Code of the Street

The Code of the Street is an honor code amongst the writers of New Amsterdam. Even with writers being aware that what they are doing is illegal, there are still certain things within the local graffiti scene that are considered unacceptable.
Though the full "rules" of the Code of the Street are not explained in detail within the game, there is a lot that can be inferred from character dialog and actions:
* Bel explains the Code of the Street in part, saying “in this world it’s about skills and skills only”. Essentially, this means that writers are meant to fight each other with style, such as in crew battles and gaining REP via graffiti pieces, not hurting nor killing each other.
* On that note, a writer killing another writer is considered to be a grave action against the Code of the Street.
* If a crew gains enough REP in a given area, they can challenge that area's reigning crew to a crew battle. This means that each side compete against one another to get the most points in a given amount of time. Said points are gained via combos.
* The winnings of a crew battle can be decided on between the two competing crews. Usually, the two crews battle just for control of a given area. Sometimes the terms are more specific, such as for the first crew battle between the Bomb Rush Crew and the Franks: if BRC won, the Flesh Prince would tell them where to find DJ Cyber, and if the Franks won, then BRC would be forced to join them instead.
* Even if a crew is friends with another crew and/or their leader, the first crew still needs to compete with the second crew in order to win the second crew's turf for themselves. It is thus implied that crews can't simply give their turf to other crews.
* If a writer breaks the code, the punishment for doing so can vary depending on how the code was broken.
**For example, when the Flesh Prince refused to acknowledge that BRC won the first crew battle, DJ Cyber declared that this was breaking the code, and thus the Franks' turf was forfeited to BRC.
**If the code breaking was something more serious, such as killing a fellow writer, it's expected that everyone else will turn against the killer.
* That being said, even if a writer or crew breaks the Code of the Street, they may still be left to operate in New Amsterdam, just with a bad reputation among other writers. The biggest example of this is Devil Theory, who break the code time and again by snitching on their fellow writers to the police. Despite that, they are still recognized as a prominent crew and even controlled Pyramid Island during the game's story.
Category:Terminology