How to Play

OBJECTIVE

You operate a network of validator nodes that process blockchain transactions. Your goal is to maximize lifetime fees claimed — this is your score on the leaderboard.

The top validator at the end of each month wins a season badge. Nodes cost tokens to run, so you must carefully balance spending and claiming to stay alive.

THE CORE LOOP

TOKENS → buy & run nodes (energy drain per tick)
                 ↓
nodes validate & earn PENDING FEES (every 3s)
                 ↓
press [ CLAIM FEES → TOKENS ] to convert
                 ↓
claimed fees become your score & replenish tokens

healthy nodes running 10+ ticks straight → HASHES ⛏

This mirrors real Bitcoin mining: you earn block rewards (fees), but must sell some to pay your electricity bill (energy). Hold too long and you go bankrupt. Claim too early and you miss compounding.

THE THREE ASSETS

⚡

TOKENS

Operational currency — the lifeblood of your operation. If you run out, all nodes go offline.

+ Earned by claiming fees

− Spent on: buying nodes, upgrades, repairs, energy drain per tick

Ξ

PENDING FEES

Raw validator rewards — accumulate automatically every tick while nodes are active. Sit in a pending pool until you claim.

+ Earned each tick by active nodes (scaled by uptime %)

→ Claim to convert to tokens (also locks in your score)

⛏

HASHES

Prestige currency earned from sustained uptime streaks. Every 10 consecutive ticks at full health = +1 hash per node.

+ Earned from uptime streaks (~every 30s per healthy node)

→ Determines leaderboard rank & monthly badge eligibility

NODE TIERS

Click any empty cell on the grid to deploy a node. Five tiers are available, each with higher cost, higher yield, and higher energy consumption.

TIER	NAME	COST	UPGRADE COST	FEES / TICK	ENERGY / TICK	MAX HP
T0	RASPI	50 ⚡	—	2 Ξ	1 ⚡	60
T1	HOMESERVER	150 ⚡	90 ⚡	8 Ξ	3 ⚡	80
T2	RACKSERVER	400 ⚡	240 ⚡	25 Ξ	8 ⚡	100
T3	DATACENTER	1200 ⚡	720 ⚡	80 Ξ	20 ⚡	120
T4	MEGACLUSTER	4000 ⚡	2400 ⚡	300 Ξ	60 ⚡	150

Upgrade tip: Upgrading costs 60% of the next tier's price. It's always cheaper to upgrade an existing node than to buy a new one at the higher tier. Upgrading also restores +20 HP.

HP & UPTIME

Each node has a HP bar visible below it on the grid. HP directly affects uptime, which scales fee earnings:

Uptime = HP ÷ Max HP. A node at 60% HP earns 60% of its base fee yield per tick.

HP ≥ max HP	Full uptime (100%). Earns streak ticks toward hash.
HP < 40	Node status changes to DAMAGED. Reduced yield.
HP = 0	Node goes OFFLINE. No yield, no energy drain.

To restore HP, click the node and press REPAIR. Cost is 20% of the tier's base price. Repair restores to full HP instantly.

DISASTERS

Every tick, each active node has a 5% chance of a disaster event. Disasters deal HP damage and can push nodes into a damaged or offline state.

⚡ POWER SURGE

A voltage spike fries your circuits. Deals −30 HP. Common in under-provisioned setups.

🌐 DDOS ATTACK

Your node is flooded with malicious traffic. Deals −20 HP. Least damaging but most frequent at scale.

💾 HARDWARE FAILURE

Disk or RAM critical error. Deals −40 HP. The most severe single event — can offline a low-HP node instantly.

🍴 NETWORK FORK

Your node loses consensus sync. Deals −15 HP. Cheapest to recover from but resets your uptime streak.

Watch your HP bars. A node sitting at 35 HP is one hardware failure away from going offline. Repair before disasters compound.

GAME OVER

When your tokens hit 0, you can no longer pay energy costs and all active nodes go offline. The game-over screen shows your final stats.

[ PLAY AGAIN ] resets your session: 500 tokens, one RasPi, score returns to 0. Your username stays on the leaderboard with your previous best score until you surpass it.

Prevention: Keep a token buffer. If tokens drop below ~100, claim your pending fees immediately before the next tick drains you.

LEADERBOARD

The leaderboard ranks players by ⛏ Hashes — a measure of sustained uptime over time. Hashes are only earned by keeping nodes at full health for 10 consecutive ticks, so the top of the board reflects the most consistent, longest-running validators.

At the end of each month, the #1 validator on the leaderboard receives a season badge.

To climb the board: keep your nodes repaired and online. A single hardware failure resets the streak on that node. More nodes running at full health = more hash per tick cycle.

STRATEGY TIPS

Claim before you go broke. Watch the ⚡ TOKENS counter. If it's below your energy drain × 10 ticks, claim now.
Upgrade over buying. Upgrading a T0 to T1 costs 90 tokens vs buying a fresh T1 at 150. Always upgrade first.
Repair before going offline. A damaged node earns reduced fees but still earns. An offline node earns nothing.
Spread your nodes. Multiple lower-tier nodes spread disaster risk. One T4 going offline hurts much more than one T0.
Full HP = streak ticks = hash. Keep nodes topped up to earn hash every 30 seconds per node.
Energy scales fast. A full 5×5 grid of T4 nodes costs 60 × 25 = 1,500 tokens per tick. Make sure your fee income covers it before expanding.
The faucet is a safety net. The emergency +500 token faucet in the sidebar exists for recovery — not for sustained growth. Rely on claims.

CONTROLS

CLICK EMPTY CELL	Opens the node shop — choose a tier to deploy.
CLICK ACTIVE NODE	Opens node detail — shows HP, uptime, yield. Access upgrade and repair.
CLAIM FEES	Converts your pending fee pool into tokens. Locks in leaderboard score.
UPGRADE	Promotes a node to the next tier at 60% of the tier's base cost. Restores +20 HP.
REPAIR	Restores a damaged or offline node to full HP at 20% of the tier's base cost.
FAUCET +500	Emergency token top-up. Debug tool — no leaderboard penalty.