Hold The Horde — Progression Options

Both options below keep connected reusable parts, the shared equipment/loot/spare-oxygen space and the return of everything carried at death, and both use the port and causal-wave rules. The worn emergency cutter has no ports; the Pulse Projector below is a separate rig component. The first-find setups below are alternatives to the current opening in Survival And Loadout: Sensor → Projector plus Manual Trigger → Barrier, using four active spaces.

The axes are separate

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.

Option 1 — Claim functioning parts in the station

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.

First useful rig (alternative starting-gear setup). The player finds a rig-scale Pulse Projector in a service cradle and a Barrier Plate in an emergency partition. Sensor → Projector supplies ordinary automatic fire and Manual Trigger → Barrier supplies the faced special. Each short path works before the player understands a larger combination; together they use four active spaces and 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, using the Equipment Catalogue's later six-space Counterwall arrangement (Manual Trigger, Barrier, attached Dynamo, Capacitor and Arc Emitter), with the Fork Relay (the splitter) carried inactive. These parts use 7 C in total, counting the inactive part once:

1. The player activates Manual Trigger → 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. Impact Dynamo, locally clamped to the Barrier frame, accepts a qualifying impact there 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. Once charge is stored, the player moves Manual Trigger to inactive cargo and mounts Fork Relay while the game runs. With those parts mounted, the paused journal changes the links to Capacitor → Fork → Barrier + Arc Emitter, replacing Barrier's single input. Each mounted arrangement uses 6 A. Built-in manual Capacitor release then starts a new wave and splits usable charge between accepting ready receivers, subject to their thresholds and any required target. A packed Fork cannot do this; no descendant effect can restart the 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. With the configured accepting shares above, Fork lets the old Barrier, Dynamo and Capacitor support simultaneous defence and Arc 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.

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.

Option 2 — Observe patterns, then fabricate aboard

The station supplies examples, damaged cores and materials. A 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 (alternative starting-gear setup). 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. In a later configuration with at least 5 A available, Sensor → Projector supplies the ordinary launch, Dynamo clamped to Projector's physical-output feed converts qualifying impacts, and ready, targeted Arc receives the charged trigger. This uses four components but 5 A / 5 C because Arc occupies two; it does not fit the current four-space opening.

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, using an example later 8 A / 8 C heat-lance arrangement: Sensor, Projector, Dynamo, Fork, Arc, Capacitor and Lens, with costs from the catalogue:

1. The ready Sensor → Projector path automatically launches a weak force shot at a valid target; the controller event and launch begin one wave.
2. Impact Dynamo, clamped to Projector's physical-output feed, converts qualifying impacts there into one visibly charged trigger for that wave.
3. Fork Relay divides usable charge between accepting ready Arc Emitter and unsaturated Capacitor, subject to their thresholds. Arc requires a valid target; accepted storage raises Capacitor’s meter. Neither output creates another wave, and blocked branches receive no buffered share.
4. With the Lens and other required parts already mounted, the player opens the paused journal, disconnects Sensor from Projector's single input and connects built-in manual Capacitor release → fabricated Thermal Lens → Projector. The player closes the journal and prepares a ready, valid Projector target, then a later manual release starts a new wave if its first receiver can accept. Each later receiver still checks independently: Lens preserves the trigger while converting charge to heat, and a ready, targeted Projector launches the heated shot.

Discovery changes an old arrangement. Observing a heat exchanger’s inputs and outputs reveals the Lens pattern. In that configured path, 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; spent oxygen, time and fabricated material do not return at death.

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.

Recommendation

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.

Equipment Acquisition And Rig Growth describes the found-part rule: removing an object disables its named local function while absent, reinstalling that same instance restores it, and completed work persists.

Open questions

• The owner has not selected finding versus fabrication; the comparison and recommendation above are unselected.
• Which fixtures can be stripped, and their recovery geometry.
• These rules are untested; numbers are proposals.