Pokebonk Lab Upgrades: Costs and Priorities
All 19 Pokebonk Lab upgrades with first-level Stardust costs and caps, including the fourth move slot, extra offer choices and item pool tools.
Quick answer
The Lab spends Stardust on permanent upgrades. The fourth move slot displayed 1,500 Stardust and the fourth option 3,000 at level zero in v0.6.2; both are one-level cards.
The Lab is Pokebonk's permanent progression. You spend Stardust on upgrades that apply to every future run, which makes it the one system where a purchase decision can outlast a single session.
Prices below are the level-zero costs displayed in v0.6.2. They come from a player inspection of the Lab, not from an official price list, and a later build may change them.
Where the Lab fits
Three separate progression layers exist:
| Layer | Currency / trigger | Lasts |
|---|---|---|
| Level-up cards | Experience in a run | Until the run ends |
| Vitamins | Level-up offers | Until the run ends |
| Lab upgrades | Stardust | Permanently |
If you are unsure which one you are looking at: the Lab is outside a run, has level caps, and never resets when you die.
Training upgrades
Nine cards raise baseline stats. Each level has a cost and a cap.
| Upgrade | Effect per level | Cap | First cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Training | +4% damage | 8 | 100 |
| Stamina | +8 max HP | 8 | 100 |
| Agility | +2.5% movement speed | 6 | 120 |
| Study | +5% experience | 6 | 120 |
| Trading | +8% PokéDollars | 6 | 100 |
| Fortune | +5 luck | 6 | 140 |
| Magnetism | +0.6 pickup range | 5 | 80 |
| Leftovers | +0.2 regeneration | 5 | 120 |
| Shell | +2 armor | 6 | 120 |
The first level of every training card is cheap. Later levels cost more, so the efficient early move is usually to take several first levels rather than max one card.
Run team upgrades
Ten cards change what a run can do.
| Upgrade | Effect | Cap | First cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4th move | A fourth learned-move slot | 1 | 1,500 |
| Vitamin slots | One extra vitamin slot per level | 2 | 1,200 |
| Refresh | One extra offer reroll per run, per level | 6 | 120 |
| Skip | One extra upgrade skip per run; awards PokéDollars | 6 | 80 |
| Banish | One extra banish per level | 6 | 150 |
| Fourth option | Four cards in a level-up offer | 1 | 3,000 |
| Revive | Start with a Max Revive | 1 | 5,000 |
| Research | +25% research progress | 4 | 250 |
| Support team | Captured Alpha capacity: two → three | 1 | 3,500 |
| Archive | Three extra Archive slots per level | 3 | 800 |
Two pairs are easy to confuse:
- 4th move adds a slot; Fourth option adds a card to each offer.
- Stamina (Training) raises max HP; Leftovers (Training) raises regeneration.
What to buy first
There is no universal order, but a defensible one:
- Cheap first levels of Training and Stamina. They cost 100 each and help every run.
- Magnetism and Fortune if you find yourself missing pickups or currency.
- 4th move once you consistently fill three slots and still see useful moves.
- Refresh or Banish once you understand which cards are weak for your builds.
- Fourth option and Revive are luxury purchases. Buy them after the basics.
Do not buy Archive or Support team first. Both are strong once you are using the systems they extend, and dead weight before that.
Research
The Research card raises research progress by 25% per level. Research is tied to species play and unlock progress, which means its value scales with how many different partners you actually use.
If you play one partner exclusively, Research will feel slow. If you are working through the Kanto roster, it compounds.
Stardust
Stardust is earned from runs. The game also lists a Trading upgrade that increases PokéDollars, which is a different currency used during play. Do not confuse the two when reading a card.
We have not measured Stardust per hour, refunds, or whether a purchase can be undone. Treat a purchase as final.
A purchase checklist
Before spending:
- Read the card's current level and price in your own Lab.
- Ask what problem the upgrade solves in your next run.
- Check the cap; a maxed card cannot be bought again.
- Note the version. Prices move between builds.
Sources and scope
All 19 cards, their caps and level-zero prices were read from the Lab in v0.6.2 during a player inspection. No purchase, refund, Archive operation or long-run farming benchmark was performed. The current build is v0.7.3; check the Lab before relying on a price here.