LOST UPLINK

Every room is a rocket mission. Crew players want to reach the next planet safely. Infiltrants want the route to fail before safe arrival.

The same ship can continue into mission 2, mission 3, and beyond if the Crew reaches each destination. Survival alone is not enough. Arrival is the real win condition.

CREWStabilize systems, survive tribunal pressure, and complete the route.

INFILTRANTSDelay, mislead, collapse systems, and stop the ship from arriving.

ROUND LOOPNight, day replay, SIGNAL-SYNC, nomination, tribunal, repeat.

Contents

Quick start
Core resources
Round flow
Systems
Night actions
SIGNAL-SYNC
Tribunal
Signal and reconnect
Victory
FAQ

01 // Quick Start

Create a room or join an open flight from the homepage.
Reveal your role. Only your own role is visible to you.
Spend AP during NIGHT to repair, sabotage, shield, spy, or use role-specific moves. Exact costs and strengths are live values and can shift with auto-balance.
At DAY, watch the night replay: Crew impact first, short pause, infiltrant counter-impact after that.
Use one fast action in SIGNAL-SYNC, then move into nomination and tribunal.

Best habit: read the report first and vote second. LOST UPLINK becomes much clearer once you separate the information phase from the accusation phase.

02 // Core Resources

Resource	Meaning	Effect
`AP`	Night action points.	Actions consume AP. Wounds and subsystem pressure can reduce it.
`Life-AP`	Your personal health pool.	Tribunal hits reduce it. At 0 you are eliminated.
`Signal`	Your connection to the room.	At 0 you lose the room: SIGNAL LOST.
`Signal Reserve`	The part of your signal above the safe floor.	Can be spent during night for tactical boosts like stronger repairs, deeper scans, or heavier sabotage.
`Mission Progress`	Distance traveled on the current route.	Crew only wins if this reaches safe arrival in time.

03 // Round Flow

Phase	Purpose	Good habit
`NIGHT`	Spend AP on hidden actions.	Think in systems and route impact.
`DAY`	Read the replay and report.	Separate Crew gain from infiltrant damage.
`SIGNAL-SYNC`	One quick follow-up interaction per living player.	Scan, jam, stabilize, resync, or lock route.
`NOMINATION`	Pick who enters tribunal.	Watch the live vote table.
`TRIBUNAL`	Resolve wounds and eliminations.	Read the live tally before you lock a vote.

If one person already has an absolute majority during nomination, the result becomes final immediately. The game skips the extra vote.

04 // Systems

ANTRIEB / DRIVEHandles thrust, vectoring, and reactor stability. Weak drive slows the route and can cost AP.

LEBEN / LIFE SUPPORTControls oxygen, temperature, and medbay pressure. Weak life support makes tribunal outcomes harsher.

KOMM / COMMSControls uplink, sensors, and encryption. Weak comms make intel worse and SIGNAL-SYNC less reliable.

NAVIGATION / NAVIGATIONControls course core, jump computer, and beacon array. Weak navigation costs mission progress, weakens LOCK ROUTE, and can blank route-window bonuses.

Planet modifiers like Solar Flare, Signal Shadow, Deep Void, Relay Corridor, or Asteroid Belt change nightly pressure and route speed. The route strip always shows where the ship currently is.

05 // Night Actions

Action	Purpose
`repair`	Raise subsystem values and protect route progress.
`sabotage`	Push systems into warning or collapse.
`protect`	Specialist / infiltrant only: apply a Signal Mask to one living player. It hides the day-report trail and blocks normal spy intel unless Deep Scan pierces it.
`spy`	Read a clue about another player's action.
`steal`	Manipulator move to steal or redirect value.

Some night actions offer optional Signal Reserve modules. Reserve is the amount of signal above the safe floor. Spending it gives short-term power, but pushes you closer to SIGNAL LOST if the night turns bad. The exact action numbers on cards and buttons are live values propagated by the auto-balance system.

06 // SIGNAL-SYNC

Each living player gets exactly one fast interaction: SCAN, STABILIZE, JAM, RESYNC, LOCK ROUTE, or LEAK.

Not every SIGNAL-SYNC move creates dramatic private text. Stabilize and Jam can matter later even if their only visible result is inside tribunal math.

07 // Tribunal

Nomination decides who enters the accused lane. In tribunal, the two accused players cannot vote. Everyone else chooses who takes the hit. Jam and Stabilize still influence the outcome.

Tribunal damage now works through Life-AP and wounds, which makes matches longer and creates more room for recovery and bluffing.

08 // Signal and Reconnect

Signal above the reserve floor can be spent as Signal Reserve for night boosts.
Typical reserve boosts are stronger repair/sabotage, deeper spy scans, or stronger signal jams.
Strong / Stable signal keeps full intel and route control.
Weak signal means noisy intel, weaker SIGNAL-SYNC reads, and route locking can be blocked until you RESYNC.
Critical signal leaves only basic actions reliable. Advanced intel and control tools start locking out.
Infiltrants can also buy a false repair trace, so normal spy scans misread their night action unless the analyst used a Deep Scan.
Short disconnects keep your slot alive for a grace window.
After that, offline players lose signal over time.
At 0 signal, the player drops from the room as SIGNAL LOST.
Refreshing should reconnect the same slot as long as the reconnect window is still open.

09 // Victory

Team	Wins when ...
Crew	the ship reaches the destination safely.
Infiltrants	the route fails, systems collapse, or the Crew can no longer secure the mission.

Even if all infiltrants are dead, Crew still has to arrive. Safe arrival is the only Crew win condition.

10 // FAQ

Why did I survive but still lose?

Because Crew wins only by arrival. Survival without arrival does not count.

Why does the UI color change over time?

The base color tracks the mission level. Strong status effects then overlay that with alert tones so players can understand both depth and danger.

Why is the night replay split into Crew and infiltrant blocks?

Players need to understand gross gain and gross damage before the net result makes sense.