Wiremoss

At present, Wiremoss occupies tile corners, meaning grid vertices, not ordinary full tiles. Two Wiremosses merge only when their vertex coordinates are orthogonally adjacent; diagonal contact, a one-vertex gap, or visual proximity does not create one wire. Later conduction, power propagation, and short-circuit spread all read that connected component.

For on-wire checks, let C(z) be the set of tile corners around zombie z’s current tile, and let V(W) be the set of Wiremoss vertices in wire W. If C(z)∩V(W) is nonempty, z is treated as on the wire; the originally damaged zombie must pass the same check before conduction can begin.

By default, a wire does not need to close into a loop. Lines, bends, and crosses all work if they belong to the same connected component. A loop only makes more tiles share that component; it does not write an extra damage multiplier. Wiremoss may call it a 'Tossing and Turning Closed Loop'; the engine remains less moved.

When an on-wire zombie receives a positive conductible damage event, and at least one adjacent Wiremoss in the relevant component is not in conduction rest, Wiremoss attempts settlement. The original target does not receive the conducted copy; other on-wire zombies enter recipient set R only if they are hostile, damageable, present, and otherwise valid.

Let d be the original input damage and n=|R| be the recipient count. If n=0, there is no distributed target. If n>0, total conducted damage is T=⌊d√n⌋, then R receives an integer split in internal traversal order. Let q=⌊T/n⌋ and r=T−nq; the first r recipients receive q+1 and the rest receive q. For positive conducted damage, each recipient’s input floor is 1.

After a trigger, every Wiremoss in the connected component enters conduction rest and flashes like a hit object. This is a component-level lock, not a per-node lock. Power shortens that shared rest; it does not rewrite T, q, r, or the origin-exclusion rule.

As an electric line, Wiremoss still reads the same connected component, but the variable becomes current level L. Power Peony writes strong current L=6 to nearby corners, while Lightning Reed writes weak current L=2; wire W’s target level is the maximum reachable source level L*_W.

Since 0.17o, propagated energy no longer decays node by node along a Wiremoss path. When sources disappear, the component falls back together instead of losing power first at the far end and then near the source. Brightness is presentation; the readable value remains the component-level highest source and its decay process.

By default, electric plants read nearby wire state rather than one isolated Wiremoss node. Lightning Reed’s weak current can light Wiremoss lines and Mechanical Snowfield tiles, but it cannot reverse-open Lightning Reed’s own second target slot; this matches the Almanac note that its current is too weak to activate itself.

For the currently documented electric plants, powered Wiremoss only provides line state; the receiving plant defines benefit f_p(L_W). Lightning Reed opens a second target slot; Enzymei enters active catalysis and can stack it with damage catalysis; Sweetbriar Rose performs two charm checks; Magnet-shroom halves its rest after absorption.

When NW, NE, SW, and SE around Power Peony’s tile are all occupied by Wiremoss, and Peony is able to settle the event, a short circuit triggers. The Wiremosses do not need to be powered first; the condition is four-corner occupancy, not the wire’s name, loop branding, or current level.

The short circuit first removes participating Wiremosses and creates small ash explosions along the line; externally connected Wiremoss attached to the four corners is included in the spread. A large explosion then resolves at Peony’s center, and Peony disappears. Completely enclosing the strong power source does produce demolition, which is also one way for infrastructure to end its career with limited elegance.

In the story, Wiremoss comes from Mechanical Snowfield’s outskirts and is a scientist-like character, not merely an electric cable. Its short-circuit exchange with Power Peony establishes conduction; its line about conducting damage establishes the mechanic entry point. Those sources are firmer ground for the entry than later formation habits.

Design-wise, Wiremoss folds the region’s electricity, magnetism, and machine theme into one corner system. It does not fire projectiles, and it is not an ordinary blocker; it provides a shared settlement layer that can be connected, broken, powered, and short-circuited back on itself.