Resources & Constraints Explained

You start as a street hacker scavenging e-waste, and end as a transhuman entity harvesting stars. Along the way, you build production chains and manage four key constraints.

The Big Picture

Age 1 Street Hacker E-Waste Salvage
→
Age 5 Infrastructure Baron Datacenters & AI Farms
→
Age 9 Transhuman Entity Dyson Spheres & Stargates

Resources: The Tiered System

Resources come in 10 tiers (T0-T9). Lower tiers feed into higher tiers through production chains.

T9: Transcendent Reality Seeds, Divine Sparks
T7-T8: Stellar/Galactic Dyson Arrays, Stargates, Consciousness Matrices
T5-T6: Planetary/System Scale Orbital Stations, Fusion, Planetary Networks
T3-T4: Corporate/Infrastructure AI Clusters, Datacenters, Quantum Cores, Auto-Drones
T1-T2: Processed/Components Scrap Alloy, Logic Boards, Scripts, Data Cables
T0: Raw Materials (Free!) E-Waste, Circuit Scrap, Power Cells, Data Fragments

The Four Constraints

Everything you build requires a mix of four constraints. Think of them as "currencies" that limit how much you can run at once:

Energy

Energy

Powers everything

Early: Solar cells Late: Dyson spheres
Computation

Computation

Processing power

Early: Salvaged PCs Late: Quantum networks
Intelligence

Intelligence

Operators/AI

Early: You + helpers Late: AGI armies
Credits

Credits

Money

Early: Odd jobs Late: Galaxy trade

How Constraints Work Together

Example: Building a Datacenter requires:

  • Energy: -500/sec
  • Computation: -200/sec
  • Intelligence: -10 AI workers

If ANY constraint is insufficient, the building runs at reduced efficiency or stops entirely!

The Shifting Bottleneck

The genius of the game: one constraint dominates at a time, then shifts after you solve it.

Early Game (Ages 1-2)

Energy is your main problem. You build solar panels.

Mid Game (Ages 3-4)

Energy is fine now, but Computation becomes the limit. You build server farms.

Late Game (Ages 5-6)

Now Intelligence (workers/AI) is what's holding you back.

Each time you solve one bottleneck, another emerges. This creates dozens of "breakthrough moments" where fixing a problem makes everything surge forward.

Production Chains: How Resources Flow

Resources don't appear from nothing—you build production chains where lower-tier outputs become higher-tier inputs:

Example: Making a Logic Board (T2)

T0 E-Waste → T1 Scrap Alloy
T0 Circuit Scrap → T1 Conductive
T0 Data Fragments → T1 Clean Data
↓ ↓ ↓
T2 Logic Board +30 Computation

The Logic Board then feeds into T3 buildings, and so on up the chain.

Nine Dimensions of Complexity

As you progress, the type of bottleneck problem evolves:

Early Game (Ages 1-2)

  1. Capacity — "Where do I store it?"
  2. Generation — "How fast do I make it?"

Mid Game (Ages 3-5)

  1. Chain — "What intermediate steps do I need?"
  2. Allocation — "Which buildings get priority?"
  3. Efficiency — "How much am I losing to waste?"
  4. Throughput — "How fast can resources move?"

Late Game (Ages 6-9)

  1. Quality — "Is it good enough for advanced recipes?"
  2. Timing — "Is it available when I need it?"
  3. Stability — "Can I count on consistent supply?"

Quick Reference

Concept What It Means
Resources 59 items across 10 tiers (T0-T9), from e-waste to reality seeds
Constraints 4 limits: Energy, Computation, Intelligence, Credits
Bottlenecks One constraint dominates at a time; solve it, another emerges
Chains Lower-tier resources combine to make higher-tier ones
Dimensions 9 types of problems introduced gradually

The game is about building efficient factories while the type of challenge keeps evolving. It's chill (works while you're away) but rewards thoughtful design with 2-3x efficiency bonuses!

See Also