Skip to content

Class Mechanic Lean-In — Rule-Break, Death, and the ×4 Card

Status: Proposed — not implemented. Written 2026-08-30. Owner: delan Scope: how to make the five class verbs radioactive in the demo kits without inventing new mechanics or growing the set. Canon boundary: this document proposes kit revisions and teaching rules. It does not rule on class origin (that is WO-A1 / the bible sitting). It does not replace docs/proposals/demo-card-set.md; it says which of those selections lean away from the identity lock, and what to swap. Supersession: the five-class slate (Drifter, Conduit, Machinist, Catalyst) is parked. The live class proposal is docs/proposals/four-crafts.md. The laws in this file — ×4 card is the class, rule-break plus death, cover test, House wall — still apply to whatever crafts ship.

The finding in one line

Do not invent new class mechanics. The five verbs are already the right ones. Lean in by making the rule-break and the self-kill visible on turn one, instead of teaching a stack with a “deal N / gain N Block if you have the stack” rider.

The demo card set mostly teaches the meter. The meters are tutorials. The class is the illegal thing the meter lets you do.

The contract (already locked — do not reopen)

Class = how you spend a turn. A resource you build, a question you ask every turn, and a way you can die to your own kit.

House = why that turn is a crime. A price in a unique currency. It is not a second class.

Cover-test law still holds: hide the class name; if the card still makes sense, it is illegal in the kit. House law still holds: a House card is illegal if it could be printed as a class common. Class cards may never invoice a House price; House cards may never introduce a stacking class resource.

The lean-in rule

Every class needs three things a stranger can name after the first fight:

Class Verb (the meter) Rule-break (the class) Death (the kit’s cost)
Anchor Density Counterweight — hit with Block, without spending it Grav-Lock at 10; Vent is the valve
Drifter Echo-Lock → 5 Execute ignores Block, 3×, on a count You have no armour; miss the window and you die
Conduit Overload Play a card you cannot afford; next turn’s energy is the resource Burnout
Machinist Constructs A board with HP that plays without you, and that enemies can shoot 3-slot cap / a wipe
Catalyst Mutate Destroy a card’s identity for a one-use Anomaly The card you lost (Exhaust), never HP

The selected cores in demo-card-set.md drift off this in the same direction: they turn the unique verb into a conditional bonus on a generic Strike/Defend. That is how five classes collapse into one game with five stickers.

The ×4 card is the class. Duplicates exist so the engine assembles. If the duplicated card is a rider (“if you have X, +N”), the player will have a generic fight most turns.

Class What the ×4 card should be
Anchor Counterweight attack
Drifter Apply Echo-Lock (Phase Strike is already this)
Conduit Overload-allowed attack, or the debt-permission skill
Machinist Deploy (not “if Construct, deal 8”)
Catalyst Mutate (Unstable Slash is already this — fix what it mutates into)

HUD is identity. Density, Echo-Lock as a 5-count, next-turn energy debt, Construct HP, the Anomaly you will get. If it is only in the log, it is not a class.

The induction must fire the death once. Grav-Lock, a missed execute while naked, a Burnout turn, a construct wipe, Exhausting your only Block card. If the kit never hurts you, it is a buff.

House advice already says: do not grow to 20 by adding more 8-damage; make the five radioactive. Same law for classes.

Kit revisions (against demo-card-set.md §6)

Anchor — more mass, less shield

Keep: Foundry Bulwark, Holdfast Array, Tonnage Verdict, Compression Doctrine. Density-from-Block-you-already-have is the right compounding. Vent in the core is the right call. Drag off Anchor and onto Valerii is correct.

The miss: the ×4 card is the common Dense Impact — “Deal 6. +2 per Density.” That is Ironclad Strength. The live unique Dense Impact is Counterweight (add current Block to damage, keep the Block). The glossary already calls that the signature rule-break with no STS equivalent. Selecting the scaling version is the single biggest lean-away in the whole set.

Lean in:

  1. The ×4 attack must be Counterweight. Density scaling can live on a singleton.
  2. Gain Density from playing well, not only from playing Density cards. First fully-blocked hit each turn → 1 Density (Mass Memory). Otherwise the class is “I drew the stack card.”
  3. Grav-Lock has to fire in the induction. The overview’s question is “how much mass before Grav-Lock?” — and the kit never asks it. Vent must clear Grav-Lock when you drop below 10, or it is a trap, not a trade.
  4. No starter Attack that does not mention Density, Block, Vent, or Counterweight.

Anchor should feel like a loaded spring, not a man with a big number.

Drifter — more aim, less poke

Keep: Phase Strike, Echo Mark, Fivefold Error, Quietus Script. The apply → stack → exactly five → execute curve is the best teaching in the demo card set.

The miss: Vector Slip is “Apply 1 Echo-Lock. Gain 3 Block.” Fantasy is phase, do not tank. Granting Block as the 0-cost staple teaches Ironclad reflexes on a sniper. Final Trace (consume all Lock, 5 per) is a dump, not a shot — fine as a late singleton, dangerous if it replaces the exact-5 puzzle.

Lean in:

  1. Replace Vector Slip’s Block with Phase (prevent or miss one hit). Defense is a window, not a pool.
  2. Decide the exact-5 edge and print it. Quietus Script depends on exactly 5. Code currently treats ≥5-with-a-cap, so overcap cannot fail. Either make overcap a miss (skill) or stop writing “exactly.” Do not ship both sentences.
  3. Put a move-the-mark card (Crossfade) in the singletons. Multi-enemy is the class’s hard mode; without it, Drifter is single-target poison with extra steps.
  4. Do not Scry. Seeing the shot is the mark on the enemy, not the draw pile. That verb belongs to the Axiom.

Conduit — more debt, less spark

This kit is the one that currently is not its mechanic.

Overload in the rules is: play into an energy deficit; the deficit becomes next turn’s bill. The selected core is: tokens named Overload that you spend for damage (Debt Bloom, Discharge Round, Final Cascade) plus a rider (Fuse Breach: “if you gained Overload this turn”). That is an orb, not a loan. Stoke Coil (take 2 Burnout, gain 2 Energy) is Syndicate/Catalyst self-harm wearing a Conduit name.

Lean in:

  1. At least one duplicated core card is Overload-allowed — a 2- or 3-cost you can slam when you have 0 energy. The fantasy is the illegal play, not a counter you bought with a 0-cost skill.
  2. Debt Bloom should create permission to overspend, not GAIN 1 OVERLOAD. “Draw 2. You may play your next card into debt” is the class. “Gain 1 Overload, draw 2” is a cantrip.
  3. HUD must say “Next turn: −2 Energy.” Hide the bill and the clever play never happens.
  4. Cooling Vow stays. Replace Stoke Coil with a burner that wants you already Overloaded, billed in energy debt, not HP.
  5. One all-enemies card. Drifter is a sniper; Conduit is the room.
  6. Un-register Overload as a global keyword (already on the demo-card-set revision list). If other classes can Overload, Conduit is a keyword, not a person.

Machinist — more grid, less gun

Keep: Latch Turret (once honesty-gated), Spare Parts, Weld Choir, Copper Bastion. The Salvari weld (machines die → you get paid) is the showcase pairing; do not soften it.

The miss: the 9-card core is 3 deploy + 6 “if you control a Construct.” That is a tank/attacker with a pet, which is exactly the live-core failure the evaluation called out. Repair Drone Bay — the second deploy — is buried as a singleton. There is no Kill Switch, so Machinist+Valerii still turtles with no clock. Latch Turret still lies: text says deploy, payload is DEAL_DAMAGE 2.

Lean in:

  1. Core is two deploys: a gun and a shield (Latch Turret + Repair Drone Bay). Put one “if you control a Construct” card in the core, not two stacks of them.
  2. One card that redirects a hit onto a machine. Standing behind your work is the fantasy.
  3. Kill Switch as a singleton — spend a Construct for an immediate effect. That is the Vent of this class, and it is what makes the Valerii pairing a decision instead of a nap.
  4. Full grid must bounce or refuse, never silently no-op.
  5. Destroyed Constructs are a turn (draw, refund, or House payout), not a log line.

Catalyst — more choice, less dice

The kit shape is the best of the five: almost every card names Mutate or Anomaly, and Curated Mutation is the right instinct. The class is still a hard blocker until WO-C2 exists.

Lean in:

  1. Mutate is a known transformation or a 2-pick, never a hidden roll. Best: each mutated card has an authored Anomaly face. Second: show two faces, pick one. Worst: random from a pool, confirmed after the fact.
  2. The bill is the card you destroyed, not HP. Self-harm is the Syndicate’s invoice. Catalyst+Syndicate already double-bills in one currency; do not make Catalyst pay HP on its own.
  3. Anomalies Exhaust. Infinite mutate is a combo bug.
  4. Show the face before confirm even if you keep some randomness.
  5. First Mutate each turn drawing 1 is a better class passive than an unnamed “mutate the whole hand” ultimate.

Author 8–12 Anomaly faces as a typed menu (burst / draw / block / nasty), so Curated Mutation can say “Mutate: Attack” instead of “Mutate: whatever.” That is the difference between a class and a gacha.

Priority edit pass on the demo set

Do these five before authoring anything new. They do more for identity than any new cards.

  1. Counterweight back on Anchor’s ×4.
  2. Conduit core becomes actual Overload-allowed debt.
  3. Machinist core becomes two deploys.
  4. Drifter Block → Phase.
  5. Anomaly faces as a 2-pick (WO-C2).

Fiction (do not invent a sixth mechanic to attach it)

Mechanically the classes are strong. Fictional they are still floating archetypes — Drifter / Conduit / Machinist / Catalyst appear nowhere in the bible. The demo sorts on House and class, so half the sort currently has nothing to sort on.

The throughput mapping in docs/proposals/mechanics-lore-fit.md is enough, and it costs no new lore:

Class Stage of the Spire Why the verb is that stage
Catalyst Chaotic intake Mutation is possibility that has not decided what it is
Anchor Containment Density is anchoring made physical
Drifter Conversion Echo-Lock at five is an anchoring event, by hand
Conduit Refined output Overload is distribution with no regulator
Machinist The machine’s body Pipes, mounts, coolant — maintenance physics

That also explains the ban matrix as doctrine (Valerii cannot allow a Drifter; Salvari will not run unregulated Conduit) instead of as a balance patch. It belongs in the bible sitting (WO-A1), not in the card file.

What this document does not do

  • Do not add a sixth class resource, a third House currency, or Chaos Shards.
  • Do not un-ban Catalyst or Machinist to “give them more Houses.” Starvation is identity.
  • Do not put Drag back on Anchor. Valerii owns compliance; Anchor owns mass.
  • Do not grow kits. Revise the honesty/identity failures, then lock.
  • Do not polish the verbs in WPF. Select and honesty-gate them here; Unity carries the feel.

Companion to docs/proposals/demo-card-set.md (the selection this revises) and docs/proposals/mechanics-lore-fit.md (the fiction half). Sources: docs/evaluations/2026-08-27-class-faction-cards.md (identity lock and cover test), docs/official/game-overview.md, docs/official/rules-glossary.md. Feeds WO-C1, WO-C2, WO-C4, and WO-C5 in docs/official/todo-inventory.md.