How do some weapons upgrade

So I was playing Ratchet And Clank: Going Commando, I used the lancer and it upgraded to heavy lancer, I used the gravity bomb and it upgraded to mini nuke, but it doesn't matter how much I use the bomb glove, it never upgrades or shows any type of progression, do all weapons upgrade by using them, or do you need some type of way like bolts to upgrade specific weapons?