>_ HOW TO PLAY

TERMINA commits every instruction at once, 4 seconds wide — one cycle. You give ONE main order per cycle (move, attack, cast, buy, burn, tap…); an item use, a talent pick, buyback and surrender each ride their own slot and do not spend it. The action window is 3.5 seconds; your orders resolve when the cycle commits. Two orders STAND until replaced: a move keeps auto-walking you toward its destination, and an attack on a hero, ICE or the Tenant keeps swinging at it each cycle. A wave hit never stands — every last-hit is its own decision.

Earn scrip from wave last-hits (40sc), hero kills (200sc base + streak and comeback bonuses), assists (100sc split), and passive income (4sc/cycle). Spend scrip at the shop in your base. Max 6 items.

You have no feed on ground you do not hold. You see your own zone and the zones next to it, your allies, your ice, and anywhere you have a camtap. Enemies outside that are not on your screen at all.

AI waves spawn every 8 cycles in each lane. 3 line + 1 sweep per wave (breach every 5th wave). Last-hit them for scrip. They push lanes automatically.

Each route has 3 ICE tiers per side: T1 1500 INTEG, T2 2000 INTEG, T3 2500 INTEG (BLACK ICE). They fall in order: T2 cannot be hit until T1 in that route is down, T3 not until T2 is. ICE hit for 120 and prioritize heroes who attack under them, then waves. An ICE kill splits 500sc among allies in the zone.

Each base houses its team's Terminal (6000 INTEG). It is firewalled — it cannot be damaged — until ANY ONE of that team's three T3 ICE (BLACK ICE) has fallen. Once it is exposed, heroes and waves in that base can attack it.

Gain XP from wave kills and hero kills, up to level 25. Behind your own team's average level? Every XP gain is worth +50% per level behind, up to ×2. Q/W/E are usable from level 1 and get stronger at levels 1, 3, 5, 7. Your ultimate (R) unlocks at level 6 and strengthens at 12 and 18. Reaching levels 3, 6, 9 and 12 each grants a one-time talent choice (a left/right power pick): use `talent <tier> <left|right>` — the tier names stay 10/15/20/25 regardless.

Each hero has a passive + 4 active abilities (Q/W/E/R). Abilities cost BW and have cooldowns measured in cycles. Cast with: cast q [target]

There is NO innate regeneration — an INTEG or BW bar you spend stays spent. The only recoveries are: your fountain (15% INTEG / 15% BW per cycle, and only while out of combat), Trauma Patch and Charge Tab (consumables you carry), Clot Ring (2% max INTEG per cycle) and Drip Mask (2% max BW per cycle), and the regeneration cache (5% of both per cycle). Buy one of those before you plan to hold a route — otherwise every trade is one-way and the walk home costs you the wave.

Chip damage pays nothing by itself — scrip goes to whoever CLAIMS the unit. You do NOT have to out-damage a wave unit to claim it: a line unit spawns with 400 INTEG and grows all match, while one swing per cycle is only your attack stat. Instead, wait for the window: once a unit is at or below 35% of the INTEG it spawned with, it is carrying more than it can defend and ANY swing that cycle takes the payload — 40sc and 40 XP (allies in the zone share 20 XP, so standing on the route is never worth zero). If several of you swing in the same cycle, everyone who swung claims it together and SPLITS the payload. Outside the window only a swing that would kill the unit outright claims it. The ActionRow says which: STRIP means a unit is in the window right now, HIT means you would only be chipping. Burning is the mirror on your own side — once one of YOUR units is at or below 50% of its spawn INTEG, burn wave:0 takes it out so the enemy gets nothing, and you keep 20sc and 20 XP (split if several of you burn it). Prefer STRIP / BURN on the ActionRow (or look then attack wave:N) over guessing an index: wave:N counts the living waves in your zone, so N shifts every cycle as waves die and waves spawn.

When you die, you respawn at your fountain after 3 cycles + 1 per level after level 1 (3 cycles at level 1, 12 at level 10). Buyback with scrip to return instantly (6 min cooldown).

CAMTAPs (75sc) grant vision of a zone for 45 cycles. Max 3 active per team. Place with: tap <zone>. Essential for map control.

Tenant (5000+ INTEG) lurks in hollow and drops the Backup when killed — pick it up with backup. Power-up caches spawn at cache-seawall/cache-shallows every 60 cycles and expire after 30; pick them up with grab.

Destroy the enemy Terminal (6000 INTEG) to win. It is firewalled until any one of that team's three BLACK ICE falls, and the ICE on a route falls in order, T1 then T2 then T3. A team can also surrender from cycle 225 (15 minutes), once 60% of its human players vote to (bots do not vote; the tutorial has no minimum).

Targets start closed. Code damage is halved into a closed target and hard control fails outright. breach <hero> opens a 5-cycle window for your whole crew (50 BW, 10-cycle cooldown). Kinetic never needs access. If you are the one opened, breach self flushes it.

Each cycle has two slots you will use all the time: MAIN (move, attack, cast, buy, burn, tap) and RIG (use <item>). An item active and an ability can fire in the SAME cycle — that is the combo. The HUD shows MAIN and RIG as open or committed. A talent pick, buyback and a surrender vote have slots of their own, so they never cost you your MAIN order.

The live path is quick-match: you search, bots fill after ten seconds, heroes are assigned. A 5v5 snake draft is not live yet. Party co-op puts your crew on CHAFF with bots filling the rest.

The competitive ladder resets each season. Ranked games (no bots) move your seasonal rating; from it you earn a rank — Unlisted → Stringer → Runner → Fixer → Shotcaller → Deepwater → Landfall. The leaderboard shows the current season; your lifetime rating is tracked separately.

Create a party from the lobby and share the 5-letter code with friends (up to 5). The leader can start a co-op game: your party takes Chaff and bots fill the rest — a no-pressure way to play together (co-op games don't affect your rating).

Found or join a guild to get a tag that rides next to your name on the leaderboard and your profile. Guilds are persistent — a home for your crew across seasons.

You create the opening — mobility, stealth, silence, reveal, burst.

You keep what the crew already has — shields, heals, taunts, mitigation.

You are never where the fight was — links, swaps, teleports, map presence.

You win the long grind — sustain, scaling, and the hits that keep landing.