Leveling Overview
Nuclear Throne follows a simple leveling system. Radiation that drops from enemies serves as experience points which will fill the rad meter. Once filled the character will level up, and upon leveling up they may pick one skill/upgrade usually from a pool of four known as mutations.
The player will always start at level 1 at the start of the run, and every consecutivev level up will grant a mutation up to level 9. This means that a typical run will have 8 mutations, but a 9th can be gained through Crown of Destiny.
Reaching level 10 is referred to as level "Ultra". It gives choices between mutations that are specific for each character, and will typically give a boost to a character's unique active or passive ability. Any additional rads beyond this point will fill the ultra meter, which are used as additional ammunition for special ultra weapons. Rads gained with a full ultra meter will be wasted similar to getting pickups with full health/ammo.
The following table lists how many rads it takes to obtain each level as well as the total rads collected at that point.
Level: | Lvl. 1 | Lvl. 2 | Lvl. 3 | Lvl. 4 | Lvl. 5 | Lvl. 6 | Lvl. 7 | Lvl. 8 | Lvl. 9 | Ultra | Full Ultra |
Rads needed: | 0 Rads | 61 Rads | 120 Rads | 180 Rads | 240 Rads | 300 Rads | 360 Rads | 420 Rads | 480 Rads | 540 Rads | 600 Rads |
Total Rads: | 0 Rads | 61 Rads | 181 Rads | 361 Rads | 601 Rads | 901 Rads | 1,261 Rads | 1,681 Rads | 2,161 Rads | 2,701 Rads | 3,301 Rads |