I found the game fun for a while, but not having a sense of progression. Consider playing RPG aside from better equipments the character get strong - higher HP or MP or special skill. I kind of miss that in Bionic Dues, the RPG aspect is not there and feels like just an ARPG kind of massive loot to manage. And maybe it is just me, the Exo get old very fast.
My suggestion is to
1) make level to Exo. Each level add small amount of HP / Speed / range (maybe every 5 level) to them depending on their type - i.e . epic ninja faster growth in speed / movement
2) visual difference on the Exo every 5 levels - I understand graphic need budget - just do the tiny in-game moving exo graphic alone in the grid. Worst case - make a simple blue outline for level 5, amber for level 10, red for level 15, Silver for level 20.
* If we want to make it more robotic theme - use something like "scrap collected" for each bots kill in mission as "experience point". Player are free to spend on the exo they like after the mission. Amount of scrap spent on the Exo hit a target - it get "upgraded" similar to the "level up" in RPG.
If you do this, I really want to play again . Just my 2 cents anyway.
