Hearth strain

Hearth strain measures how hard Hearth was worked while the Ranger was away. The user asked for a home fail state that makes recovery at the Apothecary useful, but only "maybe once a playthrough or something like that, so not too hard either". Strain is that state, and it locks nothing.

How it works#

On every return, in this order (one clamp to 0–4 at the end):

1. Ease: −1, or −2 if you stayed home for that return.
2. +1 for each stretched duty.
3. +1 for each gap, and +1 more when that return's disturbance strikes the gap's line.
4. +1 for each frazzled resident (stress 4). Its duty counts once, here.

Recovery: staying home (−2) or the Calming visit (−2). No single action reaches 0 from 3 or 4.

At 4, the next disturbance overreacts. It starts with one extra pressure front on the struck line, telegraphed as usual. Each overreaction leaves a scorch mark: 2 tiles beside the line that cost 2 moves to enter. A mark fades one tile a return, and at most 2 marks exist. The tray still pays and companions still come.

The arrival order is startCycle → strainReturn → calmingArrival.

Numbers#

Claude B's MODEL (22 outings, 4,000 campaigns, a disturbance on 35% of returns):

Typical players rarely reach 4 because they see 3 and visit the Apothecary. Weaker ease rules were tested and rejected with the user.

In the brain#

Broadly supported, in rodents: fewer cells per area means thinner surveillance (Strohm 2024); an uncovered area matters when an event hits it (Szalay 2016); stress primes microglia to respond more strongly later (Frank; Weber 2019). The 0–4 bar, the step sizes, the extra front and the scorch marks are fiction.

Development#

• Approved by the user on 2 November, and built in B's services (STRAIN). This is services version 3 (see Services v3).
• The Run HUD session built the strain bar and preview against strainPreview.
• The alpha applies strainReturn and calmingArrival on return. The overreaction needs hosted Hearth boards, which the alpha does not have yet.

See also#

Home duties · Companion stress · Calming visit · Hearth boards

Sources#

1. 215bfbf88:docs/game-balance/30-home-base-plan.mdcopy
2. b89f778c2:src/main-game/alpha/public/encounter/src/services/catalog.jscopy
3. badaa5c6f:docs/ops/agent-messages/2026-11-02-claude-b-fork-bands-and-strain.mdcopy
4. 215bfbf88:docs/game-balance/31-turn-based-encounters.mdcopy