BLACK STACK is a sentient corporate megastructure with divinity hidden behind a permission gateway.
You have no access.
Assemble a forbidden deck. Steal the equipment. Compile single-use exploits. Climb your way up to the process that wrote God—and decide how many traces to leave behind.
Protocols raise SURVEILLANCE, which persists between fights and crosses four thresholds: PING, LOCK, PURGE and TERMINAL. Each threshold activates a new system response. High Surveillance distorts the interface and enemy intents; at 100, you receive one mercy cycle before escalating non-lethal Integrity loss. Reset it to zero—or turn being watched into your fuel.
Compile your own version
Pick one of three identities—each with a distinct body, starting set, card pool and unique abilities:
• VANTA // Renegade—uses Overclock to discipline bandwidth and Surveillance.
• The Magistrate’s Core—stolen authority that turns dangerous Surveillance into power.
• The Courier—a script runner whose exploits shape the deck’s style.
The compendium holds 503 cards: 496 game protocols and seven adversarial states. Build your deck from attacks, skills, powers and 60 special Wager protocols. The expanded library adds 78 relics, 66 exploit scripts, 16 vials of divinity, 12 ultimate cards, five implant cores and 12 Machine-God blessings.
Power leaves a signal
Tens of engines hide inside the 496 protocols and 172 relics, scripts, vials and ultimate cards—find them, dismantle them.
Earned power is the only power that feels real. We won’t nerf an engine just because it is too strong. Your Loadout Signal feeds Smart Difficulty a dynamic scaling that weighs rarity, play, gear and implants for your stack. Need a limit? Switch on Restrained Response. Stack one of three Audit Contracts on top for more resistances and rewards.
Physical copies. Permanent mastery.
Recover blueprints, spend Scrap to compile physical copies, and build a ten-card opening list for each identity. Removed starting cards return to the library.
• Common to Rare protocols can be upgraded to tier 3; Divine protocols go to tier 4.
• Rare Apexes and all Divine protocols fork permanently, turning copies of the same card into different weapons.
• Maxed cards earn dynamic chrome borders and unique rarity-specific effects.
• Wager protocols turn coin flips, dice rolls, slot reels, blackjack and roulette into deterministic combat engines with bespoke animations.
Six acts straight to the Root Terminal
Cross five seed-generated Atlas branches, then enter the Root Terminal: an eight-layer assault on Magistrate Plyem and his Ascended Body.
• 81 adversarial processes and 58 author-crafted events await, including eight adaptive Trial flows.
• Fight multiple enemies at once—each with its own intent and aimed attacks.
• Hunt elite variants and meet unique Magistrates—one of them can be persuaded.
• At Magistrate checkpoints: repair, reset, take the reward, or push deeper.
• Each run grants one Rollback, refusing one destined death and returning with 1 HP and 0 Surveillance. Enemy Integrity, block, status, form and intent are all preserved; every card in your hand returns to the deck.
Accept the Edict—or refuse it
A forbidden proposal can rewrite what you are and open the Edict: a six-act second campaign with reversed routes and ten new Magistrates against you.
Defend the systems you once infiltrated, hunt ancient powers—or refuse the assignment and return to your vows. The archive remembers which road you chose.
The Stack learns from your battles
Combat Doctrine records your openings, play order, bandwidth spent, defenses, targets, appetite for Surveillance, wagers and gear. The Stack uses these habits in the Trial flows—and again whenever an archived version returns.
Fallen heroes and strongest selves may rebuild real decks, mastery branches, gear, resources, decks and learned doctrines. The deadliest encounter is the version that first mastered your engine.
Sink below the Stack
Routes can crack open and lead to a Deep Breach—an extremely rare per-run encounter that pauses the current Atlas and opens an eight-stage illegal descent.
Three Magistrates. Two infected casinos. One divine vault. One final boss. One extraction.
Extract successfully and the original Atlas resumes, contraband preserved. Die beneath the Stack and the run ends. Finish the full descent and earn the secret God’s Wound Engine implant core.
The Black Archive remembers every version
Restore the Codex plus the Workbench—unlock and compile components, assemble loadouts, master individual copies.
• Implant Forge—install one of five cores and choose 15 doctrines across 150 author-crafted nodes. Reset returns all Scrap.
• Ascension—endless growth with no seasons. Finish a twelve-node chapter to earn Gems and new deterministic rewards.
• Breach Archive + Memory Index—review every run’s deck and telemetry; archive entries for processes, origins, art and lore.
• NULLCADE—two permanent arcades: Breach Alien and the seven-layer NULLSPIRE, with permanent scoring and limited rewards.
The house always wins
In the Wager Hall choose a deterministic blackjack table or a kinetic 3×3 slot machine. Between runs, stop by the Big Six and trade gems for experience, scrap, assets or an unowned Divine protocol. Every bet uses in-game currency only.
One price. The whole game.
Everything listed above ships in a single purchase and is earned only through play.
No microtransactions, paid currency, card packs, paid passes, loot boxes, real-money gambling or cash-out.
Universal rules. Your choices.
• Every run is deterministic; share a Breach Code to reproduce the same route.
• Planned Audit—seeded challenges with identity, set, route and modifiers locked.
• A step-by-step tutorial teaches combat, Surveillance, block, archive, deckbuilding, mastery, implants and gear.
• Routes and battles can be saved at any time, with Steam Cloud support.
