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I had the same issue and was about to report it. I force-quitted the game because I didnt know what to choose atm, this seems reasonable in a long game in which you want to make a considered choice when you are less tired so probably there should be an option but that's another issue. What if there is a forced windows restart or power outage?

If you quit while evolving during the next release, it will return you to the stairs before you left.

Also, like moonshine said, you are already being returned to the stairs on previous level, and that is fine. The issue is using the stairs again doesn't prompt the evolution screen again.

Wow, big update here. I just finished watching Run 2 | Ep 2, but I do have one thing to say:
The Footprint Analyzer only works if you never used the terminal before. So putting one on after using a terminal and then using the terminal again doesn't help.

Cheers for clarifying.  I'll make sure to mention that next time it comes up (until Kyzrati fixes it that it .

Nah, that's actually as intended, as far as I can tell. The familiarity normally increases just once per machine, and the footprint analyzer just enhances that.

By the way, you're awesome! Whenever I see one of your videos is up I just drop anything I was doing and watch it. Keep them coming! One tiny little suggestion: maybe it would be better not to spoil the lore? We can always skip it I guess, but it's kinda hard, because I wanna know, and I rarely do the queries myself.

Remote Shield Generator(TM), so they can't say that you don't help out.

I have tried the slayerific approach myself, and I think this (alert levels) might be the standout pitfall, actually. There is no stealth with 9 trigger-happy children running about, as shocking as that may sound.

This is a tough one. I have been seduced by the amount of control you get by spending a ridiculous amount of time on -10 and building yourself a really awesome starting loadout. But that's exciting only the first time around, the second you just want to shoot yourself. It was still difficult for me to stop doing it, because of the gamer complex, or the NEED for power. It's like Arseface says, once you know you can do it, not do it it's really just a way to handicap yourself, specially in a game this hard. That being said, from a design perspective, it's hard to change it without making it less cool and versatile. I really like Arseface's notion of changing the investment necessary from tedium to exploration, I think having a limit on the number of schematics per-terminal is the way to go. Like it shuts itself after the third, or something.

A couple of more things: there is a Reinforcement kind of squad, so

Recall(Reinforcement)
Enumerate(Reinforcements)

Both tested and work.

Also Alert levels appear not to be per-floor as you say here, but rather persist from floor to floor, don't know if they drop overtime or not, but this bumps a lot the usefulness of Alert(Purge) before ascending further.

Apparently they have to be close to you when you actually take the stairs. They need to show in the allies section. I made a test just now with savescumming. Something to keep in mind.

I finally tried the army-builder approach, spent an ungodly amount of time on -10 setting everything up, crafting some items for the first time and testing different loadouts, and then... my -don't even know how many- slayers didn't went with me. Not a single one. "I  just need to get to the next fab", I thought. Found some stairs right away, took them, guess what. The freaking mines. Not a terminal or fab in sight. I lasted a bit but a cave-in robbed me of my best stuff and my will to live. I don't really understand why they didn't follow me, a bug? too many guys?

Congratz man, it is no small achievement.

I would definitely love to see that footage. With commentary is best for me (I kinda get lost or bored without it), but without would also be awesome.

I'm not sure if this is old news but.... Watchers don't send any distress signals (or react to you in any way) if you stand still and don't do anyhting. At least scouts on -10. Come to think of it, the tutorial's chatty little bot said something about pretending to be heap of junk in the corner or something similar, I seem to recall.

I think I'm ready for the next floor. I accidentally overloaded the only fabricator before I got comfortable.

Good god... I do not like the army approach so much myself, but it HAS to be effective, specially if you can churn out a new batch every floor with careful fab usage. Let us know how that goes.

They make it so that the familiarity with a given machine layout increases by two instead of by one when you access a given machine for the first time. I do not know if they stack.

I haven't really gotten far, but the one time I have used one of these I managed to get one terminal type to 11. That was still listed as "low", which is currently making me think that you have no hope of anything past "low" for non-Terminal machines as you will probably not encounter even just 10 of the same layout.

Hmm, It is still unclear how much does familiarity help, or if that "low" means anything at all. But it is good to know this only comes into play "when you access a given machine for the first time", so you don't need to have it on you every time you access the same terminal.

I developed this same strategy on my own, actually. It's really fun. A tip: Playing it safe can make a single interactive machine (terms, fabs) last forever and give you all that your heart desires. If you disconnect before trace is complete and wait 50 turns you get another shot at it. After the first time you access a machine you can get a new trace going as soon as you reconnect, but you can always wait 50 more turns and try again if that happens. You still can't get the best stuff on -10 because the fabs won't let you make stuff with high rating (above 4 I think), but you can sure download pretty high tier schematics (don't know if there is a limit on this as well).

A burning doubt, tho: Footprint analyzers? What do they DO exactly??? From the description it will seem they do exactly the same thing you do on your own, but that is impossible, right?

You can always get a trace at the time of accessing after the first try (the manual says "subsequent connections are tested for detection before even the first hack."), but sometimes you don't, so as long as the trace isn't completed you can always try again in 50 more turns. Also, 25% trace means that most terminal commands won't make it go overboard (I have been hacking heavily and only one time this proved untrue) so you can do one command, fail spectacularly, and still leave the terminal operational.

Recall(Squad) says is not a valid command.

Also, people, FWI, if you stop hacking before the trace is complete you can attempt again in 50 turns (The manual even says so). Playing it safe will make terminals last quite a bit.