The Tinkerer
One more breath before the system falls apart.
You don't grind enemies down — you infect one. Jam an unstable Payload into a single host, let it mature on its own clock while your deck rots with self-inflicted Glitches, and walk out the instant before everything collapses.
Most operatives ask how hard you can hit. The Tinkerer asks a colder question every turn: is it worth one more stack, or do I cash out now?
Wait one turn too long and the Glitches clog your hand, your guard goes paper-thin, and the enemy swing lands on a flawless setup you never got to fire. Cash out at the exact second and you detonate the fight wide open. This is the operative for players who get high on the clutch.
Payload Brinksmanship
Stack a Payload on one enemy that grows stronger every turn it sits unresolved — while greedy plays shuffle dead-weight Glitches into your own draw pile. Then pick the exact detonation window before the setup falls apart.
Detonate a matured Payload: huge single-target damage, every Glitch cleared from your hand, residual infection spread to the board, and capped Integrity clawed back.
The detonator never showed. Glitches clog the hand, the Quarantine shell is spent, and the enemy swing lands on a setup you never got to fire.
THE CASH OUT
HP on fumes, Payload at max, hand half-dead — then one screen-clearing detonation that kills the host, seeds the rest of the board, and patches the damage you took getting there.
You didn't survive the collapse. You scheduled it.
The only operative who weaponizes nearly killing himself
El Money bets on external random rolls. The Tinkerer runs a self-inflicted clock whose size he sets and can see — stacks, maturity, Glitch count. The only hidden variable is his own draw order, never an outside dice roll.
GG is a durable velocity engine with no single big turn. The Tinkerer is a fragile timebomb whose power is one deferred detonation. He gets stronger by nearly dying — not by piling up speed.
For the daredevil who chases the clutch. If you loved riding a gamble or flooring the throttle, this is the same adrenaline — except you're betting your own life, not luck or tempo.
Six ways to run the clock
Draft toward the build that fits your nerve — a patient incubator, a residual-spread closer, or a flat-out detonation gambler.
Host Selection
A prepared host becomes the source of lethal damage and spread.
Incubation Pressure
Mature detonations hit far harder than an early panic cash-out.
Cashout Timing
Detonate for huge damage, clear hand Glitches, swing back from the edge.
Residual Routing
A remnant of the detonated Payload seeds the next failure window.
One More Breath
A narrow Quarantine shell gets the turn you needed — never a turtle.
Contamination Control
Expert builds carry more risk for bigger payoffs without bricking.
What a Tinkerer card feels like
Cards plant, mature, and cash out the Payload — while a few of your own plays salt the deck with Glitches you'll have to time around.
Concept previews — final names, numbers, and card art arrive with the published deck.
The loop reads instantly — infect a host, watch the timer climb, detonate. The first clean Cash Out feels like getting away with something.
Mastery is pot-odds math: tracking stacks, maturity, Glitch density, draw odds, and enemy intent to know when one more stack is correct — and when the smaller cash-out is the expert line.
The Dregs fixer who plays the system, not the game
Harris "Tink" Delacroix — a bored-genius netrunner who walked out of a corp job because best practice was old thinking with better stationery. He doesn't beat the architecture. He finds the hole in it.
See the clock in motion
Read it at a glance
The chrome you watch in combat — your operator card, and the tray that tells you exactly how close to the edge you are.
Skill Tree
Specialize across runs — faster incubation, deeper detonations, or tighter Glitch control for the highest-risk builds.
The Tinkerer's deck and tree are built in-game; once they're published to the site they'll render here, live and explorable. Until then, the concept cards above are a taste of the kit.
Card Database
Every card in the Tinkerer's pool — filter by rarity and type, rendered by the same engine as the game.
The filterable card pool — Payload planters, incubators, Cash Out detonators, Glitch control, and Quarantine shells — appears here once the Tinkerer's deck is published to the site.
Plant it. Let it grow. Cash out before it takes you with it.