Active Matter Shelter, Workshop, and Monolith
The only room that does not try to kill you — and the ladder that still can.
The Shelter is Active Matter’s base: terminals, stash, a Workshop, and a Monolith that pretends to be furniture until you start spending tokens. You do not extract here. You decide whether the next raid is Isolated or a donation. This page is the between-raids loop. Pair it with the beginner guide if you have not left the building yet, and with editions so stash size and Isolated access match what you paid for.
Patch 0.4.0.62 moved the Replicator and Refiner into the Workshop. They are no longer floor decorations you trip over. Patch 0.4.0.55 added a new Monolith room and Shelter furniture, and pulled item fusion off the regular replication queue onto a dedicated slot — 250 Shades of Liberty then moved fusion onto the Replicator entirely. If a 2025 YouTube overlay still shows those machines in the hallway, the overlay is the problem.
Terminals, stash, and the two wallets
Walk the screens in this order so you stop opening Market when you meant Missions.
Missions. Raid select. Isolated versus Open, modifiers, rare-loot icons, simultaneous queues. Geography lives on the maps hub. Queue rules live on raid types. You pick Investigations; other contracts fill in. Operative objectives chain and do not pay Monolith Tokens.
Stash. Volume is finite. Patch 0.4.0.62 made pouches expand overall inventory and add per-category volume bonuses; Body Sleeve pockets were removed. Each sleeve still grants its own volume bonuses, with base carry cut by 100. Quick-access slots now reference an inventory item instead of storing a clone. Live packing notes: Patch 0.4.0.62. Specialized storage exists for item categories such as chronotraces: huge capacity, strict type. A one-way temporary stash holds items that evacuated from the last raid (safe containers, Robot Dogs, rented gear) until you queue again, then it clears. Do not treat that tray as long-term storage.
Market. Credits buy shop guns, plates, ammo, cheap consumables. Crystallised Active Matter (CAM) buys Isolated passes, beacons, safe containers, and some Monolith shortcuts. CAM is a one-time edition grant plus daily drips. It does not come back after a self-sacrifice. Standard starts at 300 crystals; Advanced and Premium pay more. Spend CAM after you can extract, not on cosmetics.
Credits die with the kit if you did not extract. CAM does not. Mixing those two wallets is how new operatives go broke. Harvested active matter sits on the watch, not as a junk stack — that is a third resource, and it is the one the loop is named after.
Workshop: Replicator, fusion, Refiner
Replicator prints unlocked blueprints on a timer. Queue slots scale with edition (Advanced and Premium buy the first expansions). Replication now has a limit you recharge with chronotraces. Extracting an item unlocks its fusion and replication recipes immediately; you no longer wait for a full blueprint bar, but you do charge the recipe with chronotraces. Replicated items are indistinguishable from looted or purchased copies — the old “replicated” tag is gone.
Fusion is instant crafting from components on the Replicator, not the Refiner. Same recipes, new home. Do not dump your last copy of a part into fusion because the queue looked empty.
Refiner eats extracted junk for credits and chronotraces. The old universal chronotraces are gone. The new types are metal, composite, fiber, chemicals, energy, and idea. Anything dismantles; valuable raid finds pay more. Players who held old chronotraces received Chronotrace Containers that recycle into the new types. Enriched copies pulled from a raid research faster. Do not refine the one gun you still need as a fusion input.
Chronotraces also feed in-raid perks that drop if you die, which is why Isolated still teaches the economy even when nobody is shooting you.
Monolith, prestige, and Harmonization
Monolith is the progression ladder: access levels, tokens, recipes, Body Sleeves, storage expansions, prestige. Tokens come from contracts and synchronization work. You do not have to buy every node on a level to climb. The Agency has been clear in Q&A: Monolith remains the reliable source of top-tier guns; raids still drop uniques, but the ladder is how kits become repeatable. See the weapon tier list before you spend tokens on a C-tier receiver because the model looks cool.
Prestige / self-sacrifice is the personal wipe at the end of the ladder. Credits, stash, blueprints, and Chronogenes reset. CAM, dog tags, self-sacrifice rewards, and edition bonuses stay. Ignore prestige until the ladder is actually finished. There is no planned account wipe for the Steam launch — Harmonization and self-wipe remain the reset tools. Details sit on Steam and consoles.
Harmonization of the Multiverse is the community-wide version of that choice. Players who create a new timeline at the late Monolith stages unlock the big-update guns and push a shared bar. Filling that bar unlocks those guns for operatives who did not wipe. Cycle 2 still gates SCAR-H, MAC-11, RSh-12, M39 EMR, DP-12, plus kamikaze and thermal drones, several grips, and the Burst Injector. Rank your live Replicator first. Treat Harmonization guns as a ceiling, not a shopping list.
Chronogenes are the in-raid perk chips. Tier III now uses a charge system: up to 10 charges, one consumed per raid death, refilled by fusing Tier II into Tier III. You cannot equip multiple identical Tier III chips. Pulse, Beast, and the rest of the sleeve bonuses live on armor — sleeves themselves are not sold for CAM.
What to do after every raid
- Empty the temporary evacuated tray into real stash or the Refiner. It will vanish when you queue.
- Refine junk. Keep one copy of anything you still need for fusion.
- Charge replication recipes with the chronotraces you just printed. Do not start a four-hour queue on a gun you will not run this week.
- Spend credits on ammo and meds. Spend CAM only on a small safe container and a beacon until Isolated extracts are boring.
- Check Monolith for a cheap node, not a prestige button.
- Queue a raid you can afford to lose. How to extract is the loop those terminals serve. How to beat anomalies is why you still die with a full stash.
Shelter decoration is real now: you can move the Refiner and Replicator and place a lot of junk as furniture. That is not progression. A pretty Monolith room does not reprint an M4A1. For whether the 29.99 Standard buy-in is enough Shelter, use editions and the review. For the raids those terminals point at, use the maps hub.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to the most common questions.
Where did the Replicator and Refiner go?
Patch 0.4.0.62 moved both into the Workshop. Fusion sits on the Replicator, not the Refiner. If your overlay still shows hallway machines, update the overlay.
What are chronotraces now?
Six types: metal, composite, fiber, chemicals, energy, and idea. You get them by dismantling items in the Refiner. They charge replication recipes and refill replication limits.
Does CAM come back after a prestige wipe?
No. Crystallised Active Matter, dog tags, self-sacrifice rewards, and edition bonuses persist. Credits, stash gear, blueprints, and Chronogenes reset.
Should I Harmonize to unlock SCAR-H?
Only if you are done with the Monolith ladder and can live without the stash. Cycle 2 guns are a ceiling. Rank your live Replicator on the weapon tier list first.
What is the temporary stash after a raid?
A one-way tray for safe containers, Robot Dogs, and rented gear that extracted. It clears when you start the next raid. Move what you want to keep before you queue.