Upgrade Routes

Dispenser Range



Building Health



First point of Metal Capacity



Wrench Attack Speed



2 or 3 more ticks of Metal Capacity



First tick of Sentry Firing Speed

Crit Resistance



Firing Speed / ClipSize / Reload Speed on Rescue Ranger as you see fit (if that's what you are using)



Second tick of Sentry firing speed (only if you're using the wrangler....which you basically should be)

Blast/Bullet Resistances



Movement Speed



First tick of Metal Regen



2-way Teleporter

Disposable Sentry



Others

Reasoning

Hamlet Hostility starts with $700. Buy 1 Building Health, 2 Dispenser Range, and 2 Upgrade Building Canteens.





Empire Escalation starts with $900. Buy 1 Building Health, 2 Dispenser Range, 1 Metal

Capacity, 2 Building Canteens.

As usual with my guides, I'll group upgrades by priorities instead of suggesting strict upgrade routes.The engineer is standard in most successful teams due to the dispenser providing ammo and health to teammates. Upgrading dispenser range only costs $100 and really helps dispense to teammates through a large radius. It's quite the 'bang for the buck'. A dispenser without dispenser range upgraded is annoying since it forces you to stand in one spot on the map to receive health/ammo.+100% Building Health is listed next because it's the other 'bang for the buck' upgrade. You canyour buildings' (especially sentry's) health for a mere $400. It's just a really great upgrade for the cost. It's very important to keep your buildings up and Building Health is the best upgrade towards achieving that goal...especially early wave.Next, 1 metal capacity is usually a good idea. Since the Gun Mettle update, repairing/refilling your buildings takes an increased amount of metal. You may constantly find yourself out of metal with only 200. It's also important so that you have the ability to construct both a sentry and dispenser at one time without having to run for an ammo pack.Wrench speed is important since it increases the speed with which you repair/upgrade buildings, but also helps during the situations where you need to contribute tank damage. Depending on the mission, you may not need max wrench speed (such as Manhattan, which has no tanks) and may benefit more from more metal capacity. Test and see which works with your style.At the moment, the sentry firing speed upgrade is broken due to the way damage is calculated and how ticks are rounded.Even then, it's only +10% firing speed for $350. It's definitely not as good of an upgrade as Building Health, which only costs $50 more.These should be your most basic upgrades. Try to focus on these upgrades at the start.The other upgrades listed can come in whatever order, but I do suggest that the "High Priority" upgrades come first.Crit Resistance is always a good choice. Engineer usually stays in the back and doesn't need to directly engage any enemies. The sentry does the work. That's why Blast/Bullet resistance aren't that important to begin with. The engineer just needs to adjust positioning in order to be successful without these resistances. Crit Resistance is the exception. It's a very efficient resistance with 30% reduction each $150. It is also important because if you are using the Rescue Ranger, you are 'Marked for Death' when you are a hauling buildings, which makes damage received to be minicrit. Crit Resistance will help with that.I like to spend cash into upgrading my Rescue Ranger. I normally upgrade Firing Speed first. Then your choice between Clip Size and Reload Speed. It's good so that you can use the bolts to heal your sentry at a fast pace. You do not always need to be firing though, so you don't exactly need the Reload Speed upgrade as you can just reload during the idle portions of the wave. Also, using the Rescue Ranger to heal is a great way to conserve your metal. Repairing your buildings with the wrench can chew through your metal fast. If possible, just use your rescue ranger to repair the health, and then use your wrench to refill the sentry if need be.I'm a big fan of movement speed on Engineer. It's great for dodging damage (especially when hauling buildings while Marked for Death), and allows you to move your buildings in and out of the battlefield faster.First tick of metal regen can be good. I normally don't purchase this upgrade because I think my metal management is pretty good - I just run to a dispenser or ammo pack if I'm running low. However, some may find the passive regen useful.Two-way teleporter is nice later on in the game if your teammates need to return to spawn during the wave for whatever reason (mostly for more canteen spam). It's actually very rare where you'll use it to catch a Super Scout.Disposable Sentry is very expensive and doesn't provide much DPS. Definitely not an early wave upgrade, but that doesn't mean it's a totally useless upgrade. You can buy it later waves. Just do not put it all the way up front. It needs to off to the side where it will rarely draw any aggro. It will self-destruct when it runs out of ammo and can't be destroyed manually.====NOTE====Dispenser range is almost always a good idea to upgrade. However, it does not have to be MAXED right away.Two ticks of Dispenser Range is good enough in a lot of situations. If you were to buy 3 ticks for Wave 1, you would either have to trade away the 2 building canteens or the Building Health upgrade. Basically, do not pidgeonhole yourself into thinking that an Engineer MUST get max dispenser range as your first upgrade. Depending on Wave 1 starting cash, usually two ticks (perhaps even one tick) can be good enough.However, in non-Two Cities/Big Rock missions where the waves only start with $400, it usually is best to max dispenser range and then buy 2 building upgrade canteens. Again, it's not mandatory. Some people may just do 2 dispenser range and then 1 tick of metal capacity/wrench speed instead.