At the next junction, the carriage trips a second marked ward release. Resolving it offers **Thunderhead**, adding a manual full-store burst to the same rig. Ordinary Projector impacts charge the store. Each Arc discharge spends its supplied charge; the extra jumps add heat. These two releases prepare the build for the final optional scan. At either junction the player can stop the carriage and leave by the walking route.
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The final ward doors open ahead. Roughly one hundred enemies fill the concourse, with more flowing from announced sources. A tide closes from behind while fast groups cross the carriage's path. The player risks the dense middle, finishes charging and presses Thunderhead. Stored charge discharges through three chain heads and one penetrating pressure lance, then charging restores automatically. **The intended climax** is blue-white branching light breaking roughly forty well-packed ordinary bodies while the lance cuts a traversable slot. Survivors, flankers and resistant bodies still move. The carriage surges through because the player chose the dense line and the release moment, not because the special deleted the room.
+
The final ward doors open ahead. Roughly one hundred enemies fill the concourse, with more flowing from announced sources. A tide closes from behind while fast groups cross the carriage's path. The player risks the dense middle, finishes charging and presses Thunderhead. Stored charge discharges through three chain heads and one penetrating pressure lance, then charging restores automatically. **The intended climax** is blue-white branching light breaking roughly forty well-packed ordinary bodies while the lance cuts a traversable slot. Survivors, flankers and special bodies may still move. The carriage surges through because the player chose the dense line and the release moment, not because the special deleted the room.
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An unready player sees the crest turn against them. Flankers draw arcs away from the tide, bodies stall the carriage, and a heavy creature narrows the exit while hits strip condition. The choice is legible: spend Thunderhead early and face the main mass empty; hold the centre long enough to charge, risking death; or abandon the scan and flee, spending oxygen and position. The walking route remains usable without an overclock. Death changes the next route, but everything physical still carried returns aboard. The horde has teeth without deleting the loadout.
+
An unready player sees the crest turn against them. Flankers draw arcs away from the tide, bodies stall the carriage, and a special creature narrows the exit while hits strip condition. The choice is legible: spend Thunderhead early and face the main mass empty; hold the centre long enough to charge, risking death; or abandon the scan and flee, spending oxygen and position. The walking route remains usable without an overclock. Death changes the next route, but everything physical still carried returns aboard. The horde has teeth without deleting the loadout.
At the far window the final source gates close, stopping further arrivals. The player clears the creatures already beside the carriage or leaves them separated behind a pedestrian bulkhead before investigating. The “constellation” is a live map of rooms that are currently far apart. Its last line unfolds an overhead bridge toward the matching point—a route the player can walk now. An earlier recorded mark suggests another scan track may reveal a second bridge elsewhere. The player can push onto the new span with reduced oxygen or bring that recorded connection home and plan the next trip. Combat delivered access; knowledge points to a specific next action.
@@ 31,7 31,7 @@
Most horde sequences use four readable beats:
1. **Wake.** The player sees sleeping bodies, moving shadows, opening doors or a crowd already migrating. Sound and warning lights identify the routes that may answer.
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2. **Gather.** A slow majority occupies broad lanes. Faster packs take visible side routes; climbing creatures spill from ceiling or maintenance routes; a few heavy bodies bend the flow and make the player change course.
+
2. **Gather.** A slow majority occupies broad lanes. Faster packs take visible side routes; climbing creatures spill from ceiling or maintenance routes; a few special bodies bend the flow and make the player change course.
3. **Crest.** Two or three movement patterns overlap. The player must choose the dense line that rewards the build, the safer line that protects condition, or a costly retreat that spends oxygen. A moving objective continues through the space rather than turning into a defence circle.
4. **Break.** The player clears the finite release or completes a physical seal at its source. Sealing stops arrivals; creatures already inside still need clearing or safe separation before investigation. Music, enemy flow and the room's silhouette release together. The resulting lull belongs to inspection, salvage, route choice and discovery.
@@ 59,17 59,17 @@
**Ordered transformation.** The base chain first rewards a compact lane. Echoing Arc then turns one chain into three finite routes. Thunderhead finally spends a full store on three chain heads plus one pressure lance, enough to break roughly forty well-aligned ordinary bodies while leaving the rest of a large horde active. The exact hop, cover, heat, supply and coverage contract lives in [Mechanical Interfaces](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Mechanical%20Interfaces%20And%20Opening%20Quantities). No step assumes an XP threshold, pickup frequency or particular reward cadence.
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**Weakness, choice and bad feel.** Insulated bodies, hard cover or wide spacing stop routes. Storage and Arc consume space that could support defence, oxygen or focused force, and the burst adds a high heat pulse. This rig has no Barrier. The player chooses whether to cross toward a dense connected knot or spend early on a weaker line. It may feel bad when one insulated body at the front consumes the spectacular setup and the remaining branches cannot reach the crowd the player thought they had framed; the preview must expose that break before commitment.
+
**Weakness, choice and bad feel.** Hard cover or wide spacing stops routes. Storage and Arc consume space that could support defence, oxygen or focused force, and the burst adds a high heat pulse. This rig has no Barrier. The player chooses whether to cross toward a dense connected knot or spend early on a weaker line. It may feel bad when a moving gap or rib strands branches from the crowd the player thought they had framed; the preview must show the currently connected hop regions before commitment.
## Build two: Ricochet Foundry
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**What it does.** Rebound Disc automatically launches a glowing physical disc on a committed direction. Fragment Wake turns its normal terminal end into one forward fragment fan. Successive finite flights overlap between hard surfaces while the player runs for new angles and manually shoves eligible bodies or loose cover into the next path.
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**What it does.** Rebound Disc automatically launches a glowing physical disc on a committed direction. The incoming and reflected lines show which hard faces are banks; a terminal marker shows where Fragment Wake would open its forward fan. Successive finite flights overlap while the player runs for new angles and manually shoves eligible bodies or loose cover before the next path commits.
**Connection in plain language.** Threat Sensor starts Pulse Projector. Its first eligible physical impact supplies Impact Dynamo, which charges Capacitor. Manual Trigger operates Vector Nozzle for the shove. Rebound Disc, Fragment Wake and Foundry Drop change Projector temporarily. These six parts use seven carrying and seven mounted spaces. Nozzle moves bodies and loose objects; it never steers a disc. Each original launch gives Dynamo at most one contribution, however many descendants hit.
**Ordered transformation.** The base ordinary shot and manual shove first hold one corridor. Rebound Disc then rewards one readable bank. Fragment Wake adds a terminating fan and makes each accepted automatic shot threaten a broad corridor. Foundry Drop finally turns a full store into one manual master disc with a longer but finite path and larger fan, capable of breaking roughly half of a tightly framed 80–100-body crest. Its flight never homes, and the automatic launch mode restores after dispatch. Exact travel, rebound, body, fragment, supply and heat limits are in [Mechanical Interfaces](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Mechanical%20Interfaces%20And%20Opening%20Quantities). The ordering does not select how often offers appear.
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**Weakness, choice and bad feel.** Open atriums, soft partitions and absorbing enemies deny useful rebounds. Bringing Manual and Nozzle spends the space Storm Choir uses for Fork and Arc; this rig also lacks a Barrier. The player chooses a running angle and whether to spend Nozzle now to improve a later disc or save it for escape. It may feel bad when the disc meets an absorber before its terminal wall and produces no fragment fan; the path preview and absorber response must make that risk legible rather than look like missing effects.
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**Weakness, choice and bad feel.** Open atriums, soft/irregular partitions and hard faces without a clear reflected lane deny useful banks. Bringing Manual and Nozzle spends the space Storm Choir uses for Fork and Arc; this rig also lacks a Barrier. The player chooses a running angle and whether to spend Nozzle now to improve a later disc or save it for escape. It may feel bad when a full fan opens into the back of fixed cover and reaches almost nobody; the terminal marker and fan cone must show that static mistake before commitment.
## Build three: Gravity Furnace
@@ 81,17 81,17 @@
**Ordered transformation.** The base rig first combines automatic pressure shots with deliberate outward movement pulses. Inward Draft then lets fresh voluntary strides gather a dangerous wake behind the astronaut. Furnace Burst finally turns the full store into one forward lance and bloom, breaking roughly half of a well-gathered 80–100-body crest. Each pull needs a fresh voluntary stride, power and cooling; forced motion cannot trigger another. A burst spends the full store and restores ordinary firing without a journal edit. Exact pull, reaction, lance, bloom, cover, supply and heat rules are in [Mechanical Interfaces](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Mechanical%20Interfaces%20And%20Opening%20Quantities).
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**Weakness, choice and bad feel.** Heavy enemies resist displacement, hard cover divides the pull and bloom, and ranged attackers remain dangerous. Pulling and charging compete for power and cooling. Releasing early is safer but smaller; holding for spectacle brings the tail closer and risks condition, oxygen and the objective. It may feel bad when the crowd visibly gathers but a fixed rib blocks most of the bloom; the impact marker must show which bodies have sight to it before the player spends the store.
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**Weakness, choice and bad feel.** Hard cover divides the pull and bloom, ranged attackers remain dangerous, and Bellback's existing pressure wave can scatter a gathered line. Pulling and charging compete for power and cooling. Releasing early is safer but smaller; holding for spectacle brings the tail closer and risks condition, oxygen and the objective. It may feel bad when the crowd visibly gathers but a fixed rib blocks most of the bloom; the impact marker must show which bodies have sight to it before the player spends the store.
## Crowded adverse example: R25 Balance Gallery
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Use the already-authored R25 setpiece as a hostile paper check: its 80–150-body crest enters around the fixed rib, loose mass and Bellback. This changes no room, arena, route or asset. Storm Choir can break the near-side pack only if the player crosses far enough that its chain hops retain line of effect; the rib and Bellback can strand branches. Ricochet Foundry can bank from the rib and use Nozzle to move eligible loose mass, but Bellback can absorb the master disc before its fan. Gravity Furnace can pull ordinary bodies around the loose mass, yet the rib splits the bloom and Bellback stays in the escape line.
+
Use the already-authored R25 setpiece as a hostile paper check: its 80–150-body crest enters around the fixed rib, loose mass and Bellback. This changes no room, arena, route or asset. Storm Choir can break the near-side pack only if the player crosses far enough that its chain hops retain line of effect; the rib blocks hops and Bellback's locked pressure wave may displace the astronaut or crowd before the command. Ricochet Foundry can use the rib's exposed hard face as a shown bank and spend Nozzle to move eligible loose mass—or spend that same Nozzle action breaking Bellback's brace. Gravity Furnace can pull ordinary bodies around the loose mass; if its clear reversed-Nozzle line reaches braced Bellback, the proposal treats that displacement as the existing brace interrupt, but the rib can block it and Bellback's released wave can scatter the gathered line. The fixed rib also splits the later bloom.
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The meaningful decision is different in each case: cross into chain range or fire a smaller storm; spend the shove on geometry or preserve it for escape; keep gathering a wake or bloom early on the safe side. Heat may make any climax refuse until a named component cools, and already flying transformed shots still reserve supply. No journal rewiring is required at the crest: the player moves, aims the inspected physical path and presses at most the labelled manual command. If the setup fails after acceptance because a body or cover moved, the spent charge is a visible committed miss, not silently refunded.
+
The meaningful decision is different in each case: cross into chain range or fire a smaller storm; spend the shove on disc geometry, Bellback's brace or escape; keep gathering a wake or bloom early on the safe side. Heat may make any climax refuse until a named component cools, and already flying discs still reserve supply through their fragment fan. A full store gives the command one visible natural-readiness opportunity before automatic fire resumes. No journal rewiring is required at the crest: the player moves, reads the physical path and presses at most the labelled manual command. If the setup fails after acceptance because a body or loose cover moved, the spent charge is a visible committed miss, not silently refunded.
## Minimum connection rules
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A build is read left to right as **start → change → deliver → payoff**. Parts show compatible ports and one plain-language sentence about what they pass onward. Branches are allowed to reach more than one ordinary weapon; power, heat, occupied rig space and carried capacity create the practical limits. Each actuator owns its target and readiness. Named echoes are finite, and a descendant cannot refill the energy, readiness or echo allowance that made it.
+
A build is read left to right as **start → change → deliver → payoff**. Parts show compatible ports and one plain-language sentence about what they pass onward. Branches are allowed to reach more than one ordinary weapon; power, heat, occupied rig space and carried capacity create the practical limits. Each actuator owns its target and readiness. Named routes, rebounds, contacts, fragments and blooms are finite; complete heat is reserved at acceptance, and a descendant cannot refill the energy, readiness or allowance that made it.
The player assembles freely at the ship. The journal pauses everything and can change links without advancing the world. Newly found parts still require a short physical installation when first fitted, while picking up equipment and operating fixtures happen live. Temporary transformations modify the chosen chain automatically during a sortie. Returning to the action restores exactly the danger that was paused. [Build Rules](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Build%20Rules) owns connection behaviour; [Mechanical Interfaces](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Mechanical%20Interfaces%20And%20Opening%20Quantities) supplies the current conservation and quantity proposals.
