Meta-Progression — Persistent Unlocks Between Runs

What it is. The layer of power and content that survives death. A run ends; the run’s soft growth resets; but a slower, permanent ledger — unlocked weapons, upgraded stats, new rooms, story beats — carries forward and shapes the next run.

Player fantasy / why it’s fun. “I lost, but I’m further along.” Meta- progression is what turns a roguelike’s clean-slate purity into a roguelite’s long pull. Death stops being a punishment and becomes content (anchor-hades — every death is a scripted conversation).

When to use / when NOT

Use it when	Skip it when
Runs are short and lossy; you need a reason to re-enter	The genre’s soul is the clean wipe (traditional roguelike, [[FUN.md §10]])
You want to gate content/difficulty behind repeated play	Persistent power would erase the mastery that IS the game (Spelunky purists)
Failure needs a consolation that isn’t hollow	You can’t afford to balance a moving power floor

The tension to declare up front: persistent power vs. persistent options. Power (permanent +stats) makes the game easier over time — comforting, but it can turn skill into patience. Options (new weapons, new rooms, new starts) make it wider without making it softer. Most durable roguelites lean options-heavy and keep power gains small and capped.

Variants

Variant	What persists	Risk	Example
Power meta	Permanent stat/heart upgrades	Grind-to-win; skill floor erodes	Rogue Legacy manor
Options meta	New weapons/rooms/starts unlock	Balance sprawl	Dead Cells blueprints; Nuclear Throne chars
Narrative meta	Story advances across deaths	Runs out of content	Hades relationships
Difficulty meta	Harder tiers unlock (opt-in)	Only for the committed	Hades’ Heat / pact of punishment
Cosmetic meta	Looks only, zero power	Weak pull for some	Skins, dyes (`system-collectibles`)

Tuning levers

Lever	What it controls	Healthy range / rule
Per-run payout floor	The “always earn something” contract	Every run — even a 30-second death — grants something spendable
Power-creep ceiling	How much easier meta makes the game	Cap it. Small, felt, bounded — options over raw power
Unlock cadence	Runs between meaningful unlocks	~1–3 runs early, stretching later; never a desert
Front-load vs slow burn	When the good stuff arrives	Front-load the first unlock to hook; pace the rest
Opt-in difficulty	Where mastery lives after power caps	Ascension/Heat tiers give the ceiling back to skill
Reset granularity	What a death actually costs	Soft (run) power gone; hard (meta) safe. Be explicit

The contract that keeps a lossy loop kind: no run is wasted. Even a death on floor 1 must convert to meta currency. Assert it — the null run (do-nothing, instant death) still returns > 0 to the ledger.

How it wires to Hayao

Two state scopes. Run state (resets each run) and meta state (persists) are distinct slices of world.state. The run hashes for goldens; the meta slice is written through SaveManager + LocalStorageAdapter (grep docs/API.md) at SAVE_FORMAT_VERSION, so unlocks survive reload and version cleanly.
Unlocks are input-driven. Spending meta currency to buy an unlock is an input action, so the whole meta arc replays and hashes ([[FUN.md law 7]]).
The between-run screen is chrome. The hub/upgrade menu is showScreen() DOM, cosmetic where it renders in-world (CLAUDE.md invariant 4).
Prove the floor. A test runs the worst run (instant death) and asserts the meta ledger still gained — the “always earn something” contract as CI, the same shape as a null-strategy baseline ([[FUN.md law 4]]).

Fails when…

Grind gates. Content locked behind dozens of runs of the same content — the unlock is a timer, not a reward.
Power creep to autopilot. Permanent stats stack until skill stops mattering; the game solves itself. Cap power; give the ceiling back via opt-in difficulty.
The empty death. A run that returns nothing to the ledger. Every loss must pay something, or losing feels like theft.
Front-load nothing. No early unlock → the first hour is the hardest and the least rewarding. Hook with the first unlock fast.
Two economies fighting. Meta currency and in-run currency confused for each other — keep faucets/sinks per scope explicit (system-economy).

Verify

The “always earn” floor as a null-run assertion: [[FUN.md law 4]].
Meta arc replays & hashes (persistent state round-trips): [[FUN.md law 7]] and save/load hash round-trip ([[FUN.md §3]] metroidvania pattern).
Difficulty stays in a window after meta power applies: [[FUN.md §11]].
Roguelike baseline (what meta modifies): [[FUN.md §10]].

Composes with

system-progression — meta is the hard, persistent axis under soft run growth.
system-skill-trees — a persistent tree is the classic meta-power shape.
system-save-and-checkpoint — meta persistence rides the save system.
system-session-structure — meta only makes sense atop a run/campaign shape.
system-reward-schedules — the drip that fills the meta ledger.
pattern-feedback-loops — beware the runaway loop where power → easier → more power.