Buy official scouts
Only official Cache Wars pieces with unique QR and serial IDs can enter the game.
Team review draft v0.4
Cache Wars Rulebook
A working team-review rulebook for official army men, QR ownership, recon scans, captures, MIA recovery, storage crates, defenses, public-safe deployments, and territory control.
Design principles
- Finding a real piece should always matter: capture, recon, recovery, defense, or report.
- Physical possession is not ownership. The QR ledger decides who can deploy and score.
- Players can collect unlimited pieces, but active deployment and extraction are capped.
- Defense should add strategy without making field hunting feel pointless.
- Public safety, cleanups, and good citizenship are part of the game rules.
Rulebook Chapters
Use this as the team review index. Each chapter is written as a draft rule system, not final legal policy.
Core Loop
The MVP should prove one question: do people care about finding and stealing each other’s real physical scouts?
Deploy in public
Hide scouts in legal, accessible public places and submit a clue, radius, and safety checklist.
Hunt the cache
Other players see a search radius and clue but not exact GPS. They must physically find the piece.
Scan for recon or capture
A finder scans the QR code near the listed location, then chooses Recon or Capture if capacity is available.
Redeploy, recover, or hold
Captured scouts enter processing before redeploy. Recon-tagged scouts stay in the field and create intel.
Fairness & Anti Pay-to-Win
Cache Wars can sell physical and digital goods, but bought inventory should create more opportunities to play, not automatic map dominance.
Active deployment cap
A commander can own unlimited scouts, but only a capped number can actively score per territory cell. Extra purchased scouts sit in reserve until deployed elsewhere.
Muster period
Newly purchased scouts must wait 12 hours after registration before they can score territory points. They can be named and profiled immediately.
Earned value beats bought value
Store-bought scouts start as Recruits. Veterans, Elites, medals, history, and strong territory value must be earned through survival and captures.
Diminishing territory returns
Stacking many scouts in one cell should have diminishing returns. Example: first 10 points count full, next 20 count half, overflow counts one-quarter.
Special unit limits
Only one active General bonus and one active Medic protection can apply per territory cell per commander or alliance.
Supply crates require field control
A purchased crate does nothing in storage. It only affects nearby armies after safe deployment, public verification, and defendable map presence.
Cosmetics stay cosmetic
Paid skins, banners, trails, profile frames, and base designs cannot directly add capture strength or territory points.
Scan & Capture Rules
The basic emotional rule remains simple: if you find the physical scout, you get a result. Capture transfers ownership only when the scan is legitimate and the player has extraction capacity.
GPS proximity
Finder must be within the allowed capture radius when scanning. Default launch rule: 500 feet.
QR match
Scanned QR must match the deployed serial number and cannot already be captured.
Time window
A scan must happen after deployment goes live and before the cache is removed, expired, or reported unsafe.
Photo clue audit
Players can report mismatched, misleading, or unsafe clue photos.
One account rule
A player cannot capture their own active deployment unless recalling it.
Recon vs Capture
Capture is extraction and ownership transfer. Recon is verified contact: intel, XP, pressure, and setup while the scout stays in the field.
Capture Scan
Transfers ownership, uses extraction capacity, requires the finder to take physical possession, awards high XP, and creates strong territory impact.
Recon Scan
Confirms the player physically found the scout without transferring ownership. The scout must be left in place. Awards intel, XP, and temporary territory pressure.
MIA Recovery Scan
Used when a missing scout is found. Starts a recovery flow, awards recovery XP, and may return, transfer, or review ownership based on status.
Defense Scan
Identifies, clears, or triggers a defense such as a mine, sensor, decoy, or bunker. It should always give the finder a useful result.
Recon XP
Recon should feel valuable even when capture capacity is full. Launch rule: 10 rewarded Recon Scans per day.
Marked target
A recon-tagged scout can be marked for the scanner or squad for 24 hours, making a later capture worth bonus XP.
Territory pressure
Recon adds temporary pressure against the owner’s territory score for 12-24 hours, weaker than capture but still meaningful.
Intel reveal
Recon can show owner, role, rank, age deployed, broad defense hints, and whether a crate or squad support is nearby.
Owner alert
The owner gets a broad alert that a scout was spotted, creating tension without exposing the finder’s exact location.
Squad assist
Players out of capture slots can still support teammates by tagging targets, validating active caches, or probing defenses.
Army Capacity & Limits
The core fairness rule is unlimited collecting, limited deployment, and capped scoring. Buying more figures expands collection and options, not instant map control.
Rule language
A Commander may collect any number of official Cache Wars figures. Only troops assigned to the Active Roster may be deployed, and only live field deployments count toward territory control.
Collection / Barracks
Players may collect unlimited official figures. Barracks units can be named, skinned, traded, and profiled, but they do not score territory.
Active Roster
Only selected roster units can deploy or score. Launch example: 10 slots for new commanders, expanding through safe play and earned progression.
Field Deployed
Only live public deployments count at full power. They are vulnerable to capture and must obey safety, visibility, cooldown, and cell-cap rules.
Reserve Strength
Reserve can support territories, power defenses, or supply squads, but should count at reduced strength and require nearby field activity.
Forward Deploy
Deploying outside home territory, controlled cells, or supply lines requires a deployment order, recent capture, squad support, or storage crate.
Score Caps
Suggested launch cap: 5 live deployments per new commander, 2 scoring deployments per map cell, and 2 forward deploys per day unless earned.
Capture Pacing
Players should be able to hunt all night if they want, but they should not be able to extract every scout in the city. Extra finds become Recon Tags.
Extraction capacity
Players can scan unlimited finds, but only confirmed captures up to a rolling daily limit transfer ownership. Suggested launch: 3-5 captures per 24 hours.
Recon after limit
After capacity is full, additional scans become Recon Tags. The finder gets XP/intel, but the physical scout must stay in place.
Same-cell cooldown
Limit captures from the same map cell, such as 2 per 6-12 hours, so one player cannot wipe out a neighborhood in one sweep.
Same-owner protection
Limit captures from the same owner per day outside official events, protecting new players and families from being cleared out.
Carry weight
Recruit costs 1 extraction slot, Veteran costs 2, Elite or General costs 3, and storage crates require special crate extraction.
Processing time
Captured scouts cannot immediately redeploy. Normal scouts process for 12 hours, special units 24 hours, crates 24 hours, and high-value units may take longer.
Deployment Lifecycle
Cooldowns make captures meaningful and prevent players from instantly redeploying bought inventory to flood a map.
Registered
Player scans a new official scout into their account. The scout enters a 12-hour muster period before scoring.
Ready
Scout can be deployed, assigned a name/personality, fitted with cosmetics, or kept in reserve.
Deploying
Owner places the scout in a public-safe location, adds clue photo, radius, safety checklist, and optional story text.
Live
Cache appears after a 30-minute anti-camping delay. Default capture radius: 500 feet. Minimum active time before owner recall: 6 hours.
Captured
Finder scans the QR on-site. Ownership transfers, capture history updates, and the scout enters a 12-hour redeploy cooldown.
Recovered
Owner recalls a stale or reported cache. Recovered scouts have a 6-hour cooldown and do not gain capture credit.
Wounded
Medic-protected scouts avoid transfer but become Wounded for 48 hours. They cannot score or redeploy until healed.
Scout Rank & Value
Rank gives players a reason to care about individual pieces instead of treating them as disposable tokens.
Recruit
1 pointDefault rank for a new official scout. Easy to risk, cheap to replace, and ideal for early deployment.
Veteran
5 pointsEarned after a scout survives deployments or participates in captures. Valuable but risky to hide.
Elite
10 pointsHigh-history scouts with meaningful territory power. Losing one should hurt.
Specialty Units
Special pieces should add tactical choices, not break the game. Each needs a clear power, limit, and counter.
Sniper
Power: On a successful capture, a Sniper can claim one bonus Recruit from the defender’s reserve if the defender has one available.
Limit: Cannot steal Veterans, Elites, Generals, or other specialty units. One Sniper bonus per capture.
Counter: Medic can block the bonus steal once per cooldown.
When captured: If captured, the Sniper loses its charged shot for 72 hours and transfers as a normal Veteran until recharged.
Medic
Power: Protects one deployed scout in the same territory from being captured outright. The finder still gets points, but the protected scout returns to the owner as Wounded.
Limit: One protection per Medic per 7 days. Wounded scouts cannot be redeployed for 48 hours.
Counter: Sniper bonus steal fails if Medic protection is active.
When captured: If captured, the Medic transfers ownership but enters Recovery and cannot protect a scout for 72 hours.
General
Power: Adds a territory command bonus. While deployed in a zone, all friendly scouts in that zone count +20% strength.
Limit: Only one General bonus can apply per territory. Generals are visible as high-value targets.
Counter: Capturing a General gives a season medal and transfers the General like any other piece.
When captured: If captured, the territory bonus ends immediately and the General is locked from redeployment for 24 hours.
Scout Leader
Power: Improves clue quality and search fairness. A cache with a Scout Leader can use a wider radius but must include a stronger clue photo.
Limit: No combat bonus. Useful for family-friendly events and beginner zones.
Counter: Can be captured normally.
When captured: If captured, the Scout Leader keeps its history and can be redeployed after the normal captured cooldown.
Defense & Field Hazards
Defense should make high-value territory more strategic as the game matures, but the finder should still feel rewarded. Avoid turning physical discovery into a failed dice roll.
Recommended default
If it is deployed and you find it, you can capture it unless a specific defense effect triggers. Even then, the scan should award XP, intel, pressure, disable a defense, wound a unit, or start recovery.
Default capture rule
If a player finds a deployed scout and has extraction capacity, the capture should usually succeed. Defense creates consequences, not constant denial.
Sensor
Alerts the owner or squad that a scout or crate was scanned nearby. It does not block capture.
Mine
One-time defense that may wound an attacking scout or block a bonus steal. The finder should still get a positive outcome.
Bunker / Fortification
Protects high-value deployments by requiring a break-cover scan before capture or by adding a short contested window. Use sparingly.
Decoy
Creates a false signal or secondary clue. Finding it grants XP and clears it. Too many decoys will make the game annoying.
Medic protection
The rare exception that can convert a capture into Wounded recovery once per cooldown. The finder still receives credit and XP.
Storage Crates & Supplies
A crate is a larger capturable support cache. It houses digital supplies for nearby armies, but it has stricter safety rules because a physical box in public needs to be obvious, permissioned, and non-suspicious.
Physical object
A crate is an official QR-coded storage box, not a normal scout. It must be clearly branded, weather-safe, and approved for the location type.
Digital manifest
The box may contain physical cards or stickers, but its real game contents are digital: med kits, repair parts, recon pings, rally flags, crate skins, or field-only badges.
Support radius
A live crate supports nearby armies in its assigned map cell and adjacent cells. Launch rule: one active crate bonus per commander or squad per district.
Activation requirement
A crate only turns on if the owner has at least three live scouts in nearby public cells or one recent capture in the crate radius. Buying a crate alone does not score.
Capture outcome
A finder scans the crate QR on-site. Ownership transfers, unspent digital supplies become spoils, and the crate enters a 24-hour lockdown before redeployment.
Safety tier
Crates should be limited to approved parks, public events, partner storefronts, or permissioned public venues. No random unattended boxes under benches, near buildings, or around utilities.
Possible digital supplies
Med Kit
Heals one Wounded scout 24 hours faster. One use per scout.
Repair Parts
Restores one disabled specialty ability after cooldown.
Recon Ping
Shows enemy cache density in a broad cell, never exact GPS.
Rally Flag
Gives a squad a temporary capture-pressure bonus in one adjacent cell.
Supply Skin
Unlocks a crate, scout, or commander cosmetic tied to the find location.
MIA & Recovery Process
Physical pieces will get lost, moved, trashed, stolen, or picked up by non-players. MIA should be a normal status with story, recovery rewards, and scoring safeguards.
Active
The scout is live in the field and counts for capture, XP, territory, and survival progression.
Missing Reported
A hunter reports not found, unsafe, inaccessible, or moved. One report creates a warning but does not immediately remove scoring.
Suspected MIA
Triggered by repeated unique reports, owner recall failure, stale age, or unsafe location reports. Survival XP pauses and territory score is reduced.
Verification Window
Owner gets 48-72 hours to confirm with a fresh photo, recall it, move it safely, or mark it MIA. False confirmation hurts reputation.
Confirmed MIA
The scout no longer scores, cannot redeploy, keeps its profile/history, and shows last known area, owner, deployment date, and recovery reward.
Recovered
If someone later scans the physical scout, it starts a recovery flow and records “Recovered after X days MIA.” Honest recovery earns XP.
Ownership & Chain of Custody
The game has to reduce the value of simply stealing physical pieces. A scout outside the official transfer flow becomes locked until returned, recovered, transferred, or reviewed.
Key rule
Physical possession is not ownership. The app ledger decides who can deploy, trade, score, and use a scout.
Ledger controls ownership
Physical possession is not ownership. The app ledger decides who owns, can deploy, can trade, and can score a scout.
Legitimate transfers
Ownership can transfer through verified field capture, approved MIA recovery, or in-app trade/transfer initiated by the current owner.
Chain of custody conflict
If a player scans a scout they possess but did not capture legitimately, it becomes locked and cannot score, deploy, trade, gain XP, or use abilities.
Rightful owner alert
The digital owner is notified when a locked or conflicted scout is scanned, including broad location and timestamp.
Theft deterrent
Repeated conflict scans reduce commander reputation, deployment limits, capture eligibility, and may trigger moderation.
Honest recovery path
A finder who discovers a lost scout should be rewarded through recovery XP, bounty, return flow, or review rather than punished.
Every Scout Has a Profile
The QR code should open a full identity page for that physical figure. Players should care about specific scouts, not just anonymous points.
Identity
Serial number, name, faction, job type, rarity, current owner, origin city, and first deployment date.
Personality
Randomized or owner-written traits such as cautious, bold, stubborn, lucky, explorer, trickster, or guardian.
Storyline
Short biography plus generated milestones after major captures, long-distance travel, season wins, or owner changes.
Ledger
Every deploy, capture, recall, protection, wound, trade, event badge, and territory victory stays attached to the scout.
Progression
Rank, experience, survival streak, capture streak, distance traveled, cities visited, and medals won.
Leveling & Story Growth
Existence in the world should make a scout more interesting. Time, captures, travel, and survival all build lore.
Survival XP
A scout earns XP when it remains live and public-safe without being reported. Longer survival increases story value but should cap daily.
Capture XP
A scout earns XP when it is found and captured. The finder’s account also earns commander XP.
Travel XP
A scout earns distance milestones when redeployed in new cells, towns, cities, or states.
Story medals
Badges such as First Capture, Crossed State Line, Survived 30 Days, Captured a General, or Founder Drop Found.
Rank protection
Rank never resets when captured. Ownership changes, but the scout’s story and earned identity stay intact.
Territory Overlay
Recommended model: use a real geographic hex grid, likely Uber H3, so every deployment belongs to a stable map cell. The app can roll small cells up into districts, cities, states, and national campaigns.
How ownership works
A territory is controlled by the commander or team with the highest active strength in that cell. Strength comes from deployed scouts, captured scouts stationed in reserve, and specialty bonuses.
Cell ControlScout Points + Specialty Bonuses - Report Penalties
For MVP, territory should update from real captures and deployments. Avoid abstract raid dice until the physical hunt loop is proven.
Local Cell
A few blocks / park areaFast neighborhood play. Best for MVP and dense cities.
District
Town or city districtRolls up multiple local cells into visible control zones.
City
Whole town or citySeason leaderboard layer for local bragging rights.
State
Statewide campaignAggregates city control for seasonal wars.
National
Country mapLong-term public leaderboard once player density exists.
Control score
A cell is controlled by the commander or alliance with the highest active score after deployment caps, rank value, and specialty modifiers.
Contested state
If the top two sides are within 10% strength, the cell becomes Contested and pays reduced season points to both sides.
Takeover window
A new side must hold the lead for 6 continuous hours before ownership flips. This prevents drive-by temporary captures from instantly changing the map.
Supply line bonus
Adjacent owned cells grant a small bonus, but cap it tightly so dense local play matters more than buying many pieces.
Decay
Unvisited deployments decay after 14 days unless found, scanned, recalled, or refreshed through a verified public check-in.
Good Citizenship
Cache Wars has to feel like respectful public exploration. The game should reward safe deployments, accurate clues, cleanup, recovery, and normal-looking behavior in public spaces.
Public-space standard
Players may only deploy pieces where a normal person could safely and legally stand, look around, and retrieve the object without trespassing, damaging property, or alarming others.
Public-space standard
Players may only deploy where a normal person can safely and legally stand, look around, and retrieve the object without suspicion.
Required deployment proof
Every deployment needs public-access confirmation, placement category, clue photo, safety checklist, and report options.
Physical labeling
Scouts and crates should say Cache Wars game piece, not dangerous, scan QR or visit cachewars.com/found, and include support contact.
Trusted commander tiers
New players place basic scouts only. Trusted commanders unlock more deployments, specialty units, events, and crate eligibility.
Expiration and cleanup
Normal scouts expire after 14 days, event scouts after 48-72 hours, and crates after 24-72 hours unless partner-approved. Stale caches stop scoring.
Approved play hours
Scoring captures should default to 6am-10pm local time unless an official event allows night play. Late-night scans can still report safety.
Fast reporting
Players can report unsafe, private property, missing, suspicious, bad clue, damaged, inaccessible, owner cheating, or cleanup-needed deployments.
Reputation impact
Safe deployments, accurate clues, MIA recovery, recon restraint, and cleanup improve trust. Unsafe placements and chain conflicts reduce limits.
Alliances / Squads
Alliances make the game social, but ownership should stay individual so every QR-coded scout keeps its own story.
Squad size
Alliances are called Squads. Launch cap: 2-5 commanders. Large alliances can exist later, but small squads keep local competition readable.
Shared control, not shared ownership
A squad can combine territory score, but each scout still has one owner and one permanent history ledger.
Friendly capture lock
Squadmates cannot capture each other’s active scouts unless the owner marks the cache as a trade or training cache.
Territory split
Season rewards should credit both the squad and individual contributors so one whale cannot carry passive teammates.
Betrayal rule
Leaving a squad freezes your contributed territory score for 24 hours before it follows you, preventing instant map sabotage.
Game Owner Field Drops
Cache Wars should deploy official pieces that cannot simply be bought. Field-only finds keep the map exciting and protect the game from becoming purely transactional.
Founder drops
Cache Wars can seed official story scouts in public events, parks, partner stores, and city campaigns. These can only be earned by field discovery.
Relic scouts
Rare game-owned pieces with fixed lore, unique art, and special badges. They cannot be purchased directly.
Event caches
Time-limited drops during seasonal wars, launch weekends, scavenger hunts, or sponsored local events.
Field-only abilities
Some abilities should only exist on found pieces, not store packs, to keep discovery meaningful.
Raids & Battles
This is the part to delay until the capture loop has density. Draft rule: territory conflict should be earned through real-world finds first.
Control strength
Territory strength equals deployed scout points plus active specialty bonuses.
Capture pressure
Captured enemy scouts reduce the defender’s strength and add to the attacker’s army.
Challenge zone
A player can trigger a zone challenge only if they have active scouts in or near that territory.
Resolution
MVP should avoid random dice battles. Let real-world captures decide territory until density proves raids are needed.
Season reset
Every season archives winners, awards medals, and soft-resets territory control without deleting scout history.
Skins & Digital Monetization
Digital purchases should make armies more personal, more collectible, and more social without selling raw capture power.
Skins
Digital paint schemes, faction colorways, seasonal uniforms, base art, profile portraits, and in-app figure renders. No direct territory score bonus.
Banners and frames
Commander profile frames, squad banners, territory claim banners, and victory plaques shown on maps and leaderboards.
Map effects
Optional capture animations, deployment smoke, scan effects, and territory highlight styles. Cosmetic only and toggleable.
Nameplates
Premium nameplate templates for individual scouts: engraved, veteran, relic, neon, desert, arctic, and founder styles.
Season pass
Earned cosmetic track with free and paid tiers. Paid tier accelerates cosmetics only, not rank, capture power, or territory strength.
Sponsor/event skins
Local event skins and city badges that can be earned in the field or bundled with physical event kits.
Safety & Moderation Rules
These are non-negotiable game rules, not support copy.
Public access only: parks, trails, plazas, public events, and other legal open areas. No private yards, porches, schools, restricted areas, locked buildings, or paid-entry locations. No dangerous placements near traffic, water hazards, cliffs, construction, utilities, or places requiring climbing. No digging, attaching to property, damaging landscaping, or hiding in a way that creates suspicion. Every deployment requires a photo clue, public-access confirmation, and report tools.
Open Decisions
These are the next mechanics worth pressure-testing before building the mobile game logic.
Do captured scouts always transfer?
Cleanest rule: yes. Medic creates the only exception by converting capture into wounded recovery.
How rare should specials be?
Keep specialty units rare enough that most captures involve normal scouts. Otherwise the game becomes pay-to-win.
What resets each season?
Territory control can reset. Scout history, medals, rank, and ownership should never reset.
What is the right redeploy timer?
Current draft: 12 hours after capture, 6 hours after recall, 48 hours if wounded. This needs playtesting.
How much can cosmetics signal status?
Skins can show achievements and identity, but paid cosmetics should never imply stronger capture power.
How strong should Recon pressure be?
Recon should matter enough to feel rewarding, but capture must remain the stronger territory event.
How often should defense block transfer?
Defense should create friction and consequences, not make field discovery feel like a failed scan.
Where can crates safely exist?
Crates likely need approved parks, events, partner storefronts, or permitted public venues.