Build Rules

Builds are machines the player assembles from reusable parts. Early in an expedition, movement and a modest automatic effect help hold one lane. Earned temporary transformations make the same machine branch, rebound, gather or bloom across a substantial part of an 80–150-body horde, while the player still chooses the line and the moment of a manual climax. A good build has a recognizable fantasy—storm, ricochet factory, moving furnace—not merely a higher damage number.

The owner has selected connected reusable parts, mostly automatic ordinary fire, manual special abilities, shared carrying space and a full journal pause (see the Owner Brief). Temporary combat upgrades reset whenever the astronaut returns aboard, alive or revived. Each new expedition renews combat populations while permanent changes remain. Temporary power grows regularly through fighting, with larger transformations at major horde milestones.

Example: choosing what this expedition becomes

Later in the game, the astronaut leaves with a Storm Choir rig: Threat Sensor, Pulse Projector, Impact Dynamo, Fork Relay (the splitter), Arc Emitter and Capacitor. Sensor keeps Projector firing at valid targets. Its impacts feed the locally clamped Dynamo, and Fork divides that charge between an Arc discharge and Capacitor storage. This is a later rig built from six physical parts; the exact costs and charge trace are in Mechanical Interfaces.

An identified ward vent announces one finite release into the first occupied hall. Whenever Sensor offers a valid target and Projector is ready, the ordinary shot cycles; its impact supplies the real Dynamo input. The player chooses dense lines, and fighting supplies regular temporary growth before the release is fully resolved. An earned choice might offer these two changes based on what is installed:

Echoing Arc adds two branch routes to each accepted Arc action. Each route follows the same local hop, cover and body rules and the complete action reserves its heat before commitment. It creates no signal output or usable charge.
Rebound Disc changes Projector's ordinary shot into a physical disc. It follows a committed direction, rebounds only from hard surfaces and reserves operating supply while in flight. It promises repeated contacts when the room has hard walls and useful angles.

This is a choice of play, not “damage plus five percent.” Echoing Arc asks the astronaut to run toward density and preserve cooling headroom. Rebound Disc asks them to read the architecture and bank shots through the crowd. The player chooses Echoing Arc.

Later ordinary Projector shots fill Capacitor. A later major horde milestone can offer Thunderhead as a larger temporary transformation. It gives those same six mounted parts two visible connection modes: automatic charging and a manual burst. With the store full, the player presses the special once. The burst sends stored charge through Fork to three Arc chain heads and one pressure lance, then automatically restores the charging connections. It can break roughly forty well-packed ordinary bodies without deleting the rest of a large horde. Ordinary fire resumes only as its parts naturally become ready. The temporary effect supplies the switching behavior; the player does not perform a journal relink during the fight.

A cancelled or refused burst leaves the charge, heat and automatic mode intact. Once the first receiver accepts, it spends the full store and reserves all stated heat, even if a later target is lost or cover intervenes. Burst descendants cannot refill storage through Dynamo. Automatic connections restore without granting readiness; further eligible ordinary shots must charge the next burst. The journal previews both modes, including demand from effects still in flight; Mechanical Interfaces gives the numerical trace and acceptance rules.

Back aboard, Echoing Arc and Thunderhead are removed. The six physical parts remain if carried. The player also keeps the discovered fact that the next freight route has hard rebound surfaces. On the next departure they may choose the permanent ricochet base intended to seek Rebound Disc again, carry more oxygen instead, or follow a different clue. The power climb restarts while equipment and understanding remain.

Two Trips, Two Different Builds follows the same physical rig through repeated earned choices. One path trades electrical contacts for longer hops; another combines banked discs with branching arcs. Its small proposed offer pool makes the costs of each choice visible and compares that freedom with a curated path.

Three kinds of progress

Retained equipment is physical. A reusable part carried home remains in the collection. Installed rig parts and inactive carried parts use the same shared carrying capacity as oxygen canisters and loot; active use also occupies rig space. Under the ten-unit carrying comparison, either seven-unit later base plus one two-unit canister leaves one unit for a discovery. A part left in a station machine or dropped in a room is not carried home.

Expedition power is temporary. Ordinary fighting supplies regular growth, with larger transformations at major horde milestones; these upgrades change parts already installed. The player gets the survivorslike pleasure of rising from vulnerable to dominant during each outing without losing permanent finds.

Useful knowledge is remembered. The journal can preserve observed part behaviour, source locations, crowd traits and successful connections. Knowledge does not grant a part or an upgrade, but it makes the next loadout and route more intentional.

Connecting parts

Each part explains one action and shows compatible ports. A build reads as a plain causal sentence:

start → change → deliver → payoff

A sensor may start an automatic event; a fork branches it; a lens changes charge into heat; an actuator turns the result into an arc, projectile, barrier or shove. A part can fill more than one role, so finding one object can reopen several existing builds.

The player mounts or removes a physical part in the live world. That action checks carrying and rig space, occupies the astronaut and can be interrupted. Once accessible parts are mounted, the link editor lives in the journal, so link changes happen while the game is paused. Preview shows whether direct ports fit, which modes a temporary transformation will operate automatically, and how much power and heat each possible state demands.

This makes expression easy to try without pretending that a frozen menu is active combat. Closing the journal returns the player to exactly the danger they paused. The journal is not a recurring active-special interface: Thunderhead, Foundry Drop and Furnace Burst perform their gated discharge and restore charging automatically. The frequency and presentation of offers should preserve the flow of fighting; both remain to be designed.

Several ordinary weapons can work together

A rig may contain more than one ordinary automatic weapon. Each automatic actuator owns its visible reach, target rule and readiness. When its connected event source offers a valid target and the actuator is ready, it fires; another actuator checks independently. A Fork may also send one event to several compatible payoffs.

The understandable limits are physical:

Rig space: every active part must fit.
Carrying space: equipment competes with spare oxygen and discoveries.
Power: the link preview refuses a configuration whose possible concurrent operating demand exceeds the rig's visible supply. Mutually exclusive link states and buffered charge/discharge states are checked separately rather than summing every theoretical maximum; any state that can truly overlap must fit. A transformed parent keeps its reservation through its final fragment. Rebound Disc supplies an explicit launch/Barrier interlock for the opening rig and limited ordinary/master flight slots; the preview checks those actual gated states. Mechanical Interfaces owns the boundary.
Heat: a named action reserves its complete heat at commitment rather than spending secretly per victim. Without headroom an automatic actuator holds ready and a manual command refuses before spending charge. Once accepted, movement or cover may shorten the physical effect without refund; no hop, rebound or fragment performs another hidden heat check.

When a full store makes a climax available, a visible manual-ready hold protects the required actuator's next natural-ready instant before automatic fire can consume it. Pressing while the actuator is busy arms only that next opportunity and can be cancelled. Acceptance spends; cancellation, refusal or letting the brief shown opportunity lapse spends nothing and releases ordinary fire. This occurs in play and never grants readiness.

Multiple outputs therefore buy coverage and spectacle by consuming the same capacity that could support defence, oxygen or a more focused chain. Facing, movement and proximity determine what the actuators can reach; the player reserves button presses for labelled specials such as a barrier, shove or stored discharge.

Limited returns and feedback

Effects can travel, branch and return within a visible route budget: depending on the named effect it may count routes, hops, bodies, rebounds, penetration distance, flight time, fragments or bloom reach.

An automatic launch, manual special, enemy strike or environmental event begins one causal sequence. A part or temporary upgrade gives that sequence only its inspected allowances. An Arc hop or branch consumes its route/body allowance; a disc consumes travel, time, rebound and body allowances; a lance and bloom consume their penetration and reach allowances. A return can revisit compatible parts only when its named effect actually provides a signal output; Arc Emitter's ordinary physical arc does not. Cover, missing targets or budget exhaustion ends that branch visibly.

A descendant cannot refill the allowance that created it, refresh its own readiness, release its in-flight supply reservation early or mint power from itself. Forking divides or copies only the kind of event its inspected rule names; stored charge and consumed salvage remain real inputs. A later automatic firing cycle, a new manual special or a separate enemy attack starts a new sequence with its own budget. This allows a disc to rebound several times or an Arc to sing across a dense crowd without an undefined loop that runs forever in an empty room.

The counts, operating draw, heat capacity and cooling are centralized in Mechanical Interfaces, which makes conservation inspectable.

Reward rhythm

Regular fighting grows temporary combat power, while major horde milestones provide larger transformations. A finite release is still useful for describing pressure, source access and earned quiet; resolving one is no longer the sole trigger for ordinary growth. Combat Rules owns the common expedition and combat-growth rules.

The exact meter, pickups, thresholds, choice frequency and milestone conditions remain open. Preventing a release by sealing its source gives safety and access. Any additional reward for avoiding that fight is still to be designed. Retreat keeps temporary power already earned until the expedition ends; returning home clears temporary upgrades and unchosen offers.

Each new expedition renews both opposition and growth opportunities, whether the previous trip ended alive or by revival. Permanent doors, joins, source seals and completed work retain their owning states. Renewed crowds therefore need viable sources and routes through the station as the player has changed it. Leaving and re-entering a room, or loading the same ongoing expedition, does not create another expedition.

Offers should change behaviour: add a branch, create a return, convert a payload, move a payoff or turn stored energy into a manual climax. Small statistical improvements can support tuning later, but they should not be the defining choice. An offer fails when one answer is mandatory for every crowd shape, when its effect is hard to see, or when the player cannot explain why the machine changed.

The intended rhythm lets the player grow while pressure is building, use that new behavior against the next denser crowd, and reach a larger transformation at a major horde milestone. Too many choice interruptions can spoil movement; too little growth can leave the exciting build arriving after the fight. Placement and later validation must establish the cadence rather than infer it from a fixed number of resolved stages.

Three ordered transformations, not recipes

Storm Choir — 7 carrying / 7 mounted spaces. Base short chain → Echoing Arc's added routes → Thunderhead's full-store three-head storm and lance. The player crosses toward connected density and chooses the release. Spacing and hard cover interrupt routes; it runs hot and has no Barrier. A moving gap or structural rib can make a costly setup feel wasted if the shown connected regions were ignored.

Ricochet Foundry — 7 carrying / 7 mounted spaces. Base ordinary shot plus manual shove → Rebound Disc's automatic bank → Fragment Wake's terminal fan → Foundry Drop's full-store master disc and fan. Manual Trigger→Nozzle moves eligible bodies or loose cover; it never steers the disc. The preview distinguishes a hard face with a clear reflected line from a terminal face and shows the fan cone. Open space, soft/irregular surfaces and poor reflected lanes shorten routes. Spending the shove on setup may remove the escape tool; a fan that opens into fixed cover may reach almost nobody.

Gravity Furnace — 8 carrying / 8 mounted spaces. Automatic pressure shots plus outward stride pulses → Inward Draft's rear pull → Furnace Burst's full-store lance and bloom. The player runs a wake into a chosen line, then fires or escapes. Hard cover divides the effect and ranged attackers keep firing. Bellback's pressure wave can scatter the wake; a clear Inward Draft displacement can also interrupt its brace as a Nozzle response. Holding for a larger knot brings danger closer, and a blocked bloom may feel much smaller than the gathered crowd.

These are ordered behavioural ladders, not XP thresholds. They illustrate regular combat growth leading to larger milestone transformations; exact award conditions remain open. They use only existing reusable parts and temporary effects. The player may hybridize them, stop early or use the same parts for defence or station machinery. The meaningful question is what the machine does in this expedition and what it costs, not whether the player completed a set.

Property

Everything physical still carried returns aboard after death. Consumed salvage remains consumed; a dropped part or one deliberately installed in station infrastructure remains at that location. Link changes never duplicate an object. Equipment Acquisition and Rig Growth owns source, pickup and property examples; Hordes and Builds shows three developed visual fantasies.

Open questions

The growth meter, thresholds, pickup behaviour, choice interruption cost and major milestone conditions.
Rewards for avoiding a fight or sealing a source before release.
Whether players experiment freely with links in the journal or feel obliged to pause after every change in the room.
Whether stored Capacitor charge survives death; this follows the existing persistence decision and is not answered here.
Upgrade frequency.
Defeated-enemy thresholds or pickups.
Duplicate stacking.
Acquisition by finding versus fabrication.
Detailed targeting assistance.
These rules are untested; numbers are proposals.