Cross
Endure
Conclude
A finite ending, one way or another
Past the Fence begins only after the ordinary twelve-wave yard has already been held. The win is safe. Everything beyond it is an epilogue: a deeper economy, a visible danger dial, a procession of the Warped, and an ending the player can meet, defeat, or leave with dignity.
The gate you earn
Past the Fence is a toggle on danger select. It remains locked until the profile has held the yard once: the first completed run opens it. The choice is made before the run begins, and it cannot be combined with Boss Challenge; the two run shapes are deliberately separate.
The Ladder records the gate as a progression reward rather than hiding the mode inside a menu.
Wave 12, and the grass beyond
Defeat the wave-twelve boss with the gate open and the victory banks immediately. The run has already won before the wild grass asks anything more. Coins settle, the music rolls lower, and the field announces:
“The gate swings shut behind you. Wild grass ahead.”
The current crossing also asks for consent about the Altered. The dial is cleared unless a cat carries Spore Sachet; carrying it is the deliberate choice to take the earned Altered through the gate.
The rhythm after ceremony
Past the fence, waves no longer end with the ordinary field-clear ceremony. Combat runs to a bell: the first interval is about 70 seconds, gradually lengthening toward 85 seconds as the long procession deepens.
At a bell the battlefield freezes in place. Loot sacks, level-ups, the shop, banking, replanting, character hooks, and a suspend checkpoint all still happen. Closing the shop begins a small 3…2…1; on GO the field wakes with a grace pulse and a brief spawn hold. Bookkeeping survives; ceremony does not.
The doomsday harvest
Every bell raises each living cat’s Altered by one. The first crossing sends five Walking Mushrooms onto the field as an initiation surge; later bells bring smaller pilgrim groups while rooted mushrooms continue to appear. Harvesting them pays, but each harvest can deepen the dial again.
Cures remain available. Antidote and Lab Antidote buy the clock back; they are not rationed away merely because the run is deep. The decision is honest: spend on safety now, or spend on power and accept what the higher dial invites.
Three ways to hold the dial
The Altered makes enemies stronger and changes what can enter the field, while the game’s Altered-payoff items can turn the same dial into player power. That produces three legitimate postures:
The Cautious Run
Spend cures as a control dial. Keep the Altered low and meet the folklore late, if at all. Discipline becomes the build.
The Opportunist
Treat a cure as a mining permit: harvest, cure, and ride the line between income and danger from bell to bell.
The Devoted
Lean into the Altered. Mooncap Charm, Fungal Fur, and Spore Crown appreciate as the ending approaches: mighty, and doomed.
The Warped must be met
At Altered 15 the first Warped creatures enter the mix; at 20 they become the full tide. They are the cats’ folklore made hostile—cryptids and tall tales from across the world—and they pay better because depth must still fund decisions.
The newest build no longer lets the procession advance merely because another timer expired. The current newest Warped species must remain on stage for at least 25 seconds and be defeated 10 times before the window can move. Power cannot blink past a face; idling cannot advance either. The Thing rises only when the procession has genuinely been walked.
Until a creature is met, the codex protects the encounter with a silhouette and “???”. The meeting writes the entry; the complete folklore archive lives in the Bestiary.
Money and danger climb the same rope
The deep economy tightens without turning the shop off. Ordinary pest income tapers while shelf prices continue to rise; the mushrooms and the Warped increasingly become the paycheck. Warped drops do not decay the way ordinary pest drops do.
Hold the dial too low and the purse thins beside the field. Let it run away and the procession can outpace the build. Cures are brakes, but every brake is power not bought. The successful run advances the dial at the pace its own build can carry.
What the fence was always for
The Thing Past the Fence
It rises when the Warped procession has cleared its roster window—not simply because a clock reached a number.
- Finale HP pool
- 80,000
- Base speed
- 62
- Base contact
- 30
- Knockback
- Immune
- Enrage
- +15% damage and speed every 30s
The Bestiary preserves the creature’s 2,000-point base dossier; the encounter itself receives the current finale pool. It is killable, but it cannot be stalled forever. Reaching it is completion. Killing it is the true ending.
Four ways the epilogue speaks
FELL PAST THE FENCE
The wild grass takes the run on a recorded picket. The yard was held; the deeper build was not.
THE YARD HELD
All ten recorded pickets stood and The Thing itself was met. Death is written as completion, not failure.
THE THING IS SLAIN
The true ending. Nothing waits past the fence anymore.
HOME AT DUSK
From the second picket onward, Go Home is available in pause. The banked win stands and the run is recorded as retired.
The Ladder remembers the walk
Past-the-Fence depth is recorded per cat. The character select and codex carry the best picket, and the Ladder holds the rewards tied to the journey.
Five Pickets DeepStand at picket 5 · unlock Firefly Lantern
Thing SlayerSlay The Thing · unlock Ninth LifePast the fence, in one line: the epilogue is finite, the ordinary victory is safe, and every ending means something.