STAREDOWN

STAREDOWN — it learns you. Gather essence. Power the hatch. Get deeper before OKO catches you. You're a small light in the dark, hunted by a giant eye and the smaller eyes it sends looking for you. Explore the rooms, collect enough essence to open the way down, and choose when to risk crossing its gaze. ESCAPE THE GAZE Slip past watchtowers, weave between scouts, and find a way out when they close in. When OKO locks on, you have a moment to escape its lunge. If it reaches you, the run is over. Smaller enemies grab you instead. Break free or die trying. Surviving their grip leaves wear that makes staying alive harder. EVERY TRACE CAN GIVE YOU AWAY Your movement leaves visible traces. OKO has to find them before it can use them against you. Watchtowers report sightings immediately, but smaller eyes must carry the news back. Choose whether to slip past a scout or risk stopping it before it reports. The light that helps you see can also expose you. CHANGE YOUR HABITS OKO changes how it hunts during a run. Its scouts become more cautious or more aggressive in response to how you deal with them. Between floors, it re-plans and invests in its next hunt. The tactic that got you through one floor may be the habit you need to break on the next. YOUR UNLOCKS STAY. ITS MEMORY DOESN'T. Discover items, complete missions, and spend white essence on permanent unlocks. Those unlocks carry forward. OKO's memory does not: every new run begins with an eye that has never seen you before.