Cybernetics, gems and shards

Engineer what your technology becomes

Configure cybernetics with gems and shards. Develop specialist builds, reconfigure their purpose and expand your options over time.

Back to CYBERTECH

A technician fits two rugged Gem modules into a chest-mounted capability cradle.

What this means for your play

Choices with practical meaning.

A cybernetic component is a starting point, not simply a better item to equip. Gems alter its capability, shards add specialisation and the right configuration can adapt the same underlying hardware to a different purpose.

Limited beginnings make growth meaningful

Early choices are constrained. Your character may initially support roughly 20 gems, with limited options to combine, modify and specialise them. As knowledge, infrastructure and character capability grow, configurations that were previously out of reach become legitimate possibilities.

Your objective shapes your build

A useful configuration depends on what you need to do, the capacity you have and the resources you can support. Acquire advanced technology, maintain purpose-built configurations and pursue merging or conversion when the necessary knowledge, specialists and facilities are in place.

In depth

How it works.

Follow the part that interests you. These systems continue to matter as your character and operation grow.

Cybernetics are not equipment slots. They are a technology ecosystem.

CYBERTECH's cybernetics are designed to become one of the defining parts of your character. Cybernetic hardware is only the beginning. Gems alter and extend what your cybernetics can do. Shards allow further modification and specialisation. Different combinations can turn the same underlying hardware toward very different purposes. Early in the game your choices are heavily constrained. Your character may initially only be able to support roughly 20 gems, with limited ability to modify, combine and specialise what you have.

As your character, knowledge and infrastructure develop, those limitations change.

Over time you can gain the ability to:
Acquire more advanced cybernetic technology.
Build different gem configurations.
Use shards to specialise those configurations.
Create different capability sets for different purposes.
Reconfigure systems as your needs change.
Maintain specialist configurations.
Merge technology.
Convert technology.

Develop combinations that were impossible earlier in the campaign. Use increasingly advanced facilities and specialists to support that work. You do not simply find a better cybernetic arm and equip it. You gradually learn to engineer what your technology can become.

Build capability, not just statistics.

Gems and shards are not simple collectible bonuses. They are part of a configurable technological system. The value is in how they can be combined, specialised and applied across your cybernetic architecture. A component that is valuable to one character may be used completely differently by another.

Your available capacity matters.
Your facilities matter.
Your specialists matter.
Your resources matter.
Your current objectives matter.
Your build can change because your situation changes.

Late-game capability comes from having more control over the system, not merely having bigger numbers.

Deep rules do not mean one correct solution.

CYBERTECH is designed to combine constraint with flexibility. The world establishes what is possible. The player decides what to do with those possibilities.

Different players can:
Build different cybernetic configurations.
Prioritise different professions.
Develop different Carrier capabilities.
Use different vehicles.
Spend resources differently.
Recover from failures differently.
Build different relationships.
Take different approaches to the same need.
Carry different long-term consequences.

The rules make those decisions meaningful rather than restricting them to flavour text.

A concrete example

The same hardware, a different purpose

Your objective changes. Instead of treating a cybernetic upgrade as a permanent statistic increase, you reconsider its gem configuration and shard specialisation. Your available capacity, specialist help and facilities determine the changes you can actually make. The build becomes a response to the situation.