The five eras
Industries open one at a time, and this is not a suggestion — the chain refuses a build in an industry past your frontier. Reaching level 1 in your frontier industry advances it.
The order
| Era | Industry | Subs | Produces | Burns |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | Information Technology | 11 | Silicon | SCRIP only |
| II | Consumer Discretionary | 4 | Bandwidth | SCRIP + Silicon |
| III | Communication Services | 3 | Iron | SCRIP + Silicon, Bandwidth |
| IV | Industrials | 4 | Dollar | SCRIP + Silicon, Bandwidth, Iron |
| V | Financials | 2 | Bond | SCRIP + Silicon, Bandwidth, Iron, Dollar |
Who is actually in each one
All sixty-one, by industry. These are the plots on the board — every one a listed company whose tokenised shares you can stake.
Two rules in the contracts make this a real tech tree rather than a framing device. The frontier rule refuses a build past where you have reached, and the recipe rule makes each level burn the material of every industry before it. So the order above is not an opinion about how to play; it is the only order the chain will accept.
The shape of the tree is deliberately uneven
Information Technology is the deepest sector on the board — eleven sub-industries, from semiconductors to cybersecurity — so covering it takes real spread. Financials has three companies across two sub-industries, which makes the coverage gate almost free to clear and the material bill the entire constraint.
That inversion is the point. Early on the difficulty is breadth; late on it is supply. A city that raced ahead without building out its early districts arrives at Financials holding plenty of SCRIP and unable to spend any of it.
Skipping an era
You may burn 500 SCRIP to advance the frontier without building. It is a loan rather than a shortcut: chasing the leading industry also costs the most to build in, and you still need the materials of everything you skipped.
Sole suppliers
Some sub-industries hold exactly one company. Holding it is the only way to cover that sub-industry — there is no substitute. Those names are worth more than their production suggests, and they are worth the most inside a guild, because rarity counts toward the score that decides who controls an industry.
The app marks them with a dot on the sub-industry badge. They are concentrated in Industrials and Financials, which is another reason the late eras are harder to hold than to enter.
What each era asks of you
- Era I — Information Technology. Everybody starts here because it is the only industry the chain will let you build in. Spread across the semiconductor, hardware and software names until you cover 4 sub-industries, then raise your first level. It costs SCRIP and nothing else.
- Era II — Consumer Discretionary. The Silicon your tech district has been producing stops being a number and becomes a requirement. Six companies over four sub-industries, so the coverage gate is cheap; the constraint is the material.
- Era III — Communication Services. Two materials now, and both have to keep flowing while you build. This is where a city that concentrated stalls.
- Era IV — Industrials. Three materials deep, and by now your earlier districts are infrastructure rather than income. The sole-supplier names here are the ones a guild wants most.
- Era V — Financials. Every level burns all four earlier materials at once. Trivially cheap to enter and brutally hard to keep running — which is exactly why the cities holding it are the ones worth raiding.
The cost mechanics are on coverage & building, and the materials themselves on SCRIP & materials. The frontier is exposed on-chain as Buildings.frontierOf.