The best upgrades in How to Grow a Black Hole are, without question, prioritizing Singularity Density and Event Horizon in the early game. You should strategically invest in Gravity Well as a secondary concern and almost completely ignore Hawking Radiation until you reach the "Star-Eater" phase of cosmic evolution. This approach ensures your mass-to-upgrade ratio is always optimized for exponential growth, preventing the frustrating plateaus that trap many players.
This guide moves beyond simple lists to explain the deep strategy behind which upgrades to choose, when to choose them, and which popular choices are actually traps that will stunt your cosmic appetite. Forget what you’ve read on shallow forums; this is the definitive path to becoming a galactic menace.
The Core Trio: Your Foundation for Cosmic Dominance
Your first few hours in How to Grow a Black Hole are a delicate balancing act. Every point of mass is precious. Spending it unwisely means floating in the void, too weak to consume the next tier of matter while your radiation slowly bleeds you dry. The solution is to focus exclusively on three interconnected upgrades: Singularity Density, Event Horizon, and Gravity Well, in that precise order of importance.
Priority #1: Singularity Density (Efficiency is Everything)
This is the single most important stat in the game, yet it's the one most often neglected by new players. Singularity Density acts as a multiplier on all mass you consume. A 10% boost here is far more valuable than a 10% boost to your pull range. Why? Because it pays dividends on every single asteroid, moon, or planet you devour for the rest of the game. Pour your first five to ten upgrade levels exclusively into Singularity Density. You won't see a flashy visual change, but you will find yourself able to afford the next crucial Event Horizon upgrade significantly faster than other players. It’s the ultimate investment in your future growth.
Priority #2: Event Horizon (Unlocking Bigger Meals)
Your Event Horizon is your mouth. If it's too small, you can't eat the bigger, more lucrative objects. This is your primary gatekeeper to new tiers of matter. The strategy is not to max it out, but to upgrade it just enough to consume the next most valuable object in your current area. After you've bulked up your Singularity Density, check the mass requirements for the local moons or small planets. Purchase the exact number of Event Horizon levels needed to swallow them, then immediately go back to upgrading Density. This leap-frogging approach is the key to efficient scaling.
Priority #3: Gravity Well (The Supporting Act)
Gravity Well increases the range and strength of your pull, making it easier to slurp up space dust and pull asteroids from afar. While useful, it offers the worst return on investment of the core trio. A wider pull is a quality-of-life improvement, not a fundamental growth engine. Only put points into Gravity Well when you find that actively chasing down every piece of matter is becoming tedious and slowing you down. Think of it as a way to speed up the act of feeding, but only after you’ve already optimized the nutritional value (Density) and your ability to eat bigger meals (Horizon).
When Should You Upgrade Hawking Radiation?
This is the game's biggest noob trap. Hawking Radiation is a constant, passive drain on your mass. Upgrading it reduces this decay. It sounds essential, but in the early-to-mid game, the amount of mass you lose is trivial compared to what you gain from a single planetary snack. Every point of mass spent on mitigating this tiny loss is a point of mass not spent on Singularity Density, which would have earned you thousands of times more mass in the long run.
The tipping point for upgrading Hawking Radiation is when you become a Star-Eater. Consuming stars involves significant downtime and travel between meals. During these long journeys, the passive drain from un-upgraded radiation can actually become noticeable, bleeding off a non-trivial percentage of your last meal. Once you are consistently consuming stars, begin investing in Hawking Radiation to preserve your hard-earned gains. Before that, touching it is a critical error.
How To Grow a Black Hole in-game screenshot
Unlocking the Best Special Abilities
Beyond your passive stats, you'll eventually unlock special, active abilities. Most of these are flashy distractions that cost far too much for what they offer. Only two are truly worth your investment, while one, in particular, should be avoided at all costs.
Must-Have: Quasar Burst
Quasar Burst is a short-lived, massive boost to your gravitational pull and consumption speed. Its true power isn't for snagging a single, distant object. It's for clearing dense, high-value areas in seconds. Save it for when you enter a rich asteroid belt or, more importantly, when you approach a gas giant with a large family of moons. Activating Quasar Burst allows you to consume the entire moon system in one clean, efficient sweep before the parent planet’s gravity can interfere. It turns a ten-minute meal into a ten-second feast.
Situational Power: Spacetime Warp
This ability provides a short, instantaneous dash. Its primary use is defensive, allowing you to escape environmental hazards like solar flares or the destabilization of a rival black hole in multiplayer. It can also be used offensively to bypass a system's defensive asteroids and make a beeline for the juicy, high-mass planet at its center. It's not an every-level upgrade, but putting a few points into it once you reach the more chaotic star systems is a wise survival investment.
The Trap: Graviton Lance
The Graviton Lance is a projectile that shatters smaller objects, breaking them into more easily consumable chunks. It sounds useful, but it's a lie. The energy cost to fire the lance is almost always greater than the mass you gain from the resulting fragments. Furthermore, your goal is to upgrade your Event Horizon to consume objects whole, not waste time and energy breaking them down. It’s a tool for players who have failed to upgrade properly. Ignore it completely.
How To Grow a Black Hole in-game screenshot
Advanced Strategies for the Late Game
Once you graduate from eating stars to nebulae and entire galaxies, the rules change slightly. At this stage, your core stats should be nearing their maximums, and a new resource, Exotic Matter, becomes crucial for the final tier of god-like upgrades. This is where the Accretion Disk upgrade, previously a low priority, becomes the most important thing in the universe.
Your Accretion Disk passively generates Exotic Matter based on your total mass and the rotational energy you've built up. The final upgrades, such as "Event Horizon Singularity" (which allows you to consume other black holes) or "Universe Big Rip," cost enormous amounts of this material. Your late-game strategy is to find a stable, matter-rich nebula, park yourself in the middle, and let your Accretion Disk farm Exotic Matter for you. Your active gameplay loop shifts from pure consumption to resource management, positioning yourself for the final, game-winning upgrades. This is the true endgame: transforming from a hungry mouth into a cosmic engine.
How To Grow a Black Hole in-game screenshot
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is the single best first upgrade in How to Grow a Black Hole?
Singularity Density. Do not spend a single point of mass on anything else until you have at least five levels in it. This efficiency multiplier will accelerate every other aspect of your growth for the entire game.
Is it ever worth it to upgrade Hawking Radiation early?
No. The mass lost to radiation in the early game is insignificant. Spending mass to reduce it is a net loss compared to investing that same mass into growth upgrades like Density or Event Horizon, which have an exponential return.
How do I consume planets faster?
This requires a two-pronged approach. First, your Event Horizon must be large enough to initiate consumption. Second, for planets with many moons or defensive asteroid rings, use the Quasar Burst ability to rapidly clear the debris and pull the planet itself into your maw before it can drift away.
The Final Word
Success in How to Grow a Black Hole isn't about having the biggest gravitational pull from the start; it's about being the most efficient engine of consumption. By focusing maniacally on Singularity Density, strategically upgrading your Event Horizon, and treating everything else as a secondary concern, you build a foundation for unstoppable, exponential growth. You don't just grow a black hole; you become the most terrifying force in the cosmos, one perfectly optimized meal at a time.