The Endgame

Degenerus has hard-coded liveness exits. If an unmet level sits in purchase phase too long, or the advance machinery stalls past its safety limits, a permissionless call can end the game and distribute available funds. The terminal pot may strengthen incentives to buy into a slow level, but it does not guarantee survival or make any ticket profitable.

What can trigger GAMEOVER

Level 0 inactivity	More than 365 days without completing the opening target
Later-level inactivity	More than 120 days in purchase phase with the target still unmet
Stuck RNG request	An outstanding advance request stalled for 14 days can activate liveness; a separate 120-day no-progress deadman also works across jackpot and transition phases
Control	The conditions are contract rules. No admin can declare GAMEOVER early or cancel it once latched

Meeting the pool target suppresses the ordinary inactivity exit. A stalled-randomness deadman can still terminate a game whose advance path is broken. When fresh randomness cannot be obtained, the terminal path can derive a fallback from previously verified VRF words, combined by a fixed contract rule no player can select or steer.

Where the money goes

Existing claimable winnings remain reserved. Prepaid afKing balances are added when their owners claim after GAMEOVER.
If the game ends before level 10, deity owners are refunded what they paid, capped at 20 ETH each and by the available budget, in purchase order.
Ten percent of the remaining distributable balance is offered to the terminal Decimator. If it has no qualifying winners, that amount rejoins the ticket jackpot.
The remainder goes to a day-5-style trait jackpot for the phase-correct final ticket cohort. Empty trait buckets can leave funds undistributed.

Existing liabilities come first, ticket wins depend on traits and random selection, and some value can remain in the contract. Not everything goes to the last ticket buyers. Players can claim during the 30-day post-GAMEOVER window.

The final sweep

Thirty days after GAMEOVER, anyone can advance the cleanup. The contract first pays amounts owed to the vault, sDGNRS, and GNRUS, then splits the remaining ETH and stETH roughly one-third to each. Unclaimed player balances, winnings included, are forfeited at that point and later claims revert. If you won anything, claim it within the 30 days.

Why the terminal pot changes incentives

Ticket ETH cannot be withdrawn from the pools on demand. As participation falls, a visible terminal balance may be shared among fewer eligible entries, which can make buying a slow level more attractive. That is a stabilizing force, not a proof that someone will rescue the level: bankroll constraints, risk beliefs, trait variance, opportunity cost, and coordination failure can still produce GAMEOVER.

The death bet

Entry	Burn at least 1,000 FLIP while level > 0 and the purchase target is not already met
Closing window	New burns are blocked with 7 or fewer days left on the level's death clock
Weight	Earlier burns receive up to 20x time weight, plus the activity multiplier on the first 200,000 FLIP
Payout	Only if GAMEOVER occurs at that level and the bettor's subbucket wins; winners split the terminal 10% pro rata by weighted burn
If the level completes	The burned FLIP is gone and that level's terminal position never pays

What remains risky

Deposits are non-withdrawable except through defined winnings and salvage paths. Individual players can lose; nominal multipliers are not guarantees. Terminal settlement also retains smart-contract risk and dependencies on Chainlink entropy and Lido-held stETH. See the trust model for the exact control and dependency boundaries.

Read the incentives, not a promise.

The game-theory paper explains why the terminal pot may attract rescue capital, along with the assumptions and failure modes.

Game Theory How levels normally end