Summary

Three docs claimed Act 1 keeps running during Act 2. It does not — and that error was load-bearing: it is the sole justification for a Phase 2 item in #734.

src/main.rs:555 takes the voyage branch on vessel_launched && act2_enabled(), main.rs:1018 continues, and both game_tick_with_context call sites sit at :1253/:1608 — after it. Act 1 is frozen, not idling: no zones tick, no PR accrues, no Haven builds. And because vessel_launched is only ever set true (never unset), it is permanent for that character. Confirmed intended design.

How it propagated

The main.rs comment is patient zero: "Act 1 systems idle untouched beneath it" — sitting four lines above the continue that disproves it. "Idles untouched" reads as keeps running; it means frozen. From there:

• → docs/dossiers/act2-pilgrimage.md:306 repeated it verbatim
• → docs/explorations/2026-07-05-act2-systems-braiding.md:85-92 built on it: a player's Act 1 output is "stranded — nowhere left to go"
• → that "stranded output" framing is the entire justification for Phase 2 item 6, "Act 1 bridges" (Act 2 release checklist #734), which the issue billed as the cheapest, most charming reuse

There is no stranded output to redirect, so nothing in that item is reuse: "fishing off the stern" is a new minigame, "Power Cores → Salvage" has no live source, "challenges as threat resolution" needs the challenge stack reachable from a screen that owns the whole frame. #734 has been updated to strike the item pending re-argument on its own merits.

Changes

The runway entry, and why it exists

The 250,000 PR gate was briefly mistaken for an unmeasured release risk. It is closed-form:

• wr_to_pr_per_hour(wr) = wr × (1 + wr/100) (src/loom/logic.rs:811), documented peak 131 WR/hr → 302 PR/hr
• The grant (src/core/tick_stages.rs:1235-1248) adds elapsed / fill_secs PR where elapsed = (now - last).min(604_800) — wall-clock, capped at 7 days
• ⇒ 250,000 ÷ 302 ≈ 828h ≈ **34.5 calendar days** ≈ **5 weekly check-ins**, accruing with the game closed

No RNG anywhere in that path — a pure function plus integer division on wall clock. Nothing is emergent, so simulation reveals nothing division doesn't. Worth recording because the headless simulator structurally cannot answer it: src/bin/simulator/strategy.rs:361-363 notes the Loom's wall-clock sustain "doesn't advance meaningfully in the headless simulator" and injects pattern completions instead. Two 3,000-hour runs from P50,000 and P250,000 on different seeds returned pr_earned of 17,995 and 17,994 — identical, because that PR came from injected challenge wins at ~6 PR/hr, not the Loom. The simulator isn't broken; it answers a different question.

The entry therefore also scopes balance-sim: it validates Act 1 → Z50 / Ascension X (the 28-pattern + Asc X prerequisites), and should not be read as evidence about Act 2's entrance.

The live question this exposed

Recorded in both the exploration doc and #734, unanswered: is it right that the hero a player built over hundreds of hours goes inert for a 3–7 month era? That is a bigger design question than any Phase 2 bullet, and the old phrasing hid it.

Verification

• make check — exit 0, all CI checks passed (fmt, clippy -D warnings, full test suite, progression check, security audit)
• No behavior change. One comment + three docs; zero production logic touched.

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