Orbit 2.0, Part 5: jobs only count once accepted, and keys come from required jobs. Previously, every job counted on its own, nests, bounties and convoys sat in the world from the start, and every guardian from the kill counter dropped a key half. The job board was really just a checklist. Now it’s an offer.
- Only what you accept counts. That applies to every job, including survey, signals and relics. Every completed job still pays ions and ore as before, plus a token every time.
- One required job per zone: the Scrapyard’s “Salvage Quota” (deliver 40 ore), the Hangar’s “Smoke Them Out”, the Embers’ “Containment” (the spore mothers). The required job always sits on the board, marked REQUIRED, and it alone secures the zone and its bonus. Two optional jobs from the zone’s pool come alongside it, and they can still be accepted after the zone is secured.
- Targets appear once you accept. “Smoke Them Out” flags two new nests in the Hangar, and only those count — the rest of the nests stay danger zones. Bounty and Convoy start immediately, “Mayday” flags the survivors (they wait until you reach them), “Signal Chain” picks up one signal in the zone and then a new one every 12 s for as long as one is missing. “Relic” locates missing relics, “Survey” only counts what’s still undiscovered. Spore mothers already killed before you accept stay counted as done; if that was all of them, the required job is complete immediately.
- Keys come from required jobs. Once the Scrapyard and the Hangar are secured, the Hangar Guardian shows up in the Hangar with key half I. Once the Embers are contained, the Embers Guardian shows up in the Embers with key half II. Both wait at their post, away from the stations, and only attack once you come within 950 px. Pull back past 2,600 px or flee into a safe zone and they let you go and return to their post. Lose one and it’s reported again. Guardians from the regular kill counter still drop wreck parts and experience, just no more keys.
- Arrow and job panel: the panel now shows only what’s accepted, plus the open required job with “ACCEPT AT STATION”. The arrow points in this order: a key half on the ground, a reported guardian, accepted jobs, the station to accept the required job, the next zone, the gate. Fixed: “Containment” used to point at relics instead of the spore mothers.
- The in-game help (ZONES, KEYS, GUARDIANS) has been rewritten. The old line “without keys, the Core arrives after thirty minutes” hasn’t been true since 0.103.0. “1 charges” now reads “One charge.”