LEVEL
01
LATENCY
0ms
SEED
0x0000
ALIGNMENT
0%
PORTALS
3
BRIDGES
1
PACKETS
0/0
REINFORCED
0
SIMPLICES
0
BROKERS
0
COMMAND REFERENCE
NAVIGATION
CLICK a connected node to hop along an edge. Edges you traverse gain reinforcement and progress through three visible stages — warming → reinforced → highway. Packets prefer to route along reinforced paths. (Threads that fire together wire together.)CAMERA
LEFT-DRAG orbit · SHIFT+DRAG or RIGHT-DRAG pan · WHEEL zoomWASD or arrows pan · Q / E orbit · + / − zoom
C or DOUBLE-CLICK recenter on player. Once you pan, the camera stays put until you recenter.
PORTALS & BRIDGES
SHIFT+CLICK any node to place a latent portal. Each portal links to every other portal placed — and even a lone portal links to its nearest-in-latent-space unvisited node, so the first portal always pays off. After 15 seconds (cooldown arc fills around the portal ring → gold halo lights up), SHIFT+CLICK your own portal to reclaim the charge.Press B to build a ◇ Bridge Node — a constructed crossing materialized between you and your nearest non-adjacent node. Costs 2 portal charges. 1 build per level. Use when no portal pairing can solve the gap.
BABEL FRAGMENTS
Move onto a babel node (tetrahedral, wire-framed) to open the decode panel. Click characters in the correct order; a wrong pick costs 30ms of latency and resets your sequence. Solving a fragment unlocks new latent shortcut edges to nearby-in-the-manifold nodes. Fragments further from the manifold's center use stranger glyph alphabets — they are decoded the same way, but their form drifts. The glyph strip at the top of the panel tells you which form you're facing.MOTHER TREES & PARASITES
Certain high-degree babel nodes carry a warm glowing ring beneath them — these are Mother Trees. Solving a Mother Tree shares signal with every directly connected neighbor (small extra alignment to the player, and the kin edges are pre-warmed). Their ring brightens when you're adjacent (alert), holds steady once they bloom (nutrient), and desaturates when latency is high or a parasite is nearby (stressed).Parasitic edges appear from deeper levels — visible as dull copper-rusted lines. Crossing one costs 20ms latency. While adjacent, SHIFT+CLICK the connecting node to prune the parasite (consumes 1 portal charge). Pruning restores a small alignment and pre-warms the link.
GOALS & FAILURE
Reach the ★ Index Node (golden icosahedron) to complete a level. Survive 5 levels to win. If latency exceeds 800ms, the signal collapses.HUD
ALIGNMENT — manifold coherence (rises when Babel solved or portals placed).LATENCY — network noise; rises with time, falls with packet delivery.
REINFORCED — edges with strong Hebbian weight (highways).
PORTALS — remaining latent-shortcut placements.
ALIGNMENT & BONUSES
ALIGNMENT rises on babel decodes (+25), portal placements (+10), mother-tree blooms (+6 to you, +6 kin), bridge builds (+8), new-node visits (+2), parasite prunes (+5), and level completion (+40). Every hop trickles +0.5. It decays gently over time.PORTAL BONUSES — earn extra portals by playing actively:
• TRICKLE: a portal slowly accrues every ~28s (cap +4/level) regardless of progress, so even a losing run feels recoverable.
• CARRY-OVER: finish a level with ≥2 portals AND ≥70 alignment → +1 portal next level.
• BABEL RUSH: 2nd and 3rd babel solve in one level each grant +1 portal (max +2/level).
• MOMENTUM: visit 5 new nodes within 20s → +1 portal (once per level).
• BROKER FIRST: first cross-cluster portal each level → +1 portal.
BABEL DECODING
Click glyphs in the correct order to decode the fragment. Wrong picks cost 30ms latency but preserve your locked-in progress — only the slot you're currently picking has to be tried again. Closing the panel (X) sets a 6-second cooldown before that fragment can be re-entered, so you can step away and return.◇ HINT button — spend 1 portal to reveal the next correct glyph.
✦ MANIFOLD MERCY — rarely, when latency is critical (≥700ms), a babel panel may open with half its glyphs already revealed for free. Once per run, ~10% chance per qualifying opening.
STRUCTURAL HOLES (BROKERAGE)
The manifold has hidden clusters — groups of nodes that hang together. A portal that connects two different clusters is a BROKER PORTAL: it wears a bright pink-magenta outer ring, and grants +18 alignment (plus +1 portal on the first one per level). The first two brokers per level are valuable; the 3rd onward triggers OVER-BRIDGED — a small penalty because cluster identity is dissolving (Burt's caveat: too many bridges destroy the structural advantage).SIMPLICIAL IGNITION
When you visit all three corners of a triangle (a 3-clique in the visible graph), it ignites as a translucent face — a 2-simplex spanning the three nodes. Each ignition grants +8 alignment, reinforces all three edges by +0.15, and plays a three-note ascending chord. Up to 6 per level (and they count toward your final score, +150 each).Higher-order network theory says group activation requires k-connected ignition, not just pairwise spread. Triangles are the simplest version of that.
MANIFOLD FOLD
Press F to briefly reveal the top 3 latent-near node pairs that aren't currently linked — cyan ghost arcs fade in then out over 4 seconds. Costs 5 alignment; 6-second cooldown between casts. Pure information: nothing on the graph changes. Use it to learn where the manifold wants to be folded — the pairs revealed are often where Babel solves or Bridge Nodes would help most.LATENT QUENCH
Press Z to freeze latency creep for 8 seconds — a frosty cyan halo around you and a ❄ on the latency readout signal the freeze. Costs 15 alignment; 18-second cooldown. The escape valve when the latency warnings start firing — buys time to reach a babel decode or place a recovery portal.PULSE ECHO (passive)
Every Babel solve also echoes to one nearby unvisited node: it's marked visited, you gain a small alignment bonus, and a green mycelial burst flows from the babel to the echoed node. Encourages chasing Babels even when their shortcut isn't immediately useful — they remain a strong source of alignment and exploration.HOTKEYS
? or H — toggle this panel · ESC — close Babel / help, or end run during gameplay · B — build bridge node · F — manifold fold (reveal latent pairs) · Z — latent quench (freeze latency 8s) · C — recenter camera · M — mute/unmute · SHIFT+M — shuffle background musicCLICK move · SHIFT+CLICK portal/reclaim · B bridge · F fold · Z quench · DRAG orbit · WASD pan · ? help · ESC end
BABEL FRAGMENT — DECODE THE SEQUENCE