Batman Arkham Knight - The Best Waynetech Upgrades (Skills)

Arkham Knight comes with a familiar looking upgrade system where players can spend their Waynetech points in exchange for a more advanced arsenal. Skills are split into six subsections that each contain many upgrade slots relating to a particular feature in the game.

Waynetech points take time to earn in Arkham Knight so it's a wise choice to research the upgrade options before spending any points. Once you confirm the upgrades there's no option to reverse the changes and there's no Witcher 3 like potion to reset skills points.

Fastest ways to earn Waynetech points

Points are rewarded for the following activities:

Levelling up
Achieving the highest rating in AR Challenges
Completing Most Wanted missions

It's fairly easy to level up at the start of the game and the main story forms the basis of your first handful of Waynetech points. As you progress further, different AR Challanges and Most Wanted missions are unlocked.

The Training AR Challenges are the easiest, so gobble those up for some easy points near the beginning. Then alternate between main story and Most Wanted quests. These wanted side quests are quick and fairly easy, with a guaranteed point (minimum) at the end of each milestone. The rewards also scale as you progress through the wanted missions, unlike the main story which becomes harder to level up in the later missions.

Most Wanted rewards

A good example is the Penguin side quest which offers 2 points for every weapon cache destroyed and 3 points for the final milestone (shown above).

Which upgrades you decide upon depends alot on your personal preference; do you prefer an open fight, sneak attacks and fear takedowns, surprise glide attacks or do you love fighting from the Batmobile? Many of the skills shift your character towards one of these paths and you should consider the direction you want to take Batman in before venturing too far down a chosen route.

The six upgrade sections are:

Gadget Tech
Gadget Skills
Combat
Batsuit
Batmobile
Batmobile Weapons

So let's take a look at the best skills in each of the six sections...

Batsuit

The Batsuit upgrades are great for beefing up your armour and improving your survivability. In particular these are the skills I recommend trying:

Fear Multi-Takedown x 5

Imagine five unobstructive instant takedowns? Pretty good huh? Well that's the reward for upgrading the Fear Multi-Takedown branch of the Batsuit section.

To reach the final upgrade slot for x 5 Fear Takedowns you must activate the x 4 upgrade first, which makes this upgrade branch very expensive. However, with five Fear Takedowns you can completely wipe out a hostile group in a few seconds with zero resistance.

Melee Armor

Melee Armor protection provides up to a 100% increase to Batman's defence against melee attacks. There's no question that this skill should be a top priority.

Grapnel Boost

Certainly a great skill for traversing the Gotham landscape - this skill will launch you higher into the air following a grapple. Less time re-grappling and more time soaring sounds like a good plan to me.

This skill is also a good one to combine with the Gadgets While Gliding upgrades from the Gadgets Skills section.

Ballistic Armor

Similar in almost every way to the Melee Armor but this armour type protects against gunfire. Later in the game this becomes even more important as you encounter mini-gunners and more unmanned drones. Start with the melee protection and work this skill branch in tandem.

If you also chose the "Disruptor - Increase Sabotage Ammo" upgrade then you can reduce the level of Ballistic Armor because enemies will have less weapons to hurt you with.

Other skills to consider:

Glide Boost Attack - although it costs 6 points (in total) to unlock this skill, the reward is a strong glide attack that can knockdown multiple enemies using a dive bomb attack initiated from a long distance glide. You'll need a good height to full charge the dive bomb so consider combining this skill with the Grapnel Boost above.

Combat

Another interesting skill set, the Combat section offers upgrades relating directly to melee combat and combo variations. Below are the best upgrades in this section:

FreeFlow Focus Mk II

Increase the strength of your melee attacks when the Special Combo Meter is full. Use this skill to launch more powerful attacks but take note that it does lean towards group fights where you've got a good chance of filling the Combo Meter before the fight ends. This upgrade also costs a heft 8 points and requires the Critical Strikes skill as well.

Special Combo Batclaw

I love this upgrade because it's so strong. Simply fill the combo meter by getting a streak of eight then use the quickfire Batclaw (with a final button hold) to smash the targeted enemy to the floor, knocking them out and stunning everyone else around you. Repeat multiple times to give the enemy no chance at all.

This upgrade requires the Special Combo Batarang which costs 4 points, taking the total points required to 12. You may want to consider purchasing the Special Combo Boost (also in this section) to lower the requirement before special combos can be used.

Weapon Steal Mk II

A relatively cheap upgrade in my opinion and one which offers a good reward. Unlocking this skill will let you wield a melee weapon for longer. As you probably know, melee weapons inflict significantly more damage during fights so having one for longer is a no brainer.

Other skills to consider:

Special Combo Boost - costing 4 points and requiring the Special Combo Batarang, this skill will lower the requirement to use Special Combo moves during combat. Rather than needing a x8 combo you can use special moves after only x5.

Batmobile

Ram Charge

A sneaky upgrade that really helps when clearing out the drone threats on the islands. Accelerate at top speed in pursuit mode and ram into the drones to destroy them rather than using the cannon. Only costs 4 upgrade points so worth considering after the essential skills.

Armor

Potentially a make or break skill for the final missions when drone fights are much harder and drones appear in greater numbers. If you want to avoid repeating the same mission after death then the Armor upgrade offers that added chance of surviving a drone onslaught.

Batmobile Weapons

60mm Cannon Reload Speed

Easily the best upgrade in this category. The 60mm cannon is rather a slow reloader; forcing you to keep the crosshair over the enemy before firing again and hoping that you don't get targeted and the enemy doesn't move. This upgrade makes it easier to offload shots in quick succession which also helps to recharge your secondary weapon faster as well.

It costs a total of 6 points to reach Reload Speed 2 ( the end of this skill branch).

Emergency Weapon Energy

Although not essential, this cheap upgrade could make a big difference when you're at the brink of death. Put simply, the upgrade will max out your special energy meter (homing missiles etc..) when you reach the critical armour level i.e. when you're almost dead. This gives you one last hope of unleashing several homing missiles to finish the threat off and restore your health back to normal.

Certainly useful against the cloudburst tank.

Energy Absorption Efficiency

With no prerequisites, this 4 point upgrade will fill your special energy meter faster for every drone kill you acquire. This becomes even more important later in the game as drone battles increase in size and intensity.

Other skills to consider:

Chassis Shot Damage - find yourself missing the critical spot when shooting drones? This skill will increase the damage caused to drones when you misfire and hit the chassis.

60mm Cannon Cobra Lure - costing a measly 3 points, this skill will make life alot easier when up against the stronger Cobra tanks. These drones can only be destroyed from behind but with this skill you can lure them to any chosen spot by firing your cannon.

Gadget Tech

These skills improve Batman's gadgets such as the Remote Hacking Device, Explosive Gel, Disruptor etc..

At the start of the game many of the Gadget Tech upgrades are greyed out or locked. That's simply because the associated gadgets have yet to be discovered. As you progress deeper into the game these slots automatically unlock for you.

I'm not a big fan of the Gadget Tech upgrades and the only ones I'd really consider would be:

Explosive Gel - Instant Takedown

Instantly incapacitates the nearest enemy making for a quick kill, other enemies in the area are also stunned. Costing only 1 upgrade point and requiring no other prerequisites this is a good skill to unlock early in the game.

Disruptor - Increase Sabotage Ammo

Gives you an additional shot with the Disruptor weapon - taking the total ammo to four. The Disruptor is the best weapon to prep for a fight and an extra charge will reduce the enemy's firepower further. The downside to this perk is that it costs 8 upgrade points and also requires the Disruptor - Sabotage Medic skill which costs an additional 4 points. Given this hefty 12 point total you may want to consider the other upgrades first.

Gadget Skills

Gadget skills focus heavily on the remaining gadgets that the Gadget Tech section fails to cover. In particular there are upgrade skills for the Batarang, Batclaw and the Remote Electrical Charge.

Gadgets While Gliding - Five Gadgets

There aren't many good choices in this section either but I'd opt to progress the left hand tree to select more gadgets while gliding. Costing a total of 10 Waynetech points it's expensive but if you're a skilled player who likes to swoop down and target enemies from the air then this particular skill set will do nicely.

It's up to you if you want to purchase additional gadgets to use in the air. By default you will have already bought the Batarang so you can target up to 5 enemies with just this, but there are other gadget skills to unlock and use from the air: