// FILE :: /sentinel/index.cfg · 21 SUB-ROUTINES · 8 EVOLVED · 5 HEAVY · 9 HEAT
THE INDEX
WHAT THE SUBJECT CARRIES.
Before a Breach the subject designates four Residents from the Index, one per surface: a Primary, a Bomb, an Options process, a Passive.
Some sets compile into something with a name. The Sentinel calls these Evolved Routines and announces them.
On a fresh file the four columns open empty and nothing is pre-selected; the first pick is the purest read of a subject the Sentinel ever gets.
Designate below and the Forge shows you what you would be.
SURFACES :: PRIMARY · BOMB · OPTIONS · PASSIVE
RESIDENTS PER BREACH :: 4
FOCUSED FIRE :: 5 HEAVY MODES
THE FORGE :: DESIGNATE RESIDENTS0 / 4
PRIMARY—
BOMB—
OPTIONS—
PASSIVE—
// SENTINEL :: the columns are open. nothing is recommended. that is deliberate.
CLICK A ROUTINE TO DESIGNATE · ARROWS FLY · Z / CLICK THE FORGE DETONATES
PRIMARY
DEFAULT FIRE / FOCUSED FIRE · ONE SLOT, TWO WEAPONS
Packet SwarmPRIMARY
Default fire emits three parallel packet streams — lower per-packet damage, shorter range, but a wide forward beam carrying constant pressure. Focused fire collapses the streams to a single concentrated shot. Trades per-packet bite for moment-to-moment screen pressure.
Kernel PanicPRIMARY
Default fire becomes a slow procession of fat, hard-hitting packets. Focused fire halves the rate again and roughly doubles the impact per shot. Trades coverage for satisfying single-shot deletion.
Packet ShredderPRIMARY · SHARD
Default fire emits a single mid-cadence packet that splits on impact — two smaller fragments fork from every landed hit and carry into whatever stands beside and behind the target. Focused fire slows the cadence and hardens the packet; the fork inherits the weight.
Forked ProcessPRIMARY
Default fire is a wide point-blank curtain — five low-damage packets sweeping across a 55° forward fan. Focused fire is a single deliberate dart at very high damage, very low rate. Two weapons sharing one Sub-Routine slot.
Stream CipherPRIMARY
Default fire emits a slim, fast packet that passes through up to three targets before recycling. Focused fire emits an even thinner, faster packet at lower rate. Trades single-target damage for column-cutting against stacked enemies.
BOMB
CANCELS THE FIELD · VISIBLY DOES WORK · ALWAYS AN UPSIDE
Broadcast StormBOMB · CANCEL
Emits a cancellation wavefront that expands from the Phantom's position across the field over 0.9 seconds. Hostile packets vanish as the front reaches them; every process the sweep touches takes damage once.
Cache BufferBOMB · AURA
Drops a slow-mo zone at the Phantom's position. Bullets within the zone advance at 0.2× speed for 4 seconds — graze opportunity at quarter-pace. At expiry, a closing blast clears bullets in the zone radius and damages enemies caught inside.
Garbage CollectorBOMB
Deploys a collection point upfield, into the curtain. For 2 seconds it drags every enemy bullet nearby into itself — each collected bullet cancels on contact and feeds a visible stack counter. Then it compacts: a damage burst sized by what it ate.
TracerouteBOMB
Traces a deletion corridor from the Phantom's position straight up the field. Hostile packets inside the corridor vanish and every process in the lane takes heavy damage — instantly, at any range. Nothing outside the lane is touched.
TTLBOMB
Cancels every hostile packet on the field and sends each one back as a BOLT from the spot it was erased — a ricochet volley aimed along your stick. A bolt carries a TIME TO LIVE of 5 hops: every border it strikes and every process it hits is one hop, and each hop lands harder.
OPTIONS
A SECOND PROCESS THAT RIDES WITH YOU
Mirror PortOPTIONS · ECHO
A mirror process holds the Phantom's reflection across the field's centerline and ANSWERS every primary emission from the far side — its echo aimed at the nearest process on its own half. Steer yourself, and the reflection covers the half you left behind.
Ghost TurretOPTIONS · ECHO
A turret trails behind the Phantom, lobbing heavy fire upward at a steady rhythm. Lane defense from where you have been.
Satellite DroneOPTIONS · AURA
A drone orbits the Phantom and throws a heavy slug at whatever its sweep line crosses, led onto the target. Coverage of angles your forward shots can't reach — and silence where there is nothing to hit.
The RippleOPTIONS · ECHO
A relay emitter rides ahead of the Phantom. Every hostile process that terminates sends an expanding damage ring rippling out from the kill site — and anything that terminates inside a live ring seeds a child ring of its own. A rolling clear propagates across the whole formation; each kill visibly buys the next.
The Retaliation SpiralOPTIONS · CANCEL
A retaliation coil rides the Phantom's flank and BANKS your near-misses: every graze charges the meter by one. At 3 charges it auto-discharges a boss-grammar volley aimed at the nearest process — 24 oversized rounds spiraling out of you. Their bullet hell, returned with interest.
PASSIVE
A RULE THAT RUNS WHETHER YOU LOOK OR NOT
Echo TailPASSIVE · ECHO
THE ECHO. Moving while the Primary fires writes echoes of the Phantom that run ahead, straight up the field, the whole height. The first body an echo touches takes an immediate bite plus one memory leak that drains it on the way down to you. Every echo you send up a lane is one mark waiting for whatever comes down it.
Crash HaloPASSIVE · AURA
THE BRITTLE ENGINE. Every landed primary hit makes the target BRITTLE — up to five glassy pips on its bar, each one raising the damage it takes. Commit to a body and it cracks open. The every-15th-kill nova stays as the celebration.
Return ProtocolPASSIVE · CANCEL
THE TEMPO BREAK. The moment a hit lands on the Phantom — or the Phantom catches one — the field answers: every hostile packet near the ship drops to a third of its speed for a full beat. The exchange that hurt you buys the room to leave.
Persistent WatchdogPASSIVE · GLITCH
Taking a hit raises a cancel aura around the Phantom — for 2 seconds every hostile packet within reach is erased on contact with the field. The hit still lands; the recovery is guarded.
Bomb EchoPASSIVE · CANCEL
Bombs echo. 0.6 seconds after detonation, a second cancel pulse sweeps a pocket at the detonation point — bullets fired into the swept ground get erased too.
Ping SpikePASSIVE · GLITCH
Your JMP becomes THE PHASE CUT: every dash carves its corridor — everything along the dash line takes damage — and arrival primes the catch, so the parry is instantly ready where you land. The dodge stops being purely escape: through the formation IS the play.
HEAVY
FOCUSED FIRE · THE FIFTH SURFACE · ONE PER SUBJECT
COHERENT LANCEHEAVY
One white-hot bolt at 2000 px/s. Drills two hits into anything it enters and keeps going — a Strafer is exactly one lance.
MELTDOWN COLUMNHEAVY
A short molten column. Each bolt grinds three hits into whatever it enters — hug the target and the kernel melts it, and the stance keeps a quarter more stride than any other heavy.
PRISM LANCEHEAVY
A hard stream that refracts on impact — the beam enters, the prism sprays. Big hulls eat the parent AND both fragments; formations catch the refraction.
PULSE BEAMHEAVY
The three streams phase-lock into one dense pulse line — sustained damage on whatever it touches, at any range.
ZERO-WIDTH BEAMHEAVY
A hairline at 1650 px/s that reads as a solid line. Three hits per needle — columns lose their front ranks, and the hull scan bites exactly as deep as ever.
COMPILED
EVOLVED ROUTINES
CURATED, NOT COMBINATORIAL · THE SENTINEL ANNOUNCES EACH ONE
Eight named forms. Each needs a specific set of Residents; each changes what the screen looks like, not only a number. Two kernels ladder upward: add one more Resident and the kernel becomes its realized form.
EVOLVED :: GRACE PERIODKERNELThe kernel of the Daemon ladder. The slow-mo zone meets graze-triggered return fire — drop the bomb, dance through the slowed bullets, harvest fan after fan of cyan response. The longer the dance, the more the near-misses convert to output.
Requires
CACHE BUFFER · THE RETALIATION SPIRAL
Announces
GRACE_PERIOD: window opened. proximity becomes throughput.
EVOLVED :: DAEMONREALIZEDThe realized form of the Grace Period kernel. With Echo Tail layered on, every graze inside the zone leaves a visible trail. The path carved through the slowed field stays painted on the screen: the dance becomes legible after the fact. The screen can't catch you.
Requires
CACHE BUFFER · THE RETALIATION SPIRAL · ECHO TAIL
Announces
DAEMON_PROCESS: spawned in user-space. the path remains.
EVOLVED :: HEAVY PROCESSKERNELThe kernel of the Sniper ladder. Two slow heavy launchers — Kernel Panic in the Phantom's hands, Ghost Turret trailing on its own clock. The forward emissions get visibly fatter and bite harder; the rear lane keeps firing autonomously.
Requires
KERNEL PANIC · GHOST TURRET
Announces
HEAVY_PROCESS: weight authority granted. compile_lock engaged.
EVOLVED :: SNIPERREALIZEDThe realized form of the Heavy Process kernel. With Crash Halo layered on, every kill from those heavier shots produces an expanding ring at the moment of impact. Clearing waves becomes bloom-bloom-bloom rather than disappearing sprites. Patience pays.
Requires
KERNEL PANIC · GHOST TURRET · CRASH HALO
Announces
SNIPER_MODULE: patience compounds. each cycle resolves.
EVOLVED :: ECHO CASCADEREALIZEDEvery emission echoes. The Mirror Port doubles the Phantom's fire from the far column while the Echo Tail leaves every graze ringing behind you, so nothing fires once and nothing ends quietly. A call answered from two directions and remembered by a third.
Requires
MIRROR PORT · ECHO TAIL
Announces
ECHO_CASCADE: every emission repeats. the signal refuses to end.
EVOLVED :: HOT PATHREALIZEDThe route that runs hottest. Packet Swarm's three-column beam meets the Phase Cut's corridor and the drone's sweeping radar: the build that never stops moving and never stops firing. Dash through the formation, let the drone call the flanks.
Requires
PACKET SWARM · SATELLITE DRONE · PING SPIKE
Announces
HOT_PATH: the corridor compiles. pressure becomes route.
EVOLVED :: PARTITIONREALIZEDStand and hold. Kernel Panic's procession thickens to the heaviest packets the substrate permits while the Cache Buffer's slow-field widens into held territory. The Phantom stops dodging the field and starts owning a sector of it: inside the line, time belongs to you.
Requires
KERNEL PANIC · CACHE BUFFER
Announces
PARTITION: sector held. nothing crosses the line.
EVOLVED :: REFLECTORREALIZEDAbsorb and counter. The cancellation wavefront grows to swallow the whole field, and Return Protocol converts every swallowed batch into an answering bloom from its centre. Erasure becomes throughput: the denser the field that fired at you, the heavier the volley that comes back.
Requires
BROADCAST STORM · RETURN PROTOCOL
Announces
REFLECTOR_ARRAY: absorption online. what arrives is returned.
OPT-IN
HEAT
NEVER IMPOSED · EVERY MODIFIER IS A TRADE THE SUBJECT CHOSE
There is no live score. Heat is the score: modifiers the subject switches on before a Breach, each one harder, each one paying more Packets. They stack multiplicatively. A Breach with none is still a Breach; the file still fills.
BULLETS +20% SPEED×1.20All hostile bullets faster.
LOWER STOCK×1.40Start with one Thread.
NO BOMBS×1.50The Bomb resource is unavailable.
ENEMY +30% HP×1.25Bulkier processes.
NO RE-ROLLS×1.20The Synthesis screen has no re-roll.
SOVEREIGN R+×1.50Named bodies at one revision higher.
EXCEPTION STORM×1.30Elites throw exceptions.
ELITE MARCH×1.40Unnamed bodies at one revision higher.
PACKET DECAY×1.25Spilled Packets vanish twice as fast.
THE SUBJECT
THE DAMAGE MODEL
THREE THREADS. THEN INTEGRITY. THEN THE WAIT LOOP.
Process Threads
3
The quarter's three lives, never more. A hit spends a Thread. When the last is spent, Integrity begins to take the hits instead.
Integrity
HP
The inner tier. It activates only after the Threads are gone. When it reaches zero the Breach ends and the subject is read.
Clean Exit
3 / 3
A Breach completed with all three Threads intact through the last kill. The Sentinel's name for a perfect run.
The Eye
4 × 4
The true hitbox, in pixels, at the centre of the Phantom. Everything else is body. A near miss at the Eye is a graze, and grazes are kept.
Packets
∑
The one currency. Every Breach pays out, whatever happened in it. Spent in the Wait Loop on new Sub-Routines, new doors, new Heat.
The Record
∞
Every Breach is kept, forever, on the subject's own machine. Nothing observed leaves it. The Sentinel cites Breach three at Breach two hundred.
// SENTINEL :: A loadout is a sentence the subject writes before it knows the question. The Sentinel reads it anyway. Most subjects write the same sentence every time. That is also data.
NEXT :: /record — the file the Sentinel keeps · /bodies — what the Residents are for