Sockets

Super Socket node marker

Sockets are how a Mod breaks its level cap. A normal leveled Mod tops out at level 5 in the Shop. A Socket is an enhancement bolted onto a single Mod slot that quietly adds extra levels to whatever Mod sits there — and those levels stack on top of the Shop cap, so the effect keeps scaling by its per-level increment. The in-game vendor line says it plainly: "Socket enhancements empower Mods placed in the Socket position."

You don't buy Sockets in the Shop. You earn them on the climb up the Monolith at Super Socket nodes, and a small family of rewards lets you stack their levels higher and higher.

Quick facts

What it is: a per-slot level buff. Internally, WeaponUpgrades.UpgradeSocketState { int levelBuff } — the Socket holds a number of bonus levels, and those levels are applied to the Mod in the Socket position.
What it's for: pushing a Mod past its level-5 cap. The value keeps climbing by the same per-level increment, with no Shop ceiling.
Where you get it: at a Super Socket node on the Monolith — "Super Socket available." (look for the icon; the elite version is stronger).
Not a Shop item: Sockets and their level-ups are node rewards, not purchasable Mods. None of the four Socket rewards appear among the 139 Shop Mods.
The reward family: Super Socket (+1), Mega Socket (+2), Ultra Socket (+3) each add levels to a random Socket; Hone Socket adds +1 to an existing enhanced Socket.
Added in 0.9.6: "Sockets: These add a level boost to a mod slot. Find these on the Monolith!" Since 0.9.7 they can also appear as Endless Wave rewards.
The threat: the Socket Punch Curse removes 2 levels from a random Socket, and three Trials bend the Socket rules entirely.

The cap-breaker

Tier I/II/III Mods cap at level 5 in the Shop. UNIQUE and META Mods are single-level. Socket levels ignore both ceilings — they sit on top and keep the effect scaling. A Socketed Wrench (+1x per level) can run well past +5x; a Socketed To The Moon keeps adding +4x max Combo per extra level.

What a Socket actually is

A Socket is not a Mod and not an effect of its own. It's an enhancement attached to one Mod slot — the Socket position — that adds levels to whatever Mod you place there.

In the game's code the Socket is a tiny object:

public class WeaponUpgrades.UpgradeSocketState
{
    public int levelBuff;   // bonus levels granted to the Mod in this slot
}

WeaponUpgrades holds the live Socket state in m_upgradeSockets (a List<UpgradeSocketState>, exposed as CurrentSockets), and the Weapon wraps the methods that move those numbers around:

AddRandomSocketLevel(int numLevels) — picks a random Socket and bumps its levelBuff. This is what the Super / Mega / Ultra Socket rewards call (with 1, 2 or 3).
SetSocketLevels(int socketIndex, int numLevels) — sets a specific Socket's levels directly (used by Trials that randomize or zero out Sockets).

(There are also socketLevels[] / randomSocketLevelAdd fields, but those live on the DebugOptions test harness, not on the live Weapon — the real per-run state is m_upgradeSockets above.)

GetUpgradeSocket, NumSockets, CurrentSockets, and ApplySocketUpgrades(...) round out the system — when your loadout is rebuilt, ApplySocketUpgrades folds each Socket's levelBuff into the Mod sitting in that slot.

The practical takeaway: a Socket with levelBuff = 3 makes the Mod in that slot behave as if it were 3 levels higher than you bought it.

How a Socket lets a Mod exceed level 5

Buying the same Mod in the Shop raises its level until it hits 2 of 5, 3 of 5… 5 of 5 — and then the Shop won't sell you any more. 5 is the Shop cap, and that is the only cap.

A Socket's levelBuff is a plain accumulating int with no ceiling of its own. Every Super (+1) / Mega (+2) / Ultra (+3) / Hone (+1) Socket reward you take calls AddRandomSocketLevel, which just keeps adding to that number — so the effective Mod level is 5 + levelBuff, open-ended. Each extra socket level re-adds the Mod's base per-level increment, so the effect scales linearly forever; a long run can keep stacking sockets without ever hitting a wall.

Mod	Increment / level	Shop max (Lv 5)	Per extra socket level
Wrench	`+1x`	`+5x`	adds another `+1x`
Trusty Cog	`+3`	`+15`	adds another `+3`
To The Moon	`+4x` max Combo	`+20x`	adds another `+4x` max Combo
Chiller	`+3x` (frozen)	`+15x`	adds another `+3x`

So the total is just (5 + levelBuff) increments — there is no fixed "socketed maximum." A couple of worked examples on a maxed (Lv 5) Mod:

Wrench with +3 socket levels → 8 increments → +8x; with +7 socket levels → 12 increments → +12x. Keep stacking and it keeps climbing.
Trusty Cog with +3 socket levels → +24; with +7 → +36.
To The Moon with +3 socket levels → +32x max Combo; with +7 → +48x.
Chiller with +3 socket levels → +24x; with +7 → +36x.

None of those right-hand numbers is a ceiling — they're just the value at that socket count. Take more Super/Mega/Ultra/Hone rewards and the number rises by one more increment each time, with no cap in the code.

Per-level increments above are verified directly in the game data (items2.json) — see the full catalog on Mods.

UNIQUE and META Mods are different

Single-level UNIQUE and META Mods have a level-up increment of zero, so a Socket adds levels but the scaling effect is fixed. Put your Socket position on a leveled Mod (Tier I/II/III) — that's where extra levels actually translate into extra score.

How you get Sockets

Climbing the Monolith, you pick your path one node at a time. A Super Socket node offers a Socket enhancement as its reward:

Super Socket node icon

The tutorial points right at it: "A signifies that a Socket enhancement is available here," and the node label reads "Super Socket available." The elite socket node elite version of the node offers a stronger pick. Since update 0.9.7, "Sockets can now appear as Endless Wave rewards" too — so the system keeps feeding your build long past the boss in Endless.

The Socket rewards

There are four Socket rewards. They are node rewards, not Shop Mods — you can't buy them, and they don't occupy a Mod slot. Three add levels to a random Socket; Hone Socket targets an existing enhanced Socket so you can concentrate your buff instead of scattering it. All four also turn up on the post-Wave Round Reward screen, so you can keep feeding a Socket between node picks.

Reward	In-game effect	Adds
Super Socket (`socketRandom`)	"Add 1 level to a random Socket."	+1
Mega Socket (`socketRandomElite`)	"Add 2 levels to a random Socket."	+2
Ultra Socket (`socketRandomUltra`)	"Add 3 levels to a random Socket."	+3
Hone Socket (`socketUpgradeExisting`)	"Adds +1 level to an existing enhanced Socket."	+1 (targeted)

Random vs. targeted

Super / Mega / Ultra Sockets call AddRandomSocketLevel, so they land on a random Socket. Hone Socket is the precision tool — it tops up a Socket you've already enhanced, letting you funnel levels into one carry Mod rather than spreading them thin. If you're going deep on a single engine, grab Hone Sockets when offered.

The Socket Punch Curse

Socket Punch

The one Curse that targets Sockets directly:

Socket Punch (curseNegSocket) — "Remove 2 levels from a random Socket."

Like every Curse, it pays out extra Coins for the pain. The cost scales entirely with how Socket-built you are:

If you've poured Super/Mega/Ultra/Hone rewards into your Sockets, losing 2 random levels can knock a key Mod back below its sweet spot — read the room before taking it.
If you've barely touched Sockets this run, it's near-free Coins. There may be no enhanced Socket to hit, or it strips levels off a slot you weren't leaning on.

Check your Socket investment before you commit. See Curses for how Socket Punch sits against the other 11 Curses and the cheapest-pain math.

Three of the game's Trials rewrite the Socket rules for the whole run. Each is a full Monolith climb with one twist bent out of shape — read the Trial Hack before you start.

Trial	The twist (exact in-game conditions)
Socket Chaos (`trialPermRandomSockets`)	"Socket levels are randomized each Wave. They get bigger as you progress up the Monolith."
The Omega (`trialPermUltraHardSockets`)	"All Sockets have −1 level. Score targets are 30% higher."
Mod Corrupter (`trialPermUpgradeDeleter`)	"Each Wave, one Mod is destroyed and converted into a Socket level."

Socket Chaos turns your Sockets into a slot machine — levels re-roll every Wave and trend upward the higher you climb. Build flexibly; you don't choose where the levels land.
The Omega is the punisher: every Socket starts a level down and the Score targets jump 30%. It leans on the Socket system as a difficulty knob — your usual cap-breakers come pre-nerfed.
Mod Corrupter feeds the Socket system with your own Mods — each Wave one Mod is destroyed and that destruction is converted into a Socket level. No Mod is safe, but your Sockets grow off the wreckage.

See Game Modes & Difficulty for the full Trial list, how the 10-per-Tool subsets work, and the Editions you earn for clearing them.

Sockets + Hacks: scaling a build past the cap

Sockets aren't the only way past level 5. The Monolith's Hack nodes can hand you a category of buff Hacks (internally type ELITE) that raise an entire Mod category by +2 levels at once:

Buff Hack	In-game effect
Red Feather (`buffAdd`)	"All your ADD mods have +2 levels."
Blue Button (`buffMult`)	"All your MULTIPLY mods have +2 levels."
Gold Nugget (`buffCash`)	"All your COIN mods have +2 levels."
Green Marble (`buffUtility`)	"All your UTILITY mods have +2 levels."

Where a Socket buffs one slot (and you steer it with Hone Socket), a buff Hack buffs a whole category at once. Stack them and a single Mod can carry buffs from both sources — its Shop level (capped at 5), plus its Socket levelBuff, plus the category +2 from a matching Hack — all adding the same per-level increment.

The full-stack carry

Want one Mod to do absurd numbers? Park it in your Socket position, feed that Socket with Super/Mega/Ultra Sockets (and tighten with Hone Socket), then grab the buff Hack for its category — Blue Button for a MULTIPLY carry like Wrench, Red Feather for an ADD carry like Trusty Cog. The Shop sells you 5 levels; Sockets and Hacks pile the rest on top, and the effect just keeps scaling.

Both Hacks and Super Sockets are reward nodes on the climb — see the Monolith for where they appear and how to route toward them, and Mods for the per-level numbers each buffed Mod gains.

Sockets ​

Quick facts ​

What a Socket actually is ​

How a Socket lets a Mod exceed level 5 ​

How you get Sockets ​

The Socket rewards ​

The Socket Punch Curse ​

Socket-related Trials ​

Sockets + Hacks: scaling a build past the cap ​

See also ​