Mayhem Mode drops The Joker and Harley Quinn into a locked-down version of Gotham City’s North Island for short, timed runs, and every stud you haul out of those runs gets spent back at the hideout. Ten of those purchases are permanent equipment upgrades, and they stay with you across every future run once bought.
Quick answer: The ten permanent upgrades cost 1,155,001 studs in total, from the 1-stud Vehicle Key up to the 500,000-stud Grapple Hook. They are bought at the hideout console and never expire.
Where to buy the permanent upgrades
The upgrades live in the villain hideout built underneath the Funhouse at Amusement Mile, which The Joker and Harley set up after breaking out of Arkham Asylum. You reach the upgrade console inside that hideout and pay with studs collected during Mayhem Mode runs. The same stud pool also covers 30 new outfits for the pair and customizer props, so upgrades compete with cosmetics for your money.
All of this sits inside the Mayhem Collection DLC, which released on September 18 for Xbox Series X|S and requires the LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight base game.
All 10 permanent upgrades and their stud costs
| # | Upgrade | Cost (studs) | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vehicle Key | 1 | Drive vehicles while stood next to one |
| 2 | Grapple Hook | 500,000 | Grapple quickly up to nearby rooftops |
| 3 | Perfect Timing | 25,000 | Enables Critical Hits and Perfect Dodges |
| 4 | Building Lesson | 50,000 | Build objects faster |
| 5 | Dodge Skills | 30,000 | Attack or launch off an enemy mid-dodge |
| 6 | Super Combo | 50,000 | Improves the stud meter rate |
| 7 | Security Deposit | 100,000 | Fewer studs lost on a failed extraction |
| 8 | Extra Focus | 50,000 | Adds an extra bar of Focus |
| 9 | Extra Time | 100,000 | Adds 60 seconds to the timer |
| 10 | Glider | 250,000 | Glide from heights while in mid-air |
The numbering is the order the console lists them in, not a required purchase order. Nine of the ten have their own console entry with a preview; Super Combo is the outlier, with its effect described only as an improvement to the stud meter rate.
What each upgrade changes
Movement upgrades: Vehicle Key, Grapple Hook, Glider
Vehicle Key costs a single stud and unlocks driving, so you can take any vehicle you are stood beside. It is effectively free and there is no reason to leave it unbought.
Grapple Hook pulls you quickly up to nearby rooftops and is the single most expensive purchase at 500,000 studs. Glider costs 250,000 and lets you glide from height once you are already in the air, so the two work as a pair: grapple up, then glide across. Buying the Glider without the Grapple Hook still works, but you are relying on whatever height the map gives you.
Combat upgrades: Perfect Timing, Dodge Skills, Extra Focus
Perfect Timing is the cheapest meaningful upgrade at 25,000 studs and opens up Critical Hits and Perfect Dodges, both of which depend on you timing the input rather than on any stat change. Dodge Skills, at 30,000, lets you either strike an enemy or launch off them as you dodge over. Extra Focus adds one more bar of Focus for 50,000 studs, which matters because Mayhem Mode leans on The Joker and Harley’s ranged gadgets and constant movement.
Run economy upgrades: Building Lesson, Super Combo, Extra Time, Security Deposit
Building Lesson costs 50,000 studs and speeds up building. In a mode built around a timer, that time saved on every build stacks up across a run.
Extra Time adds 60 seconds to the run timer for 100,000 studs, and Super Combo improves the stud meter rate for 50,000. Security Deposit is the safety net at 100,000 studs: fail to extract in time and it cuts the studs you lose from half your haul down to a quarter.
Security Deposit only pays off if you actually miss extractions. If you are already getting out clean, that 100,000 is better spent on Extra Time or the Glider.
Upgrade costs from cheapest to most expensive
- Vehicle Key — 1
- Perfect Timing — 25,000
- Dodge Skills — 30,000
- Building Lesson, Super Combo, Extra Focus — 50,000 each
- Security Deposit, Extra Time — 100,000 each
- Glider — 250,000
- Grapple Hook — 500,000
The first five purchases in that order come to 155,001 studs and cover driving, criticals, dodging, faster builds and the stud meter. The last two, Glider and Grapple Hook, account for 750,000 studs on their own, which is roughly two-thirds of the full 1,155,001 bill.
How to earn studs for the hideout upgrades
Studs come from causing chaos during a run, and the mode gives you several parallel sources rather than one grind:
- Robbing shops around North Island
- Smashing ATMs
- Painting graffiti
- Stealing vehicles
- Fighting A.R.G.U.S. agents and Task Force X
Runs are repeatable and time-limited, so the amount you bank is capped by how much you can do before the timer runs out and by whether you extract successfully. You can also rescue Arkham inmates while out in the city and have Henchmaster train them into a crew you summon to fight alongside The Joker and Harley.
How to confirm an upgrade is applied
Each purchase is confirmed at the console itself. The numbered entry stops offering a stud price once bought, and your stud total drops by the listed amount immediately.
The in-run checks are just as quick. Vehicle Key works the moment you stand next to a car and press the drive prompt. Extra Focus shows up as an additional bar on the Focus meter before you leave the hideout. Extra Time is visible on the run timer at the start of your next outing, which will begin 60 seconds higher than before. Security Deposit only announces itself if you miss an extraction, where the loss lands at a quarter of your studs rather than half.
Hideout upgrades are not the same as Skill Bricks or WayneTech upgrades
The base game runs two separate progression systems, and the names overlap enough to cause confusion. Character Skills are paid for with Skill Bricks earned from main missions and Gotham City side content, and that list includes Critical Hits, Perfect Dodge, Dodge Attack, Dodge Launch and Extra Focus — all things the hideout sells to The Joker and Harley for studs instead. Exploration Skills such as Hyper Combo, which raises the maximum Stud Combo Meter multiplier by one, and Stud Magnet, which widens your pickup range, sit in the same Skill Brick pool.
Gadget upgrades are a third layer again, applied at WayneTech workbenches on a per-character basis. Jim Gordon’s tree, for example, holds the Splitter and Rebound Power upgrades for his Rebound Launcher.
Those upgrades change how fast a character clears a room of LEGO objects in the main game’s Gotham City, with an upgraded Rebound Launcher tearing through interiors like diners and Octan stations at a 4x stud multiplier. None of it carries into the hideout console, and none of the hideout’s ten upgrades carry back out to the main roster.
Treat the hideout console as its own closed economy. Studs earned in Mayhem Mode runs fund the ten upgrades, the outfits and the props, and once all ten are bought the console has nothing left to sell you but cosmetics.
