18+ adults-only game · Guides may describe mature game systems
Chronoromancer

Version-matched official guide

Chaos Syndicate — Complete Walkthrough

Factions & ExplorationSimplified Chinese availableV0.9.6.0
Guide noticeThis page contains gameplay and story spoilers and may describe mature systems.

The Chaos Syndicate is a built-in Future Era faction story located beneath the Prime Sector. Its current implementation contains eight locations, seven separately tracked character identities, 65 registered one-time plots, eight heart-to-heart conversations, six repeatable relationship videos, and a main story that currently ends at After the Line.

This walkthrough was audited against the current game source. It contains route and unlock spoilers, but avoids reproducing major narrative reveals.

Critical relationship note: Do not expect Talk actions immediately after meeting the crew. Every Syndicate Talk action requires Acquaintance at 50 relationship points. Early relationship progress therefore comes from one-time story rewards and choices. Read Building Relationships Without Getting Stuck before rushing through those plots.

Table of Contents

Quick Completion Route

For the cleanest route through all currently implemented Syndicate content:

  1. Enter Syndicate Gates from the Future Prime Sector map and complete The Gates of Chaos.
  2. Visit the Parlor, Big Top, Fortune Teller's Booth, Funhouse, Gates, Garden, and Motley's Lair to clear every introduction.
  3. Complete Collecting Dues and collect the payment at the Synthetic Beings Recharge Station.
  4. Finish all three post-collection branches: Cat's Eyes, New Blood → Taming the Rookie, and Faces.
  5. Complete Street Knowledge and Welcome to the Circus if you did not already do so.
  6. Complete The Boss Takes Notice, then enter the Parlor for Lines on the Board.
  7. Raise raw Rogue to 50 for Open Doors, then to 55 for The Honeypot. The two Syndicate training plots grant +1 Rogue each.
  8. Complete No Plan Survives, then do both The Abandoned Room and The Bug before returning to the Funhouse for The Performance.
  9. Follow the automatic aftermath chain through The Punchline, The Weight of a Secret, Badge and Bluster, The Second Knock, and After the Line.
  10. Build each relationship through Known, Friend, and Close Friend. Complete all new home-location plots, Den scenes, and H2Hs as they appear.
  11. Finish Kitty, Poison, Chamel, Zodiac, and Motley's advanced routes before attempting Bayne's final plot, The Order.
  12. Raise every desired character to In Love and collect the normal one-time relationship Crystal in a Present player-house bedroom.

Access and Territory

The Syndicate Gates destination is permanently visible and unlocked on the Future Prime Sector map. The first story triggers automatically when the destination is entered.

Location Resident or purpose Connections
Syndicate Gates Bayne; entrance and enforcement story scenes Prime Sector map; all five public Syndicate areas
The Big Top Kitty; operations and personal plots Gates, Funhouse, Fortune Booth, Parlor
The Den Timed one-time hangouts Gates, Parlor
Fortune Teller's Booth Zodiac Gates, Big Top
The Funhouse Chamel and Chamella on alternating shifts Gates, Big Top
The Garden Poison Gates
The Parlor Inner-circle story meetings Big Top, Den, Motley's Lair
Motley's Lair Motley Parlor

All travel inside the Syndicate costs zero minutes. Most story plots auto-trigger when the correct location is entered. If two consecutive plots use the same location, leave and re-enter so the trigger can be checked again.

Crew, Schedules, and Preferred Stats

Motley is stored internally under the save-stable character ID harlequin, but the player-facing name is Motley. Chamel and Chamella use separate relationship meters even though their shared story explains their connection.

Character Home and schedule Preferred stats Favorite special skill
Bayne Syndicate Gates, all day Strength 90, Stamina 85, Perception 85 Intimidating Presence
Chamel Funhouse, midnight-9 AM and 3 PM-midnight Charm 90, Creativity 85, Rogue 85 Deception
Chamella Funhouse, 9 AM-3 PM Charm 80, Creativity 75, Perception 75 Deception
Kitty Big Top, all day Ability 85, Perception 85, Charm 85 Acrobatics
Motley Motley's Lair, all day Intelligence 90, Rogue 85, Charm 85 Silver Tongue
Poison Garden, all day Strength 90, Stamina 85, Ability 85 Martial Arts
Zodiac Fortune Teller's Booth, all day Mystic 90, Perception 85, Intelligence 85 Divination

Meeting each preferred-stat threshold adds to that character's calculated relationship rewards. Owning the favorite skill doubles the running reward subtotal. These bonuses are particularly important here because the early plots must bridge the crew from Stranger to Acquaintance before repeatable Talk becomes available.

Schedule end times are exclusive. Chamel leaves at 9 AM, Chamella leaves at 3 PM, and Chamel returns at 3 PM.

Opening the Syndicate

Clear these scenes before trying to advance the operation:

Scene Location Requirement
The Gates of Chaos Syndicate Gates First visit
The New Variable Parlor None
The Gatekeeper Syndicate Gates The Gates of Chaos completed
Fresh Meat Big Top None
The Foretold Meeting Fortune Teller's Booth None
Send in the Clown Funhouse The New Variable completed
Street Knowledge Garden The Gates of Chaos completed
Welcome to the Circus Motley's Lair None

The public areas and Motley's Lair are accessible immediately, so these introductions can occur in several orders. Collecting Dues waits for Fresh Meat, The Foretold Meeting, Send in the Clown, and The Gatekeeper. Street Knowledge and Welcome to the Circus are not part of that immediate check, but both become mandatory later.

Mainline Walkthrough

Act 1 — Dues and recruitment

Order Plot Location Exact gate
1 Collecting Dues Fortune Teller's Booth Kitty, Zodiac, Chamel, and Gatekeeper introductions completed
2 Collecting Dues - The Bar Synthetic Beings Recharge Station Collecting Dues completed
3A Cat's Eyes Big Top Bar collection completed
3B New Blood Fortune Teller's Booth Bar collection completed
4B Taming the Rookie Prime Transportation Hub New Blood completed; 7 AM-5 PM
5B The Boss Takes Notice Motley's Lair Taming the Rookie and Welcome to the Circus completed
3C Faces Funhouse Bar collection completed
6 Lines on the Board Parlor Cat's Eyes, Street Knowledge, and The Boss Takes Notice completed

The 5 PM endpoint for Taming the Rookie is exclusive: enter the Transportation Hub from 7:00 through 16:59.

Cat's Eyes, New Blood, and Faces open as parallel branches after the bar collection. Faces does not gate Lines on the Board, but it is mandatory for No Plan Survives in Act 2. Completing every branch before moving on prevents backtracking.

Act 2 — The Synergy operation

Order Plot Location Exact gate
7 Open Doors Fortune Teller's Booth Lines on the Board; raw Rogue 50
8 Invisible Synergy Corp Corporate Tower Open Doors completed
9 The Honeypot Motley's Lair Invisible completed; raw Rogue 55
10 No Plan Survives Parlor The Honeypot and Faces completed
11A The Abandoned Room Funhouse No Plan Survives completed
11B The Bug Synergy Corp Corporate Tower No Plan Survives completed
12 The Performance Funhouse The Abandoned Room and The Bug completed
13 The Punchline Funhouse The Performance completed

The Rogue checks read the stored base stat, not an equipment-adjusted effective value. Cat's Eyes and Taming the Rookie each permanently award +1 Rogue, once. If Rogue is still below 50 or 55, train it elsewhere or use Kitty's repeatable training after her relationship reaches Acquaintance.

The Abandoned Room and The Bug are parallel. Both must be completed before The Performance appears.

Act 3 — Consequences

Order Plot Location Exact gate
14 The Weight of a Secret Parlor The Punchline completed
15 Badge and Bluster Syndicate Gates The Weight of a Secret completed
16 The Second Knock Syndicate Gates The Weight of a Secret and Badge and Bluster completed
17 After the Line Syndicate Gates The Second Knock completed

These scenes all auto-trigger. Re-enter the Gates between consecutive entries if the next one does not start immediately.

Mainline Rewards and Current Endpoint

The two permanent player-stat rewards are:

  • Cat's Eyes: +1 Rogue
  • Taming the Rookie: +1 Rogue

All other registered mainline rewards are relationship points distributed among the cast. Completion and choice rewards go through the normal randomized relationship calculation, so two saves can finish a scene with different totals.

After the Line is the current endpoint of the implemented faction mainline. It is not followed by a faction victory screen, repeatable Syndicate job board, faction shop, faction-clout reward, or another registered operational plot. Several narrative hooks remain open for future development; a player who has finished After the Line is current on the faction story even if those hooks appear unresolved.

Building Relationships Without Getting Stuck

The shared stage thresholds are:

Stage Points
Known 25
Acquaintance 50
Friend 100
Close Friend 200
Crush 400
Romantic 800
Intimate 1,600
In Love 3,000

The Acquaintance bottleneck

Every Syndicate character starts at Stranger, while all seven Talk actions require Acquaintance. There are also no ordinary Syndicate gift, invite-date, resort, or remote-action bridges below 50 in the current character definitions.

The intended practical bridge is the collection of mainline completion and choice rewards. Those rewards are randomized and choices often favor different characters, so a crew member can finish the early story below 50.

Before consuming one-time Syndicate plots, improve the relationship calculation where possible:

  • meet the character's preferred-stat thresholds;
  • acquire the character's favorite special skill;
  • use Cologne and relevant relationship items;
  • use a matching active alignment;
  • select choices that award the character whose total is lagging.

Once Talk unlocks, it costs 15 minutes, starts from 1 base relationship point, and has five safe uses per character per day. Exceeding the daily limit can produce negative relationship points, so stop after five.

Current-build limitation: If a character remains below 50 after all of their available ungated one-time plots, that character has no standard repeatable catch-up action. Continue other story branches that reward them if any remain. If none remain, the route is mechanically stalled in the current implementation rather than hidden behind an undocumented location.

For the complete reward formula and over-limit behavior, see Relationship, Dating & Intimacy.

Relationship Milestone Plots

Six crew members have a three-layer milestone route. Chamella is the exception.

Character Known scene in the Den Friend scene at home Close Friend scene at home
Kitty Cat's Out of the Bag Kitten's Got Claws The Ninth Life
Zodiac What the Cards Don't Show Dead Ends Cards on the Table
Chamel Reflections Curtain Call The Mirror
Poison Something Green Green Thumb Roots
Motley The Interview The Observation The Tell
Bayne Downtime The Post Standing Watch

The Friend plots require only Friend stage except The Post, which also requires Kitty's and Zodiac's introductions. Every Close Friend plot requires that character's Friend plot.

The Known scenes occur in the Den during specific windows listed in Den Hangout Scenes. They are independent one-time plots, not ordinary appearances on the NPC's schedule.

Heart-to-Heart Conversations

The current Syndicate has eight one-time H2Hs. They appear as character actions and disappear after completion.

Character H2H Gate Cost
Chamel Clown Time Friend 30 minutes, 15 Energy
Chamel Broken Carousel Close Friend 45 minutes, 20 Energy
Poison Patch Job Friend 60 minutes, 10 Energy
Poison No Armor Crush 75 minutes, 15 Energy
Zodiac A Fair Game Friend 60 minutes, 10 Energy
Zodiac Closer Crush 75 minutes, 15 Energy
Motley No Audience Friend 60 minutes, 10 Energy
Motley One Honest Minute Close Friend 60 minutes, 10 Energy

These H2Hs are relationship content but are not prerequisites for the registered advanced plot chains. They are still valuable one-time relationship rewards and gallery content.

Chamel's conversations contain the only extra gated choices in this set:

  • Clown Time has bonus choices requiring Charm 25 and the Empathy skill.
  • Broken Carousel has bonus choices requiring Empathy and Intelligence 30.

Missing a gated option does not prevent the H2H from completing.

Advanced Character Routes

Kitty — Big Top

  1. The Ninth Life — Close Friend and Kitten's Got Claws completed.
  2. The Push Back — Crush and The Ninth Life completed.
  3. The Invitation — Romantic and The Push Back completed.
  4. Tamed — Intimate and The Invitation completed.

Poison — Garden

  1. Roots — Close Friend and Green Thumb completed.
  2. The Test — Crush; Roots, Fresh Meat, and Send in the Clown completed.
  3. Proving Ground — Romantic and The Test completed.
  4. The Real Poison — Intimate and Proving Ground completed.

Chamel — Funhouse and Big Top

  1. Complete Curtain Call at Friend and The Mirror at Close Friend in the Funhouse.
  2. Complete the faction mainline through The Punchline.
  3. Reach Intimate and enter the Big Top for The Real Thing.

Zodiac — Fortune Teller's Booth

  1. The Necessary Evil — Close Friend and The Honeypot completed.
  2. The Confession — Crush and The Necessary Evil completed.

The Necessary Evil does not technically require Cards on the Table, only Zodiac's Close Friend stage and The Honeypot. Completing the milestone plot first is still the cleanest story order.

Motley and the control arc

Motley's advanced route is intertwined with Zodiac's route:

  1. Complete The Honeypot and Zodiac's The Confession.
  2. Enter Motley's Lair for The Game. It has no additional relationship-stage gate.
  3. Reach Friend with Motley and complete The Reckoning.
  4. Visit the Fortune Teller's Booth for Behind the Curtain.
  5. Complete Motley's Friend and Close Friend milestones through The Tell.
  6. Reach Crush with Motley and complete The Summons in her Lair.
  7. Enter the Den at Crush for The Fascination.
  8. Reach Romantic and complete The Dissection, then The Truth, in Motley's Lair.

Motley's route cannot currently bypass Zodiac's Crush-stage Confession and the resulting control storyline.

Bayne — Gates and Motley's Lair

  1. Complete The Post at Friend and Standing Watch at Close Friend.
  2. Reach Crush and enter the Gates for The Vigil.
  3. Prepare the following exact final requirements:
    • Bayne at Intimate;
    • Motley at Romantic;
    • The Vigil completed;
    • Motley's The Truth completed;
    • Kitty's Tamed completed;
    • Poison's The Test completed;
    • Chamel's The Real Thing completed.
  4. Enter Motley's Lair for The Order.

The Order checks Poison's first Crush plot, The Test—not Proving Ground or The Real Poison.

Chamella's Route

Chamella occupies the Funhouse from 9 AM to 3 PM while Chamel is absent. She has a separate relationship total.

Her one-time route content is:

  • No Plan Survives — first mainline relationship reward involving Chamella.
  • The Abandoned Room — after No Plan Survives.
  • The Performance — after The Abandoned Room and The Bug.
  • Mirror Duty — 9 AM-3 PM after Faces; separate from the mainline sequence.
  • The Weight of a Secret — later mainline reward.

Chamella does not have the Known/Friend/Close Friend milestone trilogy or an H2H. At 1,000 points, she unlocks the repeatable Stay a While video action.

Repeatable Video Actions

The current build registers six Syndicate video actions. Each costs 30 minutes and 20 Energy and has a daily limit of one for that specific action.

Character Action Exact point gate Base relationship reward
Kitty Kitty Style 1,000 80
Poison Prove Yourself 1,000 80
Poison The Garden After Dark 1,500 120
Zodiac Intimate with Zodiac 1,000 80
Zodiac Intimate with Zodiac II 1,500 120
Chamella Stay a While 1,000 80

These use exact point totals, not just the displayed stage. For example, Romantic begins at 800, but the first video actions remain locked until 1,000.

There are currently no registered repeatable Syndicate videos for Bayne, Chamel, or Motley. Their advanced one-time plots can still contain mature story material, but no additional repeatable video action is hidden behind In Love.

Rogue Training with Kitty

After Kitty reaches Acquaintance, Rogue Training appears at the Big Top:

  • cost: $150 and 20 Energy;
  • duration: 60 minutes;
  • reward: +1 Rogue and 3 base Kitty relationship points;
  • safe daily limit: 3.

This is the Syndicate's repeatable solution to the Rogue 50 and 55 mainline gates, but it cannot help until Kitty first reaches 50 relationship points.

Cat's Eyes and Taming the Rookie each grant their +1 Rogue only once. Legacy-save migration remembers those permanent rewards so replaying reset Syndicate plots does not duplicate them.

Den Hangout Scenes

Each Den scene requires Known stage with its featured character and can be completed once.

Time Scene Character
Midnight-6 AM Cat's Out of the Bag Kitty
6 AM-9 AM The Interview Motley
9 AM-noon Downtime Bayne
Noon-6 PM Something Green Poison
6 PM-midnight What the Cards Don't Show Zodiac
6 PM-midnight Reflections Chamel

Zodiac and Chamel share the evening window. After completing the first scene, leave and re-enter the Den to trigger the other.

Legacy Save Migration

The Syndicate was formerly distributed as separate mod content and is now built into the game. Current save compatibility code performs a one-time reset for saves older than the built-in mainline reset version:

  • Syndicate plot completion and relationship progress are reset;
  • the seven character entries are repaired and re-registered where necessary;
  • obsolete mod registration data is removed;
  • completed Cat's Eyes and Taming the Rookie rewards are remembered so their permanent +1 Rogue awards cannot be duplicated;
  • the internal harlequin ID is preserved while the display name is repaired to Motley.

This migration affects Syndicate-owned progress rather than unrelated game progress. If an older save appears to have restarted the faction, replay from The Gates of Chaos; it is not a second hidden Syndicate route.

Current migration exception: Mirror Duty is the 65th registered Syndicate plot, but chamella_mirror_duty is not currently included in the migration's explicit 64-plot reset list. Its completion flag can therefore survive an old-save reset even when Chamella's relationship points are reset. If Mirror Duty does not replay on a migrated save, this is the likely cause.

Troubleshooting and Completion Audit

A mainline plot will not trigger

Check the exact location and all prior branches. The most commonly missed requirements are:

  • Collecting Dues: all four required introductions;
  • The Boss Takes Notice: both Taming the Rookie and Welcome to the Circus;
  • Lines on the Board: Cat's Eyes, Street Knowledge, and The Boss Takes Notice;
  • No Plan Survives: The Honeypot and Faces;
  • The Performance: The Abandoned Room and The Bug.

Leave and re-enter the location after completing a prerequisite.

Taming the Rookie will not start

Visit the Prime Transportation Hub from 7 AM through 4:59 PM after completing New Blood.

Open Doors or The Honeypot will not start

The plot checks raw stored Rogue: 50 for Open Doors and 55 for The Honeypot. Equipment modifiers do not satisfy the check.

Talk is missing

Talk requires 50 relationship points with that individual character. It is not unlocked merely by completing their introduction or the faction mainline.

A relationship route stopped below Acquaintance

Finish every remaining ungated mainline plot that rewards the character. If no such plot remains, the current implementation has no normal repeatable catch-up action below 50. This is a current progression limitation, not a missing schedule window.

Chamel or Chamella is missing

Their Funhouse shifts alternate:

  • Chamel: midnight-9 AM and 3 PM-midnight;
  • Chamella: 9 AM-3 PM.

A Den scene will not start

Confirm Known stage, the correct time window, and that the one-time plot was not already completed. Zodiac and Chamel require separate entries during the same evening window.

A repeatable video is missing

Check the exact 1,000 or 1,500 point requirement. Stage names are too broad for these gates.

Is the faction story complete?

If After the Line is completed, the current operational mainline is complete. Personal route completion is separate. For the broadest character completion, also finish:

  • Kitty — Tamed;
  • Poison — The Real Poison;
  • Chamel — The Real Thing;
  • Zodiac — The Confession and the later control-arc scenes;
  • Motley — The Truth;
  • Bayne — The Order;
  • Chamella — Mirror Duty and her mainline appearances;
  • all eight H2Hs and six Den scenes.

No Syndicate content is intentionally timed out forever. Time windows repeat daily, and one-time plots wait until their requirements are met.

Community discoveries

These official guides track the current game. The player-maintained wiki may contain additional strategies and discoveries.

Visit Player Wiki →