The one rule that ends runs
Your starting vessel is the one that matters. If that specific body breaks, it is an instant game over — even if you are currently alive inside a different body.
A player learned this the hard way, died, successfully jumped into a new body, and still got a "no survivors" screen. The explanation from that thread:
"The body you start with is the one you need to keep alive. If that specific body breaks then it's an instant game over. However, you can use the small bodies and break them all you want without triggering a game over. You can also be out of your body as a spirit to check for danger but you HAVE to make sure you do not run out of energy or you won't be able to go back into your original body; triggering a game over."
Three rules in one paragraph:
- Starting body breaks → run over
- Small bodies are disposable — break as many as you want
- Scouting as a spark is safe until your energy runs out — then you cannot get back in, which also ends the run
Press R for spark mode
The defensive tool. From the hiding thread:
"I know I can press R to go into the spark/light mode to have enemies avoid my body that way, but it's timed, and if you hop back in to refresh the timer next to a bugged enemy that won't move, you're dead."
Enemies avoid your body while you are in spark mode. It is on a timer, and you refresh it by getting back into your body — which means the refresh happens wherever your body is, safe or not.
There is also no hiding as an alternative. As one player put it, quoting an in-game hint from Biggie the little robot: "I'm a little too big."
Character level does nothing for your stats
This one catches almost everyone, and it has its own Reddit thread:
"Badges you can wear on your Scrappie, that's about it. Just customization"
Levelling your character unlocks badges. That is the whole reward. No health, no damage, no speed.
Stats come from Outpost room upgrades. As another reply in that thread put it: "the idea is to level up your outpost for stats, not characters."
The elevator costs 40 coins
Easy to miss until it strands you. From the fuse thread, describing the full extraction sequence:
"find it, bring it back, connect it, shove in 40 coins and leave"
If the elevator will not move and the fuse is already in, you are short on coins.
Anything on the elevator comes home
A rule worth knowing before you leave loot behind:
"anything loaded on the elevator comes home with you, even loose gear, furniture, constructs. It doesn't have to be possessed to come home, just on the elevator when you ascend."
Bots, furniture and loose gear all travel. You do not need to possess something to extract it.
What we could not verify
Several beginner guides circulate advice we could not trace to a player report or official statement:
- Training Hall damage upgrades reducing weapon durability burn. Weapon durability is real — a player lost a boss fight because "our weapons broke" — but we found no source confirming the Training Hall relationship
- Optimal coin-banking timing
- Whether Outpost room levels cap (players report reaching level 10 rooms)
We would rather leave gaps than fill them with inference.