Incubation: Time Is Running Out/Upgrading Squad

During the game, you will find some special locations which allow recruiting new soldiers and buying equipment.

Recruiting is easy; pay 60 Equipment Points, and you get a new soldier armed with a standard pistol. To equip him with a better weapon you need three things:
 * 1) Enough equipment points.
 * 2) Find a place with the item you want. It can be in either your base, an abandoned armory, or possibly a deserted battlefield.
 * 3) The soldier must have enough skill points to use the chosen equipment.

Skill points
Soldiers get Skill Points by killing monsters. By finishing some missions you get "Commendation", which you can use to effectively increase single soldier skill. You can also get skill points on missions; soldiers can "find" them in equipment boxes.

Every soldier has 6 proficiencies; the image to the right shows an example. The little yellow boxes under each proficiency's icon show how many skill points a soldier has in it.


 * Battle Fitness - required for armor
 * Light Weapons - pistols and rifles
 * Heavy Weapons
 * Technical skills - scanners, etc.
 * Medical skills - aid kits, steroids
 * Command skills - banners

When trying to equip an item the required level is shown by red boxes. In the image, a Servo System needs two Technical Skill Points and one Medical Skill Point. Maxon is one Medical and one Technical Skill Point short (shown by red boxes). When you equip an item, unused Skill Points are automatically assigned to the required proficiencies. Since Maxon has only one Skill Point left, he cannot equip the Servo System.

Another example: A piece of light armor requires 1 Fitness Skill Point, and costs 10 Equipment Points. After a mission you may want to equip him with heavier armor, which requires 4 Fitness Skill Points and 50 Equipment Points. Assuming a soldier is equipped with light armor, he still needs to spend 3 Skill Points on fitness, and 50 Equipment Points. The Equipment Points used to equip the light armor are lost, but the one Fitness Skill Point can be reused. This rule does not affect weapons; when changing a soldier's weapon, the cost of the old one is returned to your Equipment Points.