Map

Lore & Background

The industrial complexes your crew descends into were never designed for visitors. Corridors branch and re-branch, identical doorways open into rooms that look like twins of the one you just left, and the only distinguishing feature between a dead end and a critical junction is a subtle change in ceiling height that no one notices until they've walked into a wall for the third time. The Map exists to break that symmetry. A quick glance before you leave the ship lets you anchor your mental model: three rooms off the main hall, a long corridor to the east, a stairwell tucked behind the second junction. Small details, but in the dark they are the difference between a clean extraction and a panicked sprint with your flashlight dying.

Crews that skip the Map tend to describe their first run in the same breathless language—'we just kept going left, we kept going left, and then we were back where we started.' The Map doesn't solve the horror of the environment, and it certainly doesn't warn you about what's waiting in the next room. But it removes the most maddening variable: the feeling that the building is a maze with no logic. It has logic. You just need to see it before the logic gets buried under fear.

Veterans will tell you that after a few runs you start to internalize the common layouts, and the Map becomes less of a necessity and more of a confirmation. But on a new floor, with a new configuration of rooms and a new set of threats, that single glance at the blueprint before you seal the airlock behind you is the cheapest insurance you'll buy all night.

In Their Own Story

The airlock hissed shut and the ship's recycled hum dropped to a low, constant thrum. Four flashlights cut pale cones into the black. 'Okay,' said the one in the back, squinting at the folded sheet in his hands. 'Main hall, three doors. East corridor's long—like, really long. And there's a room off the west side that's… small. Like a closet with a door.' He rolled the paper up. 'If we hear something in the small room, we don't go in. Agreed?' Three nods. The flashlight beams steadied. They walked east, and the corridor was, as promised, absurdly long, and the small room on the west was exactly where he'd said it would be, and nothing in it moved. They breathed. They kept walking.

Reader's Guide

Map — a pre-run navigation aid that gives you a top-down blueprint of the current floor's rooms, corridors, and doorways.

Practical details: • Shows: full floor geometry (walls, rooms, door positions) • Does not show: enemies, scrap, your live position, other floors • Layout: changes every run (procedural) • Weight/cost: negligible; picked up in the equipment room before launch

Tactical note: Pull the Map the moment you enter the equipment room. Spend ten seconds tracing the main corridor and noting where branches split. This is not optional on your first run on a new location type. Avoid relying on it mid-run to 'find your way out'—it doesn't track where you are, so it's a reference, not a GPS. The most common new-crew mistake is grabbing the Map, glancing at it for two seconds, stuffing it in a pocket, and then wandering the dark for four minutes before remembering they had it. Better: study it, memorize the shape, then set it aside. You don't need to read it in the dark while something is breathing behind you.

Did You Know?

• The Map only depicts the floor you are currently assigned to; it will not show stairwells' destinations or the layout of upper or lower levels.
• Because floor layouts are procedurally generated, the Map you see in one run will bear no resemblance to the Map in the next, even on the same location type.
• Experienced crews often describe the Map as a 'ten-second ritual'—a brief pre-launch check rather than a tool they consult repeatedly during the run.
• The Map contains no audio or threat indicators; it is purely geometric, making it one of the few pieces of equipment that is entirely passive.