MonsterCare - XP & Beat Dependency Map (3 demo guests)

Companion to Core Design v0.3, §8. Working draft, June 18 2026 · Revised June 22 2026: basic yoga now Tier 0; Vibe split into Color and Style.

Purpose: show the actual beat→ability→XP structure for Kruggle, Murmur, and Zizz, with real numbers, and prove a player can never get stranded.

Authored vs. proposed: Kruggle and Murmur use your existing content (closet story, Noah backstory, preference sheets). Zizz's deeper beats are placeholders - his data sheet is nearly empty, so Beats 4–5 below are my best-guess-consistent-with-the-archetype and should be treated as TO-AUTHOR, not canon.

Memory framing: each beat is a stage of a guest remembering who they were - their memories are hazy on arrival, and care brings them back (Core Design §6–§7). The fiction changed; the gating math below did not. Read every "Trigger" as a memory surfacing.

This is a structural proof, not the demo script. It maps the full five-beat arc of all three guests, because that's the case that most stresses the XP economy. The demo itself (see the Vertical Slice) is Kruggle-centric - he runs his whole arc, Beats 1–2 played live and Beats 3–4 inside the time-skip montage, with Murmur reaching Beat 3 and Zizz not completing an arc on screen. If the fully-parallel run below can't lock, the lighter demo flow certainly can't.

Time-structure alignment (§11): the "happy-hour beat" in each Beat 5 is the paused evening lounge; the gating activities (spa, movement, performance) run as the scheduled midday event inside the real-time daytime. The phase structure doesn't change any of the logic here.

The demo's numbers (tune later, structure is the point)

Beats grant increasing XP (per the iteration doc):

Three guests → 45 XP total across a full run.

Abilities (demo set of three, 2 XP each → 6 XP total):

Tier 0 (free from the start): basic cooking, furniture placement, tidying, gardening, and basic yoga and meditation (the demo's already-owned example activity; book club is another low-key Tier-0 activity).

The two load-bearing totals:

• XP available from ability-free beats only (everyone's Beats 1–2): (1+2) × 3 = 9
• Total ability cost: 6
• → 9 > 6, with 3 XP of slack, before any gated content is touched.

Per-guest beats

Kruggle - Open Book (guardian for Erica, afraid of the dark)

Keepsake: worn flashlight, opens nighttime ambiance and exploration (expressive, off critical path).

Murmur - Guarded (listened to Noah's whispered fears)

Keepsake: a quiet, nighttime-themed memento.

Why Murmur matters structurally: he's the proof that Tier 0 isn't always a shortcut. His Beat 3 genuinely requires A1, which forces the player into the XP economy - but the XP to buy A1 is fully available from ability-free beats, so it never strands. (This is the beat the Vertical Slice demonstrates live.)

Zizz - Chaotic (Riley's frantic idea-monster) - deeper beats are placeholders

Keepsake: something inventive/whimsical.

Chaotic puzzle note: Zizz's recovered memories surface out of order, so his preferences seem to shift - "read the guest" for him means re-checking, not reading once. That's his archetype's whole gameplay texture; bake it in deliberately. (In the demo, Zizz is the breadth layer and doesn't complete his arc on screen.)

Worked progression trace (proves no lock)

A fully-parallel run - every guest advanced together, the worst case for XP demand. Running XP in brackets.

1. Reach Beat 1 for each (Tier 0 breakfast + habitable room): +1 ×3 → [3]
2. Reach Beat 2 for each (Tier 0 + comfort + first memories): +2 ×3 → [9]
   • ✅ All Beats 1–2 done with zero abilities purchased. You're holding 9 XP.
3. Buy A1 (−2 → [7]); run spa → Murmur B3 (+3 → [10])
4. Buy A2 (−2 → [8]); run gym → Kruggle B3 (+3 → [11])
5. Run movement/performance → Zizz B3 (+3 → [14])
6. Buy A3 (−2 → [12]) for Beat 4–5 variety
7. Beats 4–5 across all three: +(4+5) ×3 = 27 → [39] net

Total earned 45, total spent on abilities 6, surplus 39. At no point is a required ability un-affordable, because the XP that pays for it comes from Tier-0 beats that need no ability.

Dependency diagram

flowchart TD
    T0["TIER 0 - free from start
cooking · furniture · tidying · yoga · gardening"]

    subgraph FREE["Ability-free zone - Beats 1-2, all guests = 9 XP"]
      K12["Kruggle B1-B2
spicy food · warm comfy room"]
      M12["Murmur B1-B2
any food · quiet+dim · frog sound"]
      Z12["Zizz B1-B2
fruity food · read shifting prefs"]
    end

    T0 --> K12 & M12 & Z12

    XP{{"XP pool
Beats 1-2 alone = 9, exceeds ability cost 6"}}
    K12 & M12 & Z12 --> XP

    A1["A1 Spa - 2 XP"]
    A2["A2 Movement - 2 XP"]
    A3["A3 Performance - 2 XP"]
    XP --> A1 & A2 & A3

    M3["Murmur B3
needs A1 - no Tier-0 shortcut"]
    K3["Kruggle B3
needs A2 or A3"]
    Z3["Zizz B3
needs A2 or A3"]
    A1 --> M3
    A2 --> K3 & Z3
    A3 --> K3 & Z3

    LATE["Beats 4-5, all guests
decoration milestones + cumulative = +27 XP"]
    M3 & K3 & Z3 --> LATE
    LATE --> END(["Farewells to keepsakes to Sparky's memories"])

Note the absence of any arrow from a gated beat back into the XP that funds its own gate - that's the property that makes stranding impossible.

Rules check (against Core Design §8)

1. Tier 0 reaches Beats 1–2 of everyone. ✅ Every Beat 1–2 above lists Tier-0-only requirements.
2. Beats 1–2 are ability-free. ✅ No ability appears before Beat 3 for any guest.
3. Gated beats funded by anyone's early beats. ✅ 9 ability-free XP covers all 6 XP of abilities, with slack.
4. No circular single-source dependency. ✅ No ability is required to earn the XP that buys it; the diagram has no back-edge into its own funding.

To finalize: lock Zizz's Beats 2/4/5, confirm whether Kruggle's B3 uses A2 or A3 (or either), and re-run the trace if you change any XP value. The structure holds for any numbers where ability-free XP ≥ total ability cost.