The two-line backstory for this minigame: King Tinkinzar has finally gotten around to wiping Emberlight off Depth 18, and is launching an invasion composed of mostly Gremlins, Constructs, and things in boxes. (Yes, really.) As per usual, Spiral HQ is ordering the various guilds of the Spiral Order to put a stop to it.

How this minigame works: Operation: Hold the Gates can be purchased from the 2F War Room (if unlocked) in a Guild Hall by ranks Officer and higher. Tier 1 Op:HtG costs 7,500 crowns, tier 2 costs 15,000 crowns, and Tier 3 costs 35,000 crowns to unlock. Once purchased, the Op:HtG minigame can be accessed by right-clicking the bank of computers in the center of the War Room, selecting a tier and clicking "Enter Operation". Additionally, a Stranger merchant by the name of Bulwark appears in the upper left corner of the War Room. I'll get on to what he does later.

The entire minigame takes place in a section of the outskirts of Emberlight, and is roughly half the size of a Clockwork Tunnels level. At the far southern end of the level is a barricaded gate with a finite amount of health. Stretching upwards from the gate is a corridor (possibly corridors, with branching paths?) with randomly placed left and right turns. The tiles in the level are borrowed from the actual Emberlight (the subtown) and have damaged or ragged edges, with the occasional hole missing from the sides or center of the corridor/s.

For 12-hour intervals, crowns are automatically added to your guild's treasury every hour (amounts depend on which tier(s) are currently purchased and active) and an attack can only be started by a guild member of Officer rank or higher. Successfully repelling an attack resets the 12-hour timer, and failing to repel one does nothing. Once a 12-hour interval is over, crowns are no longer added until an attack is started and repelled. When this happens, any player in the guild of any rank can start an attack, as there are no negative consequences to failing an attack besides not receiving hourly crowns until an attack is successfully repelled.

When an attack is started, up to seven players in the guild can enter the minigame level. After 15 seconds, the camera moves to the far end of the level, a pair of elevator rails slam down into the far northern end of the corridor(s), and a bunch of Gremlins, walking cages, Constructs, evil armored yo-yos, and a giant buzzsaw toaster mecha start pouring out.

Each attack has 5 waves: 1-4 consist of gremlins, constructs, shufflecages, and Siege Wisps running down to the gate. Wave 5 consists of a single Siege Shredder, shufflecages, *normal* constructs, and gremlins.

The gremlin and construct guards are programmed to move with the Siege Wisps/Siege Shredder until they aggro a Knight.

Siege Wisps are a monster unique to this minigame. Like most drones, Siege Wisps travel in straight lines, only make 90-degree turns, and have average movement speed. However, Siege Wisps are always vulnerable to attacks, have roughly 3 times the health of a standard Wisp of the same tier, and only move downwards through the level until they reach the gate, where they will explode. If the gate is destroyed, the attack is failed and the 12-hour timer is not reset. Their visual models resemble a slightly (1.5x) enlarged version of a normal Wisp, with grey, riveted armor plating and a ring of flashing red lights replacing the sawblade at the center.

Shufflecages are also a monster unique to Op:HtG. They resemble monster cages with a symbol (Beast, Jelly, Fiend, Undead) up on top and four Shufflebot legs mounted at each corner, and have the health value of a shufflebot from the equivalent tier. Attack method is to run (shuffle?) up to a knight and explode, releasing 3 randomly selected monsters from the indicated monster family contained within. They same thing occurs if the
Shufflecage is destroyed.

Lastly, the Siege Shredder. It's a 3x enlarged scuttlebot with a red central eye (camera?), halved movement speed, immense amounts of health (depends on tier) three mortar tubes, four turrets (bullet spread equivalent to a gun puppy of the equivalent tier), and a pair of large sawblades that deal massive damage to Knights and instakill the gate.

-re stuf-

-new c-

-eas y-

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