Mechanism: Light and Darkness
The Darkness Threat
Darkness is the primary existential threat in Hex Survival.
- Individual Death: Moving into unlit hexes without a lamp results in immediate death.
- Global Game Over: If the city’s critical systems fail and the entire town falls into darkness, everyone dies and the run is over.
- City Survival: The city only survives as long as it has light. Preventing darkness from taking over is the ultimate objective.
Light Sources
Players must manage light to safely navigate the map.
- Personal Light: Items like the “Starter Lamp” provide a mobile radius of safety but have limited duration.
- Grid Illumination: Power Poles can be placed to permanently illuminate a hex. This requires the hex to be connected to the town’s power chain.
- Radius: A powered pole illuminates its current hex and all six adjacent hexes (1-hex radius).
- Hex Light: The Base has inherent light.
Duration and Maintenance
- Degradation: Light sources like the Starter Lamp have a limited lifespan (e.g., “1 day of light remaining”).
- Midnight Expiration: Mobile light sources (lamps) degrade at the Midnight transition.
- The “Day Change” Trap: If a lamp has only “1 day remaining” and the player is standing in an unlit hex (a hex without a Power Pole or the Base) during the Midnight transition, the lamp expires, the hex becomes dark, and the player is immediately “Consumed by Darkness.”
- Refueling: Items like the “Empty Lamp” require a “Battery” to be crafted into a functional light source.