Skills (Levels 1–19)

"A runner trains by doing the thing they want to be better at. The Network finds this poetic."

Twenty trainable skills. On Floor 1, a runner can reach roughly L15–L19 in one or two disciplines, fewer in many — depending on how they play and what kit they drew. Each skill below covers its early milestones (L5, L10, L15). What happens at L20 and beyond is described in general terms only — runners with serious investment have been observed achieving notable broadcast-grade outcomes, per the Network's standard institutional phrasing. The Programming Director encourages aspiring runners to find out for themselves.

The six selectable starter kits map to Blunt Force Trauma (Blunt), Trigger Discipline (Trigger), Blade (Blade), Cyber Tinkering (Cyber), Survival (Survival), and Signal (Signal). Every other discipline — including Electrical Engineering, Thermal Dynamics, and Stealth Routing — is a trainable build path open to any runner, not a starting loadout. Fire and current are damage channels a runner delivers; stealth is a routing build a runner grows into. The kit only determines the runner's starting weapon and the secondary consumables they bring; everything else is earned by training.

Blunt Force Trauma

Discipline. Hit things hard. Then hit them again.

Primary kit. Blunt.

• L5 — Footing. Examine on any hostile reveals adjacency, facing direction, and (eventually) data about the cell behind them — relevant to the L15 stagger mechanic.
• L10 — Reduced Spread. Melee damage rolls tighten. Minimum damage raised by 1; spread halved on every weapon with a Strike technique. Stationary targets (didn't move last turn) take +1 damage on top.
• L15 — Stagger. Passive: successful melee hits stagger the target for 1 turn. Staggered targets lose their next attack of any type. Re-applying refreshes the duration rather than stacking it.

At L20. Blunt force stops being a swing and starts being a thing the floor does in response to the runner. Don't ask the Programming Director to confirm.

Trigger Discipline

Discipline. The ranged-weapon mastery axis. Sightlines, suppression, the line you don't cross.

Primary kit. Trigger.

• L5 — Sight Picture. Examine on any hostile tells you the distance, how much cover it has, and whether you can see it. The runner's first reliable read.
• L10 — Reduced Spread. Ranged damage rolls tighten. Variance halved on the Slingshot's Quick Shot; stationary targets (didn't move last turn) take +1 damage on top.
• L15 — Lead and Pin. Targets damaged by a ranged attack are suppressed for 1 turn — they lose their next ranged retaliation. Removes the "moved-last-turn" defense bonus against your shots.

At L20. Trigger discipline stops being aim and starts being inevitability.

Electrical Engineering

Discipline. Current, voltage, intent. Make them sing.

Primary kit. None — electrical is a damage channel, not a starter kit. Any runner can deliver it (a taser found on the floor, a shock-cell coating, a shorted puddle), and the discipline trains through the doing.

• L5 — Voltage Read. Examine on any electrical, power source, conductive, severed conduit, breaker box, or transformer entity reveals voltage state, charge level, conduit links.
• L10 — Insulated. Take 25% less damage from electrical and shocked damage. Shocked duration on the runner is reduced by 50%.
• L15 — Live Wire Handling. Operate severed conduit, breaker box, or transformer entities without taking damage. Active: using a power source entity sends a ~3 HP electrical jolt to all entities within 2 tiles. No status effect.

At L20. Electrical runners with serious investment at higher levels have been observed achieving notable broadcast-grade outcomes. The Programming Director declines to elaborate on tape — and Power Routing has forwarded the relevant filings to Facilities. Facilities has forwarded them back. The form is on its third loop.

Thermal Dynamics

Discipline. Fire is just energy. Energy is just opportunity.

Primary kit. None — thermal is a damage channel, not a starter kit. Any runner can light the floor (a Plasma Lighter, a thermite charge, an ignited valve), and the discipline trains through the doing.

• L5 — Heat Reading. Examine on a furnace, coolant tank, severed conduit, battery rack, breaker box, toxic drum, or pipe valve reveals operational temperature, pressure, and time-to-overheat.
• L10 — Warm-Blooded. 25% less damage from thermal and burning damage types. Burning duration on the runner is reduced by 50%.
• L15 — Furnace Discipline. Operate furnace- or incinerator-tagged entities without taking damage. Thermite recipes cost one less component at a tool bench adjacent to a power source.

At L20. Thermal runners at high investment have been observed producing broadcast moments Editorial Discretion has logged under several categories at once. The Network considers each one an industrial accident, individually.

Cyber Tinkering

Discipline. Splice into electronic locks, terminals, and remote systems.

Primary kit. Cyber.

• L5 — Telemetry. Examine on any electronic, hackable, or electronic lock entity reveals security level, connected systems, current state, alarm-link status, and surveillance feed direction.
• L10 — Coordinated Strike. The runner's MR-T1 droid coordinates with the runner's own actions — Focus Fire and the runner's attacks compound on a shared target.
• L15 — Subversion. Cyber-Splice deepens. Splices disable electronic locks, open locked doors, and apply deeper compromises to hackable entities. A failed splice still costs the runner.
• L20 — Persistent Companion. The droid persists and recovers more reliably — a lost unit is easier to bring back into the run.
• L25 — Service Interruption. Once between Sanctuary visits, an electronic source that would deal the runner a lethal hit is rolled back; the runner survives at 1 HP and the source is disrupted.
• L35 — Machine Reading. The runner reads the floor's machines at a glance — a room-wide scan of electronic and hackable entities.
• L40 — Daemon. The runner can deploy a subordinate process that harries the floor's machines on its own.

At L20. Cyber runners at high investment have been observed producing operations the IT department has filed under investigation pending. The investigation is not pending. The Programming Director and the audience have an understanding.

Blade

Discipline. Precision strikes, slashing and piercing weapons, and bleed amplification. Find the soft part. Open it. Keep it open.

Primary kit. Blade — the kit's knives, including the NeuroSync stealth line, scale here. It is also the natural on-ramp to a Stealth Routing build.

• L5 — Anatomy Read. Examine on any hostile reveals its exposed-flesh percentage, current bleed state, and the cell most vulnerable to a bleed-positioning strike. The blade runner's first real read.
• L10 — Precision Edge. Passive. Minimum damage on blade hits rises by 1; targets that are already bleeding take +1 more from subsequent blade hits.
• L15 — Bleed. Passive. Successful blade hits apply bleeding — the slow DOT that follows a target out of the room. Subsequent hits refresh the wound rather than stacking it.

At L20. Blade runners at high investment open wounds the Medical Review Board has logged as self-inflicted. The runner was nowhere near. The Programming Director keeps the tape.

Demolition

Discipline. Setup, pressure, claim denial. Every explosion files a report.

Primary kit. None — Demolition is trained through use, not issued as a starter kit. Every detonation the runner sources files toward the discipline: a thrown Fragmentation Grenade, a primed charge, anything the floor logs as a sourced explosion. The Network considers each one a training exercise, individually.

• L5 — Pressure Read. Examine on volatile, explosive, pressurized, flammable, and power-source entities reveals blast yield, shrapnel radius, and chain-reaction adjacency. Read the room before you light it.
• L10 — Blast-Hardened. Passive. Take 50% less damage from explosive, concussive, and fragmentation sources; concussion and fragmentation on you last half as long; knockback against you is halved.
• L15 — Concussive Discharge. Passive. A sourced explosion applies concussion to the blast cell and the cells around it, and fragmentation at the blast cell itself.

At L20. Higher Demolition investment opens charge-placement work that comes online deeper in the Stack, past Floor 1.

Improvisational Weaponry

Discipline. Everything in the room is a weapon. Especially the room itself.

Primary kit. None. A pairing tree — improv runners build with whatever kit they drew.

• L5 — Material Read. Examine on component items or component-bearing entities reveals component grade (A/B/C/D), structural integrity, and potential combinations.
• L10 — Reclaim. Deconstructing a weapon yields +1 of a weapon-part component (a Grip Wrap, Metal Rod, Frayed Copper Wire, or spring) at 30% per component.
• L15 — Reinforce. Active, at a work surface. Consume one scrap component (a Metal Rod, Frayed Copper Wire, or Scrap Metal) and bind it to a weapon in your inventory — that weapon permanently gains +1 to its damage bonus. Repeat applications are legal; the material cost is the limiter. An upgrade, never a repair.

At L20. Improv runners at high investment produce items Materials Compliance has certified as failing performance threshold. The items exceed threshold. Materials Compliance trusts the documentation.

Mend

Discipline. Biological healing and mechanical repair. The line blurs.

Primary kit. None.

• L5 — Stim Efficiency. Stims heal 25% more HP. Active bleeds tick at half speed — one tick every 4 seconds instead of every 2.
• L10 — Revival (slow). Revive a downed runner outside combat. Takes ~3 minutes. Requires a Trauma Kit.
• L15 — Field Pharmacy. Craft field stims without a workbench.

At L20. Mend runners at high investment provide care the Medical Review Board cannot distinguish from theatrical performance. The MRB has filed every incident as both. The Programming Director finds the distinction edifying.

Survival

Discipline. Control, not damage. Read the floor and set the terms — rig traps, weaponize the floor's own hazards, and catch the wildlife. The Survival runner wins by engineering the kill (or the escape), never by out-trading damage. The skill's internal id is still trap_architecture; the floor-facing name is Survival.

Primary kit. Survival — the hunter's discipline. Survival ships the snare and lure and trains by staging the kill, not landing the swing. Pairs especially well with Trigger (rig the ground, then take the shot) and with the floor's hazards generally.

Two ways to play it. The hunter engineers kills (trap, hazard, snared-into-fire). The survivor evades, controls, rescues, and escapes — and can clear Floor 1 having dealt zero weapon damage. Both are first-class, and both level Survival the same way: the discipline trains off the survival verbs — rig a trap, trigger a hazard, snare or disable a hostile, catch an animal, disarm a trap, scout, escape — not off damage dealt. A runner who never lands a hit but pulls the team through has played Survival correctly.

The Rig verb is open to everyone. Any runner — level zero, no training — can rig a basic tripwire with a rigging tool in their kit (Sully's Loose Tool Roll qualifies) plus the components: one Frayed Copper Wire and one Tension Spring. The discipline trains through the rigging. Rig also arms or triggers the floor's own environmental hazards (gas valves, steam vents, live grating) — the same verb, pointed at the building instead of the floor. More elaborate rig types — rigged containers, pressure plates, and worse — come online at higher milestones, past Floor 1's reach.

• L5 — Approach Vector Read. Examine on any room reveals high-traffic corridors, anchor points for tripwire placement, and the floor's pathfinding bias. The same milestone also reads animals: Examine a fauna entity for species, role-class, aggression state, and whether it's already someone's catch. With a Pipe Rat out, it also adds Trip to the runner's techniques: the rat strings a trip line on a square, and the first hostile to step on it takes trap damage and is knocked down, losing its attack and taking extra damage until it gets up. The higher the runner's Survival and the rat's level, the harder the knockdown is to shrug off.
• L10 — Tighter Wiring. The runner's traps hit harder — a passive scaler on trap damage. With the rat out, it adds Fetch: the rat carries one of the runner's heals to them or a party member, or a Clatter Lure to a square.
• L15 — Tripped. The runner's traps don't just hurt — a triggered trap staggers the entity that sprang it, costing it its next action.

At L20. Survival runners at high investment place devices the Prop Department has logged as decorative. The decorative devices are operating. The Prop Department has no reclassification form.

Signal

Discipline. The production-control axis. The show's own battery-powered remotes, picked up off the floor and turned on the floor's cast. A Signal runner is, in effect, operating the production from inside the frame. It is the discipline the Signal kit is named for, and the two share the name on purpose. (See the remotes on the weapons page — Punish and Protective Bubble are the two base techniques.)

Primary kit. None. The tools are found, not issued — the discipline trains by using them.

• L5 — Director's View. Examine on the floor's cast deepens to a production read: exact HP and max HP, current AI state, and sponsor affiliation. The runner reads the rundown the audience never sees.
• L10 — Establishing Shot. Passive. Punish's minimum damage rises by 1; a target that hasn't been Punished yet this fight takes +1 more — the first frame always lands hardest.
• L15 — Demoted. Passive. A successful Punish applies demoted for 1 turn — production has lowered the target's standing, and its defense drops by 1 against the next hit. Higher-grade production remotes have been observed applying it on their own initiative.

At L20. Signal runners at high investment have been observed issuing instructions the control room did not send. The control room logs them as sent. The Programming Director has stopped checking the rundown against the tape.

Stealth Routing

Discipline. Move unseen, unheard, untraceable.

Primary kit. None — Stealth Routing is a build path, not a starter kit. The Blade kit is its most natural on-ramp (concealable, silent weapons), but any runner can train it.

• L5 — Eyeline. Examine on any hostile reveals its surveillance arc — the cells it can currently see. Runners occupying a cell outside every hostile's line of observation carry a quiet edge on their next engagement.
• L10 — Soft Step. Movement through hallways, corridors, and Sanctuary cells does not alert unaware hostiles within one cell. The runner moves; nothing files the incident.
• L15 — Misdirect. Throw any loose item — scrap, a data chip, whatever the floor left lying around — to a cell within range. Hostiles within three cells of the impact divert attention toward it for two turns. Once per encounter.

At L20. Stealth runners at high investment have been observed routing through the floor in ways the Network's recording infrastructure occasionally fails to catalog. The Programming Director has not commented.

Salvage Sense

Discipline. Reclamation. More from less — and finding what everyone else missed.

Primary kit. None. Every kit produces salvage; this discipline notices.

• L5 — Reclaim Read. Examine on containers, corpses, and lootable entities reveals the full loot picture — what's inside, at what odds, what it breaks down into, and whether something is hidden in there. Corpses show what they carried before the runner commits to the looting.
• L10 — Reclaim Bonus. Passive. Every deconstruction has a 30% chance per component of yielding one extra. Stacks with Improv's L10 Reclaim on weapon parts.
• L15 — Lucky Find. Passive. Opening a container, looting a corpse, or deconstructing an entity carries a 25% chance of turning up one extra common item the manifest didn't list. Once per source — the floor is generous, not infinite.

At L20. Salvage runners at high investment recover items Apex Salvage Group's manifests list as already recovered. The manifests are amended. Apex has opened a file.

Fabrication

Discipline. The non-weapon crafter. Tools, picks, gadgets — the mundane, methodical, un-broadcast work.

Primary kit. None. Pairs naturally with Espionage — Fabrication makes the picks Espionage spends.

• L5 — Component Read. Examine on materials, crafts, and equipment reveals what a material is used for, what's missing for a craft already in the bag, and what a repair would cost.
• L10 — Steady Hand. Passive. Fabrication crafts occasionally (about 30% of the time) produce one extra unit of output.
• L15 — Lockpick Crafting. Recipe unlock: the Lockpick — craftable in the field from Scrap Metal and Frayed Copper Wire. The locked-container economy's supply side. See recipes.

At L20. Fabrication runners at high investment produce equipment the requisition system has no form for. The requisition system is being extended. The equipment works in the meantime.

Alchemy

Discipline. The consumable crafter. Salves, draughts, and counter-agents — grey-market pharmacy, no license, no label, no complaints.

Primary kit. None. Pairs naturally with Mend — Alchemy makes what Mend administers.

• L5 — Reagent Read. Examine on plants, reagents, and biological materials reveals what a reagent is used for, its shelf state, and what recipe it gates.
• L10 — Steady Hand. Passive. Alchemy brews occasionally (about 30% of the time) produce one extra unit of output.
• L15 — Healing Salve + Antidote. Recipe unlock: the runner's first combat consumables — a Healing Salve and an Antidote, both field-craftable from Redleaf Concentrate. The planter's Redleaf Sprig just became a pharmacy. See recipes.

At L20. Alchemy runners at high investment brew preparations the Industrial Hygiene desk classifies as cleaning products. The classification is load-bearing. The preparations are not for cleaning.

Defiance

Discipline. Durability. The runner who refuses to break — active defense, status resistance, endurance as a stance.

Primary kit. None. Any runner who keeps getting up qualifies.

It powers Shove, Grab and Break Free. A Shove or a Grab pits the runner's Defiance against the enemy's, and so does pulling loose from a hold. Defiance trains by taking hits, by shoving or grabbing and by shrugging off a status, control or knockback, so close-combat runners raise it and runners who stay at range barely move it.

• L5 — Rain Check. Passive. When an enemy resists the runner's Shove or Grab, the attack is not spent: the runner can still swing that turn, just not shove or grab again. A failed attempt costs nothing but the attempt.
• L10 — Stalwart. Passive. The first time each kind of status or control tries to land on the runner in a fight, its chance to land is halved. The first hit is the one the runner was braced for.
• L15 — Block. Active, once per encounter. For one turn the runner is set to receive: incoming melee and charged hits land at half force, and the runner's chance to resist statuses and controls rises by about 17 percentage points. Spends the turn — Block is the turn.

At L20. Defiance runners at high investment have been observed remaining upright through events Live Broadcast Incident Review has rated as concluding. The review is being re-reviewed.

Perception

Discipline. Information. The runner who sees what others can't — and the floor hides more than it shows.

Primary kit. None. Pairs with everything; commits to nothing.

• L5 — Room Tone. Examine on a room reveals its recent history in tags — combat-recent, occupation-recent, long abandonment, fresh blood. The room remembers; the runner reads it.
• L10 — Second-Screen. Passive. Hidden entities, items, and traps in the current room reveal themselves to the runner — the supplementary feed is open.
• L15 — Sweep the Room. Active. Spend a turn focusing on the current room: every hidden passage, item, cache, and trap reveals for 30 seconds. The turn is the cost; the floor's secrets are the payout.

At L20. Perception runners at high investment file reads on rooms the camera coverage map lists as uncovered. The coverage map is correct. The reads are also correct.

Mobility

Discipline. The runner's own movement — getting from A to B regardless of what the floor thinks about it.

Primary kit. None. Trains on every floor crossed.

• L5 — Terrain Read. Examine on a cell reveals its movement cost, surface character — slick, sticky, hot, unstable — and what's in the way next to it.
• L10 — Light Step. Passive. The first move of the runner's turn in combat costs no energy. The opening stride is free.
• L15 — Sprint. Active, once between Sanctuary visits, 30 seconds. While sprinting, the runner moves at twice walking speed — one smooth cell at a time, just twice as fast (normal energy per cell) — and every stride is loud. Sprinting suppresses Stealth Routing's Soft Step entirely: the runner trades quiet for speed, and the whole floor hears the trade.

At L20. Mobility runners at high investment have been recorded at positions the camera blocking did not anticipate. Stage Management revises the marks. The runner is already past them.

Espionage

Discipline. Access. Lockpicking, bypass, and getting in where the runner is not supposed to be.

Primary kit. None. Pairs naturally with Fabrication — the picks have to come from somewhere — and with Perception: Perception sees, Espionage acts.

• L5 — Casing. Examine on a lock, alarm, camera, trap, or sealed container reveals its lock class (T1, T2, or T3), whether a failed attempt will be loud, and — for containers — a preview of the contents. Know the job before taking it.
• L10 — Apt Hand. Passive. Standard T1 locks open under a practiced hand — no pick, no roll. T2 and heavier still want a Lockpick and the training below.
• L15 — Lockpick. Active. Work a T2 or T3 lock with a Lockpick — odds improve with training, heavier classes resist harder. The pick is consumed whether the lock gives or not, and a failed attempt on an alarmed lock is loud: nearby hostiles hear the snap. Below L15, picks engage T1 locks only.

At L20. Espionage runners at high investment hold clearances the credential registry did not issue. The registry has been asked to confirm. The registry has confirmed.

Luck

Discipline. Audience favor, lucky breaks, and the occasional second take. The only discipline the runner does not train — the audience trains it. Kills, boss moments, dramatic survivals: when the floor produces good television, the favor accrues, and the favor is the training.

Primary kit. None. The audience issues this one personally.

• L5 — Audience Read. Passive. The audience's favor becomes visible to the runner — when a moment lands, the runner sees it land. Every other runner on the floor is performing to a meter they cannot see; the Luck specialist reads the room.
• L10 — Cushion. Passive. When a roll involving the runner comes up at its absolute worst, it re-rolls once and takes the new result. The audience does not care for anticlimaxes.
• L15 — Retake. Active, once per encounter. Force a re-roll on the next roll involving the runner — theirs or against them — and take the second result. The runner picks the moment. The editors approve.

At L20. Luck runners at high investment receive outcomes Audience Research's models flag as statistically irregular. The models are recalibrated quarterly. The outcomes continue.

A note on training

The Network does not display per-action XP grants. Runners cannot watch their gains accumulate in real time. The interface is intentionally opaque — the Programming Director maintains that knowing how much XP you just earned ruins the moment.

What runners can see: their current level, the next milestone, and the descriptor of what training accomplishes at that level. What runners can feel: the floor opens to them slowly. By the time a runner is approaching L20 in a discipline, the floor has changed shape around their reads, their access, their reach.

The audience watches all of this happen. The Network considers training to be the show's best slow-build content.

Next → Recipes — What you can build out of what the floor leaves lying around.