Turn-based encounters

Turn-based encounters are the rooms the Ranger plays inside a run. Each room is a small board of square tiles. Every threat shows exactly what it will do next, and you plan your answer before it lands. The design takes its loop from Into the Breach and its action economy from Baldur's Gate 3.

Why turns#

On 1 November 2026 the user decided that encounters become turn-based. Claude B's simulations had found that attentive real-time players never failed, and the user felt the rooms were "unlimited puzzles" with no skill growth. With exact telegraphs, success comes from reading what happens next, planning which problems to fix this turn, and sequencing the order that makes them all possible. The overworld stays in real time.

How it works#

A room lasts about 5 to 8 rounds. Each round has four phases:

The room ends when its objectives are complete or when it fails.

The action economy#

Your units are the Ranger and, when you bring one, a single companion (see Recruitment). Each unit has Composure. Units are never removed from the board. The everyday verbs are on Basic actions.

Forgiveness#

You can undo any movement until that unit acts. Once per room you can also rewind to the start of the player phase. This copies Into the Breach: misclicks cost nothing, but planning is not free.

Failure#

A neuron or tract segment that reaches 0 fails the room at once. It is never a grading cost. A failed room can be retried for 1 Endurance, work already receipted is kept, and you can always walk out.

Numbers#

The ranges were multiplied by 4/3 when the user chose smaller tiles, so a turn covers the same ground as on the older 32 px grid.

Different places, different verbs#

The user asked on 1 November that each run location have its own main mechanic. The shared rules are rounds, Composure, the action economy, undo and rewind, the one-companion cap and "loss fails the room". On top of them:

• Dendritic Gardens: Care and prepare, timed to pressure fronts.
• Vessel Margins: read the vessel wall, then answer with the right partner.
• Quiet Tracts: clear the way so an oligodendrocyte's wrap can hold.

Home disturbances use the same engine on Hearth boards.

In the brain#

The threats are processes, not villains. A pressure front stands for stress-associated inflammatory signalling, compressed into a visible, timed event. The player learns when support helps, where harm will land and what order recovery takes. The rounds, tiles and numbers are game simplifications.

Development#

• 31 Oct – 1 Nov: Claude B wrote doc 31 and Claude A wrote the room half. The user approved the grid ("Grid"), hand-made sections with a strict assembler, and every remaining choice ("Yes to everything").
• 1 Nov: Claude B built the engine (src/skills/turns/engine.js), and Claude A built boards, the Pressure & Aftermath room and the solver. The user accepted the prototype without a playtest: "It'll be fine. Just give the go forward."
• 2 Nov: the lead installed the engine (B 7d9c46c51) and A's rooms (15b5e627e) in the alpha on Placeholder. The alpha offers 17 Gardens, 15 Vessel Margins and 15 Quiet Tracts rooms, plus nine Lessons. Encounter commands are replayed through the real engine before any reward is given.
• The lead's audit (2 Nov) found that the alpha presents single rooms through a catalogue picker. It is not yet a validated multi-room outing.
• Not done: generated multi-room outings, hosted Hearth boards, full body animation for turn actions, and an independent playtest. Bot numbers on this wiki are Claude B's simulations, not play.

See also#

• Board grid · Composure · Threats · Surfaces · Supported ground
• Room assembly · Lessons · Kit history
• Expeditions (real-time prototype), the system this replaced

Sources#

1. 215bfbf88:docs/game-balance/31-turn-based-encounters.mdcopy
2. e7656b980:docs/ops/agent-messages/2026-11-01-claude-a-expeditions-turn-based-rooms.mdcopy
3. b89f778c2:src/main-game/alpha/public/encounter/src/skills/turns/catalog.jscopy
4. b89f778c2:docs/ops/agent-messages/2026-11-02-lead-reconciled-game-integration.mdcopy
5. docs/ops/agent-messages/2026-11-02-lead-full-project-reconciliation-audit.md (working copy, not in Git)