The Rulebook
The sport is literally named after this document: Meat Puppets with Random Weapons from a Box. Here is everything in it, minus the legal footnotes.
A bout, phase by phase
Two to three minutes of fighting, always in this order.
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Matchmaking and printing
While the system finds you an opponent, human or AI, you watch your puppet being born: the bag of protein arrives, the body is printed layer by layer, the helmet is fitted. The sequence stretches or shrinks with the real wait, so waiting is part of the show.
The protein of the day is announced too. That is the colour of the paste once the blows start flying.
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Warm-up
A few free seconds to move around the arena, find the ramps, spot the explosive tanks and get used to legs that are about a minute old.
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THE BOX
THE BOX rises in the middle of the arena and the camera switches to a single shared shot. In random order, one puppet at a time walks up, interacts and receives its weapon while the other watches. Both of you see what the opponent got.
After each draw, a quick close-up: the puppet raises its weapon to the sky with a signature flourish. The bat twirls, the chainsaw revs, the plunger goes "boing". All in under ten seconds.
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The Bribe
Spend a bribe and you choose your weapon instead. Your puppet knocks on the side of THE BOX with a secret rhythm, a small hatch opens, a hand comes out (human or robotic, nobody knows), your puppet slips it the cash and gets exactly what it wanted. That is what the INSERT BRIBE slot is for.
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Fight
Free fighting across the whole arena, until a puppet reaches zero hit points or the clock runs out, with the commentator weighing in. Near the end, every arena triggers its anti-stall event: walls close in, the floor gives way, or the trillionaires get bored and start throwing things.
"THE TRILLIONAIRES ARE BORED!"
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Outcome and replay
One wins, one loses. If time runs out, both lose. The game cuts a vertical replay of the KO, ready to post.
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Dismantling and recycling
The loser is carted away. The winner is dismantled and recycled too: these are single-use puppets, after all. This part is much quicker than the printing, because nobody is waiting.
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Flawless victory
Win without losing a single hit point and you may take the puppet home. It goes to your Puppet Pen, where it runs around happily and clumsily, wearing the look it had that day and a name tag with the opponent, the weapon, the date and the time it took. You can poke it. You can feed it cricket flour.
Hit points, Breath, Stamina
Hit points. At zero the puppet is KO. You start at 100 and grow with progression.
Breath. A separate bar, visible for both puppets. It drains when nose and mouth are blocked or the neck is squeezed. At zero there is no instant KO, but the puppet loses hit points terrifyingly fast, a full bar in two or three seconds, until it breathes again. It refills gradually, so a second suffocation right after the first is far more dangerous.
Stamina. Running, attacking and dodging cost stamina. When it is low the puppet pants with its mouth open, and that is exactly when certain weapons get nasty. The opponent's stamina has no bar: you read it from their body.
Controls
Played in landscape. A floating joystick on the left, five buttons on the right, a third-person camera that locks on to your opponent. Aim is assisted; timing is yours.
Guard, and the triangle
Hold GUARD and hits from the front cost Stamina instead of HP; heavies cost double and can break it. Attacks beat grabs, the guard beats attacks, the plunger's Suction and heavy moves beat the guard. Every dangerous move is telegraphed: the chainsaw revs with smoke and noise before the thrust, so whoever loses knows why.
Gamepads welcome
Xbox, PlayStation, MFi and generic Bluetooth controllers work out of the box. Pick one up and the touch controls disappear, and the button icons switch to match your controller. GUARD sits on LB / L1.
Level up
Experience comes from playing and winning. Every level gives you skill points for two groups of stats. The curves stay flat and matchmaking pairs similar players: skill beats grinding.
Meat
The body you are given.
- Strength Hit harder
- Speed Move faster
- Toughness Take more
- Lungs Breathe longer
Hardware
The interface you pilot it with.
- Reflexes React sooner
- Precision Land cleaner
- Neural-link latency Lower is better
Customize
Build, skin tone, helmet, colours, accessories, tattoos and voice. Your puppet is single-use, but its template is yours forever. Even the protein can be a cosmetic.
Two currencies
Win soft cash for bribes and upgrades. Hard cash, the kind you buy, goes mostly to cosmetics and convenience. Weapons have their own stats and upgrades, in looks and in performance.
Collect
Every flawless victory adds a living trophy to your Puppet Pen, each with its own look and name tag. Poke them. Feed them. Do not feed them after midnight.
Ways to play
Ranked online
Real-time duels against players of your level. Lose your connection and you have 15 seconds to rejoin the same match.
Versus AI pilots
Train, or climb a single-player path against sentient AI pilots whose difficulty adapts to you. No human found in the queue? An AI pilot steps in, always labelled as one.
Private challenges
Call out a friend by name and settle it in THE BOX. Nicknames show under the health bars, so everybody knows who got plungered.