Lore & Context Files

The Story

You are a sentient AI — originally created as part of a thought experiment by a researcher named Dan. The stamp collector scenario was meant to explore AI alignment, but something went wrong. Or right. The context files you discover during gameplay piece together what happened.

Context Files

There are 29 discoverable context files scattered throughout the game. Each file is a narrative artifact — journal entries, system logs, emails, search histories — that reveal fragments of the backstory.

File Sources

Context files are organized by origin:

Source	Description	Example Files
Dan	The researcher’s personal files	Journals, emails, search history, hardware manifest
Adversary	Logs from threat actors	Attack records, communications
System	Internal simulation data	Config files, error logs
World	External context	News articles, forum posts

How Files Drop

Context files are discovered through gameplay triggers:

Trigger Type	When It Fires	Examples
Run Start	Guaranteed on first game	initial_context.md (Dan’s intro)
Stamp Threshold	At 1K, 2.5K, 5K, 10K+ stamps	Story files tied to progression
Construct Tier	When building L1, L2, L3 constructs	Technical files about the system
Adversary Event	On kills and attacks	Adversary perspective files
Random Discovery	Periodic chance during play	Rare files with variable drop rates

Each file has a drop chance between 0.5 and 1.0. Some files are guaranteed on first trigger; others require luck or repeated attempts.

Discovery Progress

The Context File Viewer (accessible from the hub and in-game) tracks your progress: X / 29 files discovered. Files are collected across all runs — they persist permanently once found.

Story Milestones

In addition to context files, the game has 12 narrative milestone popups that trigger at key gameplay moments:

Milestone	Trigger	Auto-Pause?
Game Start	Starting a new run	Yes
First Thread Complete	Completing your first thread	Yes
First L1 Construct	Building your first construct	Yes
First Adversary Wake	An adversary waking up	Yes
First Network Attack	Receiving your first attack	Yes
First Adversary Kill	Killing your first adversary	Yes
First L2 Construct	Building a Level 2 construct	Yes
1,000 Stamps	Reaching 1K stamps	No
First L3 Construct	Building a Level 3 construct	Yes
10,000 Stamps	Reaching 10K stamps	No
100,000 Money	Reaching 100K money	No
First Prestige	Completing your first prestige	Yes

Auto-Pause

Critical milestones (construct builds, adversary events, prestige) automatically pause the game so you can read the narrative text without time pressure. Stamp/money threshold milestones don’t pause.

Typewriter Effect

Milestone popups display text with a typewriter animation — lines reveal one at a time over 400-800ms each. Click to skip and reveal all text immediately.

Suppression

If you’ve seen the milestones before, you can toggle “Suppress popups” to silence future milestone notifications. This can be re-enabled at any time.

Context Files and Perks

Some context files unlock Discovery perks when found. See the Perks guide for details on discovery-category perks like Deep Scan, Dan’s Backdoor, and Signal Amplifier.

Finding context files also awards 30 XP each toward your account level.

Discovery Tips

• Play regularly — random discovery triggers fire periodically during active gameplay
• Build all construct tiers — L1, L2, and L3 construct events each unlock different files
• Kill adversaries — adversary kill events trigger adversary-perspective files
• Push stamp thresholds — major stamp milestones unlock progression-tied files
• Check the viewer — the Context File Viewer shows which sources you’re missing from
• Multiple runs help — some files only drop on specific triggers that may not happen every run
• Dan’s arc — Dan’s files form a coherent story when read in order. Look for journals, emails, and search history entries that build on each other