Systems

Run start, room clear, death, restart - the shape everything else hangs off. A run now starts from a mission token set in the portal's cradle and comes home sealed as finished or failed. Left: a run-over screen, and a forced seed that replays a run exactly.

Enemies, weapons and rooms defined as data, so an asset pack swap is a content change and not a code change.

Arena, set pieces, decks.

Seeded room ordering and connection. Run length is a run parameter (the Short and Long roads, 3 and 7 rooms, worn in pass 36), and a room keeps the loot left on its floor (worn, pass 42). Next: a drawn order instead of an authored one, acts, and a run map that lets you travel back to any cleared room.

Hit reactions, timing windows, feedback.

Bodies that route around cover rather than strafing blind, casters that reposition instead of standing and trading, and enemies that do not shoot through each other. No pathfinding: they walk, notice they have stopped getting anywhere, measure where the wall ends, and go round it.

The real experiment: drop in a different pack and see what actually holds up.

What persists between runs, and the hub room that shows it. Start, death and restart all land here. Crafting moved to its own milestone on 2026-09-07.

The bench, the vice, the two tools, gems and runes - modifying a weapon between runs. Split out of Meta progression on 2026-09-07 once it had grown its own furniture and interaction flow, and split again on 2026-09-22 when crafting grew an economy of its own. The pry, rebuilt on 09-22, was worn and held on 09-23. Gems also go into a bracer on the left arm now, and the hub's gem library holds them in pages, each in its own place (worn 2026-10-16/17). What is left here is runes.

The standalone build is playable end to end, not just measurable. Distinct from Quest Link, which resolves startup ordering differently and doubles every draw distance, so a feature can work there and be dead in a build. Worn on the device again 2026-10-03/04 (passes up to 59), the first APK since 09-13: 72 fps, combat and sound right, the colliders the Quest could not build fixed, pass notes readable in the game. One native crash on quit to watch. Everything since has only been worn over Link: the equipment screen, the rings, the wrist vial, the mannequins, the fungal creatures, the gloves and the bracer.

Items that roll affixes which change what a hit does - Biting, Crushing, Mending, Staggering - plus loot rules for which weapon can roll which. All four are built and worn, and their cues were settled by pass 17: Biting and Crushing sounds chosen in an audition, the Mending flash moved into view ('great, perfect now'), Staggering turned into a real stun ('in a good place'). The crit floor wore 'about right' at 26.7% in pass 14.

Astra's Field Folio over the left shoulder, now tool storage: taken off by its handle alone, pulled open into the grid, the camera parked in its cradle, the torch hung by its hook; it levels itself and faces you when let go (worn, passes 25-45). B is free of it now: B opens the equipment screen, and only the pack opens the grid. Next: a mount for each tool, a shovel the first idea.

Chests dealt into rooms, locked until a key opens them, their tier a floor on what they pay; the lid timed to its sound, and a glow in the tier's color. Slice one is built and worn (passes 23-25). Next: bring the key to the keyhole and lift the lid by hand.

A map table in the hub dealing missions - an area plus attributes that change the run - re-dealt as an hourglass fills with rooms cleared. Built and worn (passes 29-36): the table, tokens you carry to a cradle, a portal that sleeps until one wakes it, attempts sealed on the glass, and four attributes that change the run: Warband, Nightfall, a Long and a Short road. Next: the hourglass drains and turns in front of you on arrival, a paid early turn, and a second area to reveal.

Striking a particular place on a body does something particular. The first rule is built: a weak spot that doubles a sword blow while it is open, on three fungal creatures (the Canopywalker's heart, the Conkmaul's back, the Ruffhound's bud). Worn: the Canopywalker's crystal was 'very clear' (2026-10-15), and the Conkmaul's back stays open long enough to reach (2026-10-14). Next: heads, limbs and a weapon arm on the other bodies.

Darkness as something you play with. Nightfall's moonlit sky, very dark by default on the surface (worn, passes 36-41); lamps dealt by place as lit, embers you relight, or dark (worn, passes 37-38); a torch held for a focused beam or hung on the pack for light all round, lighting what it touches, with Astra's torch and an iron cresset bought at a rack in the hub (worn, passes 39-45); Astra's caches, cases you open and jars you break, found in the dark in place of the old pockets (worn, pass 50, her revision worn 2026-10-08), and by day one smaller cache in the open per room (worn 2026-10-08); a hand light and floodlights for sci-fi areas (worn, passes 51-54). Next: real darkness underground, light that follows who lives in a place, and the case's grain fix (built, unworn).

A camera you carry in the pack's cradle, pictures scored for framing (worn, passes 27-29). Worn and settled in passes 46-47: a screen on the camera's back showing each creature as a dot, bright when the shutter would take it and a hollow ring once it has counted this room; a click, a buzz and a flash on every picture; study levels from good pictures of each creature, a studied enemy dropping more loot; and a field journal in the hub listing every creature. Worn in passes 48-49: pictures are film until you feed the camera to an aura above the journal, and film is lost if you die. The discovery fee is paid into the run's purse (built and tested; not yet seen in a pass, since every creature had already been photographed). Next: weak points revealed as a reward.

What you wear leaves the grid for its own screen on B: a figure of what is worn beside the carry, drag onto a slot to wear, Take off to lift it back into your hand; fight bare-handed when nothing is worn (worn, passes 61-64). Four rings and the Charm of Reach as an amulet, each with a rolled stat (max health, crit chance, coin and gem find, heal on crit, damage and swing width), one drop in three (worn, pass 65); health in a vial on the empty wrist (worn, passes 66-67). Since 2026-10-15 your hands are thick leather gloves with bone plates (worn: 'they read significantly more as gloves now'), and a bracer worn in the Hands slot sits on the left arm (worn). Rings were fitted to the old gauntlets (worn, 2026-10-07) and now sit on the gloves' ring fingers (built, unworn). Next: the off-hand (torch, hand light, a shield), then armor.

Astra's two mannequins on the armory's plinths, smooth plaster figures of an average man and woman since her revisions 2 and 3 (worn, passes 70 and 73). Six poses you unlock once with coin, each figure in its own (worn, passes 67-68); dress a figure from the vault, gear stored on it as safely as in the vault, a weapon gripped or stood beside it by pose (worn, pass 69); rings on its fingers and the charm at its neck (worn, passes 70-72). Next: more substance in the arms, armor on display once armor exists.

Tiers beyond the base roles. Prefixes and suffixes that grant real moves rather than bigger numbers, elites and champions. Difficulty by composition, never by health. The fungal family has an elite body (the Canopywalker), but nothing yet makes a tier or rolls an affix. Bosses moved to their own milestone, Acts and bosses, on 2026-09-27.

Ingredients gathered from stone, herbs and monster drops, spent at a bench to make socketables and the consumables the shop otherwise sells. Ingredients compete for carry space rather than having a menu of their own, so what you bring back is a real choice; loot is the gamble and crafting is the known outcome. Storage unlocks relieve pressure at home - a station hands vault squares back - and must never buy carry squares, or that choice erodes. Designed 2026-09-21/22, nothing built.

Smaller body slots with room for consumables, a big weapon carried on back straps by reaching over the right shoulder, racks added as upgrades. Designed, not built. Gear on display moved to Mannequins in the armory.

An axe first, then a javelin and knives: the second combat pillar. Astra's models are delivered and vendored; none is in play yet. Vale's direction (2026-09-29): thrown weapons are equippable and socketed, so getting one back matters - a recall you perform, whose flight back can hit, and a little aim assist, never auto-aim.

A stall that sells with the pull of a lever and a reveal, then rerolling an item's affixes at the vice as a coin sink.

Runs in acts, with an elite at the midpoint and a break room, ending in bosses whose health is segmented, who retreat and change the room between phases. Split out of Enemy tiers and affixes on 2026-09-27.

Found armor that changes the hands you see and does one thing you can feel.

A bed of sound for each kind of room, then music.