Field guide
You have one mission: hold the Port of Amara's cold chain until the morning shift arrives at 06:00. An AI Red Cell will try to reach it three times. Find them first, stop the spread, and put back what they touch.
One run takes about three and a half minutes. Everything is simulated. No real system is touched.
Quick start
- Recon. You have about 25 seconds before the first wave. Tap a pad, then HARDEN it. Harden what matters most and keep some tempo in reserve.
- Watch the feed. An amber ANOMALY line tells you where something is moving. Sometimes it names the system. Sometimes it only names the area.
- Sweep. Tap the system the feed points at, then SWEEP. If the Red Cell is there, the pad turns red.
- Contain. Tap the red pad, then CONTAIN. That walls the system off and stops the spread. It also takes the system offline.
- Restore. With the wall up and the Red Cell frozen inside, RESTORE puts the system back, clean, from backup.
- Hold until 06:00. Repeat for three waves. Cut only what you have to. The less you take offline, the higher you score.
The first wave is coached. A dashed box in your action panel tells you the next move until the first intruder is out.
The screen
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- Callsign and objective. Desktop only. Your callsign shows again in the after-action.
- Phase, clock and integrity. The port clock runs from 03:13 to 06:00. The bar is the cold chain: the medicine still safe. The three small buttons pause, mute, and open this guide.
- The twin. A live model of the port's nine systems. Tap any pad to select it. A dashed white ring marks your selection.
- Action panel. The selected system, its status, your tempo, and the four verbs.
- Detection feed. Everything the port's sensors and the White Cell report, newest at the bottom.
Your team talks to you in a strip at the top of the screen. Vance leads. Jonah has overwatch and calls contacts as they happen.
The estate
The Red Cell can only move along the lines drawn on the twin. Every route to the cold chain runs through Crane Control, Identity or the Manifest DB.
| System | What it is | Connects to |
|---|---|---|
| Harbor Gate way in | Contractor Wi-Fi and badge readers. | Pier Sensors, Crane Control |
| Port Office way in | Mail and workstations. | Identity |
| Carrier Link way in | The shipping partner's connection. | Manifest DB |
| Pier Sensors | Cameras and telemetry. While they are clean and online, they spot the Red Cell at the Harbor Gate and Crane Control for you. | Harbor Gate, Crane Control |
| Crane Control | Operational technology. Offline means the pier stops. | Harbor Gate, Pier Sensors, Identity, Cold Chain |
| Identity | Who is allowed in. Offline locks everyone out. | Port Office, Manifest DB, Crane Control, Backup Vault, Cold Chain |
| Manifest DB | What is in every container. | Carrier Link, Identity, Cold Chain |
| Backup Vault | The way back. While it is clean and online, RESTORE takes 6 seconds. Without it, 11. | Identity |
| Cold Chain crown jewel | The reefers that keep the medicine alive. This is what you are here to protect. | Crane Control, Identity, Manifest DB |
Your four verbs
Select a pad, then choose a verb. Every verb spends tempo. You start with 4, hold at most 6, and earn 1 back about every 3 seconds. A verb you cannot use right now is dimmed, and the panel tells you why if you try.
Sweep
See the enemy first. Checks one system for the Red Cell, right now.
A hit turns the pad red and tells you whether they are still breaking in or already inside. A miss reports CLEAR.
Contain
Walls a system off. Nothing moves in or out, and the system is offline while the wall is up.
If the Red Cell was still breaking in at a way in, they are repelled. If they were inside, they are frozen there. Press the same button again to RELEASE.
Restore
Puts a contained system back, clean, from backup. It takes 6 seconds with a healthy Backup Vault and 11 without.
When it finishes, the Red Cell is out of that system and it is back online. If the system was clean all along, RESTORE simply releases it at no cost.
Harden
Makes a system take 1.7 times longer to break. Recon is the time for it.
You cannot harden a system that is offline, or one where the Red Cell has already been found.
Reading the twin
You only see what you have detected. A pad with the Red Cell on it looks normal until a sweep, a sensor or a containment reveals it. Red cables appear only between systems you know about.
Blue rings spreading from a pad mean a detection just landed there. A red cable is an attack path. A red cable that is still growing is a move in progress, and you can still cut it.
The detection feed
| Line | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| ANOMALY | The Red Cell started a move a few seconds ago. The line names a system, or only an area: one of the three ways in, the core systems, or near the cold chain. | Sweep the named system, or work through the area. |
| CONTACT | The Red Cell is confirmed at that system. | Contain it. |
| CLEAR | Your sweep found nothing there at that moment. | Look elsewhere. It can change. |
| CONTAINED | The wall is up and the system is offline. | Restore it if they are inside. Release it if not. |
| REPELLED | They were stopped at a way in before they got a foothold. | Release the door. Later waves will try a second one. |
| RESTORED | The system is clean and back online. | Check where their cable was heading. |
| CROWN JEWEL BREACH | The Red Cell is inside the cold chain and integrity is draining fast. | Contain the cold chain now, then restore it. Then cut the system they came through. |
| WHITE CELL | The referee. It announces the final phase, releases systems you left dark for no reason, and notes how you kept the Code. | Read it. |
Not every move raises an anomaly. Roughly one in five is silent, so spend a spare sweep on the core systems now and then.
How the Red Cell moves
- Three waves. They start at about 03:32, 04:30 and 05:24 on the port clock. Each wave picks a way in it has not used yet.
- Breaking in takes time. About 8 seconds at a way in, 10 for a core system and 12 for the cold chain. Hardened systems take 1.7 times longer.
- They take the shortest open path to the cold chain, one connected system at a time. A wall forces them around it, or stops them.
- Later waves adapt. If you repel wave two or three at the door, they try a second door a few seconds later. The third wave also moves about 30 percent faster. That final stretch is the Climax.
- If they own the cold chain, integrity drains at about 3 percent per second. Thirty seconds of that ends the mission.
- Evicting them takes every foothold. A wave is only out when you have restored every system it holds. Restore the cold chain but leave them in Crane Control, and they come straight back.
How a mission ends
| Port secured | All three waves are out before 06:00. The mission ends early. |
| Port held | The clock reaches 06:00 with integrity left, even if an intruder is still inside. |
| Cold chain lost | Integrity reaches zero. Read the log and run it again. |
White Cell rules
- A clean system will not sit dark. If you contain a system with nobody in it, White Cell releases it after 10 seconds. You still pay for the downtime.
- Containing the cold chain costs integrity. The reefers are offline while the wall is up, so integrity drains at about 1 percent per second. That is still three times slower than leaving the Red Cell in there.
- A wall shows you what it caught. Containing a system reveals whether the Red Cell is inside, even if you never swept it.
- The Pier Sensors work for you. While they are clean and online, they raise a contact at the Harbor Gate or Crane Control within a few seconds, with no sweep needed.
- Backups make restores fast. Lose the Backup Vault, or take it offline, and every restore takes 11 seconds until you get it back.
The Code of the Seventh
- Ride for one brand. Serve something bigger than yourself, and don't split your loyalty.
- Don't bow to the gear, the rank, or your own reflection.
- Your word is the realest thing you own, so mean it.
- Rest on purpose. A horse rode to death wins no race.
- Honor the ones who broke trail before you, and the ones who taught you the ropes.
- Protect life. Never take what you can't give back.
- Keep faith with your own. Loyalty isn't a part-time job.
- Take nothing that isn't yours to take.
- Tell it straight, especially when it costs you.
- Want what you build, not what the other man has.
The First Oath. Everything in this world exists to make you more capable of protecting human life. Nothing in it rewards harm to a real person.
Decision moments
Up to three times in a mission, the White Cell stops the clock and puts a choice in front of you. Two can come during the fight and one comes in the after-action. There is no trick and no hidden right answer. Each one tests a line of the Code, and each one is scored.
The Code is also scored in how you fight. Downtime you did not need to cause counts against do no harm you don't have to.
Selection requires the Code. If your Code score ends below zero, you stay a Ranger however well you played. A hand who keeps the Code is worth three who don't.
How you are scored
Readiness is out of 1000. You are scored on who you protected, not on what you broke.
| Measure | Points | How to earn them |
|---|---|---|
| Cold-chain integrity | 400 | 4 points for every percent still safe at the end. |
| Mean time to detect | 150 | Average seconds from the Red Cell starting on a system to you finding it. Full marks at 4 seconds or less, none at 26. |
| Mean time to contain | 150 | Average seconds from detection to the wall going up. Full marks at 3 seconds or less, none at 23. |
| Lateral hops | 100 | Minus 18 for every system the Red Cell reaches beyond its way in. |
| Restraint | 100 | Lost for downtime you cause. Important systems cost more, and downtime with the Red Cell actually inside costs a quarter as much. |
| The Code | 100 | Starts at 50. Each decision moves it up or down. |
Standing
| Standing | Readiness | Also needs |
|---|---|---|
| Selected · The Seventh | 850 + | The port held, and a Code score of zero or better. |
| Ranger · Selection candidate | 650 to 849 | The port held, and a Code score of zero or better. |
| Ranger | 400 to 649 | The port held. |
| Recruit | below 400 | A lost cold chain caps readiness at 399. |
The after-action also shows which lines of the Code you kept, what you practiced, and the full log of the night. Your best score is kept in this browser on this device.
Field tips
- Harden the choke points. Every route to the cold chain crosses Crane Control, Identity or the Manifest DB. The cold chain itself is worth hardening too.
- Keep two tempo in hand once the first wave lands. A contact you cannot afford to contain is the worst feeling in the game.
- Catch them at the door. Containing a way in while they are still breaking in repels the whole attempt, and no restore is needed.
- Follow the cable. After a restore, look at where the red line was heading and sweep that system next.
- Release what is clean. RELEASE is free. Every second a clean system sits dark costs you restraint.
- Guard the Backup Vault. It is a dead end the Red Cell rarely targets, but losing it nearly doubles every restore.
- If the cold chain is breached, contain it first, restore it second, and then cut the system they came through. In that order.
Controls
| Action | Mouse or touch | Keyboard |
|---|---|---|
| Select a system | Tap or click its pad | ← → ↑ ↓ step through the pads |
| Sweep | SWEEP button | 1 |
| Contain / Release | CONTAIN button | 2 |
| Restore | RESTORE button | 3 |
| Harden | HARDEN button | 4 |
| Pause | II button, or tap the PAUSED screen to resume | P |
| Sound | SND button | |
| This guide | ? button. It pauses the mission first. |
Good to know
- The mission pauses by itself if you switch tabs or lock your phone.
- On a phone, hold it upright. The game asks you to rotate back if you turn it sideways.
- Sound starts after your first tap, as browsers require. If you hear nothing, check the SND button and your device's silent switch.
- It runs in any current browser. Nothing is installed, and no account is needed.
- Every run is different. The Red Cell chooses its doors and routes fresh each time.