BeanZ and Meta Upgrades — Permanent Progression in AVS03

What BeanZ are

BeanZ are the meta-progression currency of Antivirus Survivors 2003 Professional — the part of the game that persists between runs. The officially named meta systems around them:

• Safe Folder — an official mechanic tied to keeping your haul safe between runs.
• Keygen — an official mechanic in the progression economy.

How BeanZ are earned is now officially on record per protocol: each Protocol difficulty pays a fixed amount per Safe Folder opened (plus cleared enemies) — 16 BeanZ at Protocol I up to 64 at Protocol V, straight from the demo build’s own strings.

The 18 meta upgrades

The launch build ships with 18 meta upgrades, per the official Steam page. What we can confirm: they exist, there are 18, and they are the backbone of long-term progression alongside the 5 protocol difficulty folders covered in protocols and policies.

One official naming note (Warmfix update, May 2, 2026): “Meta upgrades are now considered ‘Ranks’ instead of ‘Levels’ to reduce confusion with player levels.” So if you see Ranks in-game, that’s this system — the wiki uses both terms until the community settles on one.

What we can now publish is the full 18-Rank table with each Rank’s official per-Rank effect, extracted from the demo build’s own localization data. What stays pending: the BeanZ cost per rank (it exists in the game’s compiled data, not in its text) and any priority verdicts — those need measured runs, not strings.

One provenance note the data settles neatly: Rank 16’s internal id is weap_repel but its display name is Weapon Power — matching Demo Update 1.2’s line that “Weapon Power replaces Repel”. The rename is real, right down to the data. (“Packet Loss”, meanwhile, is the game’s name for its dodge stat — the retro theming runs deep.)

Official screenshot: the wallpaper collection lives in a Display Properties-style window — 81 wallpapers ship at launch, alongside 8 themes. Source: the official Steam store page.

From here the table fills from direct play: Costs per rank, then the tested priority order — each row tagged with the game version it was verified in.

A sane default order (genre-general, clearly labeled)

Until tested data exists, the universal survivor-like heuristic applies: early meta upgrades that raise survivability and currency gain beat narrow damage bumps, because they compound across every future run. That’s genre logic, not AVS03 evidence — treat it as a starting instinct, not a build guide. Tested priorities replace this section after launch.

FAQ

Do meta upgrades reset when I change protocol difficulty? Unknown — no official statement covers meta progression versus the 5 protocols. Tested at launch.

Where do I see my BeanZ total? In-game UI details are pending verification. The demo shows the meta systems in reduced form.