A map legend exists so that nobody guesses what a symbol means. Studio tools deserve the same treatment, because most wasted credits are routing errors: an upscale ordered to fix a face, an edit asked to do a regeneration’s job, a swap thrown at a frame whose geometry never matched. Read the legend first; route the job second.
The four routes
Edit when the frame is right and one coordinate is wrong — wardrobe, setting, light, a detail. The editor holds composition and pose steady and re-surveys the single thing you named. It is the cheapest route and the most misused: stack three changes into one instruction and you have quietly ordered a regeneration at edit prices, with edit-grade control over none of it.
Swap when the frame is right and the face is wrong. A great pose whose face drifted off-datum is a casting problem, and casting is what the face swap is for — provided the geometry agrees: head angle and light direction close to your source portrait. When geometry disagrees, no price fixes it; choose a different target.
Upscale when the frame is finished and only the scale is wrong — a storefront minimum, a cover that will be seen large, a print order. Upscaling reconstructs detail; it does not repair faces, light or composition. Ordering it earlier in the chain pays finishing prices for working-stage problems.
Regenerate when the bones are wrong: composition, pose or light that no correction can hold. Regeneration feels like the expensive route until you price the alternative — two edits and an upscale spent defending a frame that was never going to sit on the map.
The routing habit
Before any finishing job, name the defect in one sentence and match it to the legend: wrong detail → edit; wrong face → swap; wrong size → upscale; wrong bones → regenerate. Creators who route this way spend their credits on output. Creators who guess spend them on tuition.