I think forging quirks might also be something worth taking a look at.
Today, all quirks are negative effects (just generally milder and weirder than defects). This means that players are actively optimizing to avoid both quirks and defects—encouraging us to skip over tiers & progression.
Suggestion: make some quirks desirable (but maybe situationally) Examples:
- Bomb cube: bombs now explode in a cube, reduces radius by N%
- Power hungry: increases damage by N%, but each attack/swing deals M% damage to the player
- Power of the sun: increases damage by N% during the day, reduces damage by N% at night
- Bonus damage while jumping
- Etc