Launch the game and press Undock — new run. You may type a seed first: the same seed always produces the same Belt, so runs can be replayed or shared. If an autosave exists, Resume run continues it.
Everything is mouse or touch. Keyboard: press 1–9 to choose the
numbered option or undock button on screen. There are no other keys.
The game runs in days (30 of them). Each day at the Scattered Yards you either accept one contract from the salvage board or Rest a day. Dockside services (yard 80 cr for +20 hull, bunker 60 cr for +30 fuel, medbay 50 cr, shore leave 30 cr), lien payments, and artifact business do not cost time. Every morning the crew draws wages: 10 cr a head.
Undocking burns the fuel listed on the contract. Aboard a wreck you move one compartment at a time; each compartment entered costs one O2 bottle (you carry 6 with an engineer aboard). After each encounter choose Press deeper or Head home with the haul. If the bottles run out, the boarding ends where it stands.
Each compartment presents an encounter with one to three choices. Many are skill checks against a crew role; a specialist's health, the crew's morale, the wreck's danger rating, and certain artifacts all move the odds. Salvage is tallied as your haul and pays only when you return to your ship, minus the guild tithe: 30% at neutral standing, easing to 18% with a good name and rising to 40% with a bad one. Moral choices move that standing. Artifacts can be sold unidentified (150 cr), or assayed (100 cr) into relics, boons, or curses.
Pay the full 3,600 cr lien at the lien office on or before day 30. The ending is graded by your standing and how many of your crew came home.
Three ways: the deadline passes with the lien unpaid (foreclosure), the Kindly One's hull reaches zero, or the whole crew dies.
The game autosaves after every action to your browser's local storage (no account needed). Closing the tab is safe; the title screen offers Resume run. A finished run clears the save and offers Run it again (new seed) or Same seed, wiser captain (replay the identical Belt).