Veteran crimefighter Batman comes thoroughly trained and well equipped at the outset. And yet Lucius Fox continues iterating at WayneTech, providing Batman with a new Batsuit and Batmobile very near the beginning of his adventure. These provide his first few upgrades, built-in. From there, other gadgets and Batmobile components are earned and upgrades become available for purchase. You can do this from the WayneTech pane in the menu, using WayneTech Upgrade Points. You earn XP toward WayneTech Upgrade Points through most normal gameplay actions, like completing story and side missions, clearing combat and predator scenarios, and completing Riddler puzzles.
On top of Batman’s huge starting moveset, there are upgrade categories for Combat Abilities, the Batsuit, the Batmobile in Pursuit Mode and in Battle Mode, Tech Gadgets, and Skill Gadgets. Many upgrades have prerequisites, where you must unlock other upgrades along the way. Upgrades can have a huge effect on combat efficacy, opening up new knockout approaches and increasing survivability. The most expensive (and usually meaningful) upgrades cost eight WayneTech points and are often gated behind other upgrades, so carefully consider where you invest points.
Some upgrades are just incremental (like extra Batsuit or Batmobile armor) or very situational (like a specific new function for a particular Gadget), whereas some upgrades grant big boosts for situations that come up all the time. For example, Special Combo Boost enhances all future FreeFlow Combos by lowering the number of hits needed for your first Special Takedown from eight to five. Special Combo Multi Ground Takedown gives you the chance to K.O. lots of downed foes at once for the cost of one Special Combo Takedown in combat. For the same thing in predator scenarios, Fear Multi-Takedown x4/x5 lets you clear four or five unaware sentries at once, clearly a significant upgrade. And a Batmobile upgrade like Dodge Thruster Boost allows two bursts in a row from the Battle Mode Batmobile’s dodge thrusters, permanently doubling drone dodging ability.