T R O N S O F T G A M E SWRECK OF THE BSM PANDORA — TUTORIAL
Estimated time: 10 minutes · Have the game open in another tab and follow along.
BEFORE YOU LAUNCH
This tutorial walks you through your first three turns on Normal difficulty. You'll learn to move crew, fight an alien, read the dice, heal damage, and survive the Alien Spread Phase. By turn 3 you'll understand everything the game will throw at you.
The situation: your 4 crew begin together in Pod A1 (top-left of Deck A). Three aliens are aboard: a Gepidus in C3, a Skaaling in C5, and a Gepidus in B6. They are all below you — and they are spreading upward.
TURN 1 — DEPLOY
▶ Click "BEGIN MISSION — NORMAL" on the intro screen.
The intro clears. The mission log at center-bottom announces alien contacts in C3, C5, and B6. The header shows TURN 1/20, ACTIONS: 3.
First, get oriented. The blue ◆×4 marker on Pod A1 is your whole crew. The red ☣1 markers sit on B6, C3, and C5. Remember how travel works: everything connects through tubes and RISORs, which are themselves spaces you move through. A Move action carries a crew member up to their MOV rating in lock-steps, and the popup shows every reachable space with its distance.
▶ In the right panel, click the crew card for GSO Skaaling.
The card gets a blue highlight. Skaaling is your gunner: CMB 4, HP 4. Action buttons below light up.
▶ Click "→ Move Through Tube/RISOR". In the popup, pick Tube A36 (it should read a few locks away — Skaaling's MOV 4 reaches it).
The log reports Skaaling → Tube A36. ACTIONS: 2. On the map, A1 shows ◆×3 and Tube A36 lights up with ◆×1. Notice you stopped in a tube — tubes are real spaces.
Why Tube A36? It sits right next to RISOR A, your gateway down to Decks B and C where the aliens are. You're staging at the shaft.
▶ Click CD Strof's card, then Move him to Tube A36 as well.
ACTIONS: 1. Tube A36 now shows ◆×2 — your assault pair, staged at the shaft.
Never send one crew member alone into alien territory if you can help it. Counter-attacks add up, and a downed soloist is unrecoverable.
One action left. Bring your support up: ▶ select MO Kelly and Move her toward the group (Tube A25 or Tube A36). The medic trails a step behind the fighters.
▶ Now click "▶ END TURN".
The log runs the Alien activity phase. Bioforms mostly move through locks (they can enter tubes too), with the occasional new one breeding in a pod. Hull takes some stress, one event fires, then "Turn 2 Begin", ACTIONS reset to 3.
TURN 2 — DESCEND
Check the map — where are the aliens now? Movement is semi-random, so every game differs. Your plan holds: take the RISOR shaft down toward the infested deck.
▶ Move Skaaling from Tube A36 → into RISOR A, then keep going: the popup will also offer RISOR B and Tube B36 if MOV allows. Pick the space nearest the aliens.
▶ Move Strof to follow (RISOR A or RISOR B).
ACTIONS: 1. Your fighters are now in the RISOR shaft, descending toward Deck B/C. RISORs are the only way between decks.
Third action: your call. Two good options:
- Move Kelly forward to A7 (keeps the medic close), or
- If an alien has already spread near your position, hold Kelly and end turn.
▶ Choose one, then END TURN.
TURN 3 — FIRST CONTACT
▶ Move Skaaling toward whichever space shows a red ☣ marker. Because pods hang off tubes, reaching Pod C3 means passing through Tube C36 first; the Move popup shows the exact distance. Land him in the infested space (pod, tube, or RISOR — aliens can be anywhere).
When Skaaling shares a space with aliens, the log warns "Aliens present!" and the WeapKit / Stungun buttons light up.
The moment you've trained for. With Skaaling selected and standing in an infested pod:
▶ Click "⚡ WeapKit: Fire at Alien".
The die in the left panel spins. The log shows something like: "Skaaling fires WeapKit at Gepidus! Roll 4 + CMB 4 → Impair 2." Then either damage ("Gepidus takes 2 damage") or a miss. A Gepidus has 2 HP — a solid hit kills it outright.
How the roll works: your d6 result is cross-referenced with Skaaling's Combat rating (4) on the Impair Table. With CMB 4, any roll of 4+ deals 2 damage. That's why Skaaling shoots first.
After every shot, the alien gets a Reaction check. It might flee to an adjacent pod, reposition, or counter-attack for 1 damage. If Skaaling takes a hit, note his HP on the crew card.
If the alien survived your first shot: ▶ fire again (you have 3 actions; a kill is worth two of them). If it died: advance Strof to join Skaaling, or fire at a second alien if one is present.
If anyone dropped to 1–2 HP: ▶ bring Kelly adjacent, and next turn select the wounded crew member... no — select Kelly is not needed. Select the wounded crew member and click "✚ MedKit: Heal Crew". MedKits heal +2 HP and clear stun.
▶ END TURN.
YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN NOW
You know the full loop: select crew → act → end turn → read the spread → adapt. From here the mission is yours. Some parting guidance:
- The clock is real. Aliens breed on a 1-in-3 chance per infested pod per turn. Passive play loses. Ten turns in, you want the alien count falling, not rising.
- Use the Stungun on tough targets. A stunned alien (d6 ≥ 4, lasts 2 turns) can't counter-attack — free shooting.
- Storbombs clear a whole pod but cost 8% hull and injure any crew inside. Evacuate first, and treat them as emergency brakes, not routine tools.
- Repairs matter late. Once hull dips below 40%, dedicate SO Gepidus (SKL 5) to CompKit hull repairs between fights.
- Watch both status tracks in the left panel. Ship Down at 7+ starts a death spiral; at 9 the mission ends in Cold Shutdown.
Good hunting, Commander. The Pandora is counting on you.
QUICK REFERENCE
Controls
The game is played entirely with the mouse. There are no keyboard controls.
- Select a crew member — click their card in the right-hand panel.
- Inspect a space — hover any pod, tube, or RISOR circle to pop up a stat card listing everyone inside it, with full ratings.
- Select a space — click it on the map.
- Take an action — click an action button. Each costs one of your three actions per turn.
- Choose a destination or target — click an entry in the pop-up list, or Cancel to back out.
- End the turn — click END TURN.
Turn Order
- Player actions — spend up to three actions across your crew.
- Alien phase — bioforms breed, move through the lock network, and attack any crew they reach; infested spaces stress the hull.
- Stun removal — stun markers tick down on crew and aliens.
- Cold shutdown check — if the Ship Down track is at 7 or higher, failing systems cost additional hull.
- Event — one random event resolves.
Movement
The ship is 33 connected spaces — 21 pods, 9 tubes, and one RISOR shaft — joined by internal locks. Pod X7 connects only to Tube X14; each other pod hangs off its own tube; the RISOR shaft connects only to Tube A36, B36, and C36 and is the only route between decks. A Move action carries a crew member up to their MOV rating in lock-steps, and the pop-up lists every reachable space with its distance.
Combat and Scoring
Firing a WeapKit rolls one die plus the shooter's Combat rating on the Impair Table, dealing 0–3 damage. The target then checks the Reaction Table using its Aggression and Intelligence: it either counter-attacks for 1 damage, repositions, or flees to an adjacent space. Stunguns disable a target for two turns; storbombs clear a whole space at the cost of hull integrity.
Your score rewards a fast, clean, full-crew clear: +1000 for victory, +60 per bioform killed, +120 per surviving crew member, +4 per percent of hull remaining, and −25 per turn elapsed.
Winning
You win the moment the last alien bioform aboard is eliminated, provided at least one crew member is alive and the ship is intact.
Losing
- Hull integrity reaches 0%.
- All crew are down.
- The Ship Down track reaches 9 — total cold shutdown.
- Turn 20 ends with bioforms still aboard.
Saving and Restarting
This release does not save progress; each mission is a single sitting of roughly 15–30 minutes, and the game stores nothing on your device. To restart, click NEW MISSION on the results screen or reload the page — either returns you to the difficulty select, and reloading mid-mission abandons the current run.