How do I unlock the permanent upgrades?

Steps

1. Finish a run. Completion and failure both grant XP, so a lost run still pays.
2. Return to the Camp and open the Training Yard, the location where Survivors are trained.
3. Spend general points on the shared tree. Those points come from your overall survival level, shown as the total level on the screen rather than belonging to any one Survivor.
4. Spend a Survivor’s own points on that Survivor’s tree. Each Survivor has a separate colour-coded pool that does not transfer to the others.
5. Keep playing the Survivor whose later columns you want. Those columns open as that Survivor’s own level rises, not as your account level rises.
6. Use the reset control if you want the points back. It is free and available at any time.

Requirements / Limits

• Two different levels do the gating: your overall survival level for the general tree, and each Survivor’s own level for that Survivor’s tree.
• Levels are named as thresholds only twice in the checked sources, on different Survivors: MabiVsGames says more of a character’s tree opens “once you hit 20, level 20 with that character”, and ProRogueBear reads a locked tier that needs the Survivor to “be level 40 himself”. No source states that 20 and 40 are consecutive tiers, so this page does not present a ladder.
• A node’s cost rises with the level being bought, described by ProRogueBear as “the level you’re doing is what they cost”.
• Passive nodes on the global tree cap at 5. That is developer-written, from the achievement “Power Overwhelming — Level up a passive node on a global skill tree up to 5.”
• Respecs are free and apply to any tree, per the developer achievement “Forget It — Reset points spent into any skill tree. Free respecs!”
• The structure described above is not the structure the wiki documents. The wiki’s Upgrades page, last edited 11 January 2024, describes one flat list of twenty upgrades released in four tiers by an “Account Level” that rises by one per upgrade bought, with new tiers at levels 10, 20 and 30 and no per-Survivor trees at all. Four 1.0-era recordings instead describe a general tree plus one tree per Survivor, gated on two different levels. Both accounts are reported as their sources give them; this page does not reconcile them, and the 2024 list is not presented as the current menu.
• Two details of the pre-1.0 system do carry a first-party 1.0 confirmation, which is why they appear above rather than only here: passive nodes still cap at rank 5, and respecs are still free. Both come from developer-written achievement text current for the shipped build, not from the wiki. The wiki independently records the same two rules — five ranks per upgrade, and removal at any time for a full refund — as of January 2024.
• Three of the four recordings behind this page were made on 1.0 preview builds supplied by the studio; only the release-day session was recorded on the retail build. The current public build, hotfix 1.0.0b of 21 August 2026, post-dates all four and changes fixes and mission handling rather than these rules.

Common Mistakes

• Levelling your account and expecting a specific Survivor’s tree to open. The Survivor’s own level is what unlocks that Survivor’s later columns — ProRogueBear runs into exactly this: “This guy’s only level 18, so he only has this first column.”
• Hoarding points out of fear of misspending. Reset is free, so there is no permanent cost to a wrong choice.
• Looking for Survivor synergies inside a run. They are unlocked in this menu; ProRogueBear discovers mid-run that a pairing he expected to work “needs to be unlocked” first.
• Reading older guides that use “training points” for this menu’s currency. That phrase has a documented origin: the wiki’s Upgrades page, last edited 11 January 2024, opens “Upgrades, or training, are permanent enhancements that apply to every run” and says buying them costs training points earned from money drops and achievements. In the 1.0 recordings the same phrase is instead attached to an item picked up on the floor during a run, and the menu currency is called points or skill points.
• Carrying over the pre-1.0 figure of 15 training points for Power Overwhelming. The current developer wording states the 5-cap only and gives no such figure.

Sources Checked

• Developer changelog · accessed 22 August 2026Yet Another Content Update 0.7

  Developer update, 3 October 2024. Reworks account and Survivor progression and introduces the Badge system.

• Player thread · accessed 22 August 2026Steam discussion: Permanent Upgrades

  March 2025 player thread. Participants distinguish always-on nodes from badges, but no developer confirms the current 1.0 interface wording.

• Official store · accessed 22 August 2026Achievement list on Steam (229 entries)

  Developer-written achievement names and descriptions published by Steam and current for the shipped 1.0 build. Read in full on 22 August 2026. Authoritative about the conditions it states and silent about everything else.

• Player thread · accessed 22 August 2026100% Achievements Guide (JHG)

  Player-written achievement guide, posted 18 July 2023, last updated 27 December 2025. Pre-1.0. Independent of the wiki.

• Player thread · accessed 22 August 2026Synergy Guide (GoldMath)

  Player-written guide, last updated 21 August 2026 and explicitly written for V1.0. The only 1.0-era community source checked.

• Video walkthrough · accessed 23 August 2026ProRogueBear — fresh-account 1.0 preview run

  Uploaded 19 August 2026 on a 1.0 preview build supplied by the studio. A 79-minute run from an empty account, including a long pass through the Training Yard. Machine captions.

• Video walkthrough · accessed 23 August 2026MabiVsGames — release-day retail session

  Uploaded 20 August 2026, the release day, on the retail build. The only checked recording not made on a pre-release preview key. Machine captions.

• Video walkthrough · accessed 23 August 2026I Dream of Indie Games — Version 1.0 review

  Uploaded 19 August 2026. A description of the 1.0 camp and skill trees rather than a run. Machine captions.

• Video walkthrough · accessed 23 August 2026Born 2 Game — 1.0 first look

  Uploaded 19 August 2026 on a studio-supplied 1.0 key. Describes the post-run reward loop and the in-run selection-screen options. Machine captions.

• Developer changelog · accessed 22 August 2026Yet Another Update 1.0.0b (Hotfix)

  Developer hotfix, 21 August 2026. Latest public patch checked; it changes fixes and mission handling, not the unlock rules on these pages.

• Official wiki · accessed 24 August 2026Upgrades — Official Yet Another Zombie Wiki

  Official community wiki, read on 24 August 2026 and last edited 11 January 2024 — more than two and a half years before the 1.0 release of 20 August 2026. It is the only structured record of the permanent-upgrade system as it stood before 1.0: the currency name, the Account Level tiers and twenty named upgrades with per-rank values. Cited as history and as the origin of terminology still circulating in older guides, never as a description of the current build.

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