Campaign rules
A campaign mission plays like any other single-player match — see Movement, Combat and Winning for the shared rules. This page covers what’s unique to the campaign: the architecture decisions you make going in, fixing a bad one, PM events, and how a mission’s objective, stars and acts work.
Architecture decisions
Section titled “Architecture decisions”Before the board loads, you’re shown a small set of architecture decisions: real-world style trade-offs in the track’s domain, each with a few options. Pick one option per decision — your picks shape the map you then have to play.
Each option carries a reversibility badge naming how hard it would be to walk back later:
| Class | Kind of change | Cost to undo |
|---|---|---|
| Two-way | A flag or setting | 1 Tier 3 question |
| Refactor | A structural change | 2 Tier 3 questions |
| Migration | A data or platform change | 3 Tier 3 questions |
| One-way | A public contract | 4 Tier 3 questions |
You don’t find out which option was actually the right call until the mission’s debrief — choosing well is about reading the decision itself, not memorizing a grade.
What a decision does
Section titled “What a decision does”Your pick’s quality decides what happens on the board, immediately or later in the mission:
| Quality | Effect |
|---|---|
| Best | One modest reward: extra Brain Power, or a buff such as +1 HP, +1 action, +1 move or easier questions. |
| Acceptable | Usually nothing. Occasionally a one-time incident fires later in the mission — never before turn 4. |
| Poor | A concrete cost on the board: a hardened or blocked path, an enemy garrison on a post, or an extra question-gated hex — and possibly a later incident on top. |
A banner names the consequence whenever one lands, so you’re never left guessing what just happened.
Fixing a bad decision
Section titled “Fixing a bad decision”A poor, act-level decision always opens a Fix point on the board, and may add a lasting debuff such as harder questions until it’s cleared. Move a unit onto the Fix point to start its repair gate: bank the number of correct questions its reversal class costs (the table above), each drawn from the decision’s own domain and subtopic. Banked progress doesn’t carry from one mission to the next, so a one-way fix’s full 4 questions must be answered correctly in a single mission visit. A wrong answer costs the unit 0.5 HP (half a heart) and can destroy it, but never undoes progress already banked that visit. An unrepaired decision reopens its Fix point on your next mission in the act; once you do repair it, it stays cleared for the rest of the act.
A poor, mission-level (tactical) decision instead blocks a path and lights a gate hex guarded by a question on the same subtopic. Answer it correctly to reopen the blocked path — unless the decision was one-way: that block can’t be reopened at all. Either way, a mission-level decision doesn’t carry over to your next mission.
Attempting either repair is always optional: a decision can never block every route to the objective, so you can walk away, keep the cost, and still win the mission.
PM events
Section titled “PM events”As a match runs long, a random Product Manager event can fire, on a chance that climbs the longer it’s been since the last one:
- Standup meeting — each side’s top-Surge units are stunned for a turn, yours and the AI’s alike (more units in an army means more of them get pulled in).
- Product pivot — tile tiers shift for two turns, usually harder; on Architect difficulty, the hardest tiles ease instead.
Both clear on their own after their turn window ends.
The mission objective
Section titled “The mission objective”A mission’s objective is set for you when it starts — you never pick it. It’s either a fixed fight to capture the boss’s HQ, or one of five modes the game rolls for that mission and map; see Winning for the full list and what each asks.
Stars and the bonus objective
Section titled “Stars and the bonus objective”A mission can earn up to three stars:
- Star 1 — win the mission (meet its objective).
- Star 2 — also meet that mission’s own accuracy threshold.
- Star 3 — also meet its bonus objective, when it has one: a harder, separate condition, such as finishing without losing a unit or inside a tighter turn limit.
Acts and the act boss
Section titled “Acts and the act boss”A track is split into three acts. Missions within an act unlock in order as you complete the one before them. Each act ends with that act’s own boss mission — a tougher, authored fight testing what the act covered. It unlocks once you’ve finished the act’s regular missions, plus, in mastery mode, once you’ve met that act’s accuracy gate. Beating an act’s boss is optional: it’s never required to move on to the next act. Clearing the act 3 boss is the exception — it clears the whole track and unlocks its next difficulty tier.
If you fail a mission
Section titled “If you fail a mission”A loss can offer a short focused drill on your weakest topic from that attempt, answered right there in the debrief, before you try again. Taking it is optional.