Punball · systems design

Good company. Better combinations.

A squad of four escapes a conference that has become a reply section. The jokes are optional. Position, timing, and teamwork are not.

Audit 16 September 2026Cabinet 12Campaign Chapter I · four encountersEconomy Free Web2 · local progress

§ 1

One move. One action. Your order.

Recruit four of twelve characters. Every character is available immediately. Each living unit can move once and then act once per round. You choose the order. Acting ends that unit’s activation, so healing, shielding, and damage compete for the same scarce resource: a turn.

There are no accuracy rolls. Highlighted tiles come from the same validators that resolve commands. Damage previews run the actual ability on a copy of the battle, including armor, shields, elevation, Guard, and collisions.

Rule	Effect
Climb	One extra movement point per uphill step; Bridgekeeper ignores the extra cost.
High ground	+2 damage per elevation level, capped at +4. Chart Ranger gains another +4.
Guard	Halves incoming damage until the unit’s next turn.
Focus	Job skills cost focus. Recover one each turn, capped at three.
Signal	Casts build a shared meter. At 100, call one parody summon per encounter.

§ 2

Build a combination, then break theirs.

Expose → follow up

Lurker, Chain Sleuth, Chart Ranger, KOL Cantor

Exposed adds six damage to the next hit.
Chain Sleuth adds another five against exposed targets.
Order your units so the strongest hit consumes the effect.

Push → collision

Bagholder, MEV Runner

Push or pull up to two tiles.
A blocked displacement adds eight damage; Guard halves it.
Bagholder resists pushes and pulls. Friendly swaps still work.

Root / Silence → control

Gas Alchemist, Chain Sleuth, Validator

Root blocks walking and movement skills.
Silence blocks job skills; basic attacks and Guard remain available.
A GM Medic can clear these effects.

Protect → hold

Bagholder, Validator, Airdrop Courier, GM Medic

Shields absorb damage before health, up to fifty shield points.
Defend the relay at two consecutive enemy turn ends.
Killing every bot is not required for relay or seal objectives.

§ 3

Four encounters, four demands.

Encounter	Objective
The GM Before the Storm	Disconnect every bot. Learn activation order and terrain.
Bridge to Somewhere	Hold the far-bank relay for two consecutive enemy turn ends.
Proof of Paperwork	Stand on each of three seals and spend an action to break it.
The Last Sponsored Thread	Defeat Lord Engagement. Keep the squad spread against his area attack.

Victories grant one mastery point to each squad member. Two wins unlock the third job skill. Four wins grant rank III as recognition, without another power increase. Replaying earlier encounters is allowed. Downed characters recover after the encounter.

Encounter score

1,300 + 150 × survivors + 60 × max(0, par − rounds)

A defeat scores 100 per defeated enemy. The arcade board compares individual encounters. It is a casual, client-reported score, not a verified competition. The encounter limit is thirty rounds.

§ 4

A complete Web2 chapter.

Squads, mastery, and best scores save on this device. Unfinished combat restarts rather than resuming its exact turn. No account or wallet is required. There is no token, cash prize, payment, mint, or claimable asset.

The Future Edition panel contains inactive design examples. They do not promise a release or financial rights. The characters, event, and locations are fictionalized satire. Elon Ex Machina is an unaffiliated parody summon.

The rules are a deterministic TypeScript module. Presentation uses Canvas and original Blender renders, with camera-projected tile coordinates. Local progress and the Punball score bridge are separate modules. A future standalone edition can replace those boundaries without rebuilding combat.