Blind Meridian
Current worlds

RED CIRCUIT · WORKING TITLE · PRE-PRODUCTION

02 / One expedition, step by step

ONE EXPEDITION, STEP BY STEP

A district is one timed preparation-and-Hunter cycle. An expedition may chain several of them if the squad keeps choosing depth over safety.

You leave safety with a persistent character, a banked loadout, and an argument about priorities. Below, one district offers a vault, a faction operation, an elite signal, an emergency extraction point, and evidence that somebody's personal nemesis is nearby.

The map gives the squad enough information to make a plan. It does not give them enough time to do everything comfortably.

Two operatives choose between competing objectives across a hard-ink vertical district while the Hunter closes in.
Concept artwork created with OpenAI. Concept only; not gameplay capture or final production art.
The clock does not end the run. It releases the thing that was waiting for you.

One Run, Six Decisions

  1. PrepareChoose the persistent character, banked equipment, implants, and the risk you are willing to carry.
  2. DescendEnter a seeded district whose objective mix can be read, routed, and never cleared without compromise.
  3. ChooseCommit to faction work, vaults, elites, signal towers, services, side jobs, a lair, or a personal recovery.
  4. TransformParty-shared temporary XP creates personal drafts, so the squad grows together without becoming identical.
  5. SurviveRising time and depth increase population, reinforcements, elite combinations, danger, and reward.
  6. Extract or DescendAfter the Hunter falls, each player may extract or descend independently instead of obeying one party vote.
Four operatives lean over a battered planning table covered with weapons, implants, and a single red route through the district.
Preparation is the first argument of every expedition.

The Clock Does Not End the Run

A standard district targets roughly 12–15 minutes before forced Hunter pressure. That is not a hard cap on the whole expedition. The party can seek the Hunter early, raid its lair, or keep working until the clock expires.

At zero, the Hunter does not teleport everyone into an isolated arena. It enters the live district and pursues them through the route they chose, colliding with unfinished objectives, reinforcements, and whatever desperate exit plan remains. Emergency extraction stays available as a dangerous, interruptible personal action—not a clean team-wide escape hatch.

Failure Creates the Next Mission

New loot is unbanked until extraction. A small Black Box protects selected items, so the player decides what absolutely must survive before the run turns bad. Banked loadouts and installed cybernetics remain safe from ordinary death.

A downed operative can be revived. Full death loses only unprotected, unbanked gains. The killer is promoted into a named nemesis and carries recoverable salvage into a future expedition. Failure leaves a scar, but it also leaves an address.

A wounded operative locks one protected item into an armored Black Box while a promoted enemy carries the remaining salvage above him.
Failure leaves a scar—and an address.

The route is clear enough to argue about and dangerous enough to remember. What makes that argument sing is the feel of the weapons in your hands—and the value of what they leave behind.