Find the rule.
Get back to building.

Press Play, follow the short introduction and run Manual Work. Spend the first Credits on CPU, Memory, SSD storage and the Batch Script. Mission Control recommends one useful next move while keeping other viable choices visible.

It is the large primary control on Command. On every other game area it becomes a compact global button. Before automation it is your main income; afterward it is an optional active boost.

Major mechanics arrive through a prominent unlock capsule that explains what changed and opens its natural location. Navigation and Infrastructure tabs appear only when their first meaningful action is available.

Mission Control tracks the actual missing requirement—Credits, Data, Compute or Infrastructure—and opens the exact relevant control. A full progress bar means the action is ready. The alternatives underneath are useful options, not extra objectives.

Contracts are workload profiles. Higher yield also consumes more Memory, CPU, storage, power or Network Capacity. A smaller Contract can recover headroom for upgrades or Operations; a larger one is valuable only when the system can sustain it.

Memory is Queue Capacity. Contracts and software create demand. Clean headroom improves routine throughput; demand above capacity creates Queue Overload, reducing Credit output and adding CPU and storage pressure. Operations also need a clean Memory reservation. Upgrade Memory, choose a lighter Contract or pause Contracts to recover.

After automation, RELAY//ZERO stores routine income while the game is closed. The base queue holds one hour. Each Batch Scheduler level adds 45 minutes, up to 4h45. A second cap stops the queue after it has funded roughly the next three reachable Credit upgrades, so one long absence cannot skip the active economy. Your current limit is always visible on Command.

At 92% CPU or storage, 84° temperature, or 94% power, new tasks are held. The System Health rail names the bottleneck and Mission Control points to a remedy. Operations can automatically pause Contracts to reclaim routine load, then resume them after payout.

Contracts consume routine Mbps and lose throughput when demand exceeds capacity. Operations reserve target-specific Mbps; surplus capacity shortens Access time. If pausing Contracts still leaves too little reserve, upgrade NODE-02's NIC array or an uplink.

They are fictional strategy-game abstractions, not real hacking instructions. The Signal Scanner maps reachable targets automatically. You choose a target and compare Secure versus Deep Access; the game then resolves the sequence automatically.

Secure Access gives a controlled payout with lower capacity use, Heat and Trace. Deep Access pays more but requires substantially more CPU, Memory, storage, power and Network reserve. The forecast shows the exact trade before anything starts.

Heat is temporary operational pressure and raises system Temperature. Trace increases countermeasure and recovery pressure on a target. Intel improves target yield. Mastery rewards repeated work on that target with better payout, timing and target-specific benefits.

Sentinel Suite is defense software. It improves Heat recovery and grants one Trace scrub during each Operation. It does not add another global policy: Secure versus Deep remains the main risk decision.

The selected setup may exceed current CPU, Memory, storage, power or Network reserve. The forecast distinguishes capacity available now from capacity available with Contracts paused and points to the required upgrade when pausing is not enough.

Each system owns a distinct role and upgrade tracks: NODE-02 adds Compute and network capacity, ARCHIVE-03 expands storage, SENTRY-04 improves defense and cooling, and RACK-05 adds heavy Compute. Upgrade tiers become progressively more expensive and later tiers require more Cold Reboots.

Batch Script and Batch Scheduler automate income. Signal Scanner discovers fictional targets, Sentinel Suite handles defense, Data Compressor reduces storage pressure and Route Optimizer improves Access bandwidth. Physical machines and their hardware stay under Systems.

Provisioning uses its displayed Credits, Data and the shared project slot. It is provider-side work, so it does not require a particular Relay Doctrine or local CPU headroom. Command shows its live provisioning progress.

After completing the Zero Kernel, choose one Relay Doctrine. Cold Reboot resets the current machines, sites, Credits, Data, Mastery and research. Archive history and permanent Doctrine lessons remain, and the next run reveals an additional operating layer.

Older saves are migrated forward by explicit schema steps. The game preserves the previous raw save when the RELAY//ZERO format is first created and refuses to overwrite a save made by a newer build. Export a save from Settings before major Beta updates for an additional portable backup.

Yes. Settings is available from the start and contains Export, Import and Reset. Saves remain local to the browser unless you export the JSON file yourself; RELAY//ZERO does not upload them.

RELAY//ZERO is in active development and vibe-coded with Codex. Mechanics and balance will continue to change. The public Changelog explains player-facing updates, while save migrations protect compatible progress.