What is NULLMASS — Fifty nights on a station where the crew is not all crew
NULLMASS is a deduction game wearing a survival game's coat. Something came out of the ice at drill site Theta, and it copies cells — which means it copies people. Each of the fifty sectors is a single day and night on Kolvik-9, and each one hides imitators among the crew, or a nest that has to burn. The crew count and the matching signatures never agree, and the arithmetic is the whole problem.
The day is for information. You search crates, lockers and consoles for supplies and clues, you talk to the crew and listen for the ones whose stories do not fit, and you use the radio once for intel. You fix the generator with a conduit puzzle, because a night without power is a night in total darkness. The blood assay is the only certainty in the game and you get very few kits: infected blood transforms, and testing an innocent costs you the crew's trust. The night is for consequences. You barricade doors with planks, and the crew will only shoot beside you if trust is at fifty per cent or better. From sector two onwards, something hidden feeds at midnight.
How to play
- Move with WASD, aim with the mouse, fire the pistol with the left button and the flamethrower with the right. Shift dashes and E interacts with doors, crates and people.
- Press C for the case file and E to talk. The file cross-references who was alone, who has an alibi and who contradicted themselves — the contradictions are what you are hunting, not the sightings.
- Press T to run a blood assay. It is a short skill minigame, it consumes a kit, and it is the only test that cannot lie. Testing a human costs trust, which is what decides whether the crew fights beside you at night.
- Before the light goes, barricade the doors that matter with planks and stand where you can see two of them. Every fifth sector skips all of this: the gate is open and you go and burn the nest's heart.
Strategies that work
- Talk to everyone before you test anyone. An imitator's dialogue accuses another crew member; two innocents hold each other's alibi. If you collect all the statements first, the case file usually narrows eight people to three before you have spent a single kit.
- Fix the generator early, not late. The conduit puzzle takes about a minute of calm, and you can only attempt it once per sector. A night with power is a night where you can see a door open; a night without one is a night where you find out afterwards.
- Trust is a weapon. At fifty per cent or better the crew shoot alongside you, which roughly halves how much of the night you have to survive personally. Every innocent you test burns trust, so a run that tests four people and is right about two is usually worse off than a run that tests one and is sure.
- The flamethrower is for creatures, the pistol is for doors. Fuel does not come back quickly and a burning creature keeps taking damage after you stop, so a short burst and a step backwards kills as reliably as holding the trigger and costs half as much.
- On nest sectors, ignore everything that is not the heart. The gate is already open, the imitator logic is switched off, and the score comes from burning the heart before your fuel runs out. Sprint, burn, and do not stop to loot the lockers on the way.
A little history
The isolated base with something wearing a face among the crew is one of the strongest shapes horror fiction has, and games usually reach for it as an excuse for monsters. NULLMASS uses it as an excuse for arithmetic. The heart of the game is a deduction puzzle with a very small number of certain facts — one blood test, a handful of alibis, who was seen alone — and everything else is testimony from people who may be lying. What makes it a game rather than a logic grid is the cost of certainty: the kits are limited, and each test you spend to be sure also makes the crew trust you less, which makes the night harder. In the daily challenge, who is an imitator and which clues appear are decided by the day's date, so everyone on the station is working the same case.
Frequently asked questions
Can I win a sector without finding the imitators?
Yes. Surviving until dawn clears the sector regardless. But exposed imitators are worth points and an unexposed one feeds at midnight, so ignoring the deduction makes the nights progressively worse.
What happens when the whole crew is gone?
The run ends and your score goes to the leaderboard with the sector you reached. You can also retry the sector you died on, which keeps your experience and perks but restarts the score for that sector.
Does it work on a phone?
Not well. Movement is on WASD, aiming is on the mouse, and the assay, the case file and the conduit puzzle all assume a pointer. Play it on a computer.
