You know you need Cal to stay warm and Rep to stay alive. Good. Now for the hard part: earning it. In The Bastion, there are two ways to fill your pockets and build your name: the daily grind and the back-alley score. Here’s how you get to work.
The Grind (Working a Job)
The simplest way to keep from starving is to be a useful cog in someone else’s machine. Find a business, clock in, and do the work. It’s a grind, but it’s reliable. But a job is more than just a paycheck.
- It Builds Your Name: A job isn’t just about Cal; it’s about being seen. Consistently showing up and doing the work increases your character’s standing and visibility across the world. It’s how you go from being a nameless ghost to a known quantity. A good reputation starts with being reliable.
- It Puts You in the Action: The city’s network is smart; it knows where people are. Our teleport system is designed to direct players to businesses that are currently active, meaning a job is the fastest way to find other people to roleplay with. You want to find the story? Go where the work is.
- It Fills Your Pockets: Of course, you get paid. Every hour you work generates Cal. On Monday, all you have to do is show up at your job location, and the week’s earnings are transferred to your account. And here’s a tip: do your job well, provide good service, and really play the part. The system notices, and you’ll get a bonus for a good performance.
The Score (Taking on Missions)
While the grind keeps you alive, the real money and Rep are made in the shadows. Missions are the lifeblood of the underbelly, and they come in two flavors.
- Street-Level Contracts: In this city, everyone has a problem, and Cal can solve most of them. Since anyone can trade currency, anyone can be a client. That ramen shop owner might need a “missing” ingredient sourced from a rival’s territory. That ripperdoc in Chrome could need a discreet courier to deliver a sensitive package. These are the organic stories you build with other players, using Cal as the catalyst to create your own jobs and intrigues.
- A Fixer’s Payroll: But the real scores come from people with real power. The city is full of influential NPC characters, and building a relationship with them isn’t just for idle chat. Prove you’re not a glitch—that you’re reliable and can handle yourself—and they’ll start trusting you with real work. They might send you to gather intel on a rival faction, intimidate a corporate stooge, or act as a neutral party in a deal gone bad. Completing these missions is how you build serious Rep and earn the kind of paychecks that change your life.
So, choose your path. Clock in for the weekly grind and build your name slowly, or chase the adrenaline of the score. Or, if you’re smart, you’ll do both. Work your shift, and keep your ear to the ground for the deals made in the shadows. The Bastion respects a hard worker, but it rewards a clever operator.
