03-combat-systems

4. Resources & Combat Philosophy

4.1 Design Principle

Combat is fast, lethal, and proximity-based. Sustained open combat is dangerous and discouraged. The game rewards preparation, observation, and precision over endurance. Stealth is the primary language; violence is the punctuation. The moment-to-moment feel is a blend of Assassin’s Creed traversal fluidity and Where Winds Meet combat precision.

Design Rule

Every combat encounter should have a stealth solution, a social solution, and a violent solution. The violent solution should always feel like the player ran out of better ideas.

4.2 The Three Resources

The game uses three distinct resources with entirely separate sources. They never compete or convert into each other.

Semangat (Soul-Force) The protagonist’s combat composure. Full at the start of every encounter. Depleted by taking damage, blocking hits passively through guard, and by actively spending on Ilmu abilities and Pukau darts. Recovered through perfect parries. When Semangat breaks (reaches zero), the protagonist staggers and takes direct health damage — the guard is down, the body is exposed. Semangat has no interaction with traversal or parkour. A protagonist in stealth who uses no abilities has full Semangat indefinitely.

Rage Builds only by taking hits. Decays over time between encounters. Cannot be stockpiled. When full, triggers Amok automatically — the player has no cancel or delay. The only control is not getting hit.

Health Depleted by damage that penetrates broken Semangat, by unblockable attacks (which bypass Semangat entirely), and by Amok health decay. Standard recovery through rest, consumables, or specific Kebal nodes.

Design Intent — Three Resources

• Semangat measures composure. Full Semangat means the protagonist is centred, guarded, ready. Broken Semangat means they are exposed.
• Rage measures pressure absorbed. It fills when you take damage — and when it fills, something extraordinary becomes available.
• Health measures survival. It is the last resource. When it moves, the protagonist is genuinely in danger.
• The combat loop: manage Semangat through parries and ability spending → avoid Rage accumulation through clean play → protect Health as the final line. A ghost player who never enters combat never interacts with any of these.

4.3 Semangat — The Guard-and-Spend Resource

Semangat is the protagonist’s combat composure — a single resource that functions as both a defensive buffer and an ability fuel pool. This dual role creates the core combat tension: every Ilmu ability or Pukau dart the player fires in stealth is guard buffer they will not have if combat starts in the next thirty seconds.

Starting State

Semangat is full at mission start and refills to full when the protagonist is out of combat for a sustained period. There is no generation loop. The player does not build Semangat through skilled traversal — parkour always feels fluid, responsive, and powerful regardless of Semangat state. The protagonist moves like an operative at the peak of their craft at all times.

Depletion Sources

• Damage absorbed — hits in combat drain Semangat before Health. Heavier hits drain more. Semangat functions as a guard meter in the Where Winds Meet model: it absorbs punishment until it breaks.
• Ilmu active abilities — Langkah and Kebal active abilities (D-pad, see Section 6.2) spend Semangat on activation. These are powerful, deliberate tools — not spammed, not free.
• Pukau darts — every sumpitan dart fired costs Semangat. A stealth player who relies heavily on darts enters potential combat encounters with a thinner guard buffer. This is the primary stealth-to-combat risk transfer.

Recovery

• Perfect parry — the sole active recovery source. Timed parry (RB) at the exact frame of an incoming attack recovers a significant portion of Semangat. This is the combat skill expression: a player who reads enemy timing and parries cleanly can sustain Semangat through extended encounters. A player who cannot will break.
• Out-of-combat refill — Semangat refills passively when the protagonist has been out of combat for a sustained period. No active generation during stealth or traversal.

Semangat Break

When Semangat reaches zero, the protagonist staggers — a visible, punishing animation that leaves them open. All subsequent damage hits Health directly until Semangat begins recovering (which requires either a perfect parry or disengaging from combat long enough for passive refill to begin). The break state is the moment the game shifts from “you are in control” to “you are surviving.”

Design Note — Why Semangat Is Not a Stamina Bar

• Semangat does not gate traversal, parkour, sprinting, climbing, or any stealth action other than Pukau darts.
• The protagonist can run, vault, wall-hang, and freerun indefinitely with zero Semangat.
• Semangat is a combat resource. Stealth and traversal are free. This separation is load-bearing: the game’s primary mode (stealth) should never feel resource-constrained. Combat is the punishment state; Semangat management is the cost of being caught.

4.4 Combat Model — Parry, Dodge, No Block

The combat model has two defensive inputs: parry and dodge. There is no passive block. The protagonist cannot hold a button and absorb hits — they commit to a timed parry or they move out of the way. Both are skill expressions. Neither is a safe fallback.

Parry (RB)

Timed input. The protagonist redirects an incoming attack at the moment of contact — consistent with silat’s principle of returning force along the attacker’s line. A perfect parry (frame-precise) recovers Semangat and creates a counter-attack window. A mistimed parry costs Semangat (the hit lands partially) and leaves the protagonist in a brief recovery animation.

Dodge (B)

Directional sidestep or backstep. Provides i-frames during the dodge animation but the window is tight — this is not a roll-spam escape. The protagonist moves out of the attack line, not through it. Dodge is the required response to unblockable attacks.

Unblockable Attacks — Red Glow

Certain enemy attacks — heavy overhead strikes, charge attacks, Hulubalang power moves — are unblockable. These are telegraphed by a red glow on the weapon or limb during wind-up. The player must dodge. Attempting to parry an unblockable attack results in a Semangat break and direct Health damage. The red glow is the game’s one concession to non-diegetic combat communication — it must be instantly readable because the consequence of misreading it is severe.

Design Rule — No Block

• Passive blocking was considered and rejected. A block button creates a safe state — the player holds it and waits. This game’s combat is about commitment: read the attack, choose parry or dodge, execute.
• The parry/dodge split maps cleanly to the two defensive philosophies in the Ilmu tree: Kebal rewards parrying (stand your ground, absorb and redirect), Langkah rewards dodging (move, reposition, re-engage from advantage).
• Unblockable red-glow attacks force dodge even on Kebal-heavy builds, preventing parry-only play from becoming degenerate.

4.5 Rage & The Amok State

Rage builds whenever the protagonist takes damage. It decays between encounters and cannot be deliberately charged or stockpiled. When it fills completely, Amok triggers automatically. The player did not choose this moment — but what arrives is not a penalty. It is the protagonist at their most dangerous, reached through the worst possible route.

Rage Mechanics

• Builds on taking any damage — heavier hits fill it faster
• Damage that hits Semangat (guard) builds Rage more slowly than damage that hits Health directly
• Decays over time when the player is not in combat — cannot be stockpiled between encounters
• No manual trigger, no cancel, no warning beyond the meter and the escalating environmental distortion (see Section 15.2)
• A skilled player who avoids damage may complete entire playthroughs without seeing Amok

The Amok State

Amok is the legendary state of heightened martial fury documented in Malay historical accounts — not a warrior’s chosen surge but an eruption under accumulated pressure. In-game it reflects this: it arrives uninvited, through damage taken rather than mastery earned. But what it delivers is spectacular. The protagonist does not become desperate — they become something else entirely.

Trigger Automatic at full Rage — no player input required or possible

Visual World desaturates; red and white particle trails; audible heartbeat replaces all ambient sound

Speed Extreme — effectively doubles movement speed

Offense All attacks become unblockable; chain kills activate automatically

Defense Auto-deflects projectiles

Cost Health decays rapidly while active

Exit condition Execute the Sheathing Ritual (held button, 1.5s animation) or deplete health entirely

Rage on exit Rage meter resets to zero — Amok cannot chain

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Design Intent — Amok

• Amok arrives through damage, not through skill — the trigger is outside the player’s control.
• What it delivers should be exciting. The cost of getting there was real; what you do with it is powerful.
• In a stealth mission, triggering Amok changes the nature of the encounter — the ghost becomes the storm.
• Health decay during Amok creates urgency without making it feel punishing.
• Historically accurate: Amok in Malay accounts is not chosen. It takes the warrior.

4.6 Controller Layout — Xbox Format

The input design assumes a standard Xbox controller. All combat, traversal, and ability inputs must be reachable without removing thumbs from the sticks during action. The layout reflects two distinct input modes: Standard (combat and traversal) and Sumpitan (ranged ADS).

Standard Mode — Combat & Traversal

Input	Action
Left Stick	Movement
Right Stick	Camera
L3 (Left Stick Click)	Toggle → Sumpitan Mode
RT (Hold)	Parkour — freerun, wall-run, climb (AC model: hold to flow)
A	Jump
X	Light Attack
Y	Heavy Attack
B	Dodge / Sidestep (directional with Left Stick)
RB	Parry (timed — perfect parry recovers Semangat)
D-pad (Up/Down/Left/Right)	Ilmu Active Abilities — Langkah and Kebal spenders (see Section 6.2). Slots assignable.
LB	[TBD — candidate: lock-on / target cycle]
LT	[TBD — candidate: focused aim / environmental interaction]

Sumpitan Mode — Ranged ADS

Activated by clicking L3. The protagonist enters a precision aim state — movement slows, camera centres on a targeting reticle. The sumpitan is not visibly drawn as an equipped weapon; the aim state is contextual.

Input	Action
Left Stick	Slow movement (ADS walk speed)
Right Stick	Aim
L3 (Left Stick Click)	Toggle → Exit Sumpitan Mode
X	Fire Dart 1 — Damak Beracun (Poison)
Y	Fire Dart 2 — Pukau (Lure)
A	Fire Dart 3 — Halimun (Smoke) / Sedasi (Sedation) [unlock-dependent]
B	Fire Dart 4 — Panik (Panic) [unlock-dependent]
RB / RT	[TBD — candidate: zoom / hold breath for precision]

Darts that have not been unlocked through Ilmu Pukau progression show as locked on the face button prompt. Dart availability expands as the player invests in the Pukau path and acquires the sumpitan narrative object (Section 5.3).

Design Rule — Two-Mode Input

• The L3 toggle between Standard and Sumpitan is the single mode-switch in the game’s input model. There are no weapon wheels, radial menus, or modifier-held submenus.
• In Standard Mode, the player has full combat and traversal capability. In Sumpitan Mode, they have precision ranged capability at the cost of movement speed and melee access.
• The toggle must feel instant. No animation delay, no menu transition. Click — you are aiming. Click — you are fighting.
• In Sumpitan Mode, if a guard enters Combat state and closes to melee range, the protagonist should auto-exit Sumpitan Mode. Getting caught in ADS while being attacked is a control failure, not a design intention.

Design Note — D-pad Active Slots

• Four D-pad directions = four active ability slots maximum.
• Langkah contributes up to 2 actives (Langkah Bayangan, Lompat Harimau). Kebal contributes up to 2 actives (Kulit Kebal, Tolak Bala).
• A player who invests in both paths fills all four slots. A player who invests in one path has two actives and two empty D-pad directions.
• Pukau has no D-pad actives — its active abilities (darts, Ghaib) operate through Sumpitan Mode and dedicated input.
• Slot assignment should be player-configurable from the pause menu.

Open Question — LB and LT

• LB and LT are unassigned in Standard Mode. Candidates include: lock-on / target cycling (LB), Ghaib activation (LT), focused environmental interaction, or stealth-specific actions.
• Ghaib is now a fixed-duration tap-to-activate ability (not a hold). LT tap is a strong candidate — clean, fast, no sustained hold required. This frees LT from being locked down for the full Ghaib duration.
• These assignments need playtesting. The current design locks combat (face buttons + RB + B) and traversal (RT + A) and leaves LB/LT as the remaining design space.

5. Weapon & Capability Systems

The protagonist carries one weapon: the Warisan Keris. Everything else --- close-quarters killing, ranged incapacitation, traversal — is expressed through base capabilities and Ilmu-gated abilities unlocked through narrative events. There is no weapon wheel. The player never switches.

5.1 Warisan Keris — The Unfinished Blade

The protagonist carries a kris that was never completed. The empu who forged it brought the blade to a point and stopped — leaving no instructions, then disappeared. A smith who examines it later says it should not function. It works because the wielder is unconsciously finishing it.

The blade grows. Not through the protagonist’s intention but through their method — the accumulated weight of how they choose to move through the world. Near the end, someone who knew the empu passes on what he said: the blade would show its bearer’s true nature.

At the end, the blade completes itself. Then disappears with its bearer. It is the only mirror the game holds up.

Design Principle — The Keris

• The Keris is not tied to the Tuah/Jebat moral choice. Both paths access all four traits.
• The build reflects how the player chooses to operate, not which side they took.
• The protagonist is always a ghost. The Keris only determines what kind.

The Four Blade Traits

The Keris grows through a finite skill tree across four traits. Players can never max all four — investment is permanent and builds feel distinct across playthroughs. The traits are not ranked. Each is a complete philosophy of lethality.

Shadow Avoidance, misdirection, erasure. The blade that was never there. Stealth kills leave no trace evidence; detection windows are wider; enemy search routines shorten. The highest-investment Shadow build can complete entire missions without a single confirmed kill.

Poison Patience, delayed damage, systemic lethality. The blade that waits. Bisa effects compound across targets; a single dart can cascade through a group via proximity. Death arrives on the player’s schedule, not the encounter’s.

Water Flow combat, redirection, defensive adaptability. The blade that yields to win. Perfect parries return force at amplified angles; combat momentum is preserved through successive redirects. The highest expression: enemies defeat themselves.

Flame Commitment, irreversible strikes, fear effects. The blade that cannot be taken back. Each attack carries a permanent consequence — a guard who sees a Flame kill does not raise alarm, they flee. High damage, no recovery window, no retreat.

Production Note — Skill Tree Shape

• Each trait has its own branch. Nodes within a branch are linear — earlier unlocks gate later ones.
• Cross-trait investment is possible but costly — spending in two traits means mastering neither.
• The finite cap is intentional. A player who tries to do everything does nothing particularly well.
• TBD: exact node counts per branch, XP costs, and whether any single node is share-gated across traits.

The Warangan Ritual — Upgrade Ceremony

The warangan ritual is not a maintenance loop. It is the upgrade ceremony for the Keris trait tree. When the player unlocks a new trait node, they do not receive a skill point notification. They perform the ritual. The blade changes. This is the moment the protagonist acknowledges — through deliberate action — what they are choosing to become.

The ritual requires three materials found naturally in the world and gifted by Shahbandar contacts: lime (kapur), arsenic compound (warangan), and flower water (air bunga). These are consumed only at the moment of upgrade, not tracked on a timer. There is no maintenance obligation, no degradation, no housekeeping.

• Location: Balai (safehouse) ritual table, or Hinterland shrines
• Materials are consumed on upgrade — not tracked between upgrades
• The ritual takes ~45 seconds and is not skippable — it is a moment of stillness and intention
• The blade visibly shifts after each ritual — subtle physical changes that accumulate across the playthrough

Design Note — The Ritual as Mirror

• The warangan ritual is the one moment the player explicitly chooses what the blade is becoming.
• Everywhere else the Keris grows through accumulated play behaviour — unconscious, unreflective.
• Here the protagonist kneels at a table, performs the rite, and the blade responds.
• It should feel like recognition, not reward. The player is not gaining power. They are seeing what was always there.

Narrative Note — When the Keris Arrives

• The protagonist does not begin the game with the Keris. It arrives at the end of Act I.
• Act I is played entirely on base capabilities — the protagonist survives on skill, silence, and anticipation.
• When the blade arrives it is an event, not a tutorial reward. The empu forged it before the protagonist knew what they were.
• That timeline — the blade waiting for its bearer before the bearer knew what they were — sits quietly at the heart of the narrative.

5.2 Base Capabilities — What the Protagonist Always Has

These capabilities are available from the opening of the game. They are not unlocked, not upgraded through Ilmu, and not tied to any narrative event. They are simply who the protagonist is — a Peranakan operative trained in silence and close-quarters precision.

Kerambit — Close-Quarters Kills

The protagonist carries a kerambit from the start. It is not an equipped weapon in the traditional sense — it does not appear on a weapon wheel and the player does not select it. It is simply the tool used for close-quarters stealth kills and silent eliminations. Fast, silent, and irreversible.

• Proximity-based silent kills when undetected — the fundamental stealth execution
• Continuous motion design — attacks flow into grapples, grapples into repositions
• Not available for open combat in the way the Keris is — it is a stealth tool, not a duelling weapon

Unarmed & Environmental

• Chokehold and manual strangulation — non-lethal, slower than the kerambit, requires sustained contact
• Environmental kills — ledge drops, crowd crushes, opportunistic falls
• Shoving targets into hazards — water, fires, high edges

5.3 Narrative Unlocks — Objects That Open Ilmu Nodes

The protagonist encounters two objects through the story that are not equipped weapons but narrative keys. Each object’s arrival unlocks a branch of the Ilmu tree that was previously inaccessible. The object is kept — it exists in the world — but it is never wielded as a primary weapon.

The Kerambit — Kuku Harimau (Ilmu Langkah)

Early in Act I, the protagonist acquires a specific kerambit --- heavier, purpose-forged, with a longer ring — from a contact in the Hinterlands. This is the Kuku Harimau blade. Its arrival unlocks the Kuku Harimau node cluster in Ilmu Langkah: driving the blade into wooden walls, beams, and soft stone to anchor vertically, enabling wall-hanging positions for scouting and assassination from above.

• Unlocks: indefinite vertical surface hold for scouting and timing
• Unlocks: wall-hanging assassination — silent drop kill without alerting nearby guards
• Unlocks: assisted climbing on surfaces lacking ledges or handholds

The Sumpitan — Blowpipe Abilities (Ilmu Pukau)

In the Hinterlands, an Orang Laut contact passes a sumpitan to the protagonist — a handoff that is a relationship moment as much as a gear acquisition. Its arrival unlocks the blowpipe node cluster in Ilmu Pukau. Darts are not crafted, bought, or collected. Each dart type is a discrete Ilmu ability with its own cooldown.

Damak Beracun (Poison) Silent ranged poison — damage compounds over time; involuntary vocalisation can misdirect nearby guards

Pukau (Lure) Hallucinogenic dart — target moves toward an illusory source for ~15 seconds; useful for precise repositioning of patrols

Halimun (Smoke) Contact smoke burst — obscures a 3m radius for 8 seconds; can be used on self or on a target

Sedasi (Sedation) Delayed sleep compound — target collapses 10—30 seconds after contact; timing creates alibi windows

Panik (Panic) Target flees in apparent terror — crowd dispersal without violence; leaves no traceable cause

Higher Ilmu Pukau investment unlocks more dart types and reduces ability cooldowns. The sumpitan itself is never visibly equipped — abilities are triggered contextually, as part of the protagonist’s movement rather than a weapon draw animation.

6. Progression — The Ilmu System

6.1 Philosophy

Ilmu (lit. ‘knowledge’ or ‘mastery’) is the game’s traversal and combat upgrade system. Each path represents a distinct martial and philosophical discipline. The Keris governs how the player kills. Ilmu governs how the player moves.

This is the complete separation of concerns: the Keris expresses the player’s nature through lethality; Ilmu expresses the player’s nature through movement. A Shadow-trait Keris player who invests in Ilmu Langkah is a different ghost from one who invests in Ilmu Pukau. Both are lethal the same way. Neither moves the same way.

Design Rule — Ilmu and Keris

• All traversal abilities live on the Ilmu tree. The Keris has no traversal nodes.
• Ilmu paths are not mutually exclusive — cross-investment is possible but costly.
• Narrative objects (Kuku Harimau kerambit, sumpitan) unlock Ilmu node clusters when acquired — they are power scaffolds, not arbitrary gates.
• Ilmu upgrades make the player move better and expand their toolkit. The Keris makes the player kill better and cut deeper.

6.2 The Three Paths

Each Ilmu path contains two active abilities (Semangat spenders, mapped to D-pad — see Section 4.3 and Controller Layout) and three passive abilities (always-on once unlocked). Active abilities are powerful, deliberate tools with meaningful Semangat cost. Passive abilities shape the protagonist’s baseline capabilities. Cross-path investment is possible but costly — the finite mastery point pool means deep investment in one path comes at the expense of the others.

Langkah and Kebal actives are assigned to the four D-pad directions. A player who invests in both paths fills all four slots. A player who invests in one path has two active slots and two empty. Pukau has no D-pad actives — its active abilities are the sumpitan darts themselves, fired through the dedicated sumpitan input mode (L3 toggle → face buttons).

Design Rule — Active Ability Economy

• Every active ability costs Semangat. Every Semangat point spent on an ability is a point of guard buffer lost.
• This is the central combat tension: do I use my powerful tool now, or do I keep my guard intact for the next thirty seconds?
• In stealth, the same tension applies to Pukau darts: every dart fired is guard buffer the player won’t have if they’re discovered.

Ilmu Langkah — The Wind Path

Mobility and momentum. Langkah (lit. ‘step’) is the discipline of continuous motion — the idea that a body in flow is harder to catch, harder to hit, and harder to predict than one that stops to fight. Deep investment here makes the protagonist feel less like a person moving through a city and more like weather passing through it.

ACTIVE — Langkah Bayangan (Shadow Step) · D-pad · Semangat cost: Medium Short-range directional dash that passes through enemy positions. The protagonist blurs forward — not a teleport, but fast enough that guards cannot track the movement. Usable in combat to reposition behind an attacker, or in stealth to cross a short exposed gap between cover points. Brief i-frames during the dash. Cooldown: 8 seconds.

ACTIVE — Lompat Harimau (Tiger Leap) · D-pad · Semangat cost: High Explosive vertical launch from any surface — wall, beam, rooftop edge — targeting an enemy below for a guaranteed kill on landing. Greater range and speed than the standard drop kill. In combat, functions as a repositioning tool: the protagonist vaults off a nearby surface and crashes down on a target from above. Requires the Kuku Harimau kerambit narrative unlock. Cooldown: 15 seconds.

PASSIVE — Ringan Kaki (Light Feet) Footstep sound eliminated during parkour sequences. Guards do not hear the protagonist during wall-runs, vaults, or beam traversal.

PASSIVE — Anjal (Rebound) Landing from any height continues into a roll that preserves full momentum. No stumble animation, no recovery frames. Chain landings across rooftops are seamless.

PASSIVE — Arus (Current) Guards lose visual tracking 20% faster while the protagonist is in motion. Moving through a crowd or across rooftops, the protagonist becomes harder to follow — pursuit breaks more easily.

Ilmu Kebal — The Iron Path

Defence and pressure. Kebal (lit. ‘invulnerable’) is the discipline of absorption — taking force and converting it into advantage. Where Langkah avoids contact, Kebal welcomes it. A Kebal-heavy player does not dodge around enemies; they walk through them.

ACTIVE — Kulit Kebal (Invulnerable Skin) · D-pad · Semangat cost: High 30-second damage reduction. All incoming hits drain significantly less Semangat and Health. The protagonist’s posture visibly hardens — feet plant, shoulders square. During Kulit Kebal, the protagonist cannot be staggered by normal attacks. Unblockable (red-glow) attacks still penetrate but at reduced damage. Cooldown: 45 seconds.

ACTIVE — Tolak Bala (Repel Calamity) · D-pad · Semangat cost: Medium Explosive force push in a short cone. Staggers all enemies within 3 metres, breaking their attack animations and creating a repositioning window. Does not deal significant damage — it is a pressure release, not an attack. Useful when surrounded or when an unblockable attack is charging and dodge timing is uncertain. Cooldown: 12 seconds.

PASSIVE — Teguh (Steadfast) Stagger duration from heavy attacks halved. The protagonist recovers from being hit faster, maintaining combat flow where other builds would be locked in recovery animation.

PASSIVE — Bertahan (Endure) Amok state duration extended by 30%; health decay rate reduced during Amok. The Kebal practitioner does not fight the Amok state — they endure through it and emerge still standing.

PASSIVE — Pendekar’s Resolve (Master) All stagger removed during Amok. Hits land on the protagonist; the protagonist does not flinch. This is the Kebal endgame: Amok becomes a controlled demolition rather than an uncontrolled eruption.

Ilmu Pukau — The Shadow Path

Stealth and erasure. Pukau (lit. ‘enchant’ or ‘mesmerise’) is the discipline of disappearance — making the protagonist’s passage through a space leave no evidence it happened. Deep investment here enhances the sumpitan dart abilities (Section 5.3) and unlocks the path’s signature active: temporary invisibility. Pukau actives are not mapped to D-pad — they operate through the sumpitan input mode (L3 toggle) and the dedicated invisibility input.

ACTIVE — Ghaib (Vanish) · Dedicated input · Semangat cost: High (flat) Fixed-duration ability (~10–15 seconds, tuning TBD). On activation, nearby guards’ vision cones narrow and the protagonist’s footstep audio signature is muted. The protagonist can move at full speed while Ghaib is active. When the duration expires, the effect ends — no early cancel, no extension. This is not true invisibility — guards who are already looking directly at the protagonist will still see them. It narrows the detection window, not eliminates it. The skill expression is knowing when the narrowed window is enough and timing the activation to cover the exact crossing you need.

The cost is deliberately punishing. Ghaib plus two sumpitan darts should drain most or all of a full Semangat pool — the player who uses all three enters any subsequent combat with their guard buffer effectively empty. This is the Pukau path’s core trade-off: total stealth control at the price of total combat vulnerability. Exact values require tuning. Cooldown: 30 seconds.

ACTIVE — Sumpitan Darts · L3 toggle → face buttons · Semangat cost: Varies per dart type All five dart types (Damak Beracun, Pukau, Halimun, Sedasi, Panik — see Section 5.3) are Semangat-cost abilities with individual cooldowns. Entering sumpitan mode (L3 click) brings up ADS with a precision aim. Each dart is mapped to a face button. Higher Pukau investment reduces cooldowns and Semangat costs.

PASSIVE — Senyap (Silent) All actions in crouched state are inaudible to guards within 4m. The baseline stealth radius tightens — the protagonist’s presence becomes nearly undetectable at close range.

PASSIVE — Alih Pandang (Misdirect) Thrown objects create longer-lasting distraction windows. Guards investigate distractions for extended duration before returning to patrol, widening the player’s action window.

PASSIVE — Tiada Kesan (No Trace) Bodies hidden by the player are harder to discover. Routine guard searches do not flag concealed corpses. The protagonist’s passage leaves less evidence — fewer breadcrumbs for alert escalation.

6.3 Progression Architecture

There is no economy. The protagonist is a merchant’s child — access to outfits, trade goods, and equipment flows naturally from that background and from the Mata-mata network. Nothing is bought. Nothing is ground for. The game does not ask the player to manage money.

Progression runs on a single pool of mastery points [working title — Malay naming TBD]. Points are earned from every major system in the game. If a player engages only with missions and ignores the Orang Laut, they leave mastery on the table. The acquisition design is the engagement design — breadth of world interaction is rewarded, not depth of one system.

Mastery Point Acquisition

Mission completion — the primary source. All missions award points on completion regardless of playstyle. Non-detection bonuses apply but are never the only path; a player who triggers detection on every mission still progresses.

Ghost bonus — additional points awarded for completing a mission without raising a full alert. Rewards the game’s stealth-first philosophy without punishing players who engage differently. The bonus is meaningful but not necessary.

Orang Laut interactions — points awarded through acts of reciprocity with the Orang Laut: fulfilling their requests, protecting their routes, honouring their customs. This is the only way to unlock deeper Sumpitan upgrades. A player who ignores the Orang Laut entirely cannot access the blowpipe’s full capability tree.

Shahbandar network engagement — points awarded through completing Mata-mata assignments routed through Shahbandar offices. Engaging with the faction economy and its corruption states yields mastery. This also gates certain Ilmu Pukau branches — the Tamil Quarter’s deep Pukau nodes require standing, not just points.

World exploration — shrines in the Hinterland, empu traces, Mata-mata dead drops, overheard intelligence in the port. The world rewards curiosity. These yields are modest individually but accumulate significantly across a full playthrough.

Narrative milestones — certain points are awarded automatically at story beats. The arrival of the Keris at the end of Act I. The Tuah/Jebat irreversible choice. The first Orang Laut audience. These are not gateable by player behaviour — they happen, and they matter.

Spend Targets

Ilmu nodes — mastery points spent freely, at any time, from any location. No ritual, no ceremony, no required hub. The player opens the Ilmu tree, allocates, and the change is immediate. This should feel like sharpening a skill already latent — recognition, not acquisition.

Keris trait nodes — mastery points are required, but insufficient alone. Unlocking a Keris node requires points, the Warangan ritual materials (lime, arsenic compound, flower water — found in the world and gifted by Shahbandar contacts), and a ritual location (Balai table or Hinterland shrine). The spend without the ritual does nothing. The ritual without the points does nothing. Both together is the moment of recognition — the blade responds to deliberate intent. See Section 5.1 for the full Warangan ritual design.

Design Intent — Two Speeds of Progression

Ilmu upgrades are frictionless because the protagonist is always learning, always adapting. The Keris upgrades are ceremonial because choosing what the blade becomes is not incidental — it is a statement. The player should feel the weight of the second more than the first.

The Balai — Home Base

There is one Balai. Not a network — a home.

The Balai is a Mata-mata safehouse in the Gedung district, tucked between warehouse walls where the trade traffic is thick enough that one more shuttered building draws no attention. It predates the protagonist’s recruitment. The floorboards are worn by operatives who came before. It was here when Tuah was young. It will outlast whoever is using it now.

This is a hub-and-spoke game. The player leaves for missions and returns. The Balai is where they return to. It does not need to be one of many — it needs to be the one place that is entirely theirs.

What the Balai contains:

The Ritual Table. The Warangan ceremony for Keris trait upgrades happens here (or at Hinterland shrines — see Section 5.1). The table holds the three ritual materials: lime (kapur), arsenic compound (warangan), and flower water (air bunga). The player can see at a glance whether the materials are present — if the table is bare, the ceremony cannot proceed. This is the only inventory check in the game that is diegetic: a physical space answering a mechanical question.

The Outfit Wall. Every garment the protagonist has acquired, displayed physically on a long wooden rack. Not a menu — a room. The player walks up, sees what they have collected, and selects what to wear. The outfits accumulate across the playthrough. Early game the rack is nearly empty. Late game it is a catalogue of every identity the protagonist has worn.

The Practice Space. An open area where the protagonist can execute combat moves freely — testing Keris traits, rehearsing kerambit combos, feeling how an Ilmu unlock changes their movement. No enemies, no stakes. A space for the player to learn their own capabilities between missions. This is particularly important after a Warangan ceremony, when the blade has just changed and the player should have room to feel the difference before re-entering the world.

No NPCs. The Balai is empty. No handler waiting with a mission. No merchant. No ambient chatter. The protagonist is alone here. This is the one place in the game where no one needs anything from them. Mission intel arrives through the Mata-mata contact system in the field (Section 9.2), not through a quest-giver standing in the safehouse.

Design Note — The Display Case

Outfit display should feel like the AC2 villa’s trophy room: not a menu, a space. The player should be able to see what they’ve collected, not just equip it. The Balai is one of the few places in the game where the camera can rest and the protagonist can simply exist without agenda.

The Balai Across Acts

The Balai does not change mechanically. Its function — ritual, wardrobe, practice — remains constant. What changes is what is visible and what is felt.

Act I. The Balai is new to the protagonist. Bare walls. One or two outfits. The ritual table is inactive — the Warisan Keris has not yet arrived. The space feels borrowed. The player is living in someone else’s infrastructure.

Act II. The rack fills. The ritual table is active. Evidence of the protagonist’s work accumulates — not as trophies, but as texture. The Balai starts to feel like it belongs to the player. It is comfortable.

Act III — Path of Tuah (Mata-mata Istana). The Balai remains. Tun Perak’s apparatus has no reason to revoke it — the protagonist chose the state, and the state honours its tools. But the comfort curdles. The Balai is pristine and quiet and the player knows what they did to keep it. The stillness that was a gift now reads as complicity. Nothing in the room has changed. Everything in the room has changed.

Act III — Path of Jebat (Mata-mata Gelap). The Balai is taken. Not dramatically — the protagonist returns and the door does not open. The lock has been changed. Tun Perak does not waste resources on people who are no longer his. The player must establish a new safehouse: rougher, improvised, in the margins of the city where official eyes do not reach. Same functions — ritual table, outfit rack, practice space — but built from salvage. The new Balai is smaller, darker, and unmistakably theirs in a way the old one never was. This is the cost of the Jebat choice made physical. It is also, quietly, a liberation.

Design Note — The Exile Beat

The lockout should not be a cutscene. The player walks to the Balai as they always have. The door does not open. A beat. Then the game continues. The new safehouse is established through a short environmental sequence — finding the space, setting up the table, hanging the first outfit. This should take under two minutes and should not be skippable. The player needs to feel the loss and the rebuilding. It is one of the few moments in the game where the protagonist does something domestic.

Why One, Not Many

This is a hub-and-spoke structure. The player is never so far from home that they need a closer option. Multiple safehouses would create a design problem: either they are functionally identical (redundant) or they split features across locations (frustrating). A single Balai concentrates emotional investment. The player knows this place. They have a relationship with it. That relationship is the thing that makes the Act III beat land.

The Hinterland shrines remain as alternate Warangan ritual locations for players who want to upgrade mid-exploration without returning to the hub. But the shrines are not homes. They are waypoints. The Balai is the only place in the game that belongs to the protagonist.