What this covers
This is the first combat task: stay in the air long enough to cut a nape, then spend Gold so your equipment grade unlocks the next mission. Family rolls and raids come after this loop is stable.
Controls to practice before a mission
On keyboard, Q fires the left hook and E fires the right hook. Double-tap Space for a boost dash. Hold Space while a hook is out when you want a gas boost toward the anchor. R reloads blades and is also the heavy attack in Titan form. F blocks, C slides, and B detaches a hook. Left Alt is wall run. Skill slots are 1 through 5.
On a controller, LB and RB are the two hooks, A twice is the boost dash, X reloads, LT blocks, and clicking the left stick down slides. B detaches, D-pad up uses a consumable, and Y shifts when the bar is full. Right trigger attacks or fires a Thunder Spear. The in-game Settings keybind list is the source of truth if a bind was remapped.
How a kill actually works
Hook toward the shoulder or the head, keep speed, and cut the nape. Firing both hooks into the nape and riding the swing through is the dual-hook finish described in combat guides. If the Titan turns or grabs, detach and reset the angle instead of spending the last of your gas in front of it.
A grab, hit, or stomp can injure a limb. Bandages, or paying Gold after the mission, treat injuries. One guide puts that Gold cost near 120–225 on Easy and in the thousands on Aberrant. Damage to the gas stat itself, described as a −15% gas injury, is not healed that way.
Eight stats, one grade
ODM gear upgrades live in the Equipment tab, under Upgrades. The eight stats are Damage, Speed, Control, Range, Gas, Blade Durability, Crit Chance, and Crit Damage. Equipment grade is the average of those stats. Pushing only Damage does not unlock a mission that asks for a higher average grade.
Reported grade gates for missions:
| Difficulty | Average grade |
|---|---|
| Easy | E- |
| Normal | E+ |
| Hard | D+ |
| Severe | B- |
| Aberrant | A- |
Freedom is a separate Update 5 difficulty. A player tutorial says it asks for Prestige 3 and an S- grade. That requirement is player-reported, not a line from the event listing.
Gold cost curve
An itemized October 2026 equipment table gives this blade-stat curve, and a cost-to-max of 634,670 Gold for one stat:
| Step | Gold |
|---|---|
| E- to E | 500 |
| E to E+ | 1,250 |
| E+ to D- | 2,000 |
| D- to D | 3,000 |
| D to D+ | 5,000 |
| D+ to C- | 7,500 |
| C- to C | 11,000 |
| C to C+ | 17,500 |
| C+ to B- | 25,000 |
| B- to B | 37,500 |
| B to B+ | 50,000 |
| B+ to A- | 70,000 |
| A- to A | 100,000 |
| A to A+ | 135,000 |
| A+ to S- | 169,420 |
An older equipment page lists 20,000 Gold for C+ to B- and a combined total that does not equal either step list. Read the price in the upgrade menu before you commit a large Gold stack. Thunder Spear upgrades use a higher curve, about 1.25 times the blade steps, with the second step printed as 1,562 or 1,563 depending on the page.
The current upgrade cap cited for Update 4, and still described afterward, is S-.
Order that matches the mission gates
Guides that cite the equipment notes recommend this blade order: Damage, Speed, Control, Range, Gas, Durability, Crit Chance, then Crit Damage. A shifter-focused bracket swaps some of the later stats. The practical rule is the same: buy the next grade on the stats that are holding your average down, and do not finish Crit Damage while Gas is still on E.
Reload at the blade stations before a long fight. Running out of blades mid-nape wastes more time than a short reload.
Where to go next
Spend the first skill points on Hand Grinder for a grab escape, then look at Target Acquisition if you are missing napes. The perk and skill page covers the trees. Families change the value of this gear, but they do not replace the grade gates.