base_kill × build_multiplier − ~389,000 × deaths (R² 0.998).Sniper Arena's sphere system is the deepest part of the gear meta. With 88 spheres across 7 rarity tiers (35 of them reaching Ultima), knowing which to slot — and which to avoid — separates competitive squads from RP grinders. Here's the verified ranking.
MOD_ARMORER) — worth about 427% per slot, roughly seven times Flawless. It pays 6% (7% with an Improver) for every maxed inventory item you are not currently wearing, so a typical 61-item character multiplies it 61×. Flawless prints a bigger single number (+51%) and that is exactly why people get this wrong: a sphere is worth its per-copy stat × its condition multiplier, not the percentage on the tooltip.
Every ranking further down uses one rule, and it is the whole game:
per-copy stat = floor(base × 1.26) on a piece carrying an Improver
= base on a piece without one
sphere value = (sum of that sphere's per-copy stats) × its condition multiplier
Two consequences trip up almost every sphere guide. First, you may install only one copy of each sphere per piece — with 15 pieces (weapon, helmet, six gear, seven drones) that is a hard ceiling of 15 copies of anything. Second, the printed percentage is not the value. A 6% sphere with a 61× condition beats a 51% sphere with no condition, eight times over.
Boosted values (Improver on the piece), at a well-developed account. This is the order to build in.
| # | Sphere | Per slot | Per copy | What multiplies it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GUNSMITH MOD_ARMORER | 427% | 6% → 7% | ×1 per maxed inventory item not equipped on that character (61 typical, 74 on a Raider) |
| 2 | WAR PAINT MOD_CAMOUFLAGE | 290% | 8% → 10% | floor(personal base unit level / 5) — ×29 at level 145 |
| 3 | HARMONY OF THE SPHERES | 288% | 26% → 32% | ×1 per 10 maxed Legendary-or-better mods |
| 4 | IMPROVER MOD_TURBOOSTER | ~238% per piece | +26% | Not an RP sphere — it raises every other sphere on the same piece |
| 5 | UNITY | step function, see below | 31% → 39% | Sums across the whole squad after battle |
| 6 | SURVIVALIST | 195% | 31% → 39% | ×1 per completed Survival chapter (5, resets daily) |
| 7 | CHAMPION | 160% → 240% | 32% → 40% | ×1 per Championship quest (6 max, resets weekly) |
| 8 | TACTICAL ADVANTAGE | 98% | 6% → 7% | floor(drone factory level / 10) |
| 9 | FLAWLESS | 64% | 51% → 64% | Flat, unconditional |
| 10 | ANNIVERSARY | 63% | 50% → 63% | Flat — gains the full +26% from Improver, the best Improver target |
| 11 | ARENA HERO | 50% | 8% → 10% | ×1 per Arena Hero cup held |
| 12 | SECRET AGENT | 44% | 35% → 44% | All Secret equipment owned and maxed |
| 13 | RAISE MOD_RP | 41% | 33% → 41% | Flat, unconditional |
DRONE KILLER (MOD_ANTI_DRONE) has the highest Ultima base
of any RP sphere — 55%, or 69% boosted, beating Flawless. It pays only for killing a drone with a
rifle, and nobody has measured what share of kills those are, so it is deliberately left unranked
rather than guessed at.
These print up to 54% and contribute nothing to a squad player. Attainability is measurable, and it was measured — not assumed.
| Sphere | Prints | Why it is worth 0 |
|---|---|---|
| PERSISTENT | +43% (54% boosted) | Requires fighting 3+ enemies alone. If you play in a squad the condition never holds. |
| LONE WOLF | +31% | Requires not being in a squad. Pro Tournament and Showdown both require one. |
| REAPER | +35% | Needs 4 wins with kills rising each battle. Longest chain measured across 365 battles: 2. |
| HIGH STAKES | +31% | Needs 4 consecutive battles with RP rising. Longest measured: 3. |
| NOBLE MOD_AURUM | +35% | Needs weapon, helmet and drone all gold-or-platinum and maxed. A hardcore-tier weapon appears not to satisfy it. |
| WING COMMANDER | +31% | Drone kills only — and Pro Tournament disables drones. |
| AFTERBURNER | +35% (44% boosted) | Pays only on kills after the 26th. That is 82.6% coverage at real kill counts ⇒ 36.6% effective, which loses to Raise's flat 41%. It never catches up. |
Unity is the biggest number on the whole build and the most widely mis-stated. It does not cap at +186% over a six-player team. It sums over your entire squad:
total = your own bonus + Σ min(each squadmate's bonus, your own)
With a 52-member squad, a player running 10 maxed copies reads 20,171% in game — 390 of their own plus 19,781 collected from ~50 mates capped at their level. It is a step function, and the shape is what matters:
| Your copies | Your bonus | Squad total | Value of one more copy |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | 351 | 18,252 | ramp — about +2,028 |
| 10 | 390 | 20,171 | the kink |
| 11–15 | 429–585 | 20,210–20,366 | flat — only +39 each |
Never drop below 10 copies — falling to 9 drags every squadmate's cap down with you, at roughly −1,919% per copy removed. Going above 10 gains almost nothing unless your mates already exceed you, so ask two or three of them what their Unity reads before spending on it. Placement is count-only: put the copies on gear, weapon and helmet (where they displace a 50–63% sphere), never on drones (where they displace 160–195%).
Unity is live on Soldier, Mercenary, Special Forces and Raider only. On Veteran, Saboteur, Tactician, Liquidator and Stormtrooper it is dead weight.
SQUAD PLAYER is often paired with Unity in older guides. It has no Ultima tier — Legendary is its ceiling at 30% — so it cannot compete for a slot in an all-Ultima build.
These do not add RP; they subtract the enemy's, or keep you alive. Every one is hard-capped, so a second copy past the cap is a wasted slot.
| Sphere | Cap | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| STALKING | 20% | Killing an enemy cuts the RP they earn, briefly. No Ultima tier. |
| UNTOUCHABLE | 20% | After they kill you, they earn that much less. No Ultima tier. |
| SABOTAGE | 15% | Damaging an enemy cuts their RP. No Ultima tier. |
| ANTIDOTE | 15% | One copy is enough. |
| COMBAT READINESS | 30% | Needs Adrenaline, Explosive Bullet and Spotter all on automatic. |
| MULTITASK | 50% | Credits that share of your RP to raid missions as well. |
| HEAT TRAP PRO | 20% | Only worth it if you are actually being rocketed. |
| REFLECTION | 20% | No RP mechanism at all, and no Ultima tier — it reflects explosive shots. |
| GUNSLINGER | 40% | A difficulty modifier: it raises bot respawn rate and bot damage. Not an RP sphere. |
King of the Sector is worth naming for the mirror: an enemy running it who kills you takes up to 60% of the RP you had earned. It is symmetric, so your own copy steals from them.
Duplicate spheres stack additively across pieces — but you may only install one copy of each sphere per piece. That single rule sets the shape of every build: with 15 pieces you can hold at most 15 copies of any sphere, and each piece simply takes the N best distinct spheres it has room for.
| Piece | Count | Slots each | Subtotal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weapon | 1 | 9 | 9 |
| Helmet | 1 | 9 | 9 |
| Gear | 6 | 10 | 60 |
| Drone | 7 | 5 (6 with a Platinum Drone Kit) | 35–42 |
| Total | 15 pieces | — | 113 now, 120 at max |
Percentages pool additively within a stage and stages multiply across — fitted at 96% over 46 battles. Never compound sphere percentages against each other; treating them all as multiplicative overshoots reality by four to six orders of magnitude.
| Piece | Slots | Spheres, in priority order |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon & Helmet | 9 | Improver · Gunsmith · War Paint · Harmony · Survivalist · Champion · Tactical Advantage · Flawless · Anniversary |
| Gear (×6) | 10 | the nine above + Arena Hero (or Secret Agent) |
| Drone (stock) | 5 | Improver · Gunsmith · Harmony · Survivalist · Champion |
| Drone (kitted) | 6 | the five above + War Paint |
Improver wins its slot on every piece — it returns roughly 22% of everything beside it, and by construction it displaces only the weakest sphere that made the cut.
installed_modifier_RP
outright — the entire stack earns nothing there.These are the RP-farming characters, and the only four where Unity pays. Build: Gunsmith → War Paint → Harmony → Unity → Survivalist → Champion, with Improver on every piece and Flawless / Anniversary / Arena Hero filling what is left. Raider has the highest Gunsmith multiplier of any character (74 unequipped maxed items against a typical 61).
Killzone warning (Special Forces): Killzone disables the weapon premium multiplier, the GR bonus, the equipment RP bonus and the modifier RP bonus, and forces a Killzone-specific loadout. Your sphere stack earns nothing there.
Mercenary warning: holding an Elite Squad Cup while your squad has no Squad Cup costs you 75% of your RP; the lesser mismatches cost 50%. Check the squad's cup before accepting contracts.
Same order, minus Unity — its slot goes to Anniversary, then Arena Hero, then Secret Agent. RP is not wasted on these characters. Domination and Tournament both use RP to decide stage winners, cup qualification and tiebreaks, so stack it exactly as hard. Pro Tournament disables flying drones, but the modifiers installed on a grounded drone still count.
Duels are pure elimination — RP does not decide the outcome, so do not bring the RP stack. Bring survivability and denial: Suppression, Antidote, Untouchable, Stalking, Reflection. Note the geometry changes too: the Gray, Green and Blue arenas disable drones and helmets, Red allows gear only, and Yellow limits you to non-Smart helmets plus thermal imager and drones.
Showdown disables installed_modifier_RP, so the whole sphere stack is worth zero there. It also disables the rank multiplier, squad-level RP, avatar collections and equipment special properties. Do not optimise spheres for Showdown queues — and note Showdown requires a squad.
Yes — duplicate spheres across different gear slots stack additively. Eight copies of FLAWLESS produce roughly 8× the bonus of one copy.
Gunsmith (MOD_ARMORER) at Stage 7 Ultima, worth roughly 427% per slot against Flawless's 64%. Flawless is the best flat sphere, but flat is not the same as best. ELEVEN (+51%), ANNIVERSARY (+50%), and PERSISTENT (+43%) are close behind.
Yes — Showdown (Mode 11) disables all sphere effects. Pro Tournament (Mode 12) keeps them active. Standard team modes have spheres active.
UNITY sums across your entire squad after battle — not a six-player team. Your total is your own bonus plus Σ min(their bonus, yours) over every member, so a 52-member squad running 10 maxed copies reads about 20,171%. The old “+186% over six players” figure was wrong by an order of magnitude. It is live on Soldier, Mercenary, Special Forces and Raider only.
Through Survival mode boxes, event rewards, and currency-based upgrades. Each rarity tier requires specific currency-cost progressions. See the in-game economy guide and our Diamond Economy page for spend optimization.