Sky Scaffold

Sky Scaffold is a single-player industrial sandbox set in the hostile sci-fi frontier of the Fourcade Expanse. Starting on a barren planet, you extract and refine resources, build an industrial tower into orbit, manage a colony and defend it from threats. Resources are finite, and the Shred pushes back against the order you establish. Your faction reputation and unlocked Ark upgrades persist across runs, even when you die.

Build and supply the tower

The Sky Scaffold is a vertical industrial backbone. As you expand upward, planet by planet, you unlock more complex manufacturing tiers and increase production capacity. A larger tower also attracts more threats, so you balance output with defensive placement.

Production chains carry resources from raw minerals through factories and weapon systems. Specialized extractors supply the wider economy, and each resource has uses in production or combat. Ammo progresses through five tiers in each of three lines:

• Energy ammo: Battery, Capacitor, Cell, Core and Singularity (E1–E5).
• Kinetic rounds: 9mm, .50cal, 20mm, 105mm and Rail Slug (K1–K5).
• Explosives: Grenade, Mortar, Rocket, Missile and Nuke Shell (X1–X5).

Lower-tier ammunition supplies basic turrets, while high-end Singularity shells power orbital weapons in the Space Hub. You can unlock advanced factories before taking on deep-space combat.

Expand into orbit

When the tower reaches the sky, you ascend into orbit to manage the Space Hub, an expandable, grid-based colony. As it develops through distinct levels, you invest specific resources to unlock modules and new gameplay loops.

You can also secure the galaxy to support your growing colony. The system map is a 10x10 grid of safe empty space, resource planets and dangerous zones containing enemy bases and boss waves. You combine up to five ships into fleets to sweep threat zones; combat is a card-based auto-battler, while you manage your forces through the interface. Automated base turrets fight invading enemy waves and need to be supplied with ammunition. You can sweep adjacent zones indefinitely, but expansion makes you a bigger target.

Factions and persistence

Four faction types shape relationships across runs: Government, Criminal, Scholarly and Militant. These include the HIGI Loyalists, Chorus Hegemony and Sector Authority. Reputation ranges from -100 (Hostile) to +100 (Allied): angering a faction can lead its enemies to invade, while earning trust can prompt it to defend your colonies.

Your reputation survives death resets, alongside your unlocked Ark upgrades. Through the Faction Relationship App on your in-game phone, you receive calls, send messages and initiate interactions. Faction personalities emerge from generated skills—Transmission, Resolution and Kinetic—and group associations, rather than scripted dialogue trees. You can trade emotions with agents, barter information, and make friends or enemies; reputation is earned slowly and lost carefully.

Discover the Expanse

Rare items and documents conceal layers of the Fourcade Expanse’s story, which you uncover through logical deduction. You also trade, sign contracts and live with the factions drawn to your colony. Power availability, storage caps and dispatch routes are managed from a single-screen interface, alongside the cycle of building, producing, spending, upgrading and surviving.