**Status.** Two progression proposals, not approved starting gear, map structure, economy or colony rules. Both preserve connected reusable parts, shared equipment/loot/spare-oxygen space and return of everything carried at death. Both use the proposed port and causal-wave rules. The suit projector has no ports; **Pulse Projector** below is a separate rig component.

**Acquisition** asks whether a usable part is found or fabricated after discovery. **Growth** asks whether capability changes through understanding connections or committing resources and capacity. Either model can reward insight, targeted searches and rig identity. Neither requires irreversible mounts, a survivor, fixed geography or a chosen mystery.

The station is the equipment source. A machine exposes a detachable part with inspectable behaviour and ports; taking it gives the player that object. Removing it may disable that machine while absent, a proposal rather than an approved persistence rule.

**First useful rig.** The player finds a rig-scale Pulse Projector in a service cradle and a **Barrier Plate** in an emergency partition. Projector automatically fires a weak force pulse; Barrier is a faced manual special. Each works alone before the player understands a combination, while both displace oxygen and loot.

**More parts and a changed attempt.** A door mechanism visibly turns impacts into charge and exposes an **Impact Dynamo**. A **Capacitor** accepts and stores charge for manual release. Together they create a Counterwall that can hold noisy work the first rig had to abandon.

Exact trace:

1. The player manually activates Barrier Plate; that external activation begins a wave and its output creates the visible directional barrier.

2. A later enemy strike is a new external event. The Plate exposes an impact; Impact Dynamo accepts that impact and outputs one charged trigger for that wave.

3. Capacitor accepts the charged trigger and visibly raises its stored-charge meter. Further enemy strikes repeat this only as separate waves.

4. The player manually releases Capacitor, starting a new wave. A carried **Fork Relay** sends that charged trigger to Barrier Plate and **Arc Emitter**. The barrier refreshes while arcs jump through nearby targets. No descendant effect can restart this wave.

**Discovery changes an old arrangement.** Watching a relay-stamped junction pass one input to multiple endpoints makes another relay-marked component worth bringing. Basic controls stay visible; the observation does not reveal a whole combination. Fork makes the old Barrier, Dynamo and Capacitor produce simultaneous defence and crowd damage.

**Missed acquisition and next trip.** If Fork remains in a hoist, direct Dynamo-to-Capacitor still works. A maintenance manifest can identify one specific spare elsewhere—a lead, not guaranteed repetition. The next trip seeks that behaviour, an installed part or an unfamiliar machine, not cargo protection.

**Distinct decision:** take the working Fork and lose the hoist’s service while it is absent, or leave it installed and keep the route benefit.

**Real cost.** Desired parts may be distant or serving useful machinery, and candidates displace air and loot. Irregular growth supports surprise but weakens precise targeting. Disabled fixtures must be selective and reversible by reinstalling the same part, or discovery becomes self-punishing.

The station supplies examples, damaged cores and materials. A proposed ship bench needs no survivor and can make only behaviour and ports recorded from a working example. Parts remain reusable and rearrangeable aboard; fabrication permanently consumes selected salvage.

**First useful rig.** The player finds Pulse Projector, watches an impact latch emit charge and brings home its damaged Dynamo core. A visibly arcing tool supplies the **Arc Emitter** pattern; conductive salvage supplies material. The bench repairs Dynamo and makes Arc. Projector impact into Dynamo charge into Arc gives modest crowd clearing with three rig components.

**Targeted growth and a changed attempt.** Later the player spends returned salvage on a recorded Fork pattern instead of Cycler ammunition or another project. A found Capacitor adds storage. The rig clears one packed run and banks a manual burst for another, making longer contested work reasonable to attempt.

Exact trace:

1. Pulse Projector automatically launches a weak force shot at a valid target, beginning a wave.

2. Its impact reaches Impact Dynamo, which outputs one visibly charged trigger for that wave.

3. Fork Relay sends that trigger to Arc Emitter and Capacitor. Arc branches across nearby hostiles; Capacitor’s meter rises. Neither output creates another wave.

4. Later, manual Capacitor release begins a new wave. A fabricated **Thermal Lens** converts the charge payload to heat while preserving the trigger, and Pulse Projector launches the attached heat payload. The visible result is a single heated shot, not a recursive automatic volley.

**Discovery changes an old arrangement.** Observing a heat exchanger’s inputs and outputs reveals the Lens pattern. Placing the made Lens after Capacitor changes stored Dynamo charge into a heated-projectile source. Every older part retains other legal placements; insight drives the change while fabrication targets its expression.

**Missed acquisition and next trip.** Without the exchanger observation, the Arc/Capacitor rig remains complete. A nearby maintenance index can name one specific diagnostic record as a second lead without promising duplicates. The next trip pursues behaviour or unusual material; death returns carried items, not spent oxygen, time or fabricated material.

**Distinct decision:** spend conductive salvage to make the recorded Fork now, or keep that material for Cycler fire or another project.

**Real cost.** Targeting reduces the surprise and physical identity of finding a whole part. Patterns plus salvage add tracking, and a broad catalogue could turn exploration into shopping. Fabrication also destroys salvage useful to Cycler or home projects, so patterns must stay narrow and witnessed.

Use **Option 1 as the spine, with a narrow fabrication recovery valve**: normally find functioning parts, while a bench may repair a discovered core or make a simple adapter after both ports are inspected. This ties finding behaviour to obtaining the part while letting a recorded idea survive one missed or installed object, without promising common duplicates.

The burden is distinguishing exemplars, damaged cores and adapters without letting the bench become a catalogue. Exact targeting also remains weaker. Choose Option 2 if deliberate planning and spending matter more than physically claiming machinery. Nothing here establishes pacing, balance, comprehension, fun or production cost.

**Material unsettled rule:** whether a stripped fixture remembers the absent part. Option 1 is strongest with a few explicitly reversible cases, not global persistence.