Economy

The economy of Arborwake links outings, home and town. It has one currency, Supply, and a small set of limited items called finds.

Design rules#

• One wallet. Every price is in Supply. Finds are limited project items, never a second currency.
• One job per building. No building duplicates another. For example, the Food Hall feeds you, the Recovery Nook speeds neurons' recovery at home, and the Apothecary tunes your signal and calms your residents.
• Nothing is a treatment. Items are fictional field gear, and nothing is bottled.
• No farming loops. Selling finds is one way only. The delivery tray pays only for new evidence. A repeat outing pays about 40% of a story outing.
• Failure is not punished twice. Rooms already finished keep their reward, and a gap never costs Supply.

The loop#

1. Prepare at home: choose class, flex skill, Imprint and provisions (6 Supply, then 12 for a second). The whole loadout is home-only.
2. Town: buy Signal tuning and field gear (Ward stake, Survey ribbon); fit a tool.
3. Outing: spend Endurance on rooms; carry up to 8 Supply as cargo; Rest once at the Apothecary if needed.
4. Return: cargo banks at the tray; the delivery pays for new evidence; Hearth strain and Companion stress update; a Calming visit plays if bought; one recovery step; a disturbance may wait for Ready.
5. Build: home buildings, growth and, late on, the relay post.

Finds#

In the alpha, a cleared Gardens room gives a signal seed and a cleared Vessel room a route marker.

Numbers#

Claude B's MODEL (doc 27–28), with the late project: at ½ Supply a room, a typical player has every permanent purchase by about outing 18 of 22, ends with 34 Supply and faces 13.5 "decision returns". At 1 a room, the player is rich by outing 15 with 79 spare. The relay post price of 30 was chosen because 20 left Supply idle and 40 made Pip's arc finish too late for a struggling player.

Development#

• Claude B designed the economy over docs 23–30 (30 October – 2 November). The user approved the relay post on 31 October, "as long as it balances the game and makes it fun".
• Alpha: the lead's reconciled integration connected services v3, real gear use, tuning, verified room rewards, finite deliveries and a single durable inventory. "Town loops cannot farm a return cycle."
• Open: the alpha pays 3 Supply a room against Claude B's ½ recommendation. The lead's audit also warned that old fixture quests and the old upgrade pool were still active.

See also#

Supply · Services v3 · Endurance · Recruitment · Home duties

Sources#

1. 215bfbf88:docs/game-balance/27-income-and-tuning.mdcopy
2. 215bfbf88:docs/game-balance/28-recruits-rest-stops-economy.mdcopy
3. 215bfbf88:docs/game-balance/30-home-base-plan.mdcopy
4. b89f778c2:src/main-game/alpha/public/encounter/src/services/catalog.jscopy
5. b89f778c2:docs/ops/agent-messages/2026-11-02-lead-reconciled-game-integration.mdcopy
6. docs/ops/agent-messages/2026-11-02-lead-full-project-reconciliation-audit.md (working copy, not in Git)