Power Orders and the Perfect Shift

Win condition · 7 Power Orders · "The Perfect Shift"

In lore the Department of Energy completes a Power Order roughly every 90 seconds, and a Tier 3 shift — seven or more orders — earns the badge The Perfect Shift. The TCG keeps that number: the seventh order wins the match.

The check

At your Shift End, you complete 1 Power Order if all of the following are true:

1. Your core is in the Nominal band (1,000–2,390 K).
2. You control at least one STATIONED Personnel with the OPERATOR trait. An exhausted OPERATOR that is still stationed counts.
3. Your shift is not in LOCKDOWN, your reactor is not SHUT DOWN, and no SITE-WIDE Incident forbids Power Orders (Hostile Raid does, for three shifts).

Some cards change the margin: with the Reactor Trainee as your only stationed OPERATOR, the margin narrows to 1,200–2,100 K.

The win

When you have 7 Power Orders at the end of any Shift End step, you win: THE PERFECT SHIFT. Power Orders are never lost, except by cards that explicitly say “remove a Power Order” (rare; Restricted and above only — none in Critical Mass).

The race

Seven orders take at least seven of your own shifts with an operator on duty, so a DEFENSE deck’s fastest win is its eighth shift (a Trainee is legal on shift 1 at Clearance D, stationed on shift 2, first order at the end of shift 2). The opponent slows you by:

• pushing your core out of margin — heat from raiders and Incidents, or over-cooling you is not possible, but making you SCRAM is;
• LOCKDOWN and Hostile Raid effects that forbid orders outright;
• killing or exhausting your operators — a strike on the Reactor Operator, a Feedwater Pump Trip that forces you to exhaust HAZMAT staff to clear it;
• SCRAM — four shifts SHUT DOWN is usually the whole race.

Operators in Critical Mass

Card	Clearance	Cost	Note
Reactor Trainee	D	2	Turn-1 legal; narrow margin if alone
Reactor Operator	C	3	Exhaust: COOL 100 — holds margin and cools
Shift Manager	BA	4	UNIQUE; GRANTS A; readies an operator; ends a SCRAM lockout

Reactor Hall rewards stationed operators with COOL 50 each at Shift Start (two posts).

Mirror matches

Two DOE decks interact through Incidents and Personnel strikes only. Mortar Attack does nothing to a roster without RAIDERS, so the DEFENSE mirror is decided by who keeps an operator stationed and alive longest — bring guards even when the opponent has no raiders.