Glossary · every term, defined once

LADDER glossary

the vocabulary that shows up on cards, HUD chips, and long-press popovers · last updated 2026-08-17

LADDER's in-game long-press popovers explain a term the moment you need it, mid-run, in whatever voice the character you're playing speaks in. This page is the same vocabulary, all in one place, in plain English, for looking something up before you've even started a run - or for settling an argument about what Tech Debt actually does.

Core mechanics

The words that show up directly in card text, across every character.

Damage: Reduces an enemy's HP, after their Block has absorbed what it can. Most enemies leave the fight once HP hits zero. A few don't: they keep acting until a separate condition fires instead, the way an actual workload does - see the roguelike deckbuilder guide for what that looks like.
Block: Soaks incoming Damage before it touches HP. Combat-only, and it resets at the end of every turn unless a card or relic says otherwise. On the Engineer, the same bar is labeled Deniability and shown as its own HUD chip.
Draw: Pulls cards from the deck into your hand. If the deck runs dry mid-draw, the discard pile shuffles into a fresh deck and the draw continues.
Discard: Moves a card from your hand to the discard pile. Discarded cards aren't gone - they shuffle back into the deck once it empties. For a card removed from the run entirely, see Exhaust.
Exhaust: Removes a card from the run once it resolves. Exhausted cards never return on a reshuffle, and the marker rides the card instance itself, so a card modified into exhaust stays exhausted for the rest of the run.
Modify: Edits a card instance sitting in your hand or deck - usually its energy cost, or marking it to exhaust the next time it's played. The change persists on that specific card for the rest of the run, not just for the current turn.
Summon: Places a friendly entity on the field. Summoned entities act on their own each turn and can be targeted by enemies; they leave the field once their HP reaches zero or the fight ends.
AI-Leveraged: A card tag, not a status. AI-Leveraged cards trigger the relics built around that tag, and many of them stamp Tech Debt on themselves as the cost of the shortcut. Context Rot also chips away at their effectiveness the longer a fight runs.

Statuses

The stacking effects that ride on your character (or on a specific card) across a fight or a run.

Burnout: Long-haul fatigue that trades short-term tempo for real risk. Enough of it starts costing you cards and turns, and eventually Credibility directly. Rest options clear it, and a handful of cards clear it outright.
Momentum: A small-wins reward loop. Build enough of it and your first card each turn goes free, an effect that keeps rearming as long as Momentum stays high. It carries between turns and clears once the fight ends.
Visibility: Tracks how visible your work is to the org. Some enemies use it as their actual resolve condition instead of HP; others punish you for having too much of it. Optics-archetype cards are the main source.
Tech Debt: What an AI shortcut leaves behind. It rides on a card instance rather than on you - sometimes the card that earned it, more often a random one in your hand or deck - and makes that card cost more energy to play again. Refactor and Review cards clear it.
Context Rot: AI loses context as a fight drags on. The more Context Rot piles up, the less your AI-Leveraged cards do. It clears automatically once the fight ends.

Resources

What each character is actually managing, turn to turn and sprint to sprint. Names change by character; the roles underneath mostly don't.

Credibility (health bar): The number that ends your run at zero, whatever it's called for the character in front of you: Credibility for the Engineer and the EM, Roadmap Credibility for the PM, Company Credibility for the CEO. Different pressures drain it per character, but the rule underneath is the same everywhere.
Energy: What you spend to play cards. It resets to its starting amount at the top of every turn, for every character - nothing carries over.
Capital: A slow-building resource for the Engineer and the EM, spent on the pricier plays in each kit rather than earned back turn to turn the way Energy is.
Org Standing: The EM's read on how leadership actually sees them, separate from how well their reports are doing. It's entirely possible to build real skill on a team and still be invisible to the people who decide promotions.
Delivery Velocity: What the PM spends to actually deliver a milestone once it's been committed to. Like any other resource, it has to be built up before it can be spent.
Runway Months: The CEO's second health bar. It runs down separately from Company Credibility, and it ends the run just as surely if it reaches zero.
Vision Capital: What the CEO spends on real strategic bets - the plays with a shot at an actual exit, rather than just getting through the year.

Win conditions

Every character on the character guide wins a run a different way. The short version of each:

Promotion: The Engineer's and the EM's win meter. Fill it in an ordinary fight and the run can end early in a win; boss fights and other condition-resolve fights still have to be cleared on their own terms regardless.
Roadmap Delivered: The PM's win condition. Commit to a milestone, then actually deliver it - do that enough and the run ends early in a win. Slipped commitments are what drain Roadmap Credibility, so overcommitting is the PM's version of Burnout.
Cap-Table Exit: The CEO's endgame. Survive to it and the run resolves into one of several graded outcomes, from an IPO down to the Board declining to renew your mandate. The upper outcomes are all wins, ranked by how good a year you actually had.

Companion economy

Every character climbs with an AI companion - Bit for the Engineer, Tally for the EM, Cal for the PM, Quorum for the CEO - and all four run on the same currency.

Cognits: The AI-credit currency that pays for a reply from your companion, the same kind of thing your fictional employer rations. A daily trickle keeps casual chat free, and you can top up or subscribe for more. Cognits buy conversation and gossip, never cards, relics, stats, or unlocks - and the full game is playable and winnable without spending one.

Get it on the App Store

For how these terms fit together in an actual run, read the roguelike deckbuilder guide, the character guides, or see how LADDER fits among other games about corporate life. Or head back to the home page for the full pitch. Found a term that's drifted from how the game actually plays? Tell us through support and we'll fix it.