We Need More Humans Upgrade Priority

This is the buy-order page for We Need More Humans. It is not a mythic-plus spreadsheet. The skill tree feeds you the next affordable diamond; your only real decision is not to sit on cash and not to chase a $30M preview node during the desert. Ranks below are “when this family is the cheap unlocked option, how hard should you slam it.”

Cross-link the early game build and late game build for hour-by-hour loadouts, and the upgrade checklist if you like boxes.

S — buy immediately

Beam Capacity. The demo literally renamed Max Abductee to this. If the cone only holds a handful of people, every other stat is flavour. Opening village, snow town, suburb — Capacity is the first click whenever it is cheap.

Beam radius (early). Playthroughs from GrayStillPlays treat radius as the “this is not acceptable” upgrade. Sweeping a street in six seconds is a radius problem, not a clicking problem. See controls.

Arm Beam Capacity (when it actually appears). A full-release tooltip shows 15 > 20 for $250.00M. That is S in the neon hours, grief if you try to save for it at $53. Side cones are how late maps stay playable.

A — buy as soon as the S node is gone

Human value. Starts around $2 per body. Later maps print millions and billions from the same sweep. Value without Capacity is a fancy straw. Capacity without value is a crowded screenshot and a small wallet.

Evolution. Changes bodies and payouts. Public runs show the gag ladder (larger people, radiated types, ninjas, cows, pigs). It also tends to thicken crowds, which is both the joke and the FPS warning. Rank the stages on the evolution tier list; the node itself is A whenever it is the cheap option.

Instant abduction chance. Skips the lift animation. Useless in the desert, mandatory when 27,000 people share a city block. If leftovers refuse to die in how to complete, this is the node.

Arm Beam Radius. Extra cones that still miss the sidewalk are decoration. Radius makes the chandelier into a lawnmower.

B — take on the path, do not hunt

Round Time. An early tooltip is 10 > 11 Seconds, +1 Base, $18. Snow maps can show 1.6s on the HUD if you neglected it. After the first purchases it is B: important, but not more important than being able to hold a crowd. Extra + pickups on the map are the free version — fly over them.

Abduct strength. Speeds the lift. Nice. Rarely the bottleneck once Instant Abduction exists. Buy it when it is the highlighted cheap diamond.

Crop Circle Chance Each Second. Official name after the 4 June 2026 demo rename. B until you live on neon pads, then it plays like A because those floors are the map. Locations shows the art.

Radiation / radioactive bonus. Extra pay on glowing humans in playthroughs. Take it when it appears; do not skip Capacity for it.

C — luxury, cosmetics, traps

Preview million-dollar nodes. If you can see it and cannot buy it, it is not a plan. It is UI. ImCade’s run jokes about a $30M diamond on minute one. Do not bank for it.

Cosmetic ships and beams. Launch reviews: no stat bonus. Fun on the Game Complete screen. C for clear speed.

Sitting on cash. The developer has said money persists between rounds. Banking two maps to buy a cluster is fine. Banking ten maps because you want a specific late icon is how you make a two-hour game feel like four.

A simple purchase script

1. If Capacity is available and cheap — buy it.
2. Else if radius is the bottleneck you feel in your hands — buy it.
3. Else if value or Evolution is the cheap node — buy it.
4. Else if the clock is killing the round — Round Time.
5. Else arms, Instant, crop circles, leftovers.

That script is the whole “build.” The review explains why some players hate that. The walkthrough tells you which biome you should be vacuuming while you run it.

Controller users: do not tour the locked cluster. Buy the highlighted S or A and hit Continue. The skill tree page is your tooltip overlay.