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Operator Walkthrough

Night City Sim: Street Guide

Night City Sim is a persistent hybrid: roguelike pressure, city simulation, crew management, social/dating systems, street racing circuits, and high-risk tactical operations all running in one world.

You can run solo or coordinate with linked crews. You set direction, priorities, and relationships; your characters still execute inside the simulation based on stats, mood, loyalty, pressure, and opportunity.

Every decision matters. Money, violence, alliances, betrayals, and survival choices propagate through district state, faction power, and your crew's future. Night City rarely gives happy endings: grow old, or go out in a blaze.

Updated 2026-07-16

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Guide Map

Overview System Update Packs New Systems Access Characters & Survival Character Autonomy Lifepaths & Perks Contacts & Relationships Employment & Contracts Downtime Dating & Social Salvage & Scrap Loot Wiki Inventory & Shops Gigs & Slots Gig Generation Gig Types + Role Synergy Gig Prep Travel & AP Street Racing Elflines Online Stickball Chasing The Rabbit Nomad Ops Raid / Heist Skill Checks Solo Infiltration Combat Air Combat Tarot Weather Investigations Netrunner Ops NetWatch Brief Plot Hooks Persistent NPCs Twists & Betrayals Death & Trauma Team Missing & Cyberpsychos District Ecology Blood Money Loop Lockdowns District Mechanics Exec Trading Smasher Rumors Time & Ticks Multiplayer Notifications Narration Progression Playbook

1. Overview

Night City Sim runs as a hybrid genre stack:

  • Roguelike Pressure: runs can fail hard, characters can die, and mistakes can echo for weeks.
  • Simulator Core: world time keeps moving, districts evolve, and factions keep acting without your input.
  • Crew Management: you recruit, maintain, equip, and schedule a roster that has to survive together.
  • Social and Dating Sim: relationships are mechanical, volatile, and can become advantages or liabilities.
  • Racing and Street Culture: racing circuits, district identity, and lifestyle choices feed progression and risk.

You can play as a single focused operator or as part of a connected crew network. Either way, your choices feed one massive system where economy, violence, politics, loyalty, and survival all interact.

1A. System Update Packs

New supplemental packs are now wired directly into sim generation. They do not run as isolated mini-games; they feed the same city loops that power gigs, investigations, random events, and NPC escalation.

  • Hardened Minibosses: high-threat encounters can now escalate into miniboss-grade hostile profiles.
  • Hope Reborn Plus: relief/civilian pressure hooks seed rescue-support operations.
  • Midnight with the Upload: netrunner-heavy intrusion and conspiracy job chains are increased.
  • Segotari Power: competitive digital ladder downtime now routes through the persistent online sim lane.
  • Spinning Your Wheels: bike-focused street race generation joins the existing pursuit ecosystem.
  • Collecting the Random + Everyday People: odd-lot salvage, civilian intel, and social contact discovery rates are expanded.
  • Did Someone Say Murder: homicide caseboard-style investigation hooks now feed major-crime generation.
  • Must Have Cyberware Deals + Night Market Index: flash-auction cyberware and rotating broker channels expand shop risk/reward loops.
  • Conapts and Apartments + No Place Like Home: housing scouting and base-building lanes now feed downtime and hook generation.
  • Nomad Presents Radio + Red Chrome Cargo: convoy signal intelligence, cargo interceptions, and smuggling escalation are now live.
  • Toggle's Temple + ToTR Plus + So You Missed Gen Con: social circuits, multi-phase contract chains, and compact ops packets are now in regular rotation.
  • ELO Magic Returns + Night City Weather + Woodchipper's Garage: expanded MMO raid windows, weather intel lanes, and advanced street-race build paths are active.

1B. New Systems Access Map

Use this section when you want to find newly added systems fast. Every line below lists where to click and what it drives.

Downtime-Driven New Lanes

  1. 1. Open Downtime modal.
  2. 2. Filter by gig-generating, social, logistics, netrunner, or weather actions.
  3. 3. Run new actions: Must-Have Cyberware Flash Auction, Conapt Property Scout, No Place Like Home Project Push, Nomad Presents Signal Hunt, Toggle Temple Social Run, ToTR+ Contract Chain, Gen Con Ops Replay, ELO Magic Returns Raid Window, Night City Weather Watch, Red Chrome Cargo Intercept, and Woodchipper Garage Build.
  4. 4. Review generated follow-up hooks in outcomes, then open feed/map for the spawned contracts.

Market and Dealer Access

  1. 1. Open Shop and rotate district/dealer filters.
  2. 2. Check citywide dealers: House of Amaaze Cargo Lot, Woodchipper Performance Bay, and Night Market Index Exchange.
  3. 3. Check district lanes like Toggle Temple Arcade Lane for social-tech stock.
  4. 4. Run Black Market flow for illegal inventory and higher volatility options.

Vehicle and Mobility Additions

  1. 1. Open Autofixer for vehicle browsing.
  2. 2. Look for new entries like Woodchipper Street Reaper, Red Chrome Cargo Mule, StormRider Weather Runner, and Playland Demo AV.
  3. 3. Use race and pursuit downtime lanes to exploit these builds.
  4. 4. Combine with weather watch + cargo intercept lanes for high-value mobility play.

NPC and World Feed Additions

  1. 1. Run gigs/downtime normally; new named profiles and civilian archetypes are injected automatically.
  2. 2. High-threat waves can now pull hardened miniboss profile labels and promotion effects.
  3. 3. Open Screamsheets to see new wildfeed entries for cargo wars, weather hazards, ELO raid leaks, and dealer violence spikes.
  4. 4. Use those feed items as investigation launch points for new plot chains.

2. Characters and Survival State

What Is Always Running

  • Health, armor, hunger, humanity, AP, wanted level, credits, XP, and rep.
  • District location and route access.
  • Status transitions: alive, missing, cyberpsycho, dead.

Why It Matters

  • Low humanity and high heat make every operation more dangerous.
  • No money and high hunger can spiral into forced survival behavior.
  • Location decides what intel, contacts, and opportunities are available right now.

2A. Character Autonomy and Player Control

You steer intent, not every heartbeat. You choose jobs, travel, loadouts, contacts, and social direction; the sim still resolves whether your runner follows through cleanly under current pressure.

How You Influence The Runner

  • Pick the active runner, location, and operational priorities through your manual actions.
  • Use relationships, role synergies, and prep to improve follow-through odds before hard operations.
  • Treat your actions as guidance signals: safer plans and stronger support produce more stable outcomes.

What The Runner Does On Their Own

  • When resources allow, runners try to handle basic needs like food, recovery, and immediate safety.
  • Autonomous survival actions can spend AP and credits and may trigger follow-up events or risks.
  • If funds collapse, survival behavior degrades and hunger/humanity pressure can escalate quickly.

Read This Like A Sim Contract

  • You are command authority for direction, but outcomes still respect stats, mood, status, and local conditions.
  • District gates, lockdown state, relationship bands, and availability can block options even after you issue intent.
  • The more stable your runner's needs and support network, the more reliably they execute your plan.

3. Lifepaths and Role Perks

Lifepath is gameplay identity, not flavor. Your role affects downtime access, gig utility, contact synergy, and how often your runner can solve problems without outside help.

Solo

Best frontline for high-risk fights, takedowns, and rescue pushes.

Netrunner

Controls breach ops, cyberdeck utility, quickhack pressure, and digital tracing.

Tech

Keeps gear alive through maintenance, repair, salvage, and scrap conversions.

Medtech

Stabilization specialist for treatment loops, rescue chains, and recovery plays.

Media

Best investigator. Turns clues into leads, gigs, and pressure on powerful factions.

Lawman

NCPD records access, enforcement support, and lockdown travel privilege.

Fixer

Network builder for contracts, contacts, payouts, and black-market reach.

Exec (Corpo)

Best for market plays, influence chains, and corp-facing opportunities. Warning: active ties to rival corps can trigger deniable retaliation hooks.

Nomad

Strong logistics runner for movement-heavy jobs and convoy-style operations.

Rockerboy

Can manipulate mood and unrest pressure in districts through social influence.

Role Lanes That Are Live

  • Netrunner: cyberdeck slots/program caps, NCPD breach runs, quickhack-enabled combat intent.
  • Tech: maintenance/repair/salvage/scrap loops and gear-condition recovery.
  • Medtech: tune-up/treatment lanes with trust-based discounts and recovery bonuses.
  • Media: contact investigations, missing traces, datashard arc pressure, and publish actions.
  • Lawman: direct NCPD records access, lawman subnet gigs, and lockdown-route bypass.
  • Fixer: brokered job generation, networking circuits, and contract expansion.
  • Exec: stock/put lanes and corporate contract access, but rival-corp overlap can flag your runner for cleanup pressure.
  • Nomad: convoy routing, smuggling support, vehicle-heavy travel lanes, and Badlands risk mitigation.

4. Contacts and Relationship Network

What To Do On The Contacts Page

  1. 1. Set a primary filter (All, Crew, Operatives, NPC, Ally, Enemy, Missing, etc).
  2. 2. Stack status filters (Alive, Presumed Dead, Missing) and lifepath filters for exact targeting.
  3. 3. Use Contact or Invite Out for social meter shifts.
  4. 4. As Media, use Investigate and Trace Missing to pull lead chains.

How Relationships Affect Gameplay

  • Operative-to-operative relationships are synced through pair records, so both sides share the same stance.
  • Friendly lanes unlock better acceptance rates, stronger specialist readiness, and trace success bonuses.
  • Hostile lanes raise refusal pressure, gig volatility, and betrayal exposure.
  • Media missing traces require a non-hostile Netrunner contact above the affinity threshold.

Connected Crews

Crew links are confirmed through a dedicated prompt. Linked crews share network visibility using crew labels and Citizen IDs only. Linked contacts can be contacted and invited like local contacts while they are alive.

Fast Filter Pattern (Recommended)

  1. 1. Start with a primary lane like Crew, Ally, Enemy, or NPC.
  2. 2. Add status checks (Alive, Presumed Dead, Missing).
  3. 3. Add lifepath filters to narrow to exact role support.
  4. 4. If needed, switch to Crew to isolate only your current crew roster.

4A. Employment and Contract Channels

The Employment tab on character profile is your corp/entity relationship desk. It shows who your runner is directly tied to, current standing, and whether that lane will offer work or push retaliation.

How To Use The Employment Tab

  1. 1. Open character profile and switch to Employment.
  2. 2. Review tracked entities, direct employers, and hostile channels.
  3. 3. Read standing band + affinity/intensity for each entity.
  4. 4. Use Request Offer to post a direct contract from that entity lane.

Standing Rules

  • Neutral-or-better standing can post offers, with quality scaling from rep and relationship health.
  • Hostile/Vendetta standing blocks offers entirely.
  • Hostile requests can generate retaliation cleanup contracts tied to your runner.
  • Repeated failures degrade standing and can close a lane even if it was previously direct.

Benefits and Consequences

  • Direct employment channels increase the chance of entity-flavored contracts showing on your board.
  • Higher standing improves payout/risk balance and stabilizes the lane.
  • Corp rivalry pressure still applies: cross-rival relationships can spawn deniable cleanup behavior.
  • When a lane turns hostile, expect retaliation hooks and comms alerts through notifications.

5. Downtime Systems

How To Use Downtime

  1. 1. Open the modal and use the Downtime Actions tab to pick a manual action.
  2. 2. Match action family to need: recovery, money, role progression, investigation, or social.
  3. 3. Check AP, cost, cooldown, district/location restrictions, and specialist requirements.
  4. 4. Review outcomes and expand recent logs when you need detailed fallout.

Autonomous Behavior

  • Autonomous follow-up actions still run in the sim but are intentionally hidden from manual action lists.
  • They prioritize urgent survival pressure: hunger, safety, and critical recovery.
  • They can spend resources and generate hooks even when you are not manually directing that runner.

Food, Recovery, and Daily Life

Food and recovery are enforced simulation loops. Hourly maintenance can auto-eat from inventory, district vendors, home cooking, or lifestyle support depending on what your runner has access to.

  • If money and food access collapse, hunger spiral penalties can trigger and push humanity pressure.
  • Ripperdoc Clinic Tune-Up and Medtech Contact House Call require a Medtech lane.
  • Medtech treatment pricing and gains improve with stronger Medtech affinity bands.
  • Night City Body Lotto runs off city fatality trends; ticket cost is fixed, payout swings from bust to jackpot.
  • Lottery outcomes are posted in downtime outcomes with draw code, ticket code, exact/close matches, and net credits.
  • Afterlife venue entry requires 50+ Reputation, regardless of runner status.
  • District-locked actions (for example Jig-Jig and venue actions) only appear where valid.

High-Impact Downtime Lanes

  • Explore District: scouting lane for hooks, contacts, and follow-up opportunities.
  • Look for Trouble: combat-first lane with higher conflict pressure and higher fallout risk.
  • Crash on Friend's Couch: requires a living contact with a valid home in your current district.
  • Braindance Session/Braindance Therapy: venue-gated social/recovery lanes.
  • Netrunner Program Forge: software growth lane for cyberdeck loadouts.
  • Netrunner NCPD Breach Run: role + location gated intrusion lane that can unlock temporary records visibility.
  • Must-Have Cyberware Flash Auction: high-volatility cyberware lane with legal risk and follow-up hooks.
  • Conapt Property Scout + No Place Like Home Project Push: housing/base lanes that can spawn supply and defense work.
  • Nomad Presents Signal Hunt + Red Chrome Cargo Intercept: route intel and cargo-conflict lanes.
  • Toggle Temple Social Run + ToTR+ Contract Chain: social influence and multi-phase contract escalation.
  • Gen Con Ops Replay + ELO Magic Returns Raid Window + Night City Weather Watch + Woodchipper Garage Build: compact ops, MMO raid, weather intel, and race-build expansion paths.

If an action is not visible, it is usually gated by role, district, relationship, cooldown, or availability.

5A. Dating and Social System

Social outcomes are chain-based, not single-roll flavor. Relationship changes persist through the relationship meter system and feed directly into gig trust, conspiracy readiness, and betrayal risk.

Live Interaction Lanes

  • Contact: default social ping with moderate affinity/intensity variance.
  • Invite Out: stronger swing potential, including bigger upside with trusted contacts.
  • Datepath Night Out and venue actions drive dating-side encounter chains.
  • Jig-Jig Joytoy Session is location-gated and can add social-contact hooks.

Tragic Love Affairs

  • Shared-partner conflict checks can trigger if dating graphs overlap.
  • Outcomes can resolve as compromise, breakup, escalation, or violence.
  • District overlap and timing matter during date/event windows.

5B. Salvaging, Scrapping, and Broken Gear

In Night City, trash can be treasure. Tech characters can run salvage and bench work to turn busted gear into usable value.

How To Run It

  1. 1. Switch to a Tech runner.
  2. 2. Use Tech downtime actions for maintenance, repair, salvage runs, or scrap processing.
  3. 3. Street-racing outcomes now also run a post-race repair/salvage pass, so race damage can be recovered automatically.
  4. 4. Review outcomes for restored condition, salvage credits, and net spend after discounts.

Why You Care

  • Reduces replacement costs for damaged loadouts.
  • Creates emergency cash from dead inventory.
  • Tech contacts can cut race-repair costs and improve salvage recovery based on their level and relationship quality.
  • Supports long campaign sustain without constant shopping.

5C. Loot Wiki

Loot is how runs turn into momentum. Combat and operation outcomes can drop usable gear, scrap candidates, ammo, and resale pieces that feed your economy and survival loop.

Where Loot Comes From

  • Gig combat outcomes and post-fight recovery.
  • District trouble encounters and random conflict events.
  • Prep-job blowouts, escape chains, and botched operations.
  • Investigation-adjacent recoveries and selected downtime actions.

Loot Paths

  • Equip: keep strong drops for active runners.
  • Stack: ammo/consumables/misc can build quantity in inventory.
  • Salvage: convert broken or low-value drops into useful materials/value.
  • Repair: Tech-focused recovery path for damaged finds.
  • Sell: convert dead weight into operating cash.
  • Crew Claim Roll: rare rewards can be assigned through contributor-based claim rolls.

How To Work Loot Efficiently

  1. 1. Check outcomes right after every fight/run for recovered items.
  2. 2. Prioritize ammo, healing tools, and role-critical gear first.
  3. 3. Move junk through Tech salvage/scrap loops instead of hoarding.
  4. 4. Keep your inventory lean so your best runners stay mission-ready.
  5. 5. Treat rare drops as strategic assets, not instant vendor trash.
  6. 6. Set loot-roll preferences in settings if you want priority on specific reward types.

5E. Inventory, Shops, and Cyberware Walkthrough

Use this loop to keep your crew mission-ready: buy what you need, install what your runner can support, and keep your loadout clean enough to react quickly when the city turns.

Street Market vs Black Market

  1. 1. Open Shop and choose Street or Black Market.
  2. 2. Filter by district dealer, category, and search tags.
  3. 3. Treat black-market listings as off-book stock: useful, volatile, and often expensive.
  4. 4. Remember dealer inventory is district-aware, so moving districts can change what is available.
  5. 5. Watch for new dealer nodes: House of Amaaze Cargo Lot, Woodchipper Performance Bay, and district social-tech lanes.

Cyberware Flow

  1. 1. Open a cyberware listing and check requirements before buying.
  2. 2. Install only when your runner meets slot/condition requirements.
  3. 3. If your runner lacks local Medtech coverage, the sim can introduce a district ripperdoc contact.
  4. 4. Installed cyberware can be removed without auto-selling it.

Inventory Rules That Matter

  • Non-degrading items (ammo, consumables, misc stock) can stack as quantity.
  • Degrading/breakable gear tracks condition individually.
  • Clothing/loadout pieces should be treated separately from utility electronics.
  • Use your inventory tabs often; dead weight slows decision quality during emergencies.

Shops and Market Consequences

  • Some jobs can require specific cyberware or gear before they are safe to run.
  • Weapon-buy activity can feed into related entity stock pressure over time.
  • Medtech-friendly contacts can help identify better districts for specific cyberware hunts.
  • Night Market Index rotation plus flash-auction lanes can cause temporary stock spikes and risk premiums.
  • New housing and base modules (Conapt/No Place Like Home) can be sourced through shop + downtime crossover loops.
  • Treat shopping as prep, not flavor: bad loadouts get people killed.

5F. Elflines Online (ELO) System

Elflines Online is Night City's breakout MMO from Segotari's RUSH REVOLUTION line. Your runner can jack in during downtime, progress an elf profile, and bring back steady progression rewards without taking a full physical-ops risk.

How To Run It

  1. 1. Set an active runner with housing/computer access.
  2. 2. Open downtime and pick Elflines Online Session.
  3. 3. For expansion content, run ELO Magic Returns Raid Window.
  4. 4. Confirm and resolve like any other downtime action.
  5. 5. Read the ELO block in outcomes for run type, roll, rewards, and season state.

What Persists

  • Each runner has an ELO profile: handle, title/class, level, rank points, drops, and session history.
  • The world shard tracks seasons, active profiles, pressure lanes, and global session totals.
  • Session outcomes include GP, XP, rank gains, level-ups, and lore-themed drops (for example Spellstones and dungeon loot fragments).
  • Runs are pulled from Elflines-style content lanes like dungeon clears, Miasmelf breach dives, and raid pressure.

5G. Stickball System

Stickball is a competitive downtime league lane. It builds a crew roster, runs a simulated exhibition, updates standings, and can still spill into violence if the match ends hot.

How To Run A Match

  1. 1. Open downtime and select Stickball Exhibition Match.
  2. 2. The sim assembles a 3-runner squad from your active network.
  3. 3. Resolve and review scoreboard, overtime flag, season day, and standings movement.
  4. 4. Check post-match notes for purse, operating cost, and heat fallout.

What To Watch

  • Results update season standings and team profile persistence.
  • High-pressure games can trigger a post-match conflict event with full combat fallout.
  • This lane pays modest cash/XP/rep while also adding social and district-level noise.
  • Treat it as controlled risk: good for momentum, dangerous if your crew is already unstable.

5H. Chasing The Rabbit (Roller Derby)

Chasing The Rabbit is a citywide roller-derby circuit lane that runs on world ticks like Street Racing. Derby heats generate standings, district coverage, and Screamsheet headlines as the season advances.

How To Engage It

  1. 1. Open Screamsheets and check the Chasing The Rabbit derby board.
  2. 2. Track active districts, current tick progress, and latest heat summary.
  3. 3. Take derby-tagged contracts from the gig board when they appear.
  4. 4. Completed derby runs feed back into seasonal standings through tick snapshots.

What To Watch

  • Standings prioritize points, then wins, podium count, and total heats.
  • District bias and style variance can shift who dominates a given cycle.
  • Derby heats are noisy and can pull faction attention into the same district.
  • Treat it like a pressure lane: good momentum and rep potential, but still risky city ops.

6. Gigs, Crew Slots, and Execution

A gig is a full operation: review, slot, prep forecast, travel, run, fallout. The selected-gig modal is your live mission brief.

How To Launch A Gig

  1. 1. Open a contract from feed or map to load the full modal.
  2. 2. Read slots, role pills, risk telemetry, phase progress, and fixer-intel confidence/fog.
  3. 3. Join a slot with your active runner, then invite contacts into open slots.
  4. 4. Set approach/tactics and confirm travel-readiness.
  5. 5. Run and review outcomes, including phase advancement and twist fallout.

Slot Rules

  • Slot pills show x/y fill plus required-role state (filled required pills invert visually).
  • Specific required slots only accept matching roles; mixed-role required slots enforce allowed-role sets.
  • You must join first before Invite Contact To Slot N is unlocked.
  • Run validation reruns at launch time, so stale/invalid crew setups cannot execute.
  • Single-player runs can auto-fill missing slots from district pools when eligible.

6A. Gig Generation: Where Contracts Come From

Contracts are generated from multiple systems at once. The board you see is a blend of world background pressure, relationship lanes, role-driven downtime outcomes, and direct employment channels.

Core Generation Sources

  • Rotating district board generation and entity background activity.
  • Faction/ecosystem pressure (NCPD, gangs, corp conflict, district heat).
  • Story arc inserts, cyberpsycho incidents, major crime follow-ups, and seasonal lanes.
  • Street racing, smuggling, and specialized operation profiles.
  • New downtime update lanes now inject Must-Have, Conapt/Base, Nomad Radio, ToTR+, Gen Con, Weather, Cargo, and Garage-style contracts directly into board rotation.

Role + Contact Generated Sources

  • Downtime actions can spin follow-up gigs (intel, rescue, breach, enforcement, smuggling, etc).
  • Media investigations and shard chains can escalate into new contracts.
  • Fixer contact lanes can broker extra contracts into your shared network.
  • Neutral-or-better lifepath contacts can unlock faction-specific side jobs.
  • Corps and megacorps can route contracts through fixers, gangs, and deniable agents to shape conflict indirectly.

Employment Driven Generation

  • Use the profile Employment tab to request direct job offers from corps/entities.
  • Active employment channels are persisted per runner and shown with standing telemetry.
  • Good standing posts better contracts; hostile standing blocks offers and can post retaliation markers.
  • This means working for a corp/entity is now a direct contract lane, not just lore flavor.

6B. Gig Types and Role Contact Synergy

Different contacts open different lanes. A trusted network gives you better job access and better completion odds.

Common Contract Families

  • Gun-for-hire and assault contracts.
  • Theft, sabotage, and search/recover operations.
  • NCPD hustle and cyberpsycho response jobs.
  • Delivery/smuggling and high-risk courier work.
  • Faction side jobs unlocked through neutral-or-better contacts (gangs, corps, and subnet channels).

Who Helps With What

  • Fixers and Execs expand contract access.
  • Lawmen improve police-route options and enforcement support.
  • Netrunners and Medias improve intel-heavy operations.
  • Medtech + Solo + Media combos are strong for recovery and containment chains.
  • Gang-backed contracts can pay big, but non-payment and violent fallout risk stays high.

6B1. Skill Check System

Most actions resolve through layered skill checks, not one flat roll. The sim weighs your role, skills, stats, gear/cyberware state, district pressure, and current strategy before it decides what opens, fails, or escalates.

Where Checks Fire

  • Gig approach and escalation gates.
  • Infiltration stage targets and detection pressure.
  • Netrunner breach runs, trace/exfil checks, and architecture pushes.
  • Travel checkpoints, bribe windows, and route incidents.
  • Downtime sports/sim lanes and specialist role actions.

How To Improve Odds

  • Match role to operation lane instead of forcing off-role runs.
  • Keep gear/cyberware valid for the lane you are attempting.
  • Use prep, better district timing, and support contacts to lower pressure.
  • Stabilize hunger/health/humanity before high-variance contracts.
  • Read outcomes and tune strategy after each failed check chain.

6B2. Solo Infiltration System

Infiltration gigs can run as dedicated stealth/social/tech operations before they ever become firefights. If your approach burns, the sim can force escalation into open combat mid-run.

How It Chooses Your Infiltration Mode

  • Approach method and gig tags can activate infiltration (stealth, social, tech, no_combat).
  • The sim evaluates social/stealth/tech/network capability and picks a lane like Social Mask, Ghost Route, or Netrun Ghostline.
  • Cyberdeck/program readiness improves network-heavy routes.
  • Detected stages raise forced-combat chance and heat pressure.

How To Run It

  1. 1. Open a gig and set an infiltration-friendly approach.
  2. 2. Confirm your loadout (cyberdeck/programs if running network vectors).
  3. 3. Launch and inspect the infiltration summary in outcomes.
  4. 4. If escalation triggered, continue with combat logs and fallout like a normal loud run.

6C. Gig Prep Walkthrough

The prep panel is currently a forecast layer. It previews optional micro-op lanes, expected branch risks, and likely follow-up pressure so you can decide whether to commit now or reconfigure first.

  1. 1. Open the gig modal and read Optional Prep Ops.
  2. 2. Review each forecast risk band (success, failure, casualty, arrest, complication).
  3. 3. Read decision prompts, escape-route availability, and potential plot hooks.
  4. 4. Apply the forecast to crew selection, travel assets, and tactic choice.
  5. 5. Launch only when required-role coverage and risk posture are acceptable.

Multi-Phase and Twist Chains

Contracts can still chain across multiple phases after run resolution. A successful phase can unlock the next phase instead of fully closing the contract.

6D. Travel, AP, and Mobility

Travel Methods

  • Every route card is method-aware: AP cost, tick time, exposure, and fare can all change by method.
  • Transit and NCART can be fare-covered by active rail passes managed from the travel flow.
  • Delamain and AV support package selection enforce availability and asset requirements.
  • AV flight requires ownership of an AV-class vehicle.
  • Travel confirms through a modal and always returns an outcome flow when executed.

Group Travel

  • Ride-share passenger picks are available for eligible methods only.
  • Ground vehicle, Delamain, and AV can move same-district passengers in one action.
  • If an encounter fires, the whole rider set can be pulled into fallout.
  • If a known enemy is active in your destination district, arrival can trigger immediate hostile contact.

Lockdown Movement Rules

  • Lawman and Medtech characters can cross lockdown boundaries.
  • AV travel can cross lockdowns for any role.
  • Transit chokepoint lockdowns can block routes even if your destination is open.
  • If every valid route is blocked and you lack bypass, travel is denied.

Checkpoints and Bribes

  • NCPD checkpoint encounters can fire during travel, especially in tense districts.
  • Lower-level heat can open bribery options; high heat trends toward forced escalation.
  • Lockdown checkpoints run harsher scans and can spike travel risk/cost.

Travel Preferences

  • Set default travel behavior in preferences to reduce repeated setup clicks.
  • Delamain package choices read from preferences, while active rail passes auto-apply in travel costs.
  • Use vehicle/AV group travel when moving a team so one travel event covers everyone.

District Collision Encounters

  • Travel destination phase can collide you with hostile rivals when both sides hit the same district window.
  • Downtime actions can trigger the same collision lane if enemies are currently active in your district.
  • Gig staging and gig aftermath can also trigger collision encounters when enemy threads overlap your district.
  • Treat district choice as tactical cover: moving away from an enemy's active zone lowers random contact risk.

Nomad Ops: Smuggling, Logistics, and Badlands Threats

Smuggling and Logistics Flow

  1. 1. Stage cargo and crew where your route enters or leaves city pressure.
  2. 2. Pick method by heat profile: low-signature road run, convoy push, or high-cost AV fallback.
  3. 3. Assign support roles for route integrity: Tech for vehicle reliability, Netrunner for scanner pressure, Solo for convoy defense.
  4. 4. Expect inspection, interception, and deadline risk if you move contraband or corp-sensitive payloads.

Badlands Travel Dangers

  • Ambush risk spikes outside stable district routes, especially on repeated lanes.
  • Raffen Shiv/Wraith predation, roadblock scams, and strip-loot attacks are common pressure events.
  • Dust storms, low visibility, and long-haul fatigue amplify crash and encounter odds.
  • Remote routes reduce emergency response windows and increase fallout severity if combat breaks out.

Nomad Factions You Will Hear About

  • Aldecaldos: strongest mainstream family lane around Night City; reliable for transport and extraction contracts.
  • Snake Nation families: wider logistics webs with long-haul route discipline and strict deal terms.
  • Bakker/Jode-line remnants: fragmented crews and independents that can be valuable but less predictable.
  • Raffen Shiv (Wraiths): hostile raider packs, not trusted trade partners; treat as persistent convoy threat.

6D1. Street Racing Circuit

Street racing is a multi-round simulation lane, not a single check. Every run resolves control/speed/recovery rolls, weather and district pressure, hazard and shift checks, quickhack windows, and post-race repair/salvage costs.

How To Enter + Race Modes

  1. 1. Own at least one ground vehicle in inventory.
  2. 2. Open the gig feed and select a contract tagged as street racing.
  3. 3. If you do not own a valid car/bike, the board locks the contract with Vehicle Required.
  4. 4. Fill slots, lock approach/tactics, then run preflight.
  5. 5. Race mode changes stakes: Practice is safer/lower pay, Contact Challenge is duel pressure, Circuit is full-stakes board racing.

Read The Preflight Correctly

  • Success/Failure/Catastrophic are race-result probabilities, not just combat outcomes.
  • Expected Damage is attrition pressure; Projected Repairs is your post-race cash burn.
  • Salvage Recovery is expected value, not guaranteed payout.
  • Net After Repairs is the real race economy number to optimize.
  • Forced Combat Risk is extraction-escalation pressure, especially in high-heat districts.

What Actually Moves The Odds

  • Driver pools: REF/DEX/COOL/TECH + Drive/Evasion/Concentration.
  • Vehicle profile: speed, handling, reliability, combat score, class abilities, and customization wear.
  • Tech tuning before race checks resolve: level + relationship + tune rank all matter.
  • Cyberdeck vehicle quickhacks if loaded into active slots.
  • District weather + district heat + time-of-day window modifiers.
  • Mode profile and entrant count (practice/challenge/circuit) alter round pressure and payouts.

How A Race Resolves

  1. 1. Round lane/oracle table is rolled (opening, pressure, finale).
  2. 2. Control/speed/recovery checks are evaluated against dynamic DVs.
  3. 3. Hazards can trigger (pedestrian cut-in, hydroplane, black ice, whiteout, etc).
  4. 4. Shift checks can mis-shift and bleed progress.
  5. 5. Crash/vehicular-combat beats can spike damage and heat.
  6. 6. Placement, payout, repair/salvage, and wanted escalation are finalized.

Post-Race Economy: Repair + Salvage

  • Repair spend scales with damage score, crash rounds, combat rounds, and district/weather pressure.
  • Salvage is a second roll: chance and payout both scale off how hard the run got.
  • A podium can still be a bad run if repair burn is higher than payout; use Net After Repairs.
  • Junker and high-wear lanes can produce bigger salvage volatility.

Tech Contact Repairs (Level-Scaled)

  • If you are a Tech, self-support can service your ride post-race.
  • If you are not a Tech, a valid non-hostile Tech contact can service it instead.
  • Repair discount and salvage quality scale with Tech level, tune rank, and relationship quality.
  • Hostile affinity blocks service; no support means full repair burden.

How To Improve Win Rate + Profit

  1. 1. Raise drive/control-side skills before chasing high-heat circuit races.
  2. 2. Keep a tuned high-reliability vehicle for consistent margins.
  3. 3. Race in districts and weather windows that match your ride profile.
  4. 4. Keep a Tech lane online (self or contact) to compress repair losses.
  5. 5. Load vehicle-control quickhacks when running high-pressure routes.
  6. 6. Use practice/challenge to tune builds before full circuit pushes.

Season + Ranking Logic

Use Screamsheets to monitor the Street Racing Circuit panel. Standings are tick-driven, ambient races run citywide each world tick, and resolved race gigs feed the same season board before rollover resets.

6E. Combat Walkthrough

Combat is a turn-based simulation with intent, positioning pressure, resource checks, and fallout. It is not a single attack roll.

What A Round Covers

  • Intent selection for your side and opposition.
  • Hit and damage resolution with armor and condition pressure.
  • Ammo burn, reload logic, and dry-fire penalties.
  • Grenade, quickhack, and support-contact effects.
  • Morale breaks, retreats, surrender checks, and chain outcomes.

What Changes Outcomes

  • Stats, skills, gear condition, cyberware, and consumables.
  • Weather, district danger, and wanted pressure.
  • Chosen approach and tactical settings.
  • Who joined your slot lineup and who answered support calls.

Aerial Combat Layer (AV / Rooftop)

  • Vertical heists and AV corridor jobs can trigger an airspace combat lane.
  • Airspace events can shift integrity, morale, heat, accuracy, and damage mid-fight.
  • Runs with helipad/roofline/AV pressure are more likely to escalate into aerial exchanges.
  • Aerial activation is forecast in preflight, then confirmed in outcomes/report logs.
  • When active, round logs call out each aerial event so you can trace exactly how the lane swung.

Boss Encounter System

  • Certain raid/heist contracts can carry a named boss profile with tier, phase, and faction metadata.
  • When the boss lane is active, that target is inserted into the hostile roster and tracked as a boss threat.
  • Preflight can include boss pressure penalties, so check odds before committing your core crew.
  • Outcomes include a dedicated boss encounter record so you can see if and when the boss entered the fight.

After The Fight

Outcome reports include XP, rep, injuries, loot, relationship shifts, and new hooks. If major allies or rivals showed up, their impact is highlighted in the results flow.

Heat, Humanity, and Civilian Harm

  • Civilian casualties apply direct humanity fallout and can trigger mood crashes for some personalities.
  • NCPD kills can also cost humanity, but that penalty is not guaranteed every time.
  • MAX-TAC kills do not apply the same humanity penalty lane.
  • If fallout triggers, it is called out in the outcome report so you can react immediately.

6E1. Air Combat System

Air combat is a dedicated vertical lane that can overlay an operation when AV corridors, rooftop vectors, helipad access, or high-rise pressure are in play.

When It Activates

  • Preflight evaluates route/method/site context and flags airspace eligibility.
  • Activation chance is then rolled during run resolution.
  • Vertical raids and AV travel vectors increase activation odds.
  • When active, the outcomes report includes aerial mode, summary, and event counts.

What It Changes

  • Mid-fight integrity/morale shifts and heat movement.
  • Accuracy and damage modifiers across round events.
  • Higher chance of cascading complications if your team is already stressed or under-equipped.
  • Event-by-event logging so you can trace exactly where the fight swung.

6E. Tarot System

Tarot is a thematic forecast layer. It provides flavor and pressure signals you can use when deciding whether to push hard now or play it safer this cycle.

6F. Weather System

Where To Check Weather

  • Top bar weather status.
  • Weather modal for district-level conditions.
  • Gig and travel context screens before commitment.

What Weather Affects

  • Travel risk and encounter pressure.
  • Combat reliability and attrition pressure.
  • Operation quality in exposed districts.

7. Investigations, Datashards, and Conspiracies

Investigation is a district-driven trail loop. Pull intel, move where the signal points, run follow-up, and convert uncertainty into actionable contracts.

Where Leads Come From

  • Media contact investigations and missing traces.
  • Screamsheet incidents and district conflict fallout.
  • Screamsheet missing-persons coverage for active disappearances.
  • Screamsheets → Living Legends only lists names at 75+ Reputation.
  • Netrunner NCPD breaches plus camera-correlation leads.
  • Datashard scavenge/decrypt/investigate chains.

How To Work A Trail

  1. 1. Pull a lead from contacts, downtime, records, or shards.
  2. 2. Move the investigator to the lead district.
  3. 3. Run the next investigation lane and collect generated hooks/gigs.
  4. 4. Repeat until the arc is dead-end, active clue, publish-ready, or resolved.

Contact Event History and Combat Telemetry

Media investigations can open event history on operative contacts. Full combat telemetry unlocks only when the Media is physically in the same district where that event occurred.

Datashard evidence and conspiracy progression are tracked from the character profile Datashards tab.

Conspiracy Contracts

The Conspiracies tab builds illegal operations from your contact network. Active runner role can satisfy matching specialist requirements, reducing external relationship gates.

  • Hit Contract: immediate target-trace and elimination structure.
  • Raid / Heist: payload + facility profile with multi-slot planning metadata.
  • Market Manipulation: fixer-brokered black ops targeting listed entities and ticker pressure.

7A. Raid / Heist Walkthrough

Raids are structured conspiracy contracts: prep lanes, insertion pressure, payload capture, extraction, and lay-low fallout. Treat them like chained operations, not a single dice check.

How To Start A Raid

  1. 1. Open a runner profile and go to Conspiracies.
  2. 2. Click Create Conspiracy Contract.
  3. 3. Set Operation Type to Raid / Heist.
  4. 4. Pick a target and required specialists (active runner can satisfy one matching specialist lane).
  5. 5. Configure Payload Type, Facility Profile, Budget, and Slots.
  6. 6. Submit the contract, then fill crew slots from the gig flow.

Role Coverage That Wins Raids

  • Netrunner for access, surveillance denial, and architecture pressure.
  • Tech for breaching, gear reliability, and hardware problems mid-run.
  • Medtech for attrition control when phases chain longer than expected.
  • Solo for hard-contact turns and extraction defense.
  • Fixer / Media for intel quality, sourcing, leverage, and fallout shaping.

Phase Flow And Expansion

  1. 1. Prep: smaller setup gigs reduce risk or open cleaner routes.
  2. 2. Insertion: stealth/disguise or force entry checks decide opening pressure.
  3. 3. Payload: locate the objective while alarms and defenders escalate.
  4. 4. Extraction: leave with the payload under pursuit risk.
  5. 5. Lay Low: post-op heat, injuries, betrayals, and new hooks resolve here.

Raids can branch mid-run. Failed checks can spawn extra escape scenes, alternate routes, or emergency combat phases before the operation is considered complete.

Slotting, Travel, and Contact Pull

  • Raid slots follow role locks when present; locked slots require that role.
  • Invite contacts from slot cards and move them into district before launch if needed.
  • If your lineup misses required coverage, confirmation fails until the criteria are met.
  • Stronger relationship quality improves willingness to join and improves operation stability.

What Can Go Wrong

  • High-value payloads increase twist and betrayal pressure in late phases.
  • Underfunded raids run hotter: more injuries, higher trace risk, weaker extraction odds.
  • Survivors can create long-tail enemies, vengeance hooks, or district retaliation events.
  • If you survive, the raid can still seed new opportunities through loot, intel, and faction shifts.

Boss Phases Inside Raids

  1. 1. Read boss warnings in preflight and phase notes before launch.
  2. 2. Bring role coverage for attrition: Solo pressure, Medtech stabilization, Netrunner disruption, Tech reliability.
  3. 3. Expect boss contact near deeper raid phases, not always at opening contact.
  4. 4. If boss contact occurs, use outcomes to track encounter phase and decide whether to push or regroup.

7B. Netrunning, Hacking, and Quickhack Ops

Netrunning here is a full operation lane: gear setup, on-location intrusion, NET architecture pressure, exfil, and fallout. You are effectively simulating both the street-side disguise phase and the in-NET breach phase.

Deck Setup and Program Loadout

  1. 1. Open a runner profile and switch to the Cyberdeck tab.
  2. 2. Equip a deck in Equipped Cyberdeck.
  3. 3. Fill deck slots in Program Slots and save each slot.
  4. 4. If you are short on software, run Netrunner Program Forge in downtime to compile more programs.

Combat quickhacks require both a cyberdeck and loaded programs. If either is missing, quickhack intent is removed from combat decision pools.

External decks are inventory gear you equip in loadout. Internal decks are installed cyberware operating systems. Both use the same slot/program rules; internal decks let you keep firearm loadout flexibility while hacking.

On-Location NCPD Breach Run

  1. 1. Set an active Netrunner.
  2. 2. Open downtime and run Netrunner NCPD Breach Run.
  3. 3. The run resolves disguise, intrusion, architecture push, camera scan, and exfil.
  4. 4. Review breach telemetry in outcomes: floors, passwalls, file nodes, daemons, alert, and trace risk.
  5. 5. If access succeeds, use the temporary NCPD Database tab in that same outcome flow.

How NET Architecture Is Simulated

  • Runs track datafort floors, passwalls, file extraction, control nodes, and daemon encounters.
  • Interface influences NET actions per turn and overall breach tempo.
  • Hostile netrunners can appear during deeper pushes and force counter-NET checks.
  • High alert and failed exfil increase trace chance and can spike wanted/health/credit penalties.

Quickhacks in Gig Combat

  • Quickhacks are treated as live combat intents when your loadout supports them.
  • Loaded quickhack suites and deck modules modify pressure, accuracy, and control output.
  • Round logs report quickhack checks and applied effects on enemy morale/integrity pressure.
  • Netrunner programs and cyberdeck quality heavily influence control-style combat outcomes.

Turning Hacks Into Leads

Camera correlations from successful breach runs can surface live leads (status + district). Move to that district, run investigation actions, and chain the results into rescues, conspiracies, or direct gigs.

  • Media + Netrunner is your strongest intel chain for disappearances and trace work.
  • Lawman can consume records directly, while Netrunner can unlock temporary records access via breach.
  • Fixer/Tech/Medtech support turns intel into actionable multi-role operations.

7C. NETWATCH INTERNAL OPERATIONS BRIEF // PARTIAL RELEASE

Classification note: this section is intentionally incomplete. Civilian runners are not cleared for full NetWatch doctrine, Blackwall incident handling, or deep-architecture containment procedures.

NetWatch Role In The Simulation

  • Tracks high-risk network activity that threatens city stability.
  • Monitors illegal architecture intrusion patterns and hostile signal clusters.
  • Escalates response when anomaly signatures suggest non-human operators or ghost traffic.
  • Creates classified pressure events that can branch into covert gigs and faction fallout.

Observed NetWatch Contract Classes

  • Signal Containment: isolate active intrusion corridors and suppress spread.
  • Archive Quarantine: secure or burn compromised data caches.
  • Daemon Purge: remove hostile control logic from local architecture.
  • Trace Recovery: locate missing assets using cross-node telemetry.
  • Deniable Sweep: resolve a black-site incident without public visibility.

How Runners End Up On NetWatch Radar

  • Repeated high-alert breaches against protected systems.
  • Failed exfil chains that leave noisy trace signatures behind.
  • Deep NET dives into restricted architecture during active city incidents.
  • Linking multiple conspiracy operations to one crew without cooling down heat.
  • Interacting with restricted shard trails tied to off-book entities.

If NetWatch pressure rises, expect classified hooks instead of normal contract flow: fewer clean options, more ambiguity, higher stakes, and long-tail consequences.

BLACKWALL / AI ADVISORY

Rumors persist of entities beyond the Blackwall and emergent intelligence operating through human-facing proxies. This guide will not disclose identification criteria, handshake patterns, or response doctrine.

Operational guidance for players: treat unexplained network phenomena as hostile by default, run with layered support, and do not overcommit a core operative to a single unknown signal chain.

7D. Plot Hooks, Consequences, and Escalation

Plot hooks are the sim's continuity engine. Every big action can create a future problem, opportunity, rival, or alliance chain.

Where Hooks Come From

  • Gig twists, prep failures, and betrayal branches.
  • Investigation trails, shard decrypts, and missing-person hunts.
  • Relationship volatility: enemies, exes, jealous rivals, burned contacts.
  • District pressure spikes, lockdown fallout, and wanted escalation.
  • Rival corpos can temporarily collaborate on deniable operations, which can put exposed runners on a kill list.
  • Classified lanes such as NetWatch anomalies and covert entity pressure.

Consequence Ladder

  • Immediate: injuries, arrests, cash burn, and relationship shifts.
  • Short Arc: retaliation gigs, rescue windows, and travel restrictions.
  • Long Arc: faction hostility, market impact, persistent rivals, major city-state shifts.

How To Manage Fallout

  1. 1. Read outcome logs immediately and identify the highest-risk new hook.
  2. 2. Stabilize needs and heat before chasing revenge arcs.
  3. 3. Pull role-matched contacts and run targeted prep before escalation gigs.
  4. 4. Use investigations to convert unknowns into actionable intel.
  5. 5. Close active hooks deliberately, or they may chain into worse city events later.

Persistent NPCs, Nemesis Lanes, and Enemy Pressure

  • NPCs are persistent simulation actors: they keep traveling, taking gigs, and changing power over tick time.
  • Auto-resolve can level up their threat profile, move them across districts, or remove them through death outcomes.
  • Betrayals, failed ops, and revenge chains can escalate contacts into full nemesis threads.
  • Nemesis and enemy threads can collide with you during travel arrival, downtime, or gigs when both sides share a district window.
  • Dead hostile actors are removed from normal encounter circulation unless a valid rescue/recovery lane returns them.

7E. Twists and Betrayals: Full Walkthrough

Twists are post-resolution instability checks that can fire after a gig run. Betrayal is one twist family, not a separate system. In practice: a run can complete the mission objective and still spin into theft, injury, heat, and fresh enemy threads.

When A Twist Can Trigger

  • Twists are most common on volatile contracts and messy finishes.
  • Failed or costly runs usually carry more twist pressure than clean wins.
  • Some gigs can chain multiple fallout beats before the run truly settles.
  • Conspiracy raid/heist late phases add extra betrayal pressure.

Twist Families In Rotation

  • Betrayal: payout theft, ambush fallout, relationship collapse, and possible fatality.
  • Corporate Response: cleanup strike, damage, wanted pressure, and rep hit.
  • Unknown Event: can pay off or backfire depending on polarity roll.
  • Kidnapping: availability disruption and follow-up rescue pressure.

How Betrayal Is Chosen

  1. 1. The sim checks active participants who can still act after the run.
  2. 2. High stress, high payout, poor trust, and bad mood increase betrayal pressure.
  3. 3. The system picks a betrayal pattern that fits the incident context.
  4. 4. Fallout is applied to money, injuries, relationships, and future hooks.
  5. 5. The result is shown in outcomes so you can decide retaliation, recovery, or disengagement.

What Betrayal Changes Immediately

  • Credits can shift, payouts can be stolen, and rewards can be contested.
  • Targets can take direct damage; lethal outcomes are possible on violent variants.
  • Wanted pressure can increase on the victim side.
  • Both sides can take reputation penalties.
  • Relationship state can collapse into enemy/nemesis lanes.

Where You See It In UI

  • Contract outcome modal: result text, phase progress, and fallout lines.
  • Nemesis panel in outcomes if betrayal seeded a vendetta thread.
  • Plot hook list and follow-up gig chains tied to the district and incident.
  • Relationship/contact state updates after run completion.

Gang Contract Betrayal (Separate Pressure Layer)

Gang payout handoffs have their own betrayal checks in addition to twist checks. If the handoff goes bad, gangs can withhold payout, inflict damage, and in severe cases trigger lethal fallout. Treat gang contracts as volatility-heavy even when primary objectives look manageable.

How To Reduce Betrayal Exposure

  1. 1. Run prep first to lower uncertainty before committing core crew.
  2. 2. Avoid stacking desperate/high-heat runners on high-payout gigs.
  3. 3. Prioritize trusted relationships; strong affinity reduces friendly-fire targeting pressure.
  4. 4. Expect bigger betrayal odds in late raid phases and plan reserves for extraction/lay-low.
  5. 5. Treat every betrayal as a future arc: stabilize, then decide whether to investigate, retaliate, or disappear.

8. Death, Trauma Team, and Rescue Dispatch

Coverage Tiers and Guarantees

  • None: no Trauma Team intervention.
  • Silver: emergency extraction chance with a smaller response stack.
  • Executive: premium extraction chance with larger tactical medical response.
  • Roll outcomes include dispatch chance, AV callsign, responder roster, and stabilization outcome.

When Death Becomes a Gig

  • Player-linked flatlines with coverage can generate a Trauma Team Dispatch rescue contract.
  • Dispatch contracts are built around Medtech + Solo role coverage.
  • Contract completion can restore a flatlined target back to alive status.
  • If your runner has no coverage, no Trauma Team rescue lane opens.

World Events and External Firefights

During world ticks, covered external fatalities can trigger Trauma Team dispatch events. External NPC incidents auto-resolve with generated Trauma Team squads, while player-linked incidents can surface rescue gigs for your Medtech/Solo network.

  • Auto-resolve dispatches use generated Trauma Team responders in the local district.
  • Successful external dispatches can reverse a flatline and stabilize the target.
  • Dispatch outcomes are logged into world snapshots for follow-up investigation.
  • Dead NPCs stay out of normal encounter pools unless a valid rescue/recovery event brings them back.

8A. Missing Operatives, Cyberpsychos, and MAX-TAC

How Cyberpsycho State Starts

  • Severe humanity collapse is the core trigger.
  • Missing runners with no humanity can escalate into active cyberpsycho state.
  • Active cyberpsychos generate district incidents and hunt contracts.
  • Cyberpsycho-hunt gigs resolve against live cyberpsycho targets tied to district incident chains.

How To Resolve It

  • Containment: fight and neutralize via direct response.
  • Recovery: use role synergy (Media + Medtech + Solo) to attempt rescue and stabilization.
  • World response: MAX-TAC can intervene on active high-threat incidents.

Missing Trace and Recovery

  • Trace Missing is Media-only and requires a friendly Netrunner contact above the affinity gate.
  • Trace success chance scales with Media REP, Netrunner affinity, and target affinity.
  • Successful traces can restore missing operatives to active alive state.
  • Missing non-cyberpsycho operatives keep acting in the world (travel, gigs, downtime) until recovered or lost.

NCPD Records

Lawmen can use the records database to review lawman/MAX-TAC rosters, wanted targets, gang records, and gang index mapping. Successful Netrunner breaches can provide temporary records visibility for intelligence work.

  1. 1. Set a Lawman as active character.
  2. 2. Open the NCPD records panel from the character/downtime flow.
  3. 3. Use tabs (Overview, Lawmen, MAX-TAC, Wanted, Major Crimes, Gang Records, Gang Index).
  4. 4. Lawmen and MAX-TAC rosters track kill counts, not wanted level.

Major Crimes tracks active case lanes like serial-killer manhunts, trafficking rescues, and scavenger harvest cells so you can pivot from passive intel to direct intervention gigs.

9. District and Entity Ecology

Districts are living systems. NCPD pressure, gang pressure, order, violence, and discourse are always moving, and those values affect your travel, gig, and survival choices.

District Lockdowns

Core Rules

  • No more than two districts can stay under lockdown at one time.
  • City Center has stronger resistance and is harder to lock than most districts.
  • Cyberpsycho incidents can also trigger temporary lockdown status.

How To Work Around Them

  • Lawman and Medtech can move through lockdowns directly.
  • AV transport bypasses lockdown restrictions for any role.
  • Route graph checks also block travel if chokepoint districts are locked.
  • Other crews need open routes, patience, or district stabilization efforts.

District Mechanics Deep Dive

What Changes District Pressure

  • Hourly gang vs NCPD auto-resolved conflict.
  • Public unrest and incident fallout.
  • Player-side gig outcomes and suppression jobs.
  • Special disruptions like cyberpsycho incidents.

How To Read The City

  • Top-bar NCPD and violence are fed from the same district ecology values shown in deeper views.
  • Use screamsheets and records tabs for deeper district context.
  • Pick operations by district mood, not just payout.

9A. Blood Money: The Entity Profit Loop

In this sim, every system is interconnected. That means nearly every eurodollar you earn is tied to an entity economy somewhere in the chain: corp budgets, gang operations, NCPD pressure contracts, or cleanup markets.

How Money Flows

  • Most gigs have an issuer entity and a pressure target, even when clients stay hidden.
  • Gig outcomes feed district pressure, faction stability, and market signals.
  • Your spend loop (weapons, cyberware, logistics, travel) feeds back into entity performance lanes.
  • Entity wins/losses then influence future gig quality, volume, and payout opportunities.

Agent-Driven Conflict

  • Entities use agents and proxy channels to generate contracts continuously.
  • Corps can seed gigs through fixer/gang channels to raise violence and then sell the “solution”.
  • Gang-corp alignment can amplify instability in a district for strategic profit windows.
  • When you work those lanes, you are part of that profit machine whether your runner intends it or not.

Operator Consequence

  • Big payouts usually mean someone profits from damage, unrest, or suppression.
  • If you chase both rival corp lanes and gang lanes, your runner’s disposal risk goes up.
  • Read the issuer/target context in gig details before committing your core crew.

9B. Exec Trading Desk

Stock and put trading is an Exec lane. It now runs on a guided weekly trend engine for every listed corp while still reacting to world-state pressure, player behavior, operation fallout, and entity gig performance.

Where To Trade

  • Character profile Accounts tab under Exec Market Desk.
  • Build Ticker List to choose which corp rows appear in your accounts market feed.
  • Open Stocks Browser for full market list, search, and per-entity trend strip.
  • Top-bar ticker and entity dossier shortcut buttons feed into the same stock browser.

Use Pattern (Core Loop)

  1. 1. Switch to an Exec.
  2. 2. Build your ticker list so only relevant corps stay in your decision lane.
  3. 3. Choose instrument (Stock or Put) and quantity.
  4. 4. Validate funds/position and daily put limit state.
  5. 5. Fill and monitor trend response through accounts + browser charts.

How The New Trend Engine Works

  • Each listed entity follows a weekly movement pattern so markets feel readable instead of random noise.
  • Those patterns are still pushed around by world events, district pressure, and player operations.
  • Entity-side gigs and proxy-agent operations can push real momentum into ticker movement.
  • Heavy speculation from active Exec play can amplify swings for short periods.
  • Different entities move differently, so treat each ticker as its own risk profile.

Reading The Charts Correctly

  • Accounts → Net Worth Timeline tracks your runner-side finances over time.
  • Stocks Browser shows per-entity trend strips (price snapshots over recent in-game windows).
  • If fresh history is sparse, charts seed from current values and expand as world ticks accumulate.
  • Use trend shape plus district/entity context; never rely on one bar strip alone.

Market Manipulation Contracts (Conspiracy Lane)

If you have a trusted fixer channel (or your active runner is a Fixer), the market lane can post illegal Market Manipulation contracts from the Conspiracies tab. The Accounts desk surfaces a direct CTA when this lane is available.

  • Select a listed entity as target and choose an action package (short pressure, supply sabotage, smear, pump/handoff).
  • Budget, specialist quality, and relationship strength shape risk, heat, and payout quality.
  • These ops can shift market pressure but also generate illegal exposure and downstream retaliation hooks.

Corpo Warning: Rival Association Risk

  • Working channels with competing corps can mark your runner as expendable in deniable operations.
  • If rival interests collide, expect increased betrayal odds, blacklist pressure, and cleanup-hit plot hooks.
  • Treat cross-corp deals as high-heat plays and keep extraction + fallback contacts ready before execution.

9B. Rumor Wire: Adam Smasher (Unverified)

This section is street rumor only. Nothing below is verified intel, authenticated records, or confirmed timeline data. Treat it as chatter that can shape player caution, not as fact.

Common Street Chatter

  • High-casualty corp-zone wipeouts get pinned on him whether or not evidence exists.
  • Some crews claim he appears, deletes a team, and vanishes before NCPD logs settle.
  • Other chatter says sightings are often scapegoat stories used to cover black-budget operations.
  • Whispers persist that damage reports tied to him disappear fast through Arasaka channels.

How To Use Rumors In Play

  • When rumor volume spikes, treat related corp gigs as extreme-risk regardless of posted payout.
  • Stack prep, extraction planning, and fallback routes before entering Arasaka-heavy lanes.
  • Use Media + Netrunner investigations to separate fear chatter from usable movement clues.
  • Assume rumor can be disinformation; confirm with multiple sources before committing your core crew.

10. Game Time, Hourly Sim, and World Ticks

Hourly Layer

  • Wanted decay, hunger/health/AP maintenance, and auto-eat logic.
  • Addiction, medtech support effects, cyberpsycho escalation checks, and autonomous downtime logs.
  • Weather maintenance and district conflict autoresolve per district.

Tick Layer

  • World progression windows that refresh jobs, faction activity, and city pressure.
  • Daily reproduction/casualty population drift and public discourse simulation.
  • Rent/pass settlements, weather snapshots, and persistent world-state recording.
  • The in-game date rolls forward at midnight and daily recaps post to notifications.
  • Day rollover recap notifications summarize births, violence, NCPD pressure, and active lockdown count.

11. Multiplayer: Crew Linking, Shared Slots, and Ready Votes

Multiplayer runs through crew links plus shared gig slots. You coordinate across linked crews while identities stay masked behind crew names and Citizen-ID labels.

Crew Link Setup

  1. 1. Open Contacts and use Share Contact.
  2. 2. Scan QR or paste the crew link code.
  3. 3. Confirm in the crew-link modal prompt.
  4. 4. Remove direct links anytime from Connected Crews.

What Linking Enables

  • Connected-crew operatives appear in your contact network with crew-safe labels.
  • Role/lifepath filters still work across local + connected crew contacts.
  • External contacts can be used for intel and gig staffing lanes.
  • Linked crew contacts can be contacted and invited like local contacts while they are alive.

Shared Gig Slot Flow

  1. 1. Join the contract yourself from the gig modal.
  2. 2. Open empty slots and use Invite Contact To Slot X.
  3. 3. Slot role locks auto-filter who can be invited.
  4. 4. Controlled contacts can be moved and loaded directly; non-controlled contacts roll invite acceptance.
  5. 5. Slot requirements are revalidated before run confirm/finalize.

Launch Rules: Single vs Multi User

  • Single-user runs can auto-fill missing slots from local operatives, district NPC pool, or fixer-sourced emergency crew.
  • If slots still remain open, Generate Missing Slots appears before execution.
  • Multi-user runs require full slots plus ready-check participation from all slotted users.
  • After everyone is ready, start vote-to-launch countdown, then finalize launch.

Realtime Sync And Shared Results

Ready state, countdown, and slot changes are live-synced while the gig modal is open. When a multi-user run resolves, every participating user receives the same shared outcome flow for that contract.

11A. Notifications and Comms Feed

The bottom-right comms bell is your live event inbox. No unread notifications keeps it discreet; unread entries show a numeric badge.

What Appears Here

  • Crew link confirmations and gig invite outcomes.
  • Missing-state, cyberpsycho escalation, and NCPD death-report alerts.
  • Hourly crew autonomy summaries and day-rollover world recaps.

How To Use It

  1. 1. Click the bell to open the feed modal.
  2. 2. Select a row to expand full details and report payloads.
  3. 3. Mark read, mark all read, or dismiss as you clear items.
  4. 4. Tune notification preferences in settings if you want less routine traffic.

11B. Datashard Narration and Dramatic Reading

Every contract result includes a narration lane. It converts your run telemetry into an in-universe datashard-style debrief and supports replayable voice reading in the same modal.

How To Use It

  1. 1. Run a gig and open the outcome modal.
  2. 2. Switch from Results to the Narration tab.
  3. 3. Read the generated datashard blocks and highlight chips.
  4. 4. Use Play, Pause, Replay, or Restart for dramatic reading.

What Feeds The Narration

  • Preflight odds, strategy choices, phase progress, and district context.
  • Crew participation, travel summaries, combat logs, enemies, and ambient pressure beats.
  • State deltas, rewards/loot, plot hooks, and nemesis/contact spotlight outcomes.
  • Highlighted terms render as yellow emphasis in the narrative text.

AI Mode vs System Fallback

  • If OpenAI is enabled, narration is generated by the configured chat model and tagged as AI Datashard Narration.
  • If AI is disabled or fails, system fallback narration is generated automatically.
  • Fallback state is displayed in the narration panel so you can see source and error context.

Audio Playback Notes

  • Voice playback uses browser speech synthesis and picks the best available English voice.
  • Unsupported browsers show a status warning but still display text narration.
  • In multi-user gigs, shared completion sync delivers the same narration-ready outcome flow to every participant.

12. Progression Playbook

  1. Stabilize basics first: hunger, health, humanity, AP, and heat.
  2. Build role-diverse trusted contacts early.
  3. Use downtime for steady growth between major contracts.
  4. Scout districts before committing your best operators.
  5. Run prep when the gig looks volatile.
  6. Use investigations to convert chaos into actionable leads.
  7. Save high-risk conspiracies for when your specialist network is truly ready.

Keep it simple, choom: stay fed, stay funded, keep your crew loyal, and never take a blind contract in a hot district.