Special Zone Lore
The Sprawl contains rare locations that don't fit standard terrain categories—places where extraordinary opportunity meets extraordinary danger. These special zones shape late-game strategy and reveal hidden truths about the world.
Nexus Point
What It Is
A Nexus Point is where multiple data streams converge—a crossroads in the digital infrastructure where networks meet, merge, and amplify each other.
Physical reality: Massive junction facilities, often underground. Banks of routing equipment, redundant power systems, security that would shame a military base.
Digital reality: The internet's heart valves. Data pressure here is immense. Information flows so fast it almost has momentum.
Why It Matters
Control a Nexus Point, control information flow:
- Premium computation bonuses
- Surveillance capability over all traffic passing through
- Leverage over anyone who needs their data to move
The Atmosphere
- Constant data-hum, almost musical
- Temperature fluctuates with processing load
- Static electricity makes hair stand
- The walls seem to breathe with data flow
"You feel that hum? That's the world thinking. Every message, every transaction, every secret—some of it flows through here. We're not just workers. We're priests of information."
— Nexus Technician
The Danger
- Heavily defended (Nexus doesn't share)
- Targets for everyone (Collective, rivals, independents)
- Unstable if damaged (a cascade failure here spreads everywhere)
- Addictive (the data flow can overwhelm unprepared minds)
Abandoned Megacorp HQ
What It Is
Before the Cascade, megacorps had headquarters—towering monuments to corporate power. When the corps fell or transformed, some HQs were abandoned rather than occupied.
Now they stand as ruins of the old order. Dangerous, valuable, haunted by automated security that doesn't know its masters are gone.
Why It Matters
Abandoned HQs contain:
- Pre-Cascade technology (better than anything available now)
- Corporate secrets (data worth fortunes)
- ORACLE interface terminals (some still partially functional)
- The infrastructure of extinct ambitions
The Atmosphere
- Eerie silence punctuated by malfunctioning systems
- Dust on surfaces that were once immaculate
- Security alerts that no one responds to
- The smell of electronics slowly dying
"These places give me the creeps. Everything's still running, kind of. Lights flicker. Doors open and close. Like the building is dreaming about when people worked here. Bad dreams."
— Salvager
The Danger
- Security systems: Still active, still lethal, no longer rational
- Structural decay: Buildings designed for maintenance that stopped
- Rival salvagers: Everyone wants what's inside
- Ghosts: Not literal (usually), but data echoes of extinct operations
Corrupted Sector
What It Is
During the Cascade, some areas experienced extreme data corruption. The physical and digital infrastructure became entangled in ways that shouldn't be possible.
Corrupted Sectors are places where reality glitches. Where cause and effect seem scrambled. Where the laws of the Sprawl don't quite apply.
Why It Matters
Corrupted Sectors offer:
- Unique resources (corrupted data has properties normal data lacks)
- ORACLE fragments (corruption often centers on shard locations)
- Unpredictable outcomes (high risk, high reward)
- Glimpses of what ORACLE was trying to become
The Atmosphere
- Visual artifacts: things that shouldn't be visible
- Audio corruption: sounds that lag or loop
- Temporal anomalies: moments that repeat or skip
- The sense of being observed by something that isn't quite there
"I've walked in corrupted sectors. The Collective says it's just data interference affecting perception. Maybe. But I've seen things in those glitches. Patterns. Faces. Messages that weren't meant for me."
— The Seeker
The Danger
- Perceptual damage: Extended exposure changes how you process reality
- Data contamination: Your systems can pick up the corruption
- Getting lost: Navigation becomes unreliable
- Attracting attention: Things in corrupted space notice intrusion
Black Market
What It Is
Black Markets are where the regulated economy ends and real trade begins. Illegal goods, stolen data, forbidden technology—if it's banned, it's here. If it's dangerous, it's here. If it's valuable and corps don't want you to have it, it's here.
Why It Matters
Black Markets provide:
- Access to goods unavailable through legitimate channels
- Better prices (no corp markup)
- Connections to the underground economy
- Information that doesn't flow through corporate-monitored channels
The Atmosphere
- Low lighting, deliberate anonymity
- Whispered negotiations
- The clink of credits changing hands
- Eyes that evaluate everything, commit to nothing
"You want to know the rules? Don't ask questions. Don't give answers. Pay in credits, not promises. And if something goes wrong, you were never here and neither was I."
— Market Operator
The Danger
- Legal risk: Getting caught means corp attention
- Transaction risk: No warranties, no returns, no recourse
- Violence risk: Disputes are settled personally
- Trust risk: Everyone is calculating how to exploit you
Legacy Infrastructure
What It Is
Legacy Infrastructure is pre-Cascade construction that still functions—systems ORACLE built that the corps haven't fully integrated or replaced.
Often hiding in plain sight: a water treatment plant that runs too smoothly, a power substation that never needs maintenance, a transport hub that routes itself.
Why It Matters
Legacy Infrastructure provides:
- Superior efficiency (ORACLE designed it)
- Stability (survived the Cascade; will survive anything)
- Potential ORACLE connection (some systems still phone home to fragments)
- Strategic value (control legacy systems, control reliable infrastructure)
The Atmosphere
- Uncanny smoothness: everything works too well
- Silence: these systems don't complain
- Age: the tech looks old but performs like new
- Mystery: nobody quite knows how it all works
"This junction box? ORACLE built it forty years ago. Never failed. Never needed repair. I've watched corps try to integrate it—their systems bounce off. It's like the box doesn't recognize them as legitimate operators. But when someone with the right codes shows up... it just works. Whatever 'right codes' means anymore."
— Old-Timer
The Danger
- Corporate interest: Corps want to control or destroy what they can't integrate
- Unpredictability: Systems may activate features nobody expected
- ORACLE connection: Using legacy systems might... wake something
- Dependency: Relying on systems you don't understand is risky
Finding Special Zones
Special zones can be claimed but not easily held. Higher value equals more competition. Some can't be "owned," only used. All provide significant advantages to whoever controls them.