KOTAMON Upgrades — All 7 Stats & What to Buy First
All seven stats
| Stat | What it does for your runs |
|---|---|
| Bag | How much you can carry per run — fewer trips back to the compactor. |
| Energy | Stamina for longer cleanup sessions before you need a beer break. |
| Buzz | Beer-related stat — beer restores energy, and Buzz levels how well that works for you. |
| Capacity | Storage headroom so a big haul does not cap out mid-heap. |
| Speed | Movement between heaps, table, shop and grinder. |
| Range | Reach when grabbing trash — less repositioning per pile. |
| Magnet | Pull-in help that makes pickups stick from farther away. |
Stat list read off the official Steam shop screenshot; per-level effects beyond the visible descriptions are not published, so we describe roles, not numbers.
Buy order that holds up
- Bag / Energy — whichever bottleneck you feel first.
- Speed — once the walk between heap, table and shop is your biggest time cost.
- Magnet / Range — quality-of-life for dense heaps.
- Finish everything — maxing all stats unlocks Jenny's $10,000 cereal box, the repeatable foil source.
Upgrade achievements
My Better Self! (first upgrade) → I Have the Power! (20 upgrades) → Champion (one stat at MAX) → Power Overwhelming (everything) — tracked on the achievements page.
Upgrade FAQ
What should I upgrade first?
Bag or Energy, depending on your bottleneck: buy Bag early if you keep leaving finds behind, Energy if you run out of steam before finishing an area. Speed matters once travel time becomes the drag.
How much do upgrades cost?
Prices are per-level and were completely rebalanced in the August 21 patch (the launch economy was accidentally brutal — the developers joke they Googled "Miyazaki game balance"). We deliberately do not publish a price table that could go stale; check Jenny's shop in-game.
Why did my upgrades disappear?
If you came from the demo: money and upgrades reset by design in the demo-to-release migration (cards were preserved). If it happened mid-release, see the fixes page — some players reported missing upgrades even after the official save fixes.