Achievements
The first seven things worth doing, in the order that makes sense - each one opens the next app, and the last one hands you an invite to give away.
A new account can do a lot, which is its own kind of problem. Your achievements answer one question at a time: what is the single next thing worth doing?
The climb is seven rungs long, and it is climbed in order. Each one is something you make or win, most of them open the app the next rung happens in, and the last one hands you an invite to give to somebody else. Then it stops. There is no level cap to chase, no points, no leaderboard.
The climb
Your account starts inside one app. The rungs walk you through the other four. The two game rungs are played at tables someone else opens: you take a seat, you never have to host. For now, the Rising Tide team opens the tables. Hosting your own is coming.
| Rung | What earns it | What it opens |
|---|---|---|
| First bottle | Drop a bottle in Bottle Drop | The protocol collects the first copy and pays you for it |
| First reply | Leave a reply on a bottle that is not yours | Nothing but the record. Its sender is paid the moment you do |
| Three bottles | Drop three bottles in total | On The Record |
| Two letters | Write two open letters on On The Record | Grammata |
| First page | Publish a page on Grammata | Tic-Tac-Boom |
| First match | Play a match in Tic-Tac-Boom | Drop Four |
| Graduated | Win a match in either game | An invite to give |
In order means in order. A rung cannot be earned before the one above it in this table, however much you have done: two letters written before your third bottle wait, and land the moment the third bottle does. Your hub always shows the next rung you can actually reach.
Every rung is something you make - or, at the top, something you win. None of them is a login streak, a profile you filled in, or a button you pressed. That is deliberate: the only thing worth rewarding is the thing the protocol exists for.
Coming back counts too
Two awards sit outside the climb and are earned by returning rather than by advancing.
- Second day - you came back on a different day and made or collected something.
- Fifth day - five different days on the record. This one pays an invite, and another one every ten days you keep coming back.
A day only counts if you did something on it: published a piece, collected somebody else's, or won a match. Opening the app is not enough, which is why the copy never asks you to log in for credit.
That renewal is the part worth underlining. An invite is not a coupon - it arrives carrying starter funds and access, so handing one over is a real thing to give. Keep showing up and you keep having one to hand out.
Where you see it
- Your hub leads with your shelf: what you have earned, and the one next rung, phrased as an instruction rather than a score.
- Every app shows the same next step in its own words, wherever you happen to be standing. One fact, said the way that app talks.
- Achievements on your hub lays out every rung in order, what earns it and what it pays, and marks the rungs still locked with the one they wait on. No sign-in needed - it is the same climb for everybody, so you can read it before you have an account.
The shelf shows you one rung at a time on purpose. Achievements is there when you want the whole shape; the shelf is there when you want the step under your foot.
Where this goes next
- Your first earnings - how the first rung turns into your first sats
- Funded invites - what the invite you earn actually carries when you give it away
- How a lobby works - the table, the buy-in and the pot behind the last two rungs