Rules and tips

What this game is

You are lost on a mountain and have to raise a rescue signal before your body temperature drops. You pick one thing per step and nothing depends on reflexes. Where you go is the skill.

Everyone gets the same mountain on the same day, so you can compare with friends. Even if you lose, you can replay that day's run, so what you just learned pays off right away.

Rules

You start at 37°C and the run ends at 35°C.
You lose a little heat every step, more the higher you climb and more in rain or wind.
Wet means twice the loss. Crossing the stream on a rainy day soaks you.
After dark (step 14) it gets much worse, and without a torch you cannot move.
A fire slows the drop a lot and dries wet clothes.
Rescue starts only once you raise a signal. Do it above 900 m: reflect light or raise smoke by day, use firelight at night. Once it lands, you are down three steps later.
Recipes are fixed and you can open them any time. No need to memorize.
Which spots are empty changes every day. Yesterday's route may not work today.

Tips

If you are new, this order is solid. Gather supplies low down and make a fire first, then get a signal tool, then head for the ridge. With a fire your temperature barely drops, so you buy time.

Rushing to the summit first usually loses. It is cold up there, and without a signal tool there is nothing to do once you arrive. Climb after you are ready.

Raising the signal before dusk is safer. At night only firelight is visible, and carrying fire while you move takes a torch.

Why it is built this way

Recipes are fixed on purpose. If everything reshuffled each run, yesterday's lessons would be worthless and skill could not build up. That is not luck, it is just meaningless. So the rules stay put and only what shows up that day moves.

Recipes are never hidden for the same reason. A game that rewards memorizing walls out new players, and memorizing is not skill. What is left is choosing what to craft and planning a route, which is the fun part anyway.

There is no account progression. If veterans grow stronger, newcomers can never catch up. Every run starts from the same place, so you can win today even if you started today.

On a real mountain

This game is not a hiking guide. The mountain, the terrain and the gear are all made up. What happens to the body is not.

Below 35°C your body can no longer regulate its own temperature. That is why the run ends there.
Wet clothes cool you much faster. The doubling in the game turns that fact into a rule.
Rescue starts only when someone reports it. Emergency services (119 in Korea) respond once a report is filed, and someone who knows you are late keeps the golden hour from slipping away. That is why the win condition here is the signal.

If you are really heading up a mountain, read the original sources below. They are the real thing, not this game.

What to pack before you go is collected in our sibling app Survival Bag, based on Korean Ministry of the Interior and Safety material.