FIRESTARTERS Resources and Medals: No Pickups, Run Economy

How Does FIRESTARTERS Handle Health, Armor, and Ammo Without Pickups?

In Studio Kerosene’s FIRESTARTERS (Steam app 3733710), the STEEL bloodsport arena rejects classic resource camping. The Steam store page—highest-confidence source on this topic—states there are no health, armor, or ammunition pickups in the arena. Instead, resources come from defeated android loot/drops, pushing you to stay on offense and plan weapon swaps deliberately.

This guide maps official rules plus review-reported mechanics with clear attribution. For first-run habits, read beginner guide. For weapon names tied to orb strategies, see weapons overview.

Caption: Official HUD shows score multipliers (VARIETY / TRICK / CLEAN labels)—separate from healing but part of the same aggressive play reward loop.

What Drops Can You Expect From Android Kills?

Steam does not itemize drop tables. Secondary sources converge on patterns:

Orb colors and internal item names are described in Spanish/Vietnamese review prose, not in Steam patch text. Treat them as visual shorthand until datamined or confirmed in English UI strings.

Gunplay that only chip-damage without kills may starve you—consistent with Steam’s “loot from defeated androids” phrasing.

Why Is the Mining Laser a Resource Tool, Not Just DPS?

Demo 2026-02-20 patch notes name Mining Laser alongside Shotgun, Railgun, and Rocket Launcher bugfixes—establishing it as a real weapon class in development builds. Reviews assign a support role: apply heat, earn armor orbs, then swap back to ballistic weapons for life orb procs.

We do not publish damage numbers or upgrade tiers—none appear in verified fact files. If the laser is unavailable in your first shop rotation, focus on dual pistols (“Tora” and “Habu”) per HUD and bat until medals allow purchases.

Caption: LOW AMMO is a confirmed HUD string—resource pressure is communicated in-fight, not via pickup icons.

What Are Medals and When Do You Spend Them?

Medals enter via NeutralGame’s Spanish review, describing currency after winning rounds, spent in a mid-run shop. Steam Hype uses different marketing language—“bonus tokens” before special rounds—so this wiki keeps medals labeled as review terminology unless you see the exact word in English UI.

Demo patch history (may differ in EA) documents shop flow mechanics:

• Purchase Phase lasts 30 seconds unless you press Ready Up (2026-02-15 patch).
• Phase no longer auto-ends instantly when you cannot afford items (same patch).
• Demo merged Max Health, Max Armor, Movement Skill into one upgrade line temporarily—EA shop catalog unverified line-by-line.

Link movement economy to movement and skating guide because NeutralGame lists movement skill cooldown among purchasable categories—single-source list, not Steam-enumerated.

What Upgrades Do Reviews Claim the Shop Sells?

NeutralGame (only source listing all lines below) mentions:

• Maximum health / armor improvements
• Skill cooldown reductions
• Ammunition capacity increases
• Stronger orb effects
• Unlocking additional weapons (Shotgun, Railgun—reviews sometimes paraphrase as rail rifle—and Rocket Launcher in NeutralGame’s Spanish descriptors)

gamen.pro corroborates shop weapons broadly but does not duplicate the full upgrade bullet list.

There is no permanent character upgrade tree according to gamen.pro—power resets between meta progression expectations. That aligns with Steam marketing focus on score attack and Arcade leaderboards (how to unlock Arcade Mode).

How Do Extra Lives and Failure States Work?

NeutralGame and gamen.pro both say winning a round grants an extra life. Official HUD screenshots show a heart icon with a numeric counter (e.g., 1 or 2) but do not label it “lives” in text—screenshot-facts forbid equating icon to mechanic name.

SYNCHRONIZATION percentage appears near that heart icon in captures; meaning unverified—could relate to team sync fantasy or scoring, not documented here.

When you exhaust lives, expect restart flow—exact checkpoint rules per Storm are not in our public fact set (no story walkthrough on this wiki).

How Do Medals Interact With Score Multipliers?

Official HUD displays a MULTIPLIERS panel with VARIETY, TRICK, and CLEAN rows feeding a large total multiplier (examples: 50.00x, 29.61x on captures). Demo patch 2026-02-15 notes kills on Sufferers contribute to Variety/Clean multiplier logic with zero direct score/medal—enemy type name from patch, not general EA enemy taxonomy.

Steam Hype claims stunts and kill combos raise scores; Load Last Save mentions style phrases popping on hits. Medal farming via overseer enemies was patched in Demo 2026-02-25 (“prevent farming Medals with Overseers”)—mechanic names from patch notes.

We do not advise exploit routes—only note that score and medals are related but not identical currencies in developer patch language.

Caption: High multipliers coincide with heavy weapons and crowded enemy counts—resource pressure stays high even when scoring well.

What Should You Do Between Runs?

Episode One still delivers visual novel intermissions (Steam official). Use downtime to:

• Review medal purchases for next wave weapon coverage.
• Swap to bat-heavy loadouts before bat-only rounds (NeutralGame / gamen.pro).
• Lower expectations for sandstorm visibility (community threads request FX sliders—not official settings).

Track developer balance changes in patch notes—Demo shop merges may repeat in EA patches without fanfare.

Sources

• Steam store (no pickups, drop philosophy)
• NeutralGame review (orbs, medals, shop list)
• gamen.pro review (no permanent upgrade tree)
• Load Last Save preview (ammo + bat loop)
• Steam news API (Purchase Phase, medal exploit fix, Mining Laser name)