Card Overview

Card System

Stamp Collector Simulator has 180+ cards organized across 6 trees. Each card has costs, tags, and behaviors that determine how it fits into your strategy.

Card Types

Executables

Cards tagged executable can be played as threads. They have a duration, consume resources, and produce rewards when they resolve. Key properties:

• durationHours — how long the thread runs
• hasAutoRun — if true, automatically restarts on completion
• returnToHand — if true, card goes back to your hand after resolving

Permanents

Cards tagged permanent mount to your board. They persist until destroyed or unmounted.

• Hardware — rigs that provide HDD/RAM capacity
• Software — constructs and utilities that enable card interactions
• Malware — injected by attacks, drain your capacity

Shards

Cards tagged shard serve as arguments (inputs) for spells. They’re consumed when used. Shards come in three tiers with escalating HDD costs:

Tier	HDD Cost	Availability
Basic	51	Early game, generated by utility cards
Core	255	Mid game, from factory processes
Advanced	1,275	Late game, from high-tier factories

Cost Types

Every card has up to four costs:

Cost	Purpose
HDD Cost	Storage space the card occupies
RAM Cost	Execution capacity consumed while running
Money Cost	Currency spent to acquire/use the card
Stamp Cost	Stamps spent to acquire/use the card

Card Arguments

Advanced cards require arguments — other cards that are consumed or referenced when the spell is cast.

Argument types:

• cardRef — references a specific card by definition ID or tag filter
• contact — references a player or adversary contact
• zone: ‘hdd’ — argument card must be in your HDD (default)
• zone: ‘permanents’ — argument card must be mounted as a permanent

The Six Trees

Basic — Foundation & Economy

Starter cards for income generation and crypto trading. Includes Bid Stamps, Flip Stamps, and the Crypto Wallet system.

Data — Information & Defense

Intelligence gathering, defensive spells, and data processing. Build Data Lake → Pattern Mining for card generation. Access Entropy Wipe for malware removal.

Communications — Networking & Diplomacy

Economy boosting, reputation building, and adversary immunity. Build Large Language Model → Signal Generation for fast card generation.

Security — Offensive Hacking

The primary PvP tree. Hack spells that steal money, inject malware, destroy permanents, and cancel threads. Build Intrusion Framework → Surveillance Sweep.

Network — Malware

Malware permanents injected by attacks. Not directly playable — these are delivered to your game by adversary attacks and PvP hack spells.

Rigs — Hardware Infrastructure

Hardware permanents that provide HDD and RAM capacity. Acquired via Buy Order executable cards.

Hack Levels

Some cards have a hackLevel (1, 2, or 3) that determines damage dealt to adversaries:

• Level 1 = 1 HP damage (level²)
• Level 2 = 4 HP damage
• Level 3 = 9 HP damage

Factory Processes

Factory processes are special auto-run executables that require a construct permanent and produce random cards from a pool. They’re the primary way to grow your card collection in each tree.

Factory	Tree	Construct Required	Cycle	Output
Pattern Mining	Data	Data Lake	48h	Random data card
Signal Generation	Comms	Large Language Model	18h	Random comms card
Surveillance Sweep	Security	Intrusion Framework	varies	Random security card
Key Cracking	Security	Counterintelligence Mesh	60h	Random security card