StoneAge Idle

Experience passage, not friction removal

A hard boss, a scarce input, or a competitive loss may be intentional. The assessment begins after that fact and tests whether the next meaningful action remains understandable and available.

Window × friction × passage × contract

Each observation binds a journey window to one friction event, its visible passage, and the player-value contract affected by that passage.

Structured 0–100h journey analysis

The five windows organize product rules, content unlocks, resource decisions, and return loops into a comparable progression frame. They are analytical windows, not population estimates.

Location before diagnosis

E sends the strongest passage tension to M for measurement, S for structural localization, Q for bottleneck qualification, and T for rule-constrained design.

Failure cause → shortest route → informed retry

After a Stage Boss Gate failure, the player should be able to distinguish formation, element, resource, enhancement, capture, pet combination, Totem, and Codex causes, then choose the shortest relevant route already present in the game.

• Start state: a failed boss attempt with its tactical context intact.
• Middle state: one dominant cause and one prioritized next action are visible.
• End state: the player returns to the boss with a changed preparation state and a readable retry purpose.

Legible

The player can see what to do next and why that action relates to the failed attempt. Visibility requires a hierarchy, not merely more links.

Credible

The player can trust that the proposed action addresses the stated cause. The route must preserve the distinction between a likely improvement and a certain result.

Selectable

At least one relevant means is available under the player's current time, resource, and access conditions. A visible route that cannot be chosen is not a complete passage.

Four forms must remain distinct

Free passage uses existing play and earned inputs; paid repair purchases a missing recovery input; a time wall delays access; rule opacity hides the relation between cause and action. Confusing these forms weakens value interpretation.

Free path

A player can recover through existing play, earned resources, and understandable preparation without a paid action becoming the only readable route.

Fair competition

Losses in Arena, World League, Farm Plunder, and related rankings can be interpreted through rules, preparation, and settlement rather than unexplained disadvantage.

Efficiency optimization

A player who enjoys planning can compare routes, sequence inputs, and reduce waste without the interface deciding the strategy on their behalf.

Collection and build completion

Pet acquisition, Draw Level, Capture, Codex, and formation growth form a coherent completion journey whose safeguards and dependencies remain understandable.

Light convenience

Optional products can save routine effort or improve comfort while preserving the meaning and visibility of the free route.

Upper-ladder status

High-investment players can pursue distinction through deeper optimization and competitive visibility without redefining baseline participation as failure.

Progression support

An event is progression support when its reward clearly advances a known growth route and the player can connect participation to the next retry.

Collection acceleration

An event is collection acceleration when it shortens a known acquisition or safeguard path without changing the rule grammar midstream.

Social participation

An event is social participation when contribution, counting, settlement, and reward ownership are visible enough to sustain clan trust.

Repeated action without route confidence

Repeated boss failure, broad routine expansion, resource switching, and failure-adjacent offer attention form a review signal when the player still cannot name the next best action.

Provider

Core, System, and Operation cover the designed game proposition, its conversion rules, and the cadence through which value is delivered and refreshed.

Customer

Experience, Needs, and Engagement cover perceived use value, the motives that sustain investment, and the conditions that keep participation coherent.

Time · money · passion

Time pays for repetition and learning, money changes convenience or acquisition, and passion sustains collection, mastery, competition, and belonging.

Trust controls commitment

Trust is not a fourth capital. It determines whether the player can interpret rules, anticipate value, and commit the three capitals without avoidable ambiguity.

Character · graphic · mechanics

Mechanics leads the provider proposition through formation, placement, element, capture, and pet combination. Character and graphic fields support identity but do not carry the same measured strength.

• Character 45.24 · rank 12
• Graphic 42.20 · rank 16
• Mechanics 54.89 · rank 2

Growth provision · economy · structure

Growth inputs, resource conversion, and the content network are viable as a system, but their value depends on whether a player can map a failed challenge to the right preparation route.

• Growth Provision 49.74 · rank 6
• Economy 47.09 · rank 8
• Structure 49.87 · rank 5

Probability · store · event

Event structure is comparatively strong, while probability and store fields need clearer rule and value interpretation. Their shared issue is not offer volume alone but confidence in how acquisition and purchase connect to use.

• Probability 41.40 · rank 17
• Store 39.95 · rank 18
• Event 53.84 · rank 3

Enjoyment · satisfaction · practical benefit

Enjoyment benefits from the strategic system, while satisfaction and practical benefit depend on whether repeated time investment produces a readable improvement and a meaningful retry.

• Enjoyment 51.85 · rank 4
• Satisfaction 46.69 · rank 9
• Practical Benefit 48.68 · rank 7

Possession · competition need · growth need

Possession leads all fields, confirming the importance of pets, collection, and build completion. Competition and growth needs are more sensitive to loss meaning, route clarity, and resource demand.

• Possession 56.08 · rank 1
• Competition Need 46.30 · rank 10
• Growth Need 45.11 · rank 13

Fairness · stability · consistency

Passion is hardest to sustain when rules, settlement, or route meaning change across systems. The domain is a trust-sensitive engagement layer, not a simple content-volume score.

• Fairness 44.44 · rank 14
• Stability 44.18 · rank 15
• Consistency 45.63 · rank 11

Many routes supplied, one route needed

The product can contain sufficient growth activities while the customer still lacks a clear answer to which activity matters now. Provision volume and investment clarity are separate variables.

Time becomes the first held investment

When cause and next action are unclear, repeated attempts and broad routines hold time before they create enough confidence for money or passion to follow.

Rule clarity precedes stronger commitment

Probability, purchase, competition, and recovery all rely on a player being able to predict what an action means, not what result it will certainly produce.

The same route has different value meanings

A free-path player reads access, an optimizer reads efficiency, a collector reads completion, a convenience buyer reads effort saved, and a ladder player reads comparative advantage.

Confirm the VDC before changing a score

Behavioral traces, interface review, and segment comparisons should test whether the divergence exists and how strongly it appears before any execution sequence is fixed.

Name the system that owns the rule

Every observation is assigned to a system, a domain, and a transfer path so that the source of a tension is not confused with the place where it becomes visible.

Trace value through the full loop

Supply, conversion, validation, reward, commerce, event reinjection, and return are followed as one circulation rather than as isolated features.

Look for broken meaning, not only broken flow

A loop may continue technically while its purpose becomes hard to read. SFA therefore records interpretation gaps alongside access, input, and reward gaps.

Q owns bottleneck selection

S supplies structural candidates and transfer logic. Q decides whether one candidate qualifies as the core bottleneck and which others remain secondary.

Battle unit and board grammar

The core configuration is a twenty-four-unit deck of six Trainers and eighteen Pets on a six-by-six board with six two-by-two platforms and four elements.

• Owns unit identity, placement space, platform relation, and elemental reading.
• Feeds every combat and formation decision.

Resource acquisition activities

Daily Dungeons, Capture, Infinite Cave, Descent Raid, and related routes supply the inputs needed to strengthen the combat unit and collection.

Comparative validation and loss

Arena, World League, Farm Plunder, Sky Tower, and server-facing competition convert preparation into rank, loss interpretation, protection, and settlement.

Clan contribution and shared growth

Clan participation, Clan Village Growth, contribution, and shared rewards connect individual routine to collective progress and belonging.

Core and satellite route topology

Stage Progression anchors the return loop while growth, competition, cooperation, and event activities expand as satellite routes around it.

Input conversion and build depth

Formation, enhancement, capture-based equipment growth, pet combination, Totem, and Codex convert acquired inputs into combat readiness.

Resource grammar and exchange

Shells, Stones, tickets, Blue Gems, Star Gems, and other resources connect activity cadence to growth choice, saving, and spending.

Pet acquisition and safeguard progression

Pet Draw, Draw Level up to level ten, tickets, rarity, and collection progression structure acquisition expectation and completion value.

Products, memberships, and value presentation

Package Shop, Premium offers, Farm Membership, Stage Pass, currencies, and popups present convenience, repair, and completion propositions.

Operational reinjection

Attendance, event missions, coupons, contribution events, and limited routines reinject goals and resources into the persistent skeleton.

Closed stage-return loop

Idle progression, growth supply, conversion, and retry form a persistent circulation that can sustain play beyond temporary operations.

Twenty-four-unit strategic depth

The six-by-six board, six platforms, four elements, six Trainers, and eighteen Pets create meaningful formation and placement space.

Collection-to-use connection

Draw, Capture, equipment growth, combination, Totem, and Codex allow acquisition to feed a playable build rather than remain an isolated inventory.

Operational overlay

Events can redirect attention and supply without becoming the sole owner of progression, competition, cooperation, or commerce rules.

Twenty-four-unit formation and placement burden

Strategic depth may also increase the effort needed to locate one formation cause and compare a practical correction after failure.

Growth supply versus twenty-four-unit demand

The number of valid growth routes may make resource allocation and readiness comparison harder as the formation expands.

Combined loss and fairness cost

Farm Plunder, Sky Tower, and server competition can accumulate protection, rank, loss, and settlement interpretation within the same investment cycle.

Clan contribution and reward visibility

The transfer from individual action to collective progress and owned reward requires clear counting and settlement.

Core-satellite routine fragmentation

As more activities open, the relation between a satellite routine and the current stage objective may become harder to prioritize.

Expanded probability information

Level, week, product group, safeguard, and acquisition rules may require a shared hierarchy to retain consistent meaning.

Parallel premium currencies and products

Currencies, memberships, passes, packages, and popups may compete for interpretation before the player can compare their intended value roles.

Mid-term return after launch rewards

The transfer from launch cadence to the persistent event-economy rhythm may affect whether returning effort still has a clear purpose.

Where the route grammar begins

Failure cause, preparation options, growth inputs, route links, and retry state are designed across multiple systems before the player makes a choice.

Who interprets the route

Free-path, optimization, collection, convenience, competition, and status motives change what counts as an acceptable recovery action.

Where the bottleneck holds action

The player must decide whether to retry, edit formation, collect an input, enter another activity, wait, or consider a product.

Where interpretation can spread

Clan advice, competition comparison, and shared route language can either clarify the preparation model or amplify conflicting explanations.

Where route ambiguity changes offer meaning

A product can be read as convenience, repair, or completion depending on whether the free recovery path and the dominant failure cause are already clear.

Design distributes the answer

Formation, element, enhancement, Capture, pet combination, Totem, Codex, resource supply, and activity access can all contribute to readiness, but no single hierarchy necessarily tells the player which factor dominates now.

Behavior loses a prioritized next action

The player can continue acting while still lacking a confident route. Repeated attempts, broad routines, and resource switching may therefore consume time without preserving learning.

Commerce inherits the ambiguity

When a free route is not readable, a convenience or collection product can be interpreted as progression repair. The commercial issue begins upstream in route meaning.

Volition + Value, with partial Trust

Volition is held because the next choice is unclear. Value is held because the expected use of time or resources is uncertain. Trust participates when rules or product meaning cannot be predicted consistently.

Twenty-four-unit formation experimentation cost

Six Trainers, eighteen Pets, board positions, platforms, and elements create valuable depth but can increase the effort required to isolate one change and learn from a retry.

Growth-resource scarcity and twenty-four-unit demand

A broad formation creates competing input needs. The bottleneck concerns allocation and route comparison, not a predetermined need to increase reward volume.

Premium-currency grammar

Blue Gems, Star Gems, products, memberships, and passes need stable ownership and use meaning so that saving, spending, and paid value can be compared.

Relief versus Repair purchase split

Convenience should read as effort saved, while repair should read as a specific missing input. Failure-adjacent exposure can blur the two meanings.

Collection safeguard and Draw Level understanding

Pet Draw, Draw Level, rarity, tickets, Capture, and Codex need a consistent explanation of progress and protection so collection commitment remains interpretable.

Early 0–20h value engine

Stage progression, acquisition, Capture, first formation growth, and the initial boss challenge create a coherent opening arc worth protecting.

Strategic depth

The twenty-four-unit formation, Capture, clan growth, raids, elements, platforms, and build systems should remain sources of mastery rather than being flattened into one automatic answer.

Ad-removal and free-claim floor

The accessible free route and its claim value must remain visible enough to anchor convenience and paid propositions as optional choices.

Formation–collection connection

Pet acquisition and collection retain value because they feed formation decisions, build variety, and long-term completion rather than functioning as detached inventory.

Action requires readable state and consequence

A player can make a strategic choice when the current state, available action, and expected directional consequence are clear enough to compare.

Challenge needs a learnable feedback loop

A difficult boss can support engagement when failure produces usable feedback and the next attempt preserves a sense of progress and agency.

Motivation, ability, and prompt must meet

Recovery stalls when motivation exists but the ability path or next-action prompt is too dispersed to support the intended behavior.

Passage, measurement, and structure align

E locates the failed-gate passage, M identifies the cross-domain divergence, and S traces the design-to-behavior-to-commerce transfer.

Can I choose the next action?

Free-path and optimization players need comparable existing routes; collectors need a visible completion relation; competitive players need a preparation interpretation.

Will this action use my investment well?

Time, resources, and money need directional value before commitment. The report does not promise the result of a retry or purchase.

Will the rule mean the same thing across contexts?

Trust becomes decisive around currency, safeguard, competition loss, purchase meaning, and the relation between a recommended route and its actual system ownership.

Rule visibility and route order

T may reorganize how existing causes, actions, activities, and retry states are shown. It may not add a new progression system, reward source, or combat shortcut.

Numerical systems remain unchanged

Boss strength, resource quantities, acquisition odds, pricing, exchange value, progression pace, and competitive balance remain outside this design scope.

Guide without deciding for the player

The interface can identify a cause class and reveal relevant existing routes, but it must not automate formation choice or collapse strategic experimentation.

Design lock is not rollout approval

Each direction remains a testable option until owner review, client-data confirmation, guardrail definition, and rollback readiness are complete.

Formation Depth Guide

Safe: Formation Entry Friction Reduction. Default: Formation Depth Guide. Aggressive: Platform Diagnostic Split. Use Nested Doll to group unit, platform, and element layers, then Mechanical Vibration to reveal the layer most relevant to the failed state without auto-selecting a formation.

• Improvement condition: the player can isolate one formation dimension before editing.
• Protection condition: twenty-four-unit depth and experimentation remain intact.
• Value-recovery condition: the next retry records which formation layer changed.

Growth-Material Baseline Guide

Safe: Progress Buffer Guidance. Default: Growth-Material Baseline Guide. Aggressive: Data-Based Growth Observation Band, read-only. Use Equipotentiality to compare existing inputs on a common readiness surface and Cheap Disposable to expose the lowest-cost relevant step first.

• Improvement condition: current supply and twenty-four-unit demand can be compared by purpose.
• Protection condition: reward quantity, economy pace, and scarcity remain unchanged.
• Value-recovery condition: the player can select an existing input route without treating every routine as equally urgent.

Paid/Free Currency Consistency Guide

Safe: Currency Rule Hierarchy. Default: Paid/Free Currency Consistency Guide. Aggressive: Pre-Purchase Regret Buffer. Use Inert Atmosphere to stabilize labels and Counterweight to show a paid choice beside its existing free-path meaning.

• Improvement condition: ownership, acquisition, use, and paid/free status read consistently.
• Protection condition: currency values, exchange rules, and product economics remain unchanged.
• Value-recovery condition: the player can distinguish saving, convenience, repair, and completion before spending.

Pre-Purchase Trust Cushion

Safe and default: Pre-Purchase Trust Cushion. Conservative extension: Healthy Purchase Meaning Cushion. Aggressive: Post-Purchase Value-Recovery Guidance. Use Beforehand Cushioning to clarify offer role before commitment and Counterweight to keep the free route visible.

• Improvement condition: the offer states whether it saves effort, supplies recovery, or advances completion.
• Protection condition: no offer becomes the default response to failure.
• Value-recovery condition: post-purchase use remains connected to the value stated before commitment.

Summon Safeguard Rule Guide

Safe: Regret Buffer Guidance. Default: Summon Safeguard Rule Guide. Aggressive: Integrity-First Safeguard Ledger, read-only. Use Blessing in Disguise to convert a non-target acquisition into visible progress and Homogeneity to keep rule language consistent across draw contexts.

• Improvement condition: Draw Level, tickets, rarity, and safeguard progress are read as one rule family.
• Protection condition: acquisition odds, Draw Level maximum, and safeguard numbers remain unchanged.
• Value-recovery condition: collection progress and formation use remain connected after acquisition.

24-Unit Formation Recovery Composer

Combines failure hierarchy, formation layers, platform reading, growth-input baseline, and retry memory into one existing-route composition for high-complexity formation states.

Trusted Collection-Economy Lens

Combines currency grammar, offer meaning, Draw Level, acquisition safeguards, and formation use into one read-only interpretation surface.

Default guide fails before a signature begins

Use a signature only when limited testing shows persistent cross-guide confusion that cannot be resolved through ordering, labels, and the four-line overlay.