v0.8.13

11 Sep 2026

THE SYNDICATE: a second way to score. THE CORNER is now THE BLOCK, and once you buy OPEN THE BOOKS it can switch between two modes. THE BLOCK taxes the street for CREDITS. THE SYNDICATE runs three-turn rounds that pay 1 VP and 1 HEAT per runner collecting, out of 3 CREDITS a head. One switch a turn, and switching sends the crew home, so going organised is a commitment rather than a toggle.
The upgrades that build the engine cost CREDITS. A BIGGER CUT is two levels at 6 then 12, ANOTHER PAIR OF HANDS puts a fourth runner on THE BLOCK for 20, OPEN THE BOOKS is 30, and once you are collecting, MAKE A NAME turns the cut into +1 VP per runner for 50. Credits finally buy something other than bodies.
BRIBES. 12 CREDITS for 2 HEAT off, once a turn, in any band, standing on THE OPS DECK. Dear enough that bribing your way out of a calm turn is a mistake you are allowed to make.
Green tags: FOUNDER, HUSTLER, SLEUTH. A third class of tag beside the magenta keys and the blue one-shots. A green tag pays +1 at one place: FOUNDER when THE SYNDICATE collects, HUSTLER at THE BLOCK, SLEUTH at THE LISTENING POST. Every income asset now has a BONUS row naming the tag it is listening for, lit when a carrier is on the shift. The old "matching stat" bonus is gone.
The tuned game is 30 VP and 90 HEAT. Every heat level is now a goal and a cap together: MILK RUN 25/90, SMALL TIME 28/90, FULL METAL 30/90, BURN NOTICE 30/80, KILL ON SIGHT 32/80.
The city warms sooner and hot owns the middle. Bands are fractions of your cap now instead of fixed numbers, so every heat level meets the same mix of cards. A run spends about eight turns calm instead of eleven, and meets more of the hot deck on the way up.
A job in progress takes no new crew. You can no longer start a two-turn job with one runner, earn elsewhere, and pile everyone on for the payout turn. The crew that starts a job finishes it.
The end-of-run report shows the two numbers that decide a run. T2+ JOBS WORKED as a headline tile, jobs and VP broken out by tier on their own JOBS chart page, and a WOUNDS page: healing up, damage down, each death stamped on its turn, and OPEN WOUNDS as the running debt. Tallies are grouped into sections and every value reads in the colours the cards use.
Every upgrade tooltip says what it is. The float now leads with the button's name over a rule, so an icon-grammar button like "5 INTEL ▸ 8 CREDITS" is no longer an unnamed door. Eight buttons also got their fiction back: A BIGGER CUT, ANOTHER PAIR OF HANDS, MAKE A NAME, WIDER BANDWIDTH, THE GOOD STUFF, and the Ripperdoc's chair set for muscle, reflexes or the net.
Four achievements for the new economy. GO ORGANISED for your first 10 VP out of THE SYNDICATE, PAYROLL for 200 CREDITS paid out in fees, SYNDICATED at 150 VP for anyone who makes the racket their whole game, and GREASY CITY for buying off 30 HEAT with BRIBES.
DISCORD on the main menu, beside the devlog, itch.io and Bluesky links.
Fixes. Tag callouts frame the runner card instead of landing half off the bottom of the screen, the Almanac's fixed assets are THE REGULARS now that there are five, the HP tile stops ellipsizing, the half-heat lesson reads half of YOUR cap, and the tutorial no longer claims assets never pay VP or that nothing but a card can lower heat.

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