Playing through Boltgun, you might have stumbled across one of those floating green skulls found only in secret areas. But, what does it do? How does it affect your gameplay? Why do I suddenly find my fleshy body inferior to the glorious machine? We will answer all of these questions and more in our Machine Spirit weapon upgrade guide for Warhammer 40k: Boltgun.
What is the Machine Spirit in Boltgun?
The Machine Spirit is a collectible that can only be found in Boltgun’s secret areas. Picking up this hidden collectible upgrades the weapon currently equipped. This will then give it a shiny green glow as the gun’s mechanical spirit is awakened.
These upgrades differ depending on the weapon. Yet, players often find it hard to tell what improvements the Machine Spirit makes to each gun. In today’s guide, we’ll help with just that. We’ll describe the upgrades you can expect to get from each hidden Machine Spirit upgrade in Boltgun.
Note: Ensure you have the right weapon equipped before you walk over an upgrade. There is only one Machine Spirit Upgrade in each level.
If you just started playing the game and may not be ready for hidden upgrades, check out our Warhammer 40K: Boltgun beginner’s guide. It’ll get you started on the right track.
With all of that being said, let’s begin!
Boltgun – One of the Best Weapons to Upgrade with the Machine Spirit
The Boltgun is the iconic staple of a Space Marine’s arsenal; a well-rounded gun with a great fire rate, magazine size, and decent weapon strength. This weapon is well suited for dealing with purging weakling cultists and even Chaos Marines. Since the game is named after this weapon, it gets the most noticeable improvement with the secret Machine Spirit upgrade.
- Strength increases from 4 to 5.
- Magazine capacity increases from 25 to 30, but this does not increase your maximum ammo capacity; thus, decreasing the number of times you need to reload. Yet, it does not boost your overall ammunition reserves.
The boltgun is often the most used gun in your arsenal. In fact, you will constantly switch to it whenever you are facing a low to mid-tier enemy. Thus, boosting its power in any way is beneficial for almost any situation or difficulty.
Shotgun
The Shotgun is a bit interesting since it’s technically a strength 3 weapon, but it can dish out a ridiculously high amount of damage if most of your pellets hit a target. The Shotgun can bring even Chaos Marines or Plague Toads down faster than the Boltgun if you are close enough, which makes the Shotgun’s Machine Spirit upgrade pretty simple but includes a few more obscure additions:
- Increases the number of pellets per shot.
- Pellets bounce off surfaces, but not when hitting enemies. Bouncing pellets can damage you if they ricochet back.
While the extra pellets are a nice addition to the Shotgun’s overall power, having your pellets bounce off surfaces isn’t a reason to upgrade this gun. You won’t find many situations to utilize the bouncing pellets, and having the slight chance of hurting yourself in the process can be a hindrance.
Related Article: How to Quickly Get Through the Teleporter Maze in Boltgun
Plasma Gun
The Plasma Gun is one of the best weapons you acquire early on, but it has drawbacks that no other gun has. The Plasma Gun will be your go-to weapon for fighting Terminators, Chaos Marines, Plague Toads, and Flamers since it has a high weapon strength, but later weapons do the job equally, if not better.
The main downside to the Plasma Gun is its overheating mechanic, which makes sense because that’s how the weapon functions in lore; however, this wouldn’t be a problem if you could swap weapons during the venting animation. Luckily, the Machine Sprite can fix a lot of these issues:
- The weapon no longer overheats.
- The fire rate is increased.
Fuel canister capacity increases from 12 to 18. However, like the Boltgun, this doesn’t increase your maximum ammo capacity.
Every disadvantage this weapon has is fixed with a Machine Spirit upgrade; with that, it can easily become the primary weapon of your arsenal. Plasma ammo is extremely common, but the fact you must use your only Machine Spirit upgrade to improve this weapon’s downsides is up for debate if it’s even worth using the Plasma Gun in future chapters.
Heavy Bolter
The Heavy Bolter is a powerhouse that does much more damage than a Strength 5 weapon normally would. With a high fire rate, no reloading, and even knockback, the Heavy Bolter is the answer for almost every problem. However, its only downside is you move slower while firing, and the weapon has a windup time, as all mini-gun-type weapons do. So what does the Machine Spirit do?
- Speed penalty while firing is removed.
Despite not upgrading the Heavy Bolters damage or weapon strength, this gun already bulldozes nearly every enemy, so removing its only downside makes sense. While it might not be the best weapon to imbue with the Machine Spirit upgrade in Boltgun, you cannot deny that it’s helpful.
Vengeance Launcher
Fan of Warhammer 40K: Space Marine might recognize the Vengeance Launcher. This powerful gun hasn’t made any other appearances in Warhammer books, games, or lore elsewhere. This devastating grenade launcher fires sticky grenades that explode after sticking to a surface or an enemy, dealing damage in a small AoE around the impact zone.
Despite only being strength 3, the Vengeance Launcher fires extremely fast and works great against all Daemons and heretics. However, the Machine Spirit doesn’t add much to this otherwise unique weapon.
- Increased explosion radius & increases the weapon strength from 3 to 4.
It’s hard to notice a difference in the Vengeance Launchers upgrade, so we assume its only perk is increasing the AoE; otherwise, maybe a minor damage increase. There isn’t a significant reason to upgrade this gun otherwise.
Meltagun
The Meltagun is another fan-favorite weapon that returns in Boltgun but with its different compact frame seen in Space Marine. The Meltagun is one of the strongest weapons you will use, and it kills anything you point it at.
Whereas the Plasma Gun is used to burn through large areas or groups of enemies, the Meltagun is for precise target elimination, which makes sense for how dense yet powerful its beams are. However, due to its unique form, it acts more like a shotgun, which is uncommon for Meltaguns. So what does the Machine Spirit upgrade?
- Adds one more projectile per charge. (Similar to how the Shotgun gains extra pellets).
Typically the Melta gun shoots 5 beams, but with the Machine Spirit upgrade, it shoots 6. In theory, this boosts the power of the weapon, but we don’t think it’s a significant change.
If you enjoy using the Meltagun, you will like this Machine Spirit upgrade in Boltgun. Otherwise, there are other guns that will be impacted more by the Machine Spirit.
Volkite Caliver
Now, this is a surprising and unexpected weapon. The Volkite Caliver is a weapon that hasn’t been used since the Horus Heresy, which predates back 10,000 years.
The Volkite Caliver fires a long-range beam that damages enemies so long as it’s held on them. Think of it like a portable death ray. Enemies killed by the caliver explode, which is extremely beneficial for eliminating Pink Horrors or pretty much anything that stands in your way.
It’s a great versatile weapon that only lacks in AoE unless you are purposely taking out weak targets to make them explode. Since you need to hold the beam onto one target in Boltgun, it causes the Machine Spirit’s upgrade to become a subtle upgrade:
- This causes the Volkite Caliver’s beam to do an additional pulse of damage every few seconds, dealing a burst of damage to the target.
The extra damage from the pulse isn’t life-changing, but it doesn’t go unnoticed. The extra damage does help save on ammunition and helps turn the mid-tier enemies into a puddle much faster.
Grav Cannon
Great boomer shooter games need a BFG; for Boltgun, that is the Grav Cannon. Similar to the Volkite Caliver, it fires a large beam, but this time it emits a large radius that deals unrivaled damage.
It uses the same ammunition as the Heavy Bolter, which is a bit surprising. Still, it is the strongest weapon in your arsenal, so its upgrade must be good, right? Well, with the Grav Cannon, it’s hard to tell what the Machine Spirit upgrade is.
We haven’t noticed an increase in its AoE, and its damage seems almost identical. So perhaps the Grav Cannon’s Machine Spirit upgrade is simply elevating its damage further or possibly increasing the width of the beam.
We’re doing some more experiments and will report back here with an update once we know for sure.
So, What are the Best Machine Spirit Upgrades in Boltgun?
There are a lot of good options for using the Machine Spirit Upgrade, but ultimately it comes down to preference and what your favorite weapons are, but for us these are our recommendations:
- Bolter
- Plasma Gun
- Vengeance Launcher
The Bolter is our favorite gun to upgrade simply because of the increased weapon strength and magazine. This is also extra helpful whenever you pick up one of the special ammunition magazines for the Bolter, which gives you more rounds for that powerup. You will get more Kraken, Dragonfire, and Vengeance Bolts by infusing the Machine Spirit into the Bolter.
Next is the Plasma Gun. Upgrading the Plasma Gun with Boltgun’s machine spirit upgrades overrides all of its negative downsides. As a result, it turns it into a completely different and better gun. Removing the downtime in-between shots, giving it more ammo and a faster fire rate, is just too good to pass up. Upgrading the Plasma Gun even rivals the Bolter upgrade for us, but it ultimately comes down to preference.
Lastly is the Vengeance Launcher. Since this upgrade also increases its weapon strength, it allows the weapon to be used against stronger foes with better effectiveness. It’s amazing how much adding one weapon strength does for a gun, which is why this system is so baked into the tabletop game.
Wrap Up on the Hidden Machine Sprite Upgrades for Boltgun
That’s our short guide for all of the Machine Spirit upgrades and what they do in Boltgun. Ultimately, you can still beat Boltgun without using these upgrades, but they impact your gunplay a bit, especially if you always use the Machine Spirit on the Plasma Gun.
If you enjoyed our look into Boltgun’s powerups and want to learn more about the game, check out our full Boltgun review here.
For now, go and fight in the Emperor’s Name!