The three starts and what each one is actually like to play.
The three starts
All three appear in the ordinary new-game list. All three establish a branch and use the same systems.
The opening decides what you have on day one, not what you can eventually do.
Native pawn customisation works on every start.
Contact is the thing that differs
The corporation's protection — the crew it sends when a branch goes under — applies only once that branch is in contact with it.
| Start | In contact | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| Async Industries | Yes, from the first minute | You are already an investment. Help comes |
| The Store | No | Reaching contact is the achievement |
| Lone survivor | No | Same, from further away |
For two of the three starts there is no rescue until you earn it. That absence is the difficulty.
Async Industries
The intended opening, and most of this wiki is written about it.
| You get | A built facility, staff, an account, and a survey already accepted |
| The gate | Assembled most of the way, not yet working |
| First job | Restore power, finish the gate, run one crossing, bring back a record |
| Difficulty | The gentlest. You start with the tools |
The facility is a real one: a control room onto the gate hall, lab rooms, security, decontamination, storage, housing, a mess, medical, an archive, a power room, and a breezeway where the generators sit outside and the batteries sit in.
You watch the gate from the Machine pane, not through a window. The control room is sealed off from the hall by a solid wall and reached through an airlock — two automatic doors in series — so nothing in the hall is ever one pane of glass away from your operator.
The Store
You begin in a shop with a way through in the back.
| You get | A small retail business, ordinary staff, stock, a till |
| The gate | None. A narrow anomalous threshold in the basement |
| First job | Secure the public area, account for who is missing, decide how to handle it |
| Difficulty | Less money, more improvisation |
No corporation yet. Getting one is a decision you make, and it is also what buys you a safety net.
Three readable approaches to the first incident: evacuate and seal the basement, run a short supervised search for the missing customer, or document the way through and ask for outside help.
Lone survivor
You are already inside.
| You get | One person, field kit, a blank record book, limited supplies |
| The gate | None, and no facility |
| First job | Stay alive, learn a local rule, record a way out |
| Difficulty | The hardest. The map you start on is a coordinate |
Getting anywhere else is the first problem. An escape lead reaches a surface contact, a radio response can establish a small remote site, or you can keep going as a solo expedition.
Which to pick
| If you want | Pick |
|---|---|
| The full company game, taught from the start | Async Industries |
| To build the company yourself from nothing | The Store |
| A survival run with the company as a distant hope | Lone survivor |
Every start can eventually run several gates, and every start reaches the same systems.