Endless Mode

**Endless Mode** is a game mode in Cursetorn that involves the player attempting to keep their patient alive for as long as possible. This is done through an artificial passage of the weeks that the doctor spends with the patient as they look for a cure to the curse that plagues them.

## Synopsis

A Doctor with an unknown past, the player, is approached by a nun from the monastery and asked to look after a patient who has fallen ill from unnatural causes. You are tasked not with curing, but lasting as long as possible before you are killed by your patient. This mode is non-canonical, as the Doctor will always die in their attempts to cure Kein.

## Gameplay Loop

The gameplay is made up of three different times of day in which the doctor can perform actions; morning, afternoon, and evening. It is presumed that the doctor goes to bed during the night and thus cannot perform actions. In each of these sections, the player may decide to perform certain actions such as heading out for supplies or tending to the garden to gather herbs. The purpose of these actions is to gather enough materials in order to adequately treat Kein, the patient, so that the curse will not spread further throughout their body.

The progression of the curse is marked in the upper right corner of the screen at all times, however the player does not know how much the curse will progress over a passage of time until they perform all of their actions for that specific time period. The only exception to this rule is when the player completes the Detailed Analysis research, which gives them an indication of the speed at which the curse is currently progressing.

There are three main resources to keep track of as you play the game. These are supplies, herbs, and occult. Supplies are considered resources to keep both the doctor and their patient alive, ranging from water to food. They are generally obtained by the "Gathering Supplies" action. Every passage of time consumes three supplies, and if the player runs out of supplies then the curse festers in the patient's body much faster. Other events in the game may lead to more supplies being consumed at every phase, such as the research Diversion Tactics or Kein's mood. They are visually represented by a leather string bag. Herbs can be gathered in the garden and are the only way to treat the patient. The garden restocks itself over time, but the herbs grow back faster the more of them you leave to grow in the garden itself. Otherwise, it will take multiple in-game days for a single herb to grow back. They are visually represented as a leafy plant with a long stem. Finally, Occult is a unique resource. It can be used to swap research events at the fireplace and can only be gained randomly by going outside and performing an Event. It is visually represented by a glowing eyeball.

Another aspect to keep track of is the number of Crows that gather at the windowsill every day. These crows will speed up the curse's progression rate and it is important to always be on the lookout for them and to scare them away every so often. This will take up one of the player's limited actions, but in the long run it is key in order to slow down the curse's progression rate. There is no way to reverse the curse's progression except for a one time use research opportunity called Last Resort.

### The Hunt

Once the curse progression has reached far enough then the patient has been lost to the curse and the game no longer becomes about curing them, but rather the player's own survival. Every night, Kein will now come closer and closer to killing the doctor. This is marked by the flavor text describing how "the hunt has begun". The only way to prevent them from killing the doctor is to provide a source of heat other than the doctor's body, such as the fireplace.

**Endless Mode** is fundamentally a resource management game intended for the player to try and last as long as possible. This is reinforced by the low resource caps that dissuade the player from trying to hoard supplies and herbs. Once the curse has overtaken the patient's body, there is no stopping it. The passage of days becomes a waiting game as to when exactly they will attempt to kill the doctor.

## Trivia

* There are various secrets in **Endless Mode** that can only be discovered through reaching certain milestones in the day counter, so be on the lookout as you're progressing!