Fans of Into the Breach and Demonschool who want the next tactics game to change what a "unit" even is, not reskin the squad. They remember Shadow of Mordor's Nemesis system more fondly than the rest of that game. They're fine playing the monster — Carrion scratched that itch for an afternoon — but they want a real grid under it instead of a timer and a health bar.
A drowned coastline of tidal flats, rusted harvesting platforms, and half-submerged church spires. Your creature is translucent and bioluminescent, more coral colony than monster — it pulses along its nerve-lines instead of roaring. Drowned teal and rust at low tide; bruise-purple and cold bone-white glow at high tide.
Move and act each limb once — Claw, Frond, Eye-stalk, Maw, Anchor. Confirm the turn and the hunters respond. A limb at zero Integrity severs on the spot, becomes wreckage blocking its own tile, and spikes the shared Vitality pool.
A Tide Season runs eight Cycles. Pick a feeding ground, fight a string of hunters against its tide window, bank Biomass. Back at the Shallows, regrow severed limbs, choose a Mutation for each, and decide whether to return a limb short or burn a Cycle waiting.
- Shared Vitality, Local Integrity — one pool underlies every independently-acting limb, so losing a limb is a systemic cost to the whole creature, not a swapped-out character.
- Wreckage as Self-Made Terrain — a severed limb stays on the grid as cover and a chokepoint for the rest of the fight, reshaping the map with your own battle damage.
- Mark-and-Rend Combos — an Eye-stalk's Mark sets up a Rend from any other limb, and knocking a hunter into your own wreckage adds an Impale tick.
- Tide Windows — Low Water surfaces every limb but strips your cover; High Water hides you but only long-reach limbs can act. Timing the tide is a weapon.
- The Flenser — a named rival hunter who's never permanently dead, remembers which limb beat them, and comes back next Cycle with gear built to counter it.
- Regrowth as Build Choice — every severed limb regrows with a fresh Mutation pick, so your creature's loadout drifts across the Season based on what it actually lost.
- You play the monster's limbs, not a squad: one shared Vitality pool underlies every independently-acting Claw, Frond, Eye-stalk, and Maw.
- Your own wreckage becomes the map: a severed limb stays on the grid as cover and a chokepoint, so the battlefield is partly built from damage you already took.
- A single hunter persists across the whole Season and counters your last fight, not a bigger number: the difficulty ramp is one person learning you.
- Tide state decides who has the advantage, not turn order: Low Water and High Water are two different places to fight from, with real tradeoffs on both sides.
Week 1 builds the grid, three limb types, and the sever-to-wreckage conversion. Week 2 adds the Mark-and-Rend combo and a full five-limb creature. Week 3 wires up Culling Crew AI and one complete encounter. Week 4 layers in tide windows and the Surveyor. Week 5 builds the Shallows hub, Biomass, and limb regrowth across two Cycles. Week 6 delivers a Flenser vertical slice for external playtesting, tuned against where runs actually fail.