durability-economy git:20260912.c1de365A

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---
name: durability-economy
description: Engine-neutral tool wear. Pick consume-and-replace, sharpness, town-repair, or unbreakable. Use for breakable gear, whetstones, repair kits, and loot budgets that must cover spend.
---

# Durability Economy

Wear exists to change *which tool you use next*, or *how the same tool feels*. It is not a tax.
Ask the column. Do not mix consume-and-replace with town-repair of the same instance.

| Column | Breaks? | How you recover | What it trains |
|---|---|---|---|
| consume | Instance dies | World drop / craft a new one | Exploration + swapping |
| sharpness | No; feel degrades | Field hone | Rhythm / upkeep |
| repair | Can die if ignored | Bench, kit, fire | Maintenance |
| unbreakable | No | — | Expression / mastery |

## Rules that stay true in every column

1. Spend wear on contact with *mass*. Air, grass, and missed swings are 0 unless you are making a special tool (rod, gun) that always spends.
2. Hard targets may cost 2–4×. Write the multiplier; do not hide it.
3. Warn before death (≤3 hits or a visible bar). The killing blow of the tool still connects. Never vanish mid-animation into empty hands.
4. Combat swap ≤ 1s. Mid-encounter empty hands is an encounter bug: seed a floor tool or a refresh.
5. **Budget:** a standard fight must drop (or leave on the ground) at least as much remaining wear as it cost to clear. Otherwise players hide from content to protect a stick.
6. Inventory caps make discard the real cost.
7. Wear does not author hitstop, cancel graphs, or input buffers. Those stay on `action-feel`.

## Tuning seeds (change per game, not law)

If you chose **consume**, a usable range is: junk 4–8 hits, common ~20, mid ~25–30, rare ~35–45, named eternal uses a cooldown instead of deletion. If you chose **sharpness**, drop zones of feel (white/blue/green/yellow/red) rather than deleting the item.

## Accept

Players can explain why they saved a good tool for a hard target. They do not quit because a tool died — the next one is in reach, or the same one can be honed/repaired under the chosen column. Optional elites are where you spend the good instance.