THE MANUAL

THE PRACTICE SHIFT

The first time ya clock in, the mill forewoman — N'atilie Gantry, Nat once ya've earned it — offers ya one easy fight with the training wheels on. It's a real duel with rigged hands against a 12-HP Homburg Hank, and nothin' in it counts against ya. Every step spotlights the one thing to touch; hit GOT IT to move on, or DO IT FER ME and she does the step for ya. Ya can skip it any time, and replay it from the ? rules button whenever ya like. Here's the whole shift, screen by screen.

STEP 0

First day, Yinzer?

Fresh save, first boot: Nat asks if ya want the practice shift. Two minutes, tops. I KNOW THE DRILL skips straight to the map.

STEP 1

Meet the foreman

First day on the job. I run the practice shifts. We're gonna work one easy fight, n'at. Nothin' here counts against ya.

The dim shield is the lesson talking — only the spotlighted thing is live while it's up.

STEP 2

Steam

See them gems? That's yer steam. Ya get 1 the first turn, 2 the next, on up to 9 — and the boiler tops off fresh every turn. Every card costs steam.

The blue gems on yer hero bar are yer budget for the turn. The gold number on a card is what it costs.

STEP 3

Pick a card

That's Jagoff — costs 1 steam, hits like a jagoff. Click 'im. The glowin' gold cards are the ones ya can afford.

Cards ya can't afford this turn sit dark in yer hand.

STEP 4

Put 'im to work

Now click any glowin' lane in yer row. Ya can drag cards aht there too.

Yer row is the bottom one. Any empty slot glows once a unit's selected; click it (or drag the card onto it) to summon.

STEP 5

The ⚔ badge

See the lil' ⚔ over his head? That's where his swing's headed. Most units gotta nap the turn they land — Jagoff's got Rush, so he's swingin' right away.

STEP 6

End turn

Hit END TURN. Yer ready units attack whatever's straight across their lane — nobody home? They smack Hank right in the mustache.

STEP 7

Lanes fight straight across

Hank's puttin' up his own guys now. Park yer units where they block his, or where the lane's open to his face.

That's the whole positioning game: a unit across from an enemy blocks it; a unit across from nothing hits the hero.

STEP 8

A spell

That one's a spell — Slippy Sidewalk. Spells don't take a lane, they just go off. Grab it.

STEP 9

Cast it

Now hit CAST IT and watch somebody bust their tail on the ice.

Some spells want a target — the board tells ya what to click.

STEP 10

The whole job

Knock Hank from there dahn to zero before he does it to you. Watch yer deck too — run outta cards and yer hero starts takin' hits.

STEP 11

Take it from here

Finish yer shift! 1–7, arrows, a controller, draggin' — it all works. Hold a card to read it big.

The shield drops and it's yer fight. Nat shrinks to the corner and keeps her mouth shut.

STEP 12

Yinz won

Every fight ends on the shift report: HP left on both sides, turns, cards played, steam vented, yer Shift MVP, and — in the campaign — stars and scrip. RUN IT BACK replays the fight; BACK TO THE MAP does what it says.

THE BASICS

It's a lane battle. Two rows of four slots face each other across the board — yinz on the bottom, the other guy on top. Both heroes start at 25 HP (the practice Hank is a softie at 12). Knock theirs to zero first and ya win the shift.

Steam

Yer steam is the budget for a turn: 1 on the first turn, 2 on the second, and so on up to a cap of 9. The boiler refills every turn — unspent steam doesn't carry over, so spend it. Every card shows its cost in the gold gem.

Yer hand and yer deck

• Ya open with 3 cards and draw one at the start of every turn. Yer hand holds 7 — an eighth card goes right in the Mon.
• A deck is exactly 30 cards, no more than 2 copies of any one card.
• Short deck? The foreman fills the gaps from yer own collection at fight time (cheapest first) and tells ya so. The Deck builder's ⛏ FILL 'ER UP button does the same and saves it.

The four categories

EATSPLACES SLANGICONS Every card is one of four kinds of Pittsburgh — the color on its frame tells ya which. Categories matter for Category Packs and some Work Orders, not for rules.

UNITS & LANES

Click a unit card, then click an empty glowing slot in yer row — or drag it aht there. Units are sleepy the turn they arrive and swing on yer next END TURN. Ready units show the little ⚔ badge pointing where the hit's going.

Lanes fight straight across

When you end yer turn, each ready unit attacks the enemy unit in its own lane. Nobody across the way? It hits the enemy hero for its full attack. Then the other guy's units swing back the same way on his turn. A unit drops dead when its health hits zero.

Keywords

Statuses

• Frozen ❄️ — the unit skips its next ready. Badge sits top-right.
• Slowed — none of that side's units ready next turn (Hardy ones shrug it off).
• Other badges (poison, shields, thorns and the like) stack top-left with a number — hold the unit to read exactly what's on it.

SPELLS

A card marked SPELL doesn't take a slot — click it, then hit CAST IT, or drag it onto the field. It goes off right away. Spells that need a target (freeze that guy, pump this one) light up the legal targets; click one, or drag the spell straight onto it. Esc or the B button puts the card back if ya change yer mind.

THE TURN, START TO FINISH

1. Redd Up (first turn only): don't like yer opening hand? Tap the cards ya don't want — they go back in the deck and ya draw fresh. One shot, before the whistle. The other guy redds up too. (Night Shift skips this; the decks are too small.)
2. Yer steam refills and grows by one; ya draw a card.
3. Play what ya can afford: summon units, cast spells, in any order.
4. END TURN: yer ready units attack across their lanes, then the other guy takes his turn and his units swing back.

WINNING, STARS & SCRIP

Zero their hero and it's YINZ WON. Campaign shifts are rated:

• ★ — ya won.
• ★★ — ya won with at least half yer HP left.
• ★★★ — ya won at full HP, or by turn 12.

Steel Scrip ⚙ is the mill's money. A campaign win pays 5 + (level ÷ 4) scrip, tripled the first time ya beat a shift; first boss wins pay +50, chest levels +25, and every new star +5. Spare copies of a card beyond two convert to scrip on their own (10 / 20 / 40 / 80 by rarity). Spend it at the Company Store.

THE MAP — 120 SHIFTS ACROSS THE CITY

Twelve districts, ten shifts each: The Flats, The Strip District, Dahn a' Crick, Sousside Saturday, The Inclines, Dahntahn, The North Shore, The Mon Valley, The Tunnels, Rankin Furnaces, The Dark Valley and The Point — each with its own foreman to beat and its own way of playing. Every tenth shift is a boss with a rule of its own (everything has Rush, three lanes only, a furnace that burns, a hand limit at rush hour…). The level card tells ya what yer walking into before ya clock in.

First-time wins hand out new cards (the card names are listed on the level card) and chest levels drop scrip. Lost a shift? Nothing's taken — run it back.

YER CARDS — DECK, BINDER, CARD BACKS

THE COMPANY STORE

The shelves only stock districts ya've reached, so the store never runs ahead of the campaign. Duplicates past two copies turn into scrip automatically — the pack screen tells ya when that happens.

WORK ORDERS

Three orders a day, same slate for everybody, on the punch card behind the WORK ORDERS button. Win fights, play cards of a certain kind, beat a boss — any mode counts (yes, Night Shift too). Claim each one as ya finish it; claim all three and the Full Shift Bonus (+100 scrip) pays out on top. Orders reset at midnight, yer local time. Finishing one mid-fight pops a "WORK ORDER PUNCHED" note — collect on the map.

Trophies

The TROPHIES case tracks the long haul — shifts won, bosses beaten, cards played, packs opened, collection milestones — and pays scrip plus the odd title (beat all twelve bosses and yer the King of the Point).

NIGHT SHIFT

• Yer collection deals ya a skeleton crew — a small starting deck. The districts come at ya in random order.
• Every win: draft one of three cards into the deck. Every third win: draft a relic — a run-long perk. Every fifth fight is a boss.
• Three losses and yer sent home. Reach fight 15 and the run's complete — and the heat goes up, stacking an extra modifier on bosses next time.
• Scrip pays by depth (5 a fight, plus a bonus per boss beaten), banked when the run ends or ya clock out.
• No Redd Up in Night Shift, and punching out of a fight costs a life — there's no free reroll.

ROAD TRIPS

Rival cities get their own ten-shift gauntlet below the campaign on the map: yer deck against that city's whole pool, with a themed boss at the end. Philly opens once ya've cleared District 3. Each shift pays first-win scrip; beat shift 10 and that city's deck is yours to play in Quick Match, plus 150 scrip. The trip's difficulty is fixed by shift — it's the same fight whether yer at level 31 or 120. More cities (Baltimore, Cleveland, Boston) arrive as DLC and slot in the same way.

QUICK MATCH & SHIFT RULES

QUICK MATCH is the classic fight: both sides play the full Pittsburgh pool (or a rival deck once it's unlocked) — pick the deck from the chooser when there's more than one. SHIFT RULES is the weekly brawl: Quick Match plus this week's house rule — everything has Rush, frostbite openers, furnace heat, and so on. The rule rotates every week and the button tells ya which one's up.

SETTINGS & PUNCHING OUT

CONTROLS