Clearance and Swipes

Economy · Clearance Level (gate) · Swipes (spend)

Clearance is two linked things printed as one keycard icon on every card. There is no mana pool and no growing resource: the Level is board-state ramp that can be knocked down, the Swipe budget is a flat, low-variance action economy. Neither grows automatically with the turn count.

Clearance Level — the gate

Your Level is a letter on the lore ladder E < D < C < B < A < Q. It starts at D — the plant’s starter roles (Plant Maintenance Intern, Junior Watchman) hold D and BS badges, and D is the floor for staff.
It equals the highest GRANTS among cards you control: Control Room grants C, Shift Manager grants A, Plant Director grants Q. Grants do not add up; you hold the best badge on site.
Every card prints a requirement. You may play it only if your Level is ≥ the requirement. Entry staff are D, reactor staff C, security and military command B, executive acts A, director-level Q.
Cap: Q. Z is never a Level. Z is printed only on CLASSIFIED cards, which are played face down as REDACTED for their Swipe cost, ignoring Clearance.
BA / BS. The lore splits B into BA (department lead, orange) and BS (defense team, blue). The rules use a single B; the frame shows BA on DOE cards and BS on SECFOR / Stratocracy cards purely as a visual.
If you lose the card that granted your Level (a destroyed Control Room, a dead Shift Manager), your Level drops immediately. Cards already in play stay; you simply cannot play new cards above the new Level.

Swipes — the spend

At Shift Start you receive Swipes = 2 + number of Facilities you control, capped at 6. Unspent Swipes are lost at Shift End; there is no banking.
Every card has a Swipe cost (0–5). Paying it is swiping your badge at a reader.
Some cards add Swipes on demand: Emergency Diesel Generators — “Exhaust: +1 Swipe this shift”; Reactor Hall’s Refuel costs 3 of them.

Hostile factions and clearance

The lore says hostiles “assume a clearance of a B card”. In the rules:

Cards of the West Noobia and Bloxian Commonwealth factions printed with clearance — may be played at any Level. Most raiders and their basic kit print ”—”.
WN Hacking Device “functions as an A-Card”: while attached, your Level counts as A for West Noobia and Bloxian cards.
Federal Ranger carries a Q-Card: while you control it, your Level counts as Q for West Noobia cards.
Hostile decks therefore rarely care about Level — but they care about Swipes, so their Facilities (a WN Camp, the Port, the captured Auxiliary Gate) and the Neutral plant infrastructure are their economy.

The curve in Critical Mass

Requirement	Cards
E	Weston SMG, Feedwater Pump Trip
D	Plant Maintenance Intern, Reactor Trainee, Junior Watchman, Security Car, Reserve Enlisted, Coolant Pumps, Senior Guard, Control Room, Emergency Diesel Generators
C	Relief Valve Cycling, Reactor Operator, Reactor Hall
B (BS/BA)	Mortar Attack, D-23 STAR, Shift Manager, TRT Squad Leader, VT-6 “Monarch”
A	Class 2 Lockdown, Exigent Circumstances Act, Plant Director
— (hostile)	WNAF Conscript, Bloxian Support Operative, WN Hacking Device, M80 AMR, Hostile Raid, Federal Ranger, 1SFA Operator
Z	Gubby (CLASSIFIED)

In the 30-card slice the only DEFENSE grant below B is the Control Room (C). Shift Manager (requires BA, grants A) and Plant Director (requires A, grants Q) can raise the Level further, but nothing in circulation yet grants B — the design reserves that for cards such as the Head Technician in the full set. Until those ship, cards printed B, A and Q on the DEFENSE side are collectible and tradeable but cannot be played from Level C; hostile decks reach A and Q through the Hacking Device and the Federal Ranger. This is a known limitation of the prototype, tracked in the changelog.