Raid: get in and get out alive

IMAGE SUGGESTION (cover) — does not exist yet 5s GIF of the extraction window: counter running, extract button, success screen. It is the asset the calendar asks for on this date and the same material as the 15s clip. Record at 1440×810, 12 fps, no audio.

The core loop of Chaos City is not hitting someone. It is get in, take it, get out.

You pick a region, open a session and enter. From then on three things run at once: the session clock, your backpack filling up, and the risk that someone else (or the police) finds you before you leave.

What changes for you

• Nothing you find is yours until you extract. The session backpack is separate from your inventory. A completed extraction transfers it; defeat erases it.
• Losing a fight inside a raid costs the gear you brought in, not just the loot. Going in with your best kit is a bet, not obvious preparation.
• Extraction has a window. It opens, it lasts, it closes. Leaving outside it is not leaving.
• Digging is a gamble: the counter runs and the tool can stay behind.
• Abandoning an extraction opens a police case against your character, with an investigation level that climbs and takes 48h to cool down.
• The Tunnel Packet buys time. A raid-only consumable that shortens the window — the rarer it is, the more it shortens, from −15% (common) to −75% (legendary).

Six field operations

Inside a region you do not get a "raid" button. You get operations, and each region declares which ones it accepts:

Some require a skill level. A new character walks into the city, but does not open all of it.

Why defeat erases everything

Because without it, the raid is just collection. If the worst possible outcome of going in is "found nothing", the right decision is always to go in, always with the best gear, always until the clock runs out. There is no moment to leave — and the whole system loses the only tension it has to offer, which is carrying something you have not secured yet.

With full loss, every extra minute inside the region is a decision you make against yourself. That is the game.

And the police?

Aborting an extraction is the emergency exit — and it leaves a trace. The first abandonment opens a case. From there the investigation climbs a level, shows as a badge on your HUD, and charges you in two places: in your rewards and in what NPCs will still trade with you. With no activity, the case cools off in 48 hours.

At the moment you abort you do not get a system notice. You get a dossier — paperwork dropping onto the screen with what the police put on record. It is one of our favourite scenes in the game, and it only happens when you give up.

What comes next

Devlog 03: card battle. Combat was rewritten from scratch — and the last version found out you could win without playing a single card.

→ Join the Discord to follow the tests.