Encounters

When trouble builds up, you leave home on an outing. An outing is a short run of turn-based rooms in one run location. Each room is a board on a grid: you move, act and end your turn, and then the threats act. You win a room when you meet its goal. You lose it at once if any neuron or tract segment is lost. Read Turn-based encounters for the full rules.

Run locations#

• Dendritic GardensThe first run location, reached from Nearfield Glade, where the Ranger cares for connections through telegraphed pressure fronts.In the alpha
• QQuiet TractsThe third run location, gated by the Quiet District, where the Ranger clears debris so an anchored oligodendrocyte can wrap a tract.In the alpha
• Vessel MarginsThe second run location, gated by Starwell, where the Ranger reads vessel walls and answers each with the right partner.In the alpha

Rules, modules and threats#

• Board gridThe square-tile grid that turn-based rooms are played on, drawn as tilted 24×20 ground squares with a heavier border around the playable area.In the alpha
• BBreachA real-time injury climax with spreading waves and fast visitors; its Breach-first campaign role was withdrawn, and injury is now a separate Act V event.Retired
• CComposureA unit's in-room steadiness in turn-based encounters; at 0 the unit is Overwhelmed and loses its next action.In the alpha
• Dendritic GardensThe first run location, reached from Nearfield Glade, where the Ranger cares for connections through telegraphed pressure fronts.In the alpha
• Expeditions (real-time prototype)The earlier real-time room system, with seconds-based hazards and six encounter families, retired on 1 November 2026 for turn-based encounters.Retired
• Hearth boardsTurn-based home-disturbance boards cut from the Hearth map, with six disturbance types that start only when the player presses Ready.Dev prototype
• LLessonsThe nine one-lesson tutorial rooms that teach turn-based play, replayable in Memory Meadow.In the alpha
• MMany HandsA real-time cooperation family around a hidden vessel leak; its injury version is kept for Act V and its non-leak version is on hold.Retired
• Pressure & AftermathThe Dendritic Gardens encounter module, in which forecast pressure fronts strike connections and the Ranger protects them, then helps them settle.In the alpha
• PPressure Front (real-time)A real-time family about stress "weather" over four tissue patches; its ideas were folded into Pressure & Aftermath and the turn-based pressure front.Retired
• Quiet Tract (real-time)The real-time tract-repair family, in which the Ranger led a precursor cell to a bare axon segment; replaced by the Quiet Tracts wrap rooms.Retired
• QQuiet TractsThe third run location, gated by the Quiet District, where the Ranger clears debris so an anchored oligodendrocyte can wrap a tract.In the alpha
• RRelay ChainA real-time family about alarm that recruits monocytes at a cost; its science became the Vessel Margins monocyte surge and reactive walls.Retired
• RRoom assemblyHow turn-based rooms are made: hand-made sections and rooms, a strict assembler, a shuffle engine and a bot "difficulty oracle" that checks each variant.Dev prototype
• SStudios drillsEight training drills on the Studios floors that unlock run-upgrade and flex-skill eligibility once each; designed by Claude B but not connected in the alpha.Proposed
• SSupported groundTiles around a linked astrocyte socket that restore Composure and strengthen Care; it replaced the recovery parcel as in-room recovery.In the alpha
• SSurfacesTile states on a turn-based board, such as debris, inflamed, supported and scorch, that change movement, Care and Composure.In the alpha
• TTag GardenAn optional Dendritic Gardens side room about pruning, where the Ranger gathers evidence with Inspect and then Trims quiet inputs under tags that are only hints.Approved
• ThreatsThe telegraphed processes that act on a turn-based board each round, such as pressure fronts, jolts, debris flows and the monocyte surge.In the alpha
• TTurn-based encountersArborwake's room combat since 1 November 2026, a side-based tactics system inspired by Into the Breach and Baldur's Gate 3.In the alpha
• Vessel MarginsThe second run location, gated by Starwell, where the Ranger reads vessel walls and answers each with the right partner.In the alpha

The retired real-time expeditions#

Before 1 November, Claude A built real-time expeditions with six encounter types. They are retired, but their science and ideas fed the turn-based modules. The demos still run on Play and builds. See Expeditions (real-time prototype).