Smoke.exe

Smoke.exe is a game about building an auto-hacking routine during the time it takes to smoke one cigarette. You arrange nodes on a 6×6 board, connect them through the direction their ports face, then light up and let the signal run. The fight is decided by the circuit you build before you start it.

Build the circuit

SCAN creates a signal, BOOST amplifies it, FORK splits it and EXPLOIT drives it into the server. Once connected, the signal moves and keeps hitting on its own. Building does not use burn time; placing each node adds to the cigarette’s total burn-time cost.

When you light up, that placement cost burns off at once, and the remaining time is how long your routine runs. The more nodes you place, the less time remains to run it.

Manage addiction

Smoking raises your addiction. When it reaches its maximum, the signal can run wild, hitting harder than intended or flying somewhere useless. Continuing in this state can also take down a firewall.

Descend through the rings

A run has three rings, from RING 2 through RING 1 to RING 0, with five stages and a boss in each ring. Bosses attack and interfere with your circuit: they can place walls on the board, disable effects of adjacent nodes and reach into the circuit you built. The run ends when the firewalls are gone.

Shops along the way sell nodes and companions to smoke with, including canned coffee, whiskey and rice crackers. Each companion has its own effect.

Cigarette brands

Each brand changes the burn time, smoke color, rate at which addiction rises and starting kit. Your first cigarette is LIGHT_BLUE, with no character or surprises; the other brands are found as you progress. Clearing a brand once reveals the way in, so you can go deeper on a later run.

Game contents

• 31 nodes
• 9 brands
• 23 companions
• 3 rings with 5 stages and 3 bosses per run