When you embark on a run in Hyper Light Breaker, there are tons of different currency types you can collect while in the Overgrowth. With so many sources of currency, it can be hard to tell what each is used for at first. While some currencies are spent back at the Hub, others can be utilized throughout a run to grab new gear or important resources.

As of this time of writing, seven types of currency have been discovered throughout various runs. The Early Access for Hyper Light Breaker likely does not include all the currency types that will be available in future updates and the game's eventual full release. That being said, learning what each of the base currencies does now will give you fundamental knowledge that will be useful on multiple run attempts.

What Bright Blood Does & What You Can Buy With It

Buy Common Items And Upgrades

The most common currency you'll find in Hyper Light Breaker is Bright Blood, which drops most of the time from defeated enemies around the Overgrowth. This currency type can also be collected from breaking environmental objects around the world as you explore. Some crates will contain Bright Blood alongside other minor rewards and gear, so open each one you find as you travel.

Some of the uses for Bright Blood in Hyper Light Breaker include:

• Upgrading Current Gear
• Buying New Items & Gear From Hub Vendors
• Open Overgrowth Stashes

Bright Blood is one of the few currencies that you mostly retain after death. While losing all four Rezes will cause you to lose your Bright Blood, you can spend any you collect at the Hub when you die before you lose all your lives.

You can even sell your old gear to quickly gain some Bright Blood, which can help you improve the equipment you're currently using. Some of the best gear you can find during a run is hidden within gold Stash chests, which can only be opened by spending Bright Blood. Getting better tools in the Hub and unlocking loot in the Overgrowth also requires Bright Blood, making it one of the most valuable currencies in the game.

What Material Does & What You Can Buy With It

Buy And Improve Gear At The Hub

Another common currency is Material, an item you find from containers in the Overgrowth. This resource can be found in chests you open by spending Bright Blood, but mainly from the ones marked with a gem symbol on your Overgrowth map. You can spend Material to:

• Purchase Gear From Vendors
• Upgrade Existing Equipment

Selling gear also grants you some Material, which you can spend on upgrading your best weapons during or before a run. Material can be spent to purchase better items in preparation for the Overgrowth or on improving the gear you already have. Due to how common Material is, you'll likely find it and Bright Blood in great numbers throughout a Hyper Light Breaker Cycle.

What Medigems Do & What You Can Buy With Them

Start Building Sources Of Healing

Medigems are collected from glowing plants that you run into all across the Overgrowth during a run. These plants give you healing shards used in crafting, but they also restore a small portion of your health once picked up. While Medigems may seem like a basic healing item from the environment, it has another purpose as a type of currency.

You can spend Medigems to do the following:

• Replenish Your Medkit(s)
• Craft Medkits Before Your Next Run

The Medigems you find can be spent at a Shrine within the Overgrowth to restore one Medkit you have within your capacity. Before you can start using Medigems to craft a Medkit, you need to have purchased the Pherus Bit upgrade in Hyper Light Breaker that allows you to have a Medkit Capacity in the first place. Once you can hold at least one Medkit, you can start spending Medigems at Shrines to restore them.

Every time you spend Medigems to restore a Medkit, the price becomes higher the next time you try to refill your source of healing. For example, the first shrine will restore a Medkit for 5 Medigems, but at the next Shrine, it will cost 8 Medigems to do the same thing.

Medigems are something you should be farming often, as 3 Medigems can automatically be spent to craft one Medkit before your next run. Similar to Bright Blood, Medigems are retained when you die, so having more could result in extra Medkits being crafted at the Hub. As long as you have the Capacity for multiple Medkits, it's worth spending more Medigems to create many healing supplies before entering the Overgrowth again.

What Keys Do & What You Can Buy With Them

Open Mysterious Vaults For More Loot

One of the rarest types of currency you can find in Hyper Light Breaker is a Key, which may not seem like something you "spend" in the traditional sense. Keys are found in chests you open in the Overgrowth as you explore, but not the smaller containers you can break. Sometimes, the chests containing Keys require Bright Blood to be opened, causing you to spend one currency to earn another.

Here are all the different uses for Keys:

• Open Hidden Labs
• Disable Barriers In The Overgrowth

Barriers can prevent you from reaching Stashes or other containers containing rare loot in the Overgrowth. A Key can disable barriers blocking you off from various loot, allowing you to find new items and equipment faster during a run.

While you can also get Keys as drops from enemies, the easiest way to get one every run is to buy an upgrade at the Pherus Bit. One of the enhancements you can purchase allows you to start with one Key every time you enter the Overgrowth.

Meanwhile, Labs are underground chambers indicated by glowing purple platforms sometimes scattered around the Overgrowth. These secret Lab facilities contain extremely tough enemies and much rarer loot than anything you usually find on the surface. If your character is strong enough, you should spend Keys to access Labs for better loot that doesn't require you to spend any other currencies.

What Gold Rations Do & What You Can Buy With Them

Get Various Permanent Upgrades

Gold Rations are preserved resources from the past that you can find in Labs unlocked with Keys. However, for those who aren't strong enough to tackle the challenges of a Lab, you can get this currency from completing Cycles. A Cycle is finished when you use up all of your lives, or Rezes, and give the right materials to the Telepad NPC in the Hub to reset the Overgrowth.

Once you gain progress on earning Gold Rations from a completed Cycle, you can start spending the currency on the following:

• Buy Permanent Pherus Bit Upgrades
• Unlock New Vendor Services

The most common way to use Golden Rations is to buy new, permanent upgrades for your character through the Pherus Bit progression system. Using the different upgrade Tiers, you can buy a variety of improvements, such as extra Medkit carrying capacity or a better Perfect Parry in Hyper Light Breaker. You can also spend Gold Rations to unlock new services from vendors, which can unlock stronger gear for future runs.

What Cores Do & What You Can Buy With Them

Improve The Stats Of Your Character

Another currency you can find in chests and Stashes is Core, which also drops from some enemies. Normally, you will either pick up a Core or Core Shards, with the latter resource being an item you can turn into a Core. It takes four Core Shards to craft a single Core, a material that can be spent in similar ways to Golden Rations.

Core Shards can drop from enemies that can drop Prisms, or be looted from objects that aren't marked on your map. Prism enemies, however, will be marked on your map with a yellow diamond symbol that you can identify.

You can spend Cores to:

• Improve Characters Stats Before Entering The Overgrowth
• Unlock New Character Abilities

Whenever you check out your character's loadout, select the "Modify Loadout" option to spend Cores and adjust your Sycom stats. You can improve the unique stats of certain characters by expending Cores, giving you better health, damage, and other properties. New abilities are also unlocked through Cores, but buying bigger upgrades might cost more resources on top of extra Cores later.

What Abyss Stone Does & What You Can Buy With It

Unlock Brand New Characters

The final currency you can get in Hyper Light Breaker is Abyss Stones, a special type of material dropped only by Crown bosses. Gates block off these powerful foes in the Overgrowth, who will challenge you greater than any other Variant enemy you encounter in Labs or other locations. Managing to defeat a Crown will reward you with several Abyss Stones, which function similarly to Cores.

Abyss Stones are spent on:

• Unlocking New Characters
• Upgrading Sycom Stats

As upgrades for Sycoms become more and more expensive, they will begin to cost Abyss Stones in addition to Cores. The more powerful the upgrade in a specific stat, the more likely you will have to spend Cores and Abyss Stones to acquire them. As you learn different Hyper Light Breaker mechanics, these upgrades will become much stronger ways of completing runs and beating bosses again.

The best use of Abyss Stones, though, is to unlock new characters in the game. Every character has unique abilities and skills that may help you progress through runs in the Overgrowth faster. Among every other type of currency in Hyper Light Breaker, Abyss Stones are arguably the most important to complete every aspect of the game's story.