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Unfamiliar word? Select a dotted-underlined term for its meaning.
What is a watch?
A watch is one period of playing the main game. Its summary is different from a training lesson’s result. This guide applies when the end-of-watch summary appears; it does not promise an ending after a fixed number of minutes.
Clearing one attack is different from completing the watch
COMBAT READY and INSTANT ACTION cover an operational watch. Defeating one raid or seeing airspace reopen does not by itself finish it. Read why the first cleared raid may not end the game, or save and leave if you want to take a break.
Read the result before choosing a button
- Read the main result and the message below it. A defence that held can still have serious losses.
- Scroll down inside the summary to see the figures and buttons. A small display may not show everything at once.
- Compare the performance, public state, tension and XP as separate measurements. Use the table below for their meanings.
- Choose the button for what you want to do next. NEW WATCH, MAIN MENU and ENDLESS have different destinations.
Read the successful-watch figures
| Label on screen | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| WATCH DURATION | Elapsed game time, rounded to minutes. It is not a stopwatch measurement of how long you sat at the computer. See game time and clock speed. |
| ENEMY AIRCRAFT DESTROYED | The recorded enemy-aircraft destruction count used by the summary. It is not your XP total or a count of every contact you investigated. |
| CITIES / CITIES STRUCK | The game’s recorded city strikes and simulated deaths. These are game results, not real-world casualty predictions. |
| OPERATOR PERFORMANCE | Your PP performance score and its rating. A number in brackets, such as (+120), is the change from the recorded starting performance value. |
| PUBLIC STATE | The PS score and a word describing the public’s concern. It is separate from how well you personally performed. |
| TENSION STATE | The TS score and the level of tension in the situation. Read PP, PS and TS together rather than treating them as one score. |
| XP EARNED | The increase in profile experience points compared with the summary’s recorded starting XP. It is separate from PP. See the XP check below. |
| RANK ADVANCEMENT | Shown when the current rank differs from the recorded starting rank. It need not appear after every watch. |
Example: a performance change is not an XP award
If OPERATOR PERFORMANCE reads 500 — OK (+120), the final performance is 500 and it has risen by 120 from a recorded start of 380. That does not mean you earned 500 XP or completed 120% of a task. XP EARNED is a separate line. These are example numbers, not targets you must reach.
Read losses as well as the headline
A successful-watch heading can still describe a costly result. Read CITIES STRUCK and the final message as well as the enemy count. Repeated strikes on one city can share a row with ×2, ×3 or another count; that does not mean two or three different cities. This summary is not a replay of every order you gave. A DEFENCE FAILED summary uses a different layout and does not offer ENDLESS; do not expect every successful-watch field there.
Check XP against the selected profile
Do not multiply XP EARNED a second time because a multiplier is printed beside it. That line reports a difference between two profile totals, not a new amount to calculate yourself. A failed-watch screen can say PARTIAL XP AWARDED; the label alone does not establish an extra profile award or a deduction. To check progress, keep a screenshot of the summary, then compare the XP on the same profile and read the XP and rank guide.
Choose what happens next
| Button | Where it takes you |
|---|---|
| NEW WATCH | Leaves this situation and opens the game-mode menu. Choose COMBAT READY or INSTANT ACTION there to start a new situation. NEW WATCH does not itself launch one. |
| MAIN MENU | Leaves this situation and returns to the login screen. Select your profile to reach the game-mode menu again. |
| ENDLESS | Available on the successful-watch summary. Closes it and continues the same situation in Endless Mode. Civilian airspace is reopened; this is not a fresh start. |
These are not a lesson’s Retry and Continue buttons. See training results or starting a session.
After choosing ENDLESS
- Look for ENDLESS MODE ACTIVATED and the ENDLESS MODE message in ASMA.
- Check the reopened airspace and ACTIVE OPS. The aircraft and tasks belong to the continuing situation, not a newly started game.
- Check the clock. This route resumes at normal 1× speed; do not assume it kept a faster setting you used earlier.
- If you want to keep this continuing situation, use SAVE GAME and check the saved entry before leaving. ENDLESS is not a save button.
In v0.8.16.0, loading clears the ENDLESS-mode setting. Saving the situation does not guarantee that ENDLESS will return with it. After loading, check the brief, clock, airspace and aircraft before giving orders. If a summary appears unexpectedly, keep a screenshot and the original save for a problem report.
If the screen or numbers seem wrong
Capture the whole summary before leaving it, including the headline, XP line and available buttons. Note your game version, selected profile, difficulty and whether this situation came from a loaded save. Record the profile XP you can actually see; do not delete a profile or edit a save to make the numbers agree. Include this evidence in a problem report. For an ordinary session you want to stop before an ending appears, use save and leave instead of waiting for the summary.
How does loading change the later summary?
In v0.8.16.0, a successful load takes new starting readings for PP, your profile’s XP and your rank. On a later successful-watch summary, the PP change in brackets, XP EARNED and RANK ADVANCEMENT compare with those load-time readings, rather than the start of the original watch. A smaller XP EARNED figure does not mean your earlier profile XP has been removed.
Loading also starts the detailed city-strike list again. A resumed watch’s summary is not a complete record of strikes from before the load; missing earlier rows do not prove that earlier damage was undone.
If you want to compare the figures, keep the original save and screenshots of the profile and summary. Note when you loaded and which profile you used. Follow the XP check above, and include the load history in a problem report if the result still seems wrong.
See the XP check, profile XP and rank, saved-watch checks and the problem-report checklist.