> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.dequan.xyz/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Sniper & Apex
The two upgraded tiers — **Sniper** and **Apex** — are **invite only**. You don't buy them through a generic upgrade page; you receive an invite when your activity warrants it, or by being introduced through the community.
## What they actually change
Both tiers grant the **same feature set** as Scout. What you're paying for is *more*:
| | Scout | Sniper | Apex |
| ------------------------ | -------- | ---------- | ------------------- |
| All Pump Zone features | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| All chart features | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| All safety features | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pre-execution warmup | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Parallel landing | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Adaptive fees & slippage | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Token Quality Score | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Lightning Wallet | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Daily volume cap | Standard | Higher | Highest |
| Lightning balance cap | Retail | Power-user | Institutional-scale |
| Per-session rate limits | Standard | Elevated | Highest |
| Platform fee rate | Base | Reduced | Lowest |
| Priority support channel | — | — | ✓ |
The pattern is clear: **same surface, more of it, cheaper**.
## Why invite only?
Three reasons:
Sniper and Apex tiers are designed for traders whose volume actually benefits from them. Selling them to casual users would mean charging for capacity those users don't need.
We don't want Scout users feeling pestered by upgrade modals. The product is the same; if you grow into the limits, the platform itself signals it (and an invite usually follows).
Higher tiers involve elevated rate limits and larger signing authority. Gating access through invitation lets us scale the operational monitoring sustainably without compromising on safety.
## How invites happen
Three paths:
* **Activity-based** — sustained trading volume on Scout that consistently hits the daily cap will trigger an invite to Sniper. Continued growth at Sniper invites Apex.
* **Community introduction** — existing Sniper/Apex users can introduce traders they vouch for.
* **Direct outreach** — select traders are reached out to directly based on observed performance.
There is no public sign-up flow for Sniper or Apex by design.
## When you should *not* upgrade
If you're an active retail-scale trader, **Scout is probably the right tier indefinitely**. You don't need higher caps you won't fill. The fee discount on Sniper is meaningful at scale; below scale it's noise.
Only consider upgrading when:
* You're consistently hitting Scout's daily volume cap
* The fee differential at your trading volume is meaningfully larger than the tier cost
* You're operating at a size where the higher Lightning cap genuinely matters
If none of those is true, stay on Scout. The platform is genuinely the same.
## Renewal and downgrade
Paid tiers do not auto-renew silently. When a tier period ends, you receive an explicit prompt to extend or step down. Stepping down is frictionless — you keep your account, your trade history, your referrals; only the tier limits revert.
## Priority support
Apex includes a direct channel to platform engineering for production trading issues. This is operationally meaningful for traders running serious size — when something feels off, the answer comes in minutes, not next business day.
It is not a "we treat your trades better" channel. We don't, and we wouldn't. It is a "we triage your support requests faster" channel.