. See further below. For a full breakdown of how to find Halcyon and what it does, our guide on what to do with Halcyon Primary Upgrades in Saros goes into detail.

3. Proficiency Enhancements

Proficiency Enhancements appear at multiple points throughout the Armor Matrix. Grab them every time you see them. They raise your starting weapon level at the beginning of new runs, which means you reach effective power thresholds faster and deal with early-game rooms more cleanly from the first encounter.

Normally, Proficiency grows as you collect Lucenite mid-run. Starting higher removes a chunk of that grind. Each Proficiency upgrade stacks with the others, so the benefit accelerates as you buy more. Stronger starts lead to faster clears, which generate more Lucenite, which push Proficiency even higher mid-run. It is the same self-reinforcing loop as Drive, applied at the beginning of a run rather than during it.

After defeating Prophet and unlocking the second tier of the Armor Matrix, Proficiency Enhancement nodes become a priority spend before anything else in that tier.

4. Lucenite Saver (Halcyon)

When you die in Saros, you lose a significant chunk of your collected Lucenite — 50 percent at the start of the game. Lucenite Saver reduces that penalty. The first upgrade brings it down to 45 percent. That might not sound like much, but across many runs it adds up to a meaningful amount of extra Armor Matrix spending power.

If you find yourself dying frequently in early biomes, Lucenite Saver is a worthwhile Halcyon spend after Second Chance. The economy stability it provides keeps your progression moving even through rough patches. It is especially valuable before you have fully learned the dodge and absorption patterns in each biome.

5. Aether Upgrades (Unlock After Bastion)

Aether Upgrades are locked behind defeating Bastion, the boss of the second biome. Once they open, make them a priority spend. These upgrades make Aether — the only healing item in Saros — restore significantly more health when used.

In the early game, Aether pickups heal a small amount. After upgrading, the same pickup heals much more. Better healing means surviving longer into each run, which means more time to collect Lucenite and Halcyon before dying or returning to the Passage. It is one of the highest-impact upgrades in the entire tree once it unlocks, and it is easy to overlook because it is gated behind the second boss. Do not skip it.

6. Artifact Slots (Halcyon)

You start Saros with 10 Artifact Slots and the Armor Matrix lets you expand that pool with Halcyon. There are 10 additional slots available to unlock in total. More slots mean more Artifacts equipped simultaneously, more build flexibility per run, and a better chance of holding onto a healing or utility Artifact when you need it most.

Skipping Artifact Slot expansions to spend Halcyon on smaller stat nodes is one of the most common mistakes new players make. The slot count directly affects how varied and powerful your builds can get. Once Second Chance and Lucenite Saver are secured, Artifact Slot upgrades are the next best use of your Halcyon.

7. Resilience Nodes

After Drive is invested in, Resilience is the next stat to build up. More maximum HP means you survive hits that would otherwise end a run. It is especially important during the learning phase when you are still dialling in your dodge timing and projectile reading.

Resilience nodes are straightforward. They do not have any compounding effects like Drive, but survivability is always valuable. Invest in them steadily as you path through the tree, particularly in the first two upgrade tiers.

8. Command Nodes

Command increases your maximum Shield HP and the number of Power Weapon uses available. It is the last of the three main stats to prioritise, but it becomes more important as you push into later biomes where Power Weapons are used more frequently and Eclipse sections become heavier.

More Command means more Power Weapon capacity, which means more chances to cleanse Corruption from your health bar. Since Power Weapons are also how you remove Corruption in Saros, a higher Command pool gives you more flexibility between damage bursts and health management.

Players who use the shield heavily throughout fights may find Command worth moving up the priority order. Standard advice is to leave it third after Drive and Resilience, but if your playstyle leans on absorbing blue projectiles constantly and burning Power regularly, earlier Command investment is justified.

9. Key Storage

Key Storage lets you start runs with Carcosan Keys already in your inventory, up to a maximum of five. Carcosan Keys open locked yellow containers across biomes, which can hold significant amounts of Lucenite, weapons, and Artifacts.

This is not an early priority, but it is worth pathing toward once your core stats and Second Chance are handled. Having keys available from the first room of a run means you never miss a locked container because you ran out mid-biome. For more on how locked containers work, see our guide on how to open locked containers with Carcosan Keys.

10. Attribute Enhancements

Attribute Enhancements grant one point to all three stats at once — Resilience, Command, and Drive simultaneously. They look appealing because of the broad coverage, but they are expensive. The value-per-Lucenite drops sharply once costs rise past 1,000 Lucenite per node.

The right approach is to grab the first few Attribute Enhancement slots on each side of the Armor Matrix tree and then stop before the cost climbs too high. Past the early tiers, targeted Drive and Resilience upgrades give more value for the same Lucenite. Do not overspend here in the mid game.

What to Avoid Spending on Early

Two things new players commonly overspend on early and regret later:

High-cost Attribute Enhancements. Once a node costs above 1,000 Lucenite, the value drops sharply. Stop buying these past the first few in each branch and redirect your Lucenite to Proficiency Enhancements and Drive instead.

Spending Halcyon on anything before Second Chance. Halcyon is scarce in the early game. Any Halcyon spent on a non-priority node is a delay on Second Chance, which is the single highest-impact upgrade Halcyon can buy. Path toward Second Chance first, every time.

Recommended Unlock Order at a Glance

Step 1: Drive nodes — start here, always.
Step 2: Second Chance — first major Halcyon spend, path through Shield Amplifier on the way.
Step 3: Proficiency Enhancements — grab every time they appear in the tree.
Step 4: Lucenite Saver — reduces the death penalty, keeps economy stable.
Step 5: Aether Upgrades — unlock after beating Bastion, prioritise immediately.
Step 6: Artifact Slots — expand with Halcyon after Second Chance is secured.
Step 7: Resilience — build steadily as you path through the tree.
Step 8: Command — third stat priority, more relevant in later biomes.
Step 9: Key Storage — solid mid-game node for consistent container access.
Step 10: Attribute Enhancements — grab early ones only, stop before costs get too high.

How Lucenite and Halcyon Work Together

Most players understand early that Lucenite is the main fuel. What they miss is how tightly Lucenite generation during runs is tied to Drive, and how that affects everything else. Drive upgrades mean faster in-run Proficiency growth, which means stronger weapons found earlier, which means fights end faster, which means more Lucenite drops per run. The entire Armor Matrix progression accelerates once Drive is high.

Halcyon is the slower, higher-stakes resource. You cannot lose it on death, which is important — never feel rushed to spend Halcyon quickly just because you have some. Always ask whether a Halcyon node solves a real problem before buying it. Second Chance, Shield Amplifier, Lucenite Saver, and Artifact Slots are all clear answers to real problems. Most other purple nodes are mid-to-late investments.

The Attribute Volatility system is also tied to how hard you push certain stats. Pushing a stat past its normal cap triggers Volatility, which brings side effects. This is worth understanding before you invest heavily in any single attribute. Our guide on Saros Attribute Volatility explains how that works and when pushing past the cap is worth it.

Saros: Which Armor Matrix Upgrades to Unlock First

How the Armor Matrix Works