I haven't seen a write up on this yet, so I'll post my musings on how to get the most out of the C.O.W.s you find in the game. Ever upgrade the Ball Launcher to beta only to kick yourself when you find it in the next archive bin? Then this is for you! When you find a C.O.W., start at the top of the list and work your way down until you find a subroutine you can upgrade at that point in the game.

Subroutine Version Wait Time for Next Upgrade (in build points) (edit: darn tabs didn't make it into the post!)


You will never find a gold version of these ingame, so they should be your first choice to upgrade. I moved the defensive subroutines to the top of the list, since they apply to (almost) every situation. MegaHurtz, Corrode, and Primitive Charge stack with more than one weapon, so they are also useful in more situations. Since there is no timing involved with the upgrades in these first two sections, there is more freedom of choice as to what to upgrade.
Truncate Beta n/a 5% gain in defense.
Submask Beta n/a Only a 3% gain here,
Support Safeguard Beta n/a and here.
MegaHurtz Beta n/a More/less important than defense? You decide!
Corrode Beta n/a Slower acting than MegaHurtz
Primitive Charge Beta n/a
Sequencer Disc Beta n/a
Prankster Bit Beta n/a
Drunken Dims Beta n/a
Cluster Disc Beta n/a
Ball Launcher Beta n/a
LOL Beta n/a
Energy Claw Beta n/a
Suffusion Beta n/a
Triangulate Beta n/a
Fuzzy Signature Beta n/a

You will not find either beta or gold versions of these either.
Prankster Bit Alpha n/a Will never get to upgrade these to gold
Energy Claw Alpha n/a Why did I list them above?

These are the alpha versions of the betas above. Eventually you will find these in game, but if you upgrade them to beta, they will be available for the next C.O.W. you find. This is where the timing of upgrades becomes critical. Times are listed in the gap between build points from when you find the alpha version to when you find the beta version. So beta upgrades that show up sooner after you find the alpha sink to the bottom of the list and you won't waste a C.O.W. on them. You will be waiting most of the game to upgrade the Primitive Charge to Beta. The Beta upgrade for the Sequencer Disk you will find very soon after you get the Alpha.
Primitive Charge Alpha 640
Truncate Alpha 367
Submask Alpha 265
Ball Launcher Alpha 265
Corrode Alpha 213
LOL Alpha 212
Fuzzy Signature Alpha 162
Support Safeguard Alpha 141
MegaHurtz Alpha 139
Cluster Disc Alpha 114
Drunken Dims Alpha 105
Suffusion Alpha 099
Sequencer Disc Alpha 017

Same rules as the previous section, except that you will eventually find gold versions of all of these, so don't waste a C.O.W. on them unless you upgraded everything else you have.
Viral Shield Beta 285
Peripheral Seal Alpha 652
Power Block Alpha 537
Base Damping Beta 226
Y-Amp Beta 214
Profiler Alpha 167
Viral Shield Alpha 152
Y-Amp Alpha 138
Base Damping Alpha 136
Profiler Beta 107
Power Block Beta 47
Virus Scan Beta 45
Triangulate Alpha 0 The first one you find is a Beta.
Virus Scan Alpha 0 Same here.
Peripheral Seal Beta 0 Jump from Alpha to Gold here.

So there you have it. C.O.W. choices made easy!

I'm also testing a theory about efficient version upgrade point usage. It goes like this:

version 1.0.0 spend all 7 upgrades on health
version 2.0.0 health again
version 3.0.0 spend 1 on health, the rest on energy
version 4.0 0 spend all 7 upgrades on energy
version 5.0 0 energy again (surge mode)
version 6.0 0 spend 5 upgrades on health (surge mode), 2 on weapon efficiency
version 7.0.0 weapon efficiency again
version 8.0.0 and again
version 9.0.0 surge weapon efficiency, then whatever you fancy

So why do that? Infinate energy patches are everywhere, and health is finite, so go for health first. Stop getting health at version 3.0.0 so you can surge energy just in time to get the