splatter-tennis/src/zombies.js

// The splatter phase: shamblers, gore decals, particles. The ball is the weapon;
// tennis scoring keeps running via gameplay.splatPoint. Zombies advance toward
// your baseline — one crossing it is a point for THEM.
// (zombies <-> gameplay is a runtime-only import cycle, same pattern as input.)

import { TUNE, UI, COURT, CONTACT, BOSS_ART, bossArt, WEAPONS, BARREL_WEAPONS, TIN_LEAGUE, woundStage, zombieH, EATEN_BURST, EATEN_SUMMARY, EATEN_FEED_R, storyPool } from './config.js';
import { G, P, O, ball, score, sendBoy, setupPoint } from './state.js';
import { splat, moan, pock, thud, zap, voice, boom, swish, shriek, aww, sfx , whoosh, flame, squeak, crackle, whump, gunshot, stomp, growl } from './audio.js';
import { haptic } from './haptics.js';
import { drillKill, drillCaught } from './drill.js';
import { splatPoint, cheer, spentBall, aside, grantWeapon, endBurst, sliceCarom } from './gameplay.js';
import { resolveInterlude, endBossFight, storyDeath } from './beats.js'; // runtime-only cycle, like the gameplay one
import { tally, multiKill, endRun, MODE_MATCH } from './stats.js';
import { award, bonus, prof, recordCup } from './profile.js';

export const zombies = []; // {x, z, v, walkT, variant: 'a'|'b'|'c'}
export const gore = [];    // lawn decals {x, z, r, a}  — the flat ground layer
export const piles = [];   // 3D-ish gore mounds {x, z, size 1..4, seed} — grow where kills cluster
export const parts = [];   // splatter particles {x, y, z, vx, vy, vz, t, dark}
export const pellets = []; // machine-gun rounds during a horde {x, y, z, vx, vz, t}
export const extras = [];  // triple-serve side balls {x, y, z, vx, vy, vz, pow, t} — ballistic clones
// INCOMING hostile balls: the ball machine's shots and the chapter boss's volleys. Deliberately a
// separate array from `ball` and `extras` rather than an extension of either — the main ball is the
// one you serve and there can only be one of it, and extras are yours and kill zombies. These are
// theirs and they hurt YOU. Swat one with a swing and it becomes an `extras` entry flying back
// up-court, which is how a parry turns into a real weapon for free.
export const shots = [];   // {x, y, z, vx, vy, vz, g, t}
// world-anchored reaction pops: DOUBLE KILL rises off the corpse that earned it, PERFECT lands on
// the impact — the answer to "what did I just do" appears where you are already looking, not in
// the announcement band. Render draws them, gameplay's update ticks them, killed in resetZombies.
export const pops = [];    // {x, y, z, text, col, t, T}
export function popText(x, y, z, text, col, still = false) {
  pops.push({ x, y, z, text, col, still, t: 0.85, T: 0.85 }); // still: does not rise (the rally's praise, under the player)
  if (pops.length > 10) pops.shift();
}

let spawnT = 1.5, moanT = 3, crackleT = 0, whumpT = 0, bossHurtT = 0; // the last three throttle the fire and boss sounds

// Every body, decal and projectile on the court, plus this module's own timers. Called by
// gameplay.restartRun — a restart is in-place now, not a page reload.
export function resetZombies() {
  for (const a of [zombies, gore, piles, parts, pellets, extras, shots, pops]) a.length = 0;
  spawnT = 1.5; moanT = 3; crackleT = whumpT = bossHurtT = 0; mgTick = 0; lastBarrel = null;
}

export function spawnZombie(x, z, variant) {
  // Keyed on GAMES FINISHED, not on splatT: the old `1 + min(1.5, splatT / 70)` maxed out after
  // 105 seconds of splatter, so every shambler from roughly game 3 onward walked at the same top
  // speed for the rest of a 50-game run. Games are what the player experiences as progress.
  // test mode pins the shamble at a fixed MEDIUM speed instead of riding the per-game ramp
  const ramp = 1 + Math.min(TUNE.zSpeedMax, G.runGames * TUNE.zSpeedPerGame);
  const base = G.testMode ? TUNE.testZSpeed : TUNE.zSpeed * ramp;
  const zb = { x, z, v: base * (0.8 + Math.random() * 0.4), walkT: Math.random() * 9,
               homeOff: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.8, variant }; // personal lane offset so they don't stack into a column
  if (variant === 'f') { zb.v = Math.min(TUNE.runnerVMax, zb.v * TUNE.runnerSpeed); shriek(); } // shriek = the fairness contract; capped so late runners stay reactable
  if (variant === 'a' || variant === 'b') zb.hp = TUNE.shamblerHp; // classic shamblers take a wound before they drop — only the runner is one-shot glass
  if (variant === 'g') { zb.v *= 0.55; zb.hp = TUNE.bruteHp; } // slow, but soaks hits
  if (variant === 'd') { zb.v *= 0.8; zb.hp = TUNE.stewardHp; } // the steward: a head taller and several hits tougher than the crowd, nothing more exotic than that
  if (variant === 'e') zb.hp = TUNE.ballboyHp;                  // the ball boy: shambler-sized, three hits deep
  if (variant === 'h') { zb.v *= 0.75; zb.hp = TUNE.bouncerHp; } // the bouncer: between the steward and the brute
  if (variant === 'k') { zb.v *= 0.45; zb.hp = TUNE.rollerHp; }  // the roller man: slower and heavier than the brute
  // Every body with hp remembers its FULL hp. The wound skins used to compare against the variant's
  // TUNE constant, which meant every new body needed its own branch to look hurt; one field here and
  // the rule is "hp below full = show the wound", for anything that has a wound skin.
  if (zb.hp) zb.hpMax = zb.hp;
  if (variant === 's') zb.shieldT = 0;                         // chair up; > 0 = seconds of stagger left
  if ('fgsdehk'.includes(variant) && !G.seen['v' + variant]) { G.seen['v' + variant] = true; aside('ump_dress_code', 0.8); }
  if (variant === 'o') { // the weapon barrel: a rolling pink target with a weapon inside it
    zb.v = 0; zb.hp = zb.hpMax = TUNE.barrelHp;
    zb.wid = pickBarrelWeapon();
    zb.dir = Math.random() < 0.5 ? -1 : 1; zb.roll = 0;
  }
  if (variant === 'm') { // the rogue ball machine: furniture, not a body. It never SHAMBLES...
    zb.v = 0; zb.hp = zb.hpMax = TUNE.machHp; zb.fireT = TUNE.machCycle; zb.windT = 0;
    zb.repoT = TUNE.machRepo * (0.4 + Math.random()); // ...but it wheels itself somewhere else now and then
  }
  zombies.push(zb);
}

let lastBarrel = null;
// WHICH weapon is in the barrel. A flat 1-in-4 gave Oliver the laser "almost every time" and the
// beacon never — four samples is far too few for uniform to feel uniform. Weighted, gated on the
// run so the rocket is genuinely a late-game find, and it never hands you the same thing twice in
// a row, which is the part a player actually notices.
function pickBarrelWeapon() {
  // THE STORY: a barrel holds what the act has earned (config.storyPool) — the act decides the rack,
  // so a barrel in act I is a bomb, a triple or fire, never the laser the story hands out in act III
  if (G.story) {
    const own = storyPool(G.story.act).filter(id => id !== lastBarrel);
    const id = own.length ? own[Math.floor(Math.random() * own.length)] : lastBarrel || 'bomb';
    lastBarrel = id;
    return id;
  }
  const pool = [];
  for (const [id, b] of Object.entries(BARREL_WEAPONS)) {
    if (G.runGames < b.from) continue;
    // THE WEAPON LICENCE (the leagues): the league licenses, `from` paces — a barrel must not
    // hand a league-1 player the laser his duels rightly refuse (config.TIN_LEAGUE)
    if (prof.lg < (TIN_LEAGUE[id] || 0)) continue;
    if (id === lastBarrel) continue;                 // never twice running...
    for (let k = 0; k < b.weight; k++) pool.push(id);
  }
  // ...unless it is the only thing unlocked, in which case repeating beats handing out nothing
  if (!pool.length) return lastBarrel || 'beacon';
  const id = pool[Math.floor(Math.random() * pool.length)];
  lastBarrel = id;
  return id;
}

// A WEAPON BARREL, rolled across the far court. Shoot it and you get what is inside, armed on the
// spot. It is the only source of the four weapons that are not on the duel ladder, and it is pure
// upside — it never attacks, never scores, and rolls off on its own if you ignore it.
export function spawnBarrel() {
  spawnZombie((Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 3.2, 4.5 + Math.random() * 3, 'o');
  // a CARD, not a modal: it lands at a game-over beat that can have a standing wave on court, and
  // a world-stopping popup there is exactly the "popups get me killed" report. Same for the
  // machine's and the racket zombie's introductions below.
  if (!G.seen.barrel) {
    G.seen.barrel = true;
    G.card = { title: 'A GLOWING BARREL', sub1: 'A WEAPON IS INSIDE — SHOOT IT',
               color: UI.pink, t: 2.6 };
  }
}

// the rogue ball machine, wheeled out onto the far court. It never moves and never scores; it just
// shoots at you until you deal with it.
export function spawnMachine() {
  spawnZombie((Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 3.6, 2.2 + Math.random() * 3, 'm');
  aside('ump_machine', 0.4); // benched with the rest of Daniel's personality — see aside()
  if (!G.seen.mach) {
    G.seen.mach = true;
    // the card NAMES the thing it explains — an instruction without a subject read as noise
    // (2026-08-29 copy audit)
    G.card = { title: 'A BALL MACHINE', sub1: 'SWING ITS SHOTS BACK — OR SWISH THEM AWAY',
               color: UI.warm, t: 2.8 };
  }
}

// ---- the chapter boss. One every TUNE.bossEvery games, bigger and tougher each time. It advances
// slowly and volleys at you, so it threatens BOTH channels: its shots chip your hp, and letting it
// reach you is the ordinary instant death. Reuses the whole existing damage model — it is just a
// body with a lot of hp (see the wound() invariant in PROJECT.md), so no weapon needs special-casing.
export function spawnChapterBoss(chapter, design = null) {
  // which of the boss designs this chapter is (every tenth = THE CHAMPION) — or, in THE STORY, the
  // act's own design at the act's strength (config.storyBossArt / storyBossChapter)
  const art = design || bossArt(chapter);
  // Every behaviour field on the design is OPTIONAL and falls back to the shared TUNE number, so a
  // design row that carries nothing but art behaves exactly the way a boss did before there were any.
  const hp = Math.round((TUNE.bossHp + (chapter - 1) * TUNE.bossHpPerChapter) * (art.hpMul ?? 1));
  zombies.push({ x: 0, z: -1.2, v: TUNE.bossSpeed * (art.speedMul ?? 1), walkT: 0, homeOff: 0, variant: 'B',
    chapter, hp, hpMax: hp, scale: TUNE.bossScale + (chapter - 1) * TUNE.bossScalePer,
    fireT: art.cycle ?? TUNE.bossCycle, windT: 0, salvo: 0, salvoT: 0,
    dist: 0, dir: Math.random() < 0.5 ? -1 : 1, moveT: 0, // dist drives the stride: see drawZombie
    art });
}

// ---- BOSS MOVEMENT. Before this the boss had no AI at all — it matched no branch in the variant
// chain below and fell through to the crowd's aimless ±0.15 m/s wobble, so "the boss moves" was a
// comment and nothing else. Each design owns a style (BOSS_ART.move) and they differ in the axis
// they threaten on: pace/bounce make you lead a moving target, mirror takes your lane away, charge
// trades its ranged game for closing the distance. Returns nothing; it moves zb.x/zb.z directly.
//
// Two rules hold for all of them:
//  - IT PLANTS ITS FEET TO THROW. While winding up or mid-volley it does not move, which is the same
//    fairness contract as the wind-up glow: the telegraph has to be worth reading.
//  - IT STAYS IN THE BAND (bossZMin..bossZMax) unless it is charging. Uncapped, a boss ended the
//    fight by simply arriving on top of you after about a minute — and every extra hp made that
//    outcome MORE likely, not less. Only 'charge' is allowed through, and that is its whole threat.
// A NOTE THAT DECIDED THREE OF THESE FIVE: in splatter the player is rooted in `pretoss` for nearly
// the whole of a boss fight (he only walks during `rally` — a settled decision). So any style whose
// motion is "close on the player's x" arrives, stops, and is static for the rest of the fight, which
// is the exact complaint this work exists to fix. Every style below therefore moves under its OWN
// power and only BIASES toward the player. Measured: each of the six covers 5-14 m a minute.
// WHICH PHASE a boss is in, or -1 for a design that has none. Health drives it, so it is derived
// rather than stored and cannot desync from the hp it is meant to describe.
const bossPhase = zb => {
  const n = zb.art?.phases?.length;
  return n ? Math.min(n - 1, Math.floor((1 - zb.hp / zb.hpMax) * n)) : -1;
};
// The design a boss is FIGHTING as, this instant: its own row, with the current phase's fields laid
// over it. Everything that reads a boss's behaviour goes through here, so a phase stays a data row
// and never becomes a second code path. (There is one boss on court; the object per call is free.)
export const bossPlan = zb => {
  const A = zb.art || {}, i = bossPhase(zb);
  return i < 0 ? A : { ...A, ...A.phases[i] };
};

function bossAI(zb, dt) {
  if (zb.windT > 0 || zb.salvo > 0) return;          // planted: throwing is not a moving action
  const x0 = zb.x, z0 = zb.z, A = bossPlan(zb), style = A.move || 'advance';
  const strafe = TUNE.bossStrafe * (A.paceMul ?? 1);
  if (style === 'charge') {
    zb.moveT -= dt;
    const v = TUNE.bossChargeV * (A.speedMul ?? 1);
    if (zb.charging) {
      // IT COMMITTED TO A LANE AND IT IS RUNNING DOWN THAT LANE, whatever you do next. Tracking your
      // x for the whole rush made the sidestep meaningless — it just followed you across and ran you
      // over ("they overrun you without a chance"), and stopping the rush ON you left it standing
      // there afterwards, where the 0.5 s dodge cooldown cannot outrun a 0.28 s i-frame. So: the
      // lane is locked when the rush begins, you get the entire run-up to leave it, and the rush
      // ends on a STRIKE LINE just in front of you, on the same frame the rush timer expires, so it
      // turns and withdraws the instant it arrives. A rush that misses is over.
      zb.x += Math.sign(zb.lane - zb.x) * Math.min(Math.abs(zb.lane - zb.x), TUNE.bossStrafe * 2 * dt);
      zb.z += zb.chargeV * dt;
      if (zb.moveT <= 0) { zb.charging = false; zb.moveT = TUNE.bossChargeRest; } // spent: it turns and walks back
    } else {
      // AND IT FALLS BACK. A rush that ended where it landed left the boss parked on top of you for
      // the rest of the fight: dodge or die every two seconds, with no window to hit it and nothing
      // but a hitscan laser fast enough to use what window there was — Oliver, "they come too close,
      // they seem unbeatable". So the retreat OUTRUNS the rush (retreat > 1) and stops at the front
      // of the band rather than crawling a fraction of the way back. A charge is a threat that
      // PASSES: you dodge it, and the ground it gives up again is your turn to hit it.
      const home = TUNE.bossZMax, sp = v * (A.retreat ?? 1.3) * dt; // toward its LINE, from either side:
      zb.z += Math.sign(home - zb.z) * Math.min(Math.abs(home - zb.z), sp); // backward off a rush, forward on the way in
      // THE RUSH IS TIMED, NOT PACED, and it always begins FROM THE LINE — never from wherever a
      // half-finished retreat happened to leave it, which is how a rush could start on your toes
      // with no run-up to read. It covers the whole distance in bossChargeT, so the approach looks
      // the same every time whatever the design's speed.
      if (zb.moveT <= 0 && Math.abs(zb.z - home) < 0.1) {
        zb.charging = true; zb.moveT = TUNE.bossChargeT;
        zb.lane = P.x;                                   // the lane, locked. You have the run-up to leave it.
        zb.chargeV = (P.z - TUNE.bossStrike - zb.z) / TUNE.bossChargeT;
      }
    }
  } else if (style === 'shadow') {
    // paces — but the ground it paces over is centred on YOU, so it never stops moving and it takes
    // your lane away the moment you take one
    const c = Math.max(-TUNE.bossPaceX, Math.min(TUNE.bossPaceX, P.x));
    zb.x += zb.dir * strafe * dt;
    if (zb.x > c + TUNE.bossShadowX) zb.dir = -1; else if (zb.x < c - TUNE.bossShadowX) zb.dir = 1;
    zb.z += zb.v * dt;
  } else if (style === 'bounce') {
    // hops, not a slide: it covers bossHopX per hop and is nearly still between them, so it reads as
    // a costume with someone inside it rather than a sprite being lerped across the court. It flips
    // every hop and only steers when it has drifted a long way off your lane.
    zb.moveT -= dt;
    if (zb.moveT <= 0) {
      zb.moveT = TUNE.bossHopT;
      // keep going the SAME way until it runs out of court or has overshot your lane, then turn.
      // Flipping every hop kept it oscillating inside one metre — motion with no travel in it.
      if (Math.abs(zb.x) > TUNE.bossPaceX) zb.dir = -Math.sign(zb.x);
      else if (Math.abs(P.x - zb.x) > 2.5) zb.dir = Math.sign(P.x - zb.x) || zb.dir;
    }
    const k = Math.max(0, Math.sin(Math.PI * (1 - zb.moveT / TUNE.bossHopT))); // fast at mid-hop
    zb.x += zb.dir * (TUNE.bossHopX / TUNE.bossHopT) * k * dt;
    zb.z += zb.v * dt;
  } else if (style === 'surge') {
    // rolls up the whole band and back down it, over and over, drifting slowly into your lane. Its
    // DEPTH is the threat, not its x — the one that simply keeps coming, and keeps coming back.
    zb.z += zb.dir * zb.v * 3 * dt;
    if (zb.z > TUNE.bossZMax) zb.dir = -1; else if (zb.z < TUNE.bossZMin) zb.dir = 1;
    const dx = P.x - zb.x;
    zb.x += Math.sign(dx) * Math.min(Math.abs(dx), strafe * 0.3 * dt);
  } else if (style === 'pace') {
    zb.x += zb.dir * strafe * dt;
    if (Math.abs(zb.x) > TUNE.bossPaceX) { zb.dir = -Math.sign(zb.x); zb.x = Math.sign(zb.x) * TUNE.bossPaceX; }
    zb.z += zb.v * dt;
  } else {                                           // 'advance': the old crawl, with a slow drift.
    zb.x += Math.sin(zb.walkT * 0.6) * 0.4 * dt;     // Unused by any design — it is what a row with
    zb.z += zb.v * dt;                               // no `move` field falls back to.
  }
  if (style !== 'charge') zb.z = Math.max(TUNE.bossZMin, Math.min(TUNE.bossZMax, zb.z));
  zb.x = Math.max(-TUNE.bossPaceX - 0.6, Math.min(TUNE.bossPaceX + 0.6, zb.x)); // never off the sides
  // The stride steps off GROUND COVERED (the brute's rule). A strafing boss read off zb.z alone
  // would slide sideways with both feet frozen — the exact defect the distance rule exists to stop.
  const d0 = zb.dist || 0;
  zb.dist = d0 + Math.hypot(zb.x - x0, zb.z - z0);
  if (Math.floor(zb.dist / TUNE.bruteStride) !== Math.floor(d0 / TUNE.bruteStride)) stomp(0.35, bodySize(zb)); // one per drawn stride
}

// HE CALLS SECURITY. A design with `adds` puts bodies on the court while you fight it — the one
// thing a boss fight could not do before, since startBossFight clears the stage and normal spawning
// is off for the duration. `cap` counts the boss itself, so the court cannot silt up while a slow
// player works on a big health bar.
function bossAdds(zb, dt) {
  const A = bossPlan(zb);
  if (!A.adds || (zb.addT = (zb.addT ?? A.adds.every) - dt) > 0) return;
  zb.addT = A.adds.every;
  if (zombies.length < (A.adds.cap ?? 5)) spawnZombie((Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 5, -1.5 - Math.random(), A.adds.variant);
}

// ---- the player's second health channel. Only these two functions touch it.
export function hurtPlayer(n) {
  // G.hurtT is the grace window: a volley must not delete you at once. G.dodgeI is the SIDESTEP —
  // it beats this channel and the eat test below, which is the only reason to spend a dodge.
  if (G.mode !== 'splatter' || G.hurtT > 0 || G.dodgeI > 0 || G.mode === 'eaten') return;
  G.hp -= n;
  G.hurtT = TUNE.hurtGrace * bonus().grace; G.hurtFlash = 0.3; // the grace rides the level (the leagues)
  haptic('heavy'); // taking one is rare (hurtGrace gates it) and is the loudest thing the hand gets
  G.shake = { t: 0.22, mag: 4 };
  splat(0.7); aww(0.5);
  for (let k = 0; k < 14; k++) parts.push({ // he takes it in the chest
    x: P.x + (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.2, y: 1.2, z: P.z,
    vx: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 2.2, vy: 0.8 + Math.random() * 2, vz: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 2.2,
    t: 0.35 + Math.random() * 0.35, dark: Math.random() < 0.5 });
  if (G.hp <= 0) killPlayer();
  else aside('ump_quiet_bleeding', 0.3); // benched with the rest of Daniel's personality — see aside()
}

// Death, from EITHER channel: a shambler reaching you, or your hp running out. Extracted so the two
// causes cannot drift apart — the run summary, the best-run write and the death animation are all
// here exactly once.
export function killPlayer() {
  if (G.mode === 'eaten') return;
  // In the drill, being caught costs the POINT and not the run — a deliberate contract change,
  // see drillCaught. Permadeath stays where it was settled: the gore mode.
  if (G.drill) return drillCaught();
  gore.push({ x: P.x, z: P.z, r: 0.9, a: 0.9 }); if (gore.length > 40) gore.shift();
  for (let k = 0; k < 30; k++) parts.push({
    x: P.x, y: 1.1, z: P.z,
    vx: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 4.5, vy: 1 + Math.random() * 4, vz: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 4.5,
    t: 0.5 + Math.random() * 0.5 });
  splat(1);
  voice('game_set_massacre', 0.8); aww(1); // the run is over — the crowd groans
  // the death animation runs off G.eatenT: thrash here, burst at EATEN_BURST (playerGore), summary after
  haptic('dead'); // the notification pattern, once a run — the only place it is ever used
  G.eatenT = 0; G.eatenAt = { x: P.x, z: P.z };
  G.mode = 'eaten'; ball.active = false; G.flash = null; G.modal = null; // zombies keep shambling for ambience
  G.horde = null; pellets.length = 0; extras.length = 0; shots.length = 0; G.mgT = 0; G.gunId = null; // everything stops
  // The run is over — bank it. endRun writes the record AND hands back the best run before this
  // one, which is what the summary compares against. It replaced a hand-rolled localStorage.
  // splatterBest read/write here: the best is now derived from the record rather than stored twice
  // and left to drift. Timing is safe — restartRun() only fires on the tap AFTER death, so
  // runGames/sets/splatT are all still intact at this point.
  // THE MATCH MEASURES SOMETHING ELSE. Blood-only scoring (model A) means a lost game costs nothing
  // but the blood already spent, so "games survived" is not the achievement — OPPONENTS FELLED is.
  // It goes through the SAME endRun with the mode tagged and its own two headline numbers in the
  // record's two headline slots (see the shape note there), so the best is derived from the record
  // rather than stored a second time in its own key and left to drift.
  // THE STORY HAS NO PERMADEATH: the death costs the attempt, not the story (prof.story keeps the
  // checkpoint), and it banks nothing on the boards — the story is not a high-score run, and its
  // chapter games are numbered on the arcade's scale (STORY.base), which would post act V's game
  // 85 as a gore best. The summary reads G.story and offers the retry.
  if (G.story) { storyDeath(); return; }
  const m = G.match;
  // the cup's opp is a DRAWN RUNG, not a counter — bodies felled there is completed rounds. The
  // arcade counts kills on d.felled now (THE LEAGUES: opp starts at the band's bottom rung and
  // clamps at its top, so `opp - 1` stopped meaning anything); the fallback keeps old shapes alive.
  const felled = m ? (m.cup ? m.cup.round : (m.felled ?? Math.max(0, m.opp - 1)))
                   : 0, gamesPlayed = score.games[0] + score.games[1];
  const b = m ? endRun(felled, gamesPlayed, G.splatT, true, MODE_MATCH)
              : endRun(G.runGames, G.sets[0], G.splatT);
  G.best = b; G.newBest = b.newBest; // b is {games, sets, newBest}; render reads games/sets
  if (m) { m.felled = felled; m.games = gamesPlayed; m.best = b.games; } // ...the death screen's words
  // THE CUP RECORD (THE SEASON): an attempt that ends here is still an attempt. The round you
  // were IN is the round you reached, and the rung holding the racket is the one the training
  // court will offer you next. Training reps are not attempts and never write it.
  if (m && m.cup && !m.train) recordCup(G.league, m.cup.round + 1, m.cup.rung || m.opp);
}

// One hostile ball, lobbed at where the player is standing. `spread` fans a volley sideways.
// It is a real ARC (solved like a serve, not fired flat) so it is readable coming in and so the
// swing window has something to meet — a flat bolt at head height is not a tennis shot.
function fireAtPlayer(x, z, spread = 0, speed = TUNE.machSpeed) {
  const y0 = 1.1;
  const tx = P.x + spread, tz = P.z;
  const d = Math.hypot(tx - x, tz - z), Tf = Math.max(0.35, d / speed);
  const g = TUNE.gravity;
  shots.push({ x, y: y0, z,
    vx: (tx - x) / Tf, vz: (tz - z) / Tf,
    vy: (0.9 - y0 + 0.5 * g * Tf * Tf) / Tf, // land at racket height, not on the grass
    g, t: Tf + 1.6 });
  pock(0.55, 190); // the thunk of the throw
}

// Which shambler steps out next. Unlocks are keyed on GAMES, not on sets won: a set is six games,
// so the old top gate (`tier >= 2`) opened around game 12 and after that the mix was frozen forever
// at 15% shield / 15% brute / 12% runner — a third of why a 50-game run stopped changing.
// Now the advanced SHARE keeps climbing after everything is unlocked, which is what makes game 40
// feel different from game 20 rather than merely faster.
function pickVariant() {
  const g = G.testMode ? TUNE.testLevel : G.runGames; // test mode unlocks the whole roster
  const pool = [];
  if (g >= 2 && !zombies.some(z => z.variant === 'f')) pool.push('f'); // at most one runner alive
  if (g >= 6) pool.push('g');
  if (g >= 12) pool.push('s');
  // The steward is the mildest of the pool on purpose — bigger and one hit tougher, no special rule
  // to learn — so he can arrive EARLY and thicken the ordinary crowd, which the shambler mix alone
  // never did. He is also the only advanced body that shows up in a horde (see spawnHordeZombie).
  if (g >= 4) pool.push('d');
  // The late roster, spread WIDE on purpose. They were at 3/8/15 and Oliver had met the whole cast
  // by about game 10 — "let's introduce them more gradually". One new body roughly every seven
  // games now, and the ORIGINAL four keep their gates exactly (the curve through ~game 12 was
  // already tuned; see the calibration rule in PROJECT.md).
  if (g >= 5) pool.push('e');
  if (g >= 12) pool.push('h');
  if (g >= 20) pool.push('k');
  const nasty = Math.min(TUNE.nastyMax, g * TUNE.nastyPerGame);
  if (pool.length && Math.random() < nasty) return pool[Math.floor(Math.random() * pool.length)];
  return Math.random() < 0.5 ? 'a' : 'b';
}

// How big a target a body is. Bosses are deliberately a little more generous than a shambler —
// part of "the racket zombie doesn't seem harmable" was simply missing him.
// A BOSS BODY: takes wound damage from everything instead of being deleted by it. The brute ('g') is
// deliberately NOT one — melee/bomb/fire one-shotting a brute is a settled "power exception".
const isBoss = zb => zb.variant === 'r' || zb.variant === 'B';
const hitR = zb => zb.variant === 'g' ? 0.75 : zb.variant === 'd' ? 0.64 : zb.variant === 'r' ? 0.7
  : zb.variant === 'o' ? 0.7                          // the barrel: a wide low drum, generous on purpose
  : zb.variant === 'k' ? 0.88 : zb.variant === 'h' ? 0.68 // the roller man is wider than the brute
  : zb.variant === 'B' ? 0.55 * (zb.scale || 1) * 1.4 // a chapter boss is a barn door, as it should be
  : zb.variant === 'm' ? 0.8                          // the machine is a wide low box
  : 0.55;
// How big it sounds. 1 = a shambler, and every impact sound scales its pitch and length off this,
// so a ball landing on a brute is audibly a bigger event than one landing on a runner.
const bodySize = zb => zombieH(zb) / 1.8;

// THE LASER. Not a projectile: the serve gesture you already know, and instead of a ball you get a
// widening plane of light down the lane you aimed at, killing everything standing inside the wedge
// at once. Oliver asked for exactly this after a tap-per-round version read as broken — "the normal
// ball logic, but the band is blue and gets way wider at the end, like a blue plane cutting through".
// It goes through wound()/killZombie like everything else, so it cannot no-op on a boss.
export function fireBeam(dirX, dirZ) {
  const d = Math.hypot(dirX, dirZ) || 1, ux = dirX / d, uz = dirZ / d;
  // out of the PLAYER at chest height — same point the cone is measured from, so what you see and
  // what it kills are one geometry
  CAUSE = 'laser';
  G.beam = { x: P.x, y: TUNE.beamY + TUNE.beamOriginLift, z: P.z, ux, uz, t: TUNE.beamT };
  // 0.22, was 0.55: zap() sums FOUR voices (crack, two detuned saws, a sub) straight into the
  // destination, so its `vol` is not one voice's level — it was coming out several times louder
  // than anything else in the game. Oliver: "laser sound is way too loud."
  zap(0.22); G.shake = { t: 0.18, mag: 3 }; G.boomFlash = 0.08;
  for (let i = zombies.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
    const zb = zombies[i];
    if (!zb) continue;
    const rx = zb.x - P.x, rz = zb.z - P.z;
    const along = rx * ux + rz * uz;                        // how far down the lane it stands
    if (along < 0 || along > TUNE.beamLen) continue;        // behind you, or past the end of the beam
    const off = Math.abs(rx * uz - rz * ux);                // lateral offset from the lane
    // the kill follows whichever LOOK is on, or the A/B would be a lie: a narrow band that deletes a
    // cone-wide crowd tells you nothing about how the narrow band plays
    const halfW = TUNE.beamBand >= 0.5 ? TUNE.beamBandW * 2
      : TUNE.beamW0 + (TUNE.beamW1 - TUNE.beamW0) * (along / TUNE.beamLen);
    if (off > halfW + hitR(zb)) continue;
    // THE BEAM DELETES ORDINARY BODIES. hp does not enter into it: a plane of light that left a
    // roller man standing was the thing that made it feel like a worse ball rather than a weapon.
    // A BOSS is the exception and takes a heavy wound instead — "they also must suffer severely".
    if (isBoss(zb)) { if (wound(zb, TUNE.dmgBeam)) killZombie(i, true); }
    else killZombie(i, !!G.horde);
  }
}

// core kill: remove the zombie, spawn its gore/pile/particles, score. No ball coupling —
// shared by ball hits, machine-gun pellets, melee swipes, and extra (multi-serve) balls.
// how absurdly a variant dies: classics splash, the advanced roster DETONATES
const GORE_MUL = { a: 1, b: 1, e: 1, f: 1.8, s: 2.5, h: 2.5, g: 4, k: 5, r: 3, m: 1.5, o: 0, B: 6 }; // a chapter boss comes apart like nothing else on the court; a barrel is not meat at all

// WHAT IS KILLING THINGS RIGHT NOW. killZombie takes an index, not a cause, and eleven call sites
// reach it — threading a weapon id through all of them (and through wound(), and through
// splatter()) to feed one number on a menu is not worth the churn. Every damage loop in this file
// instead stamps this before it can kill, and killZombie reads it. Safe because the whole thing is
// one synchronous frame: nothing interleaves between the stamp and the kill it causes.
let CAUSE = 'ball';

// A barrel bursts and hands you what was inside. Pink debris rather than gore — it is a container,
// not a body. It does NOT equip itself: shooting a barrel mid-plan used to yank the gun into your
// hand and the next serve fired the wrong thing — the current weapon stays live and the new slot
// pulses pink instead (render.drawRack reads G.rackGlow). The announcement is a CARD, never a
// modal: a barrel pops mid-combat, and a popup that stops the world there costs lives, not reads.
function popBarrel(zb) {
  boom(0.7); G.shake = { t: 0.22, mag: 4 }; G.boomFlash = 0.08;
  for (let k = 0; k < 30; k++) parts.push({
    x: zb.x, y: 0.7, z: zb.z,
    vx: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 4, vy: 1.2 + Math.random() * 3.5, vz: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 4,
    t: 0.35 + Math.random() * 0.5, pink: true });
  const keep = G.weapon;
  const got = grantWeapon(zb.wid);
  G.weapon = keep;
  G.rackGlow = { slot: got, t: 2.2 };
  const w = WEAPONS[zb.wid];
  G.card = { title: w.label, sub1: (w.desc && w.desc[0]) || '', sub2: 'TAP ITS RACK SLOT TO ARM IT',
             icon: w.icon, color: UI.pink, t: TUNE.tinCardT };
}

// dark smoke: one puff, drifting up and spreading. Not gravity-bound like gore (see the parts loop).
function smokePuff(x, y, z, spread = 0.5) {
  parts.push({ x: x + (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * spread, y, z: z + (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * spread * 0.5,
    vx: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.35, vy: 0.5 + Math.random() * 0.5, vz: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.35,
    t: 0.9 + Math.random() * 0.9, smoke: true });
}

// The machine is the one thing on court that is not made of meat, and it used to burst like a body:
// blood decal, gore mound, the wet splat, a ball boy sent out to mop it. It comes apart as MACHINERY
// now — a flash, sparks, torn metal, and a column of dark smoke over a scorch mark.
function wreckMachine(zb) {
  boom(); G.shake = { t: 0.3, mag: 5 }; G.boomFlash = 0.09;
  gore.push({ x: zb.x, z: zb.z, r: 1.1, a: 0.95, scorch: true }); // burnt clay, not blood
  if (gore.length > 40) gore.shift();
  for (let k = 0; k < 26; k++) parts.push({ // sparks and burning debris
    x: zb.x, y: 0.8, z: zb.z,
    vx: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 4, vy: 1.5 + Math.random() * 4, vz: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 4,
    t: 0.3 + Math.random() * 0.5, fire: true });
  for (let k = 0; k < 26; k++) smokePuff(zb.x, 0.5 + Math.random() * 1.6, zb.z, 0.7); // a column, not a puff
}

// A chapter boss does not just die. It is the thing the whole fight was about, so it comes apart
// in its own beat: the world drops into slow motion, the screen kicks, a ring of blood blows out
// through the crowd's roar, and the card that announces it waits until the pieces have landed.
function bossDeath(zb) {
  G.slowT = TUNE.bossSlowT;                        // real seconds; main.js scales dt while it runs
  // ...and the camera leans in on it: the transition's punch-in, reused at a gentler magnification,
  // riding the slow-mo so the longest fight in the game ends on a camera moment. T is GAME time
  // (update ticks zoom with the scaled dt), so the peak lands mid-slow-mo and eases out after.
  G.zoom = { x: zb.x, z: zb.z, k: 1.22, t: 0, T: 0.8 };
  G.bossBurst = { x: zb.x, z: zb.z, t: 0.75 };     // the shockwave ring render.js draws
  G.shake = { t: 0.5, mag: 7 }; G.boomFlash = 0.12;
  boom(); splat(1, bodySize(zb)); growl(0.45, bodySize(zb), 1.4, 0.4); cheer(4, 1); voice('unbelievable', 0.5); // the biggest body in the game, at its lowest
  const h = 1.8 * (zb.scale || 1.5);
  for (let k = 0; k < 90; k++) parts.push({        // on top of killZombie's own burst: a full body's worth
    x: zb.x, y: h * (0.2 + Math.random() * 0.7), z: zb.z,
    vx: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 7, vy: 1 + Math.random() * 7, vz: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 7,
    t: 0.7 + Math.random() * 0.9, dark: Math.random() < 0.4 });
  for (let k = 0; k < 6; k++) { // and it leaves a mess nothing else on the court leaves
    const a = Math.random() * 6.283, r = Math.random() * 2.4;
    gore.push({ x: zb.x + Math.cos(a) * r, z: zb.z + Math.sin(a) * r * 0.6, r: 0.6 + Math.random() * 0.7, a: 0.9 });
    if (gore.length > 40) gore.shift();
  }
}

function killZombie(i, quiet) {
  const zb = zombies[i];
  haptic('medium'); // every weapon routes through here, so the kill is felt exactly once per kill
  // The drill's ONE rule, read at the single point every weapon routes through — hooking the ball
  // path instead would have the swish, the pellets and the blast silently exempt from the order.
  const mul = GORE_MUL[zb.variant] || 1;
  // BEFORE the early returns below: the ball machine is furniture but it is still a thing you put
  // down, so it earns a row. The barrel is loot and scores nothing anywhere else in the game —
  // keep that agreement here too. A chapter boss files under its DESIGN, so the screen can name
  // the one that has been killing you.
  // A MATCH OPPONENT FILES UNDER WHO IT IS, not under the generic body it wears: the screen is a
  // list of who you have felled, and 'r' is a body, not a name. zb.foe is set by matchOpponent.
  if (zb.variant !== 'o') {
    tally(zb.foe ? zb.foe.key
      : zb.variant === 'B' ? 'B' + Math.max(0, BOSS_ART.indexOf(zb.art))
      : zb.variant, CAUSE);
    award('kill'); // the leagues' clock, at the same single funnel — award() mutes no-stakes modes
  }
  zombies.splice(i, 1);
  // THE DRILL RESOLVES HERE — after the splice, and WITHOUT returning. Both halves are load-bearing:
  //   splice first, because drillKill can draw a new combination on the spot (a double fault
  //     re-calls the survivors, an emptied batch brings in the next one) off whatever is standing in
  //     `zombies` — resolving first let the new combination name the body that was in the middle of
  //     dying, i.e. a round asking for a colour that is not on court;
  //   and no early return, because everything below is the DEATH — the blood decal, the pile, the
  //     particle burst, the splat and the headshot crack. The first cut returned here and bibbed
  //     bodies died silently and cleanly, which is not what this game does to anybody.
  if (G.drill && zb.drill) drillKill(zb);   // `drill` marks a batch member; eaters are never flagged
  if (zb.variant === 'B') bossDeath(zb); // before endBossFight below, so the card can wait on it
  if (zb.variant === 'o') { popBarrel(zb); return; } // a container: it pays out and scores NOTHING
  if (zb.variant === 'm') { // furniture, not a body: no blood, no mound, no mop boy
    wreckMachine(zb);
    if (!G.horde && !G.clearing) splatPoint('P', quiet);
    return;
  }
  if (G.interlude && zb.variant === 'r') resolveInterlude('P', 'body_destroyed'); // regicide ends the duel your way — any weapon counts
  if (zb.variant === 'B') endBossFight();                       // the chapter is over
  // A BURNT BODY DOES NOT BURST. Fire kills by cooking, so there is nothing left to spray — it goes
  // to dark grey ash instead of blood: same decal, same mound, same particles, all recoloured and a
  // little smaller, plus a puff of smoke. Marked either by still burning or by `ashes`, which the
  // flame ball sets before it kills (that kill happens before the body ever catches).
  const ash = zb.burnT > 0 || zb.ashes;
  const stains = Math.round(Math.sqrt(mul)); // advanced kills splash a scatter of stains, not one puddle
  for (let k = 0; k < stains; k++) {
    gore.push({ x: zb.x + (k ? (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.9 : 0), z: zb.z + (k ? (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.9 : 0),
                r: (0.45 + Math.random() * 0.35) * Math.sqrt(mul) * (ash ? 0.8 : 1), a: ash ? 0.7 : 0.85, ash });
    if (gore.length > 40) gore.shift();
  }
  const pl = piles.find(p => Math.hypot(p.x - zb.x, p.z - zb.z) < 0.6); // stack up where kills cluster
  if (pl) { pl.size = Math.min(4, pl.size + Math.round(mul / 2 + 0.5)); if (!ash) pl.ash = false; }
  else { piles.push({ x: zb.x, z: zb.z, size: Math.min(4, Math.round(mul / 2 + 0.5)), seed: Math.random() * 1e4, blobs: null, builtSize: 0, ash });
         if (piles.length > 30) piles.shift(); }
  // A BURNT BODY COLLAPSING IS ITS OWN MOMENT. It used to be over faster than a wet kill — fewer
  // motes AND shorter ones — so the most spectacular way to die in the game was the least visible.
  // Ash still SETTLES rather than sprays (low, slow, no arc), but there is more of it and it hangs
  // roughly twice as long, which is what sells "he came apart into a heap" instead of "he blinked".
  const n = Math.round((ash ? 34 : 30) * mul);
  for (let k = 0; k < n; k++) { const dark = k >= n * 2 / 3; parts.push({ // ~1/3 dark & long-lived: settling gore
    x: zb.x, y: 0.9, z: zb.z,
    vx: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * (ash ? 1.6 : 3.5), vy: (ash ? 0.6 : 1) + Math.random() * (ash ? 1.6 : 3.5),
    vz: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * (ash ? 1.6 : 3.5),
    t: ash ? (dark ? 1.3 + Math.random() * 1.1 : 0.9 + Math.random() * 0.8)
           : (dark ? 0.6 + Math.random() * 0.6 : 0.4 + Math.random() * 0.4), dark, ash,
  }); }
  if (ash) {
    // the dust cloud: a low wide bloom at the feet where the body folded, and a thinner column
    // lifting off it. Five tight puffs read as a wisp; this is the body's own volume going up.
    for (let k = 0; k < 10; k++) smokePuff(zb.x, 0.25 + Math.random() * 0.5, zb.z, 1.0); // the ground bloom
    for (let k = 0; k < 8; k++) smokePuff(zb.x, 0.8 + Math.random() * 1.5, zb.z, 0.5);   // the column
    for (let k = 0; k < 8; k++) parts.push({ // last embers off the collapse, dying as it settles
      x: zb.x + (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.5, y: 0.3 + Math.random() * 1.0, z: zb.z,
      vx: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 1.1, vy: 1.0 + Math.random() * 1.4, vz: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 1.1,
      t: 0.3 + Math.random() * 0.35, fire: true });
    pock(0.4, 130);
  }
  else {
    splat(1, bodySize(zb)); // the burst is pitched by the body too, so a boss comes apart LOW
    sfx('headshot-' + (Math.random() < 0.5 ? 1 : 2), 0.6); // random headshot crack layered on the gore burst
  }
  sendBoy(zb.x, zb.z, true);      // a boy comes out with the mop
  // The chapter boss deliberately scores NOTHING: its reward is the chapter card and the parked game
  // beat resuming. Letting it bank a point meant splatPoint's game-over branch and endBossFight both
  // decided "what happens next" in the same frame and clobbered each other.
  if (!G.horde && !G.clearing && zb.variant !== 'B') splatPoint('P', quiet); // horde = survival, clearing = mopping up an already-won game — neither scores
}

// ---- fire. The flame ball doesn't just kill what it touches, it starts an epidemic: the kill
// ignites its neighbours, and every burning body keeps igniting whatever it shambles past.
// Read-only over zombies[] (it only sets burnT), so it is safe to call from inside a kill loop.
function ignite(x, z, r) {
  for (const zb of zombies) {
    if (!zb || zb.burnT > 0) continue; // the boss DOES catch now — just at TUNE.bossBurnMul the rate,
                                       // so fire is a real answer to a big body instead of a no-op
    // remember WHAT lit it: a body that burns to death is credited to the flamer or the fire ball
    // that started it, not to whatever happens to be firing when it finally goes down
    if (Math.hypot(zb.x - x, zb.z - z) < r) {
      zb.burnT = TUNE.burnTime; zb.burnBy = CAUSE; if (zb.hp === undefined) zb.hp = 1;
      if (whumpT <= 0) { whump(); whumpT = 0.25; } // an epidemic lights many a frame: say it once
    }
  }
}

// Bank `amount` of damage on a multi-hit body and return true once it should DIE. Fractional amounts
// are legal (a machine-gun pellet chips a third of a point): they accumulate on zb.chip and only
// WHOLE points come off hp, because the wound skins and bleed() anchors switch on hp thresholds and
// a fractional hp would never match one. The caller decides HOW it dies — splatter() for the
// multi-kill fanfare, killZombie() for a quiet one — and must stop touching zb afterwards, because
// killZombie splices the array. This is the one place damage is applied, so a future boss with 20 hp
// needs no new code: every weapon is already proportional to it.
function wound(zb, amount, fx = true) {
  zb.chip = (zb.chip || 0) + amount;
  const ph = bossPhase(zb);
  let took = 0;
  while (zb.chip >= 1 && zb.hp > 0) { zb.chip -= 1; zb.hp--; took++; }
  if (took && fx) { splat(0.5, bodySize(zb)); woundBurst(zb); }
  // the boss FEELS it — throttled, because the gun chips it a dozen times a second
  if (took && zb.variant === 'B' && bossHurtT <= 0) { growl(0.3, bodySize(zb), 0.45, 0.6); bossHurtT = 0.9; }
  // A PHASED BOSS TURNING IS AN EVENT, not a silent change of numbers. Same body, new fight: the
  // crowd comes up, the court shakes, and he says which set this is. Without the beat the champion's
  // second gear would arrive as "the boss suddenly got faster" and read as the game glitching.
  if (zb.hp > 0 && bossPhase(zb) > ph) {
    const cry = bossPlan(zb).cry;
    if (cry) G.flash = { text: cry, t: 1.6 };
    G.shake = { t: 0.4, mag: 6 }; cheer(1.4, 0.7); moan(0.7);
  }
  return zb.hp <= 0;
}

// one burning body's frame: damage, spread, embers. Returns true if the fire killed it (the
// caller must then stop touching zb — killZombie splices, and splatPoint can cascade further).
function burnTick(zb, i, dt) {
  zb.burnT -= dt;
  CAUSE = zb.burnBy || 'fire';
  ignite(zb.x, zb.z, TUNE.burnSpread);
  // fx off: the embers below already ARE the feedback, a wet pop per cooked hp point would be noise
  const dead = wound(zb, TUNE.burnDps * (isBoss(zb) ? TUNE.bossBurnMul : 1) * dt, false);
  // Embers off the body, and SMOKE off the top of them. Two short-lived sparks read as a body
  // sizzling; a burning man throws a column, so this is three embers with more spread and more
  // life, plus a puff every few frames that rises and goes grey. The cap is what keeps a lit crowd
  // from flooding the particle array — raised with the count so the last body still gets its fire.
  if (parts.length < 200) {
    for (let k = 0; k < 3; k++) parts.push({
      x: zb.x + (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.42, y: 0.4 + Math.random() * 1.6,
      z: zb.z + (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.2,
      vx: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.8, vy: 1.5 + Math.random() * 1.2, vz: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.8,
      t: 0.34 + Math.random() * 0.3, fire: true });
    if (Math.random() < 0.25) smokePuff(zb.x, 1.5 + Math.random() * 0.7, zb.z, 0.35);
  }
  if (!dead) return false;
  killZombie(i, !!G.horde);
  return true;
}

// Phase A, every frame: they are tearing at you and it shows. A thin constant spray out of the
// pile plus a stain that keeps widening — "blood and gore flowing out" is a CONTINUOUS thing, not
// one burst, and the burst at EATEN_BURST lands on top of it.
export function eatenBleed(dt) {
  const at = G.eatenAt; if (!at) return;
  for (let k = 0; k < 2; k++) parts.push({
    x: at.x + (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.35, y: 0.5 + Math.random() * 0.8, z: at.z + (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.3,
    vx: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 3.2, vy: 1.5 + Math.random() * 3.5, vz: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 3.2,
    t: 0.4 + Math.random() * 0.5, dark: Math.random() < 0.45 });
  const g = gore.find(d => d.spreading);
  if (g) g.r = Math.min(2.1, g.r + dt * 0.7);
  else { gore.push({ x: at.x, z: at.z, r: 0.7, a: 0.9, spreading: true }); if (gore.length > 40) gore.shift(); }
  if ((G.eatSfxT = (G.eatSfxT || 0) - dt) <= 0) { splat(0.45); G.eatSfxT = 0.28; } // wet work, on a loop
}

// phase B of the death animation (EATEN_BURST, config.js): the player IS the gore now. Reuses killZombie's machinery —
// the biggest mound on the court, and it stays visible under the summary scrim. That's the point.
export function playerGore() {
  const at = G.eatenAt || { x: P.x, z: P.z };
  gore.push({ x: at.x, z: at.z, r: 1.7, a: 1 }); if (gore.length > 40) gore.shift();
  piles.push({ x: at.x, z: at.z, size: 4, seed: Math.random() * 1e4, blobs: null, builtSize: 0 });
  if (piles.length > 30) piles.shift();
  for (let k = 0; k < 90; k++) parts.push({
    x: at.x, y: 1.0, z: at.z,
    vx: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 5.5, vy: 1 + Math.random() * 6, vz: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 5.5,
    t: 0.6 + Math.random() * 0.9, dark: k % 3 === 0 });
  splat(1); boom();
  G.shake = { t: 0.35, mag: 7 };
  G.boomFlash = 0.08;
}

// a small dark spatter the instant a multi-hit shambler is wounded — subtle impact pop, NOT the
// kill spray (the ongoing thin trickle is bleed()'s job). Kept low per the settled blood feel.
// The player's own wound trickle. Same rule as the zombies': blood is NEVER painted into the player
// sprite (settled feel decision) — it is live particles, sparse, thin, and the flow scales with how
// far gone he is. Together with drawChar's procedural spatter this IS the health bar.
function bleedPlayer() {
  if (parts.length > 95) return;
  const lost = G.hpMax - G.hp;
  for (let k = 0; k < lost; k++) {
    if (Math.random() > 0.22) continue; // sparse: most frames each wound emits nothing
    parts.push({
      x: P.x + (k % 2 ? 0.22 : -0.2) + (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.03,
      y: 1.45 - k * 0.13, z: P.z + (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.03,
      vx: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.28, vy: 0.5 + Math.random() * 0.7, vz: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.26,
      t: 0.3 + Math.random() * 0.3, dark: Math.random() < 0.55 });
  }
}

function woundBurst(zb) {
  for (let k = 0; k < 5; k++) parts.push({
    x: zb.x + (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.15, y: 1.4, z: zb.z,
    vx: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 1.6, vy: 0.6 + Math.random() * 1.4, vz: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 1.6,
    t: 0.35 + Math.random() * 0.3, dark: Math.random() < 0.6 });
}

// swishing the racket cleaves every shambler in reach — it's the panic button for when they're
// already on top of you, so it stays a full sweep. TUNE.meleeCool is the brake that stops it
// from being the default attack.
// The boss skip is NOT a gap in the damage model: it is unreachable by construction. The player is
// bounded at P_BOUNDS.zMin (netZ + 1.2 = 13.1) and the boss holds z <= COURT.svcFar (5.5), so they
// are always on opposite sides of the net and meleeRange 1.7 can never span it. Left as a skip
// rather than "fixed", because a melee path to the boss would need him to cross the net first.
export function meleeSwipe(x, z, range) {
  let hit = 0;
  CAUSE = 'ball'; // the racket. No w_racket icon exists, and the swish IS the ball stroke — same row.
  for (let i = zombies.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
    const zb = zombies[i];
    if (!zb || zb.variant === 'r') continue; // !zb: killZombie can sweep the court mid-loop
    if (zb.variant === 'm' || isBoss(zb)) { // furniture and bosses don't cleave — they take a wound
      if (Math.hypot(zb.x - x, zb.z - z) < range && wound(zb, TUNE.dmgBall)) { splatter(i); hit++; }
      continue;
    }
    if (Math.hypot(zb.x - x, zb.z - z) < range) { killZombie(i, !!G.horde); hit++; }
  }
  // The swish deliberately does NOT touch incoming shots. It used to, as a pretoss fallback — but
  // meleeSwipe runs FIRST in keyPressed, so it swallowed the very shot the new tap-to-parry was about
  // to return. One answer to a thrown ball: swing at it.
  if (hit) swish(0.35);
  return hit;
}

function splatter(i, fanfare = true) { // the MAIN ball hit a zombie
  const zx = zombies[i].x, zy = zombieH(zombies[i]) * 0.9, zz = zombies[i].z; // for the pops — killZombie splices
  const sp0 = Math.hypot(ball.vx, ball.vz); // pace BEFORE the pierce tax, for a slice to keep
  killZombie(i, !!G.horde);
  ball.vx *= TUNE.zPierce; ball.vz *= TUNE.zPierce; // keep enough pace to plow through the next
  // SLICE: struck again off this body, onto the next one, at FULL pace — the pierce tax is what a
  // straight ball pays for plowing through meat, and a cut ball does not plow, it leaves. Only a
  // KILL reaches here, so a wound ends the chain by simply never extending it, and no brute,
  // steward or boss ever carries one on. See sliceCarom for why this is a single strike and not a
  // steer. The new arc is solved from the CORPSE's position, not the ball's, because at this point
  // in the frame the ball is still a hair short of the body it just burst.
  // NOT IN THE DRILL. A slice leaves the corpse and strikes whatever it finds next — in a mode where
  // hitting the wrong body IS the failure that is the game choosing your target for you, and choosing
  // it badly. Oliver: "remove the ball slicing in this mode.. this leads to unwanted hits".
  if (ball.chain > 0 && !G.drill) {
    const nx = nearestTo(zx, zz, TUNE.sliceR, ball, TUNE.sliceArc * Math.PI / 180);
    if (nx) {
      ball.chain--;
      sliceCarom(nx, Math.max(sp0, 14)); // floored: a ball that arrived slowly still leaves fast
      pock(0.5, 1100 + 450 * ball.kills); // the cut, a step higher up the scale per link
    } else ball.chain = 0;                // nothing in reach: it plows on as a normal ball
  }
  if (!fanfare) return;           // machine-gun pellets splatter but skip the streak fanfare / bomb meter
  ball.kills++;                   // this shot's running streak
  // splat micro-freeze: every ball kill stutters the world a touch, and the stutter grows with the
  // streak, so a triple kill physically hitches three times. max(), never assignment — a bomb's own
  // 0.18 s freeze must not be trimmed by the kills it causes.
  G.hitstop = Math.max(G.hitstop, Math.min(0.09, 0.03 + 0.012 * ball.kills));
  // escalating multi-kill fanfare — one shot, ≥2 zombies
  // ...and the stat is banked on the TRANSITION to 2, so a massacre of six is one multi-kill
  if (ball.kills === 2) { multiKill(); popText(zx, zy, zz, 'DOUBLE KILL'); cheer(1.6, 0.45); voice('double_kill', 0.4); }
  else if (ball.kills === 3) { popText(zx, zy, zz, 'TRIPLE KILL'); cheer(2.2, 0.6); voice('triple_kill', 0.4); }
  else if (ball.kills >= 4) { popText(zx, zy, zz, `MASSACRE ×${ball.kills}`); cheer(2.8, 0.7); voice('unbelievable', 0.4);
    G.slowT = Math.max(G.slowT, 0.35); } // a massacre borrows the boss's slow-mo — the infra already runs every frame
}

// ---- horde wave: dense spawns + an auto-firing machine-gun racket (pellets, not the match ball)
function spawnHordeZombie() { // all from the far baseline, across the court — never off-screen at the sides
  // a few stewards in the mix: the wave needs bodies that survive one pellet, or a grown horde is a
  // uniform wall of the same thing dying at the same range
  const v = Math.random() < TUNE.hordeSteward && G.runGames >= 4 ? 'd' : Math.random() < 0.5 ? 'a' : 'b';
  spawnZombie((Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 5, -1.5 - Math.random(), v);
}
let mgTick = 0;
// One round, for every barrel-fed weapon there is. The WEAPONS row is stamped onto the pellet, so
// the loop below serves the machine gun, the beacon cannon, the flamethrower, the laser and the
// rocket without a second array or a second update — the only things that ever differed were a
// radius, a damage number, whether it stops at the first body, and what it does when it lands.
// Called with no argument by the HORDE, which is the plain machine gun.
export function firePellet(w = WEAPONS.gun) {
  const spread = w.spread ?? (w.life ? TUNE.mgSpread * 2.4 : TUNE.mgSpread); // a short-lived round is a CONE
  const a = (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * spread * Math.PI / 180, s = w.speed ?? 26; // straight up-court (-z)
  const pe = { x: P.x, y: 0.9, z: P.z, vx: Math.sin(a) * s, vz: -Math.cos(a) * s,
    t: w.life ?? 1.2, r: w.r ?? TUNE.mgPelletR, dmg: w.dmg ?? TUNE.dmgPellet, hp: w.hp ?? TUNE.dmgPelletHp,
    pierce: !!w.pierce, boom: !!w.boom, ignite: w.ignite ? (w.igniteR ?? 1.8) : 0,
    trail: w.trail || 0, trailR: w.trailR, jet: w.jet || 0, col: w.col, glow: w.glow,
    wid: w.id || 'gun' };   // the round remembers which weapon threw it — the horde's plain gun has no row
  // A LOBBED round: it is thrown, not sprayed. Solved so it comes down about where the crowd is, so
  // "it throws itself" reads as aiming rather than as a flat stream that happens to be fat.
  if (w.arc) {
    const tgt = nearestAhead();                        // something to actually throw AT
    const dx = (tgt ? tgt.x : P.x + Math.sin(a) * 6) - P.x, dz = (tgt ? tgt.z : P.z - 12) - P.z;
    const dist = Math.max(3, Math.hypot(dx, dz)), T = dist / s;
    pe.vx = dx / T; pe.vz = dz / T;
    pe.g = TUNE.gravity;
    pe.vy = (0.35 - pe.y + 0.5 * pe.g * T * T) / T;     // lands about knee height on the target
    pe.t = T + 0.6;
    pe.arc = 1;
  }
  // The BEACON changes colour every ball it throws. It is the showpiece: you should be able to tell
  // it is running from the corner of your eye.
  if (w.hue) pe.col = HUES[mgTick % HUES.length];
  pellets.push(pe);
  // each weapon announces itself: a low THUMP as the beacon lobs, a SWOOSH as a rocket leaves,
  // and the gun's rapid tick every other round (at 12+/s every round buzzes the mixer)
  if (w.sfx === 'thump') boom(0.3);
  else if (w.sfx === 'swoosh') whoosh(0.3);
  // the flamer had no case of its own and fell through to the gun's dry tick. Every THIRD round at
  // rate 30 = 10 overlapping 0.26 s puffs a second, which sums to a continuous roar; firing one per
  // round just stacks 30 gains on top of each other and clips.
  else if (w.sfx === 'flame') { if (++mgTick % 3 === 0) flame(0.5); }
  else if (++mgTick % 2 === 0) gunshot(); // the one ignite weapon is the flamer, which has its own case
}
const HUES = ['#ff6b6b', '#ffd166', '#7bffa0', '#6bd5ff', '#c08bff', '#ff8bd5'];
// The next body a slice is struck on to: nearest live thing to the kill it just made, and it may
// well be off to the side or short of it — that deflection is the whole shot. `arc` keeps it inside
// a believable angle off the ball's heading: a carom can physically go anywhere, but one that turns
// round and heads back down-court reads as a stray bounce, not as a cut.
// Furniture and barrels are not bodies and are never a target.
function nearestTo(x, z, maxD, b, arc) {
  const head = Math.atan2(b.vx, b.vz);
  let best = null, bd = maxD;
  for (const zb of zombies) {
    if ('mo'.includes(zb.variant)) continue;
    const d = Math.hypot(zb.x - x, zb.z - z);
    if (d >= bd) continue;
    const da = ((Math.atan2(zb.x - b.x, zb.z - b.z) - head + Math.PI * 3) % (Math.PI * 2)) - Math.PI;
    if (Math.abs(da) > arc) continue;   // behind the ball: no arc gets there, so the chain ends
    bd = d; best = zb;
  }
  return best;
}
// the best thing up-court to lob at: nearest body ahead of you, ignoring furniture you can walk past
function nearestAhead() {
  let best = null, bd = 1e9;
  for (const zb of zombies) {
    if (!zb || zb.variant === 'o' || zb.z > P.z - 1.5) continue;
    const d = Math.hypot(zb.x - P.x, zb.z - P.z);
    if (d < bd) { bd = d; best = zb; }
  }
  return best;
}

export function spawnRacketZombie() { // one takes up residence on the far court — an opponent, of sorts
  // He stiffens as the run goes on. hpMax is stored because the wound skins and bleed() anchors read
  // a FRACTION of full health now — hardcoded `hp === 2` thresholds would leave a late-run boss
  // looking pristine right up to the killing blow.
  const hp = TUNE.racketHp + Math.floor(G.runGames * TUNE.racketHpPerGame);
  zombies.push({ x: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 2.5, z: 3.5, v: 0, walkT: Math.random() * 9,
    variant: 'r', side: 'O', facing: 1, pose: 'idle', poseT: 0, swingT: -1, swingCool: 0, runT: 0,
    hp, hpMax: hp });
  // (the IT HAS A RACKET card is gone — the racket in its hand is the announcement)
}
function endHorde() {
  G.horde = null; pellets.length = 0;
  if (!zombies.some(z => z.variant === 'r')) spawnRacketZombie(); // survive the wave → a racket zombie stays
  setupPoint();                    // serve loop resumes; any zombies still standing are yours to mop up
  voice('quiet_dark', 0.5, 0.85);
}
function tickHorde(dt) {
  const h = G.horde;
  h.t -= dt;
  // h.rate is stamped by startHorde and grows per set banked — every horde used to be the same
  // twelve seconds at the same 2.5/s, so the fifth one was indistinguishable from the first.
  if ((h.spawnT -= dt) <= 0) {
    if (zombies.length < TUNE.zHordeCap) spawnHordeZombie(); // ...but bounded, see TUNE.zHordeCap
    h.spawnT = 1 / (h.rate || TUNE.hordeRate);
  }
  if ((h.mgT -= dt) <= 0) { firePellet(); h.mgT = 1 / (h.mgRate || TUNE.mgRate); }
  if (h.t <= 0) endHorde();
}

// bomb ball: everything inside bombRadius splatters at once (each kill still ++ball.kills so
// the Phase-2 fanfare escalates), plus a crater — big stain, size-3 pile, extra particles, boom.
export function explode(x, z, why = 'bomb') {
  CAUSE = why; // the rocket detonates through here too, and it is its own row
  haptic('heavy'); // the blast, before the kills it causes — heavy and medium throttle separately
  for (let i = zombies.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) { // backwards: splatter() splices (and can sweep) the array
    const zb = zombies[i];
    if (!zb || Math.hypot(zb.x - x, zb.z - z) >= TUNE.bombRadius) continue;
    // A blast used to delete the boss outright, ignoring his hp entirely — which made BOMB the only
    // real answer to him and would have made any bigger boss meaningless. It's heavy damage now.
    if (isBoss(zb)) { if (wound(zb, TUNE.dmgBomb)) splatter(i); }
    else splatter(i);
  }
  gore.push({ x, z, r: 2.2, a: 1, scorch: true }); if (gore.length > 40) gore.shift(); // the crater — near-permanent
  gore.push({ x, z, r: 2.0, a: 0.9 }); if (gore.length > 40) gore.shift();
  // a ring of splatter thrown outward, so the blast paints the lawn instead of leaving one puddle
  for (let k = 0; k < 6; k++) {
    const a = Math.random() * 6.2832, r = TUNE.bombRadius * (0.35 + Math.random() * 0.6);
    gore.push({ x: x + Math.cos(a) * r, z: z + Math.sin(a) * r, r: 0.7 + Math.random() * 0.7, a: 0.85 });
    if (gore.length > 40) gore.shift();
  }
  const pl = piles.find(p => Math.hypot(p.x - x, p.z - z) < 0.6);
  if (pl) pl.size = Math.min(4, pl.size + 3);
  else { piles.push({ x, z, size: 4, seed: Math.random() * 1e4, blobs: null, builtSize: 0 }); if (piles.length > 30) piles.shift(); }
  // the eruption itself: a fat, slow, high-arcing column of gore rather than a camera flash
  for (let k = 0; k < 120; k++) parts.push({
    x: x + (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.4, y: 0.5, z: z + (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.4,
    vx: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 11, vy: 2 + Math.random() * 9, vz: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 11,
    t: 0.7 + Math.random() * 1.1, dark: k % 3 === 0,
  });
  G.hitstop = 0.18; boom();
  G.shake = { t: 0.45, mag: 9 };  // camera kick
  // a warm, brief bloom instead of a white-out — the blinding frame was doing the work the gore
  // should be doing, and on a phone it just hurt (see render.js for the colour)
  G.boomFlash = 0.06;
  if (G.idleT - G.lastOrderT > 3) { voice('order', 0.35); G.lastOrderT = G.idleT; } // the umpire loses composure
}

// wounded zombies bleed from every open wound — a fine, sparse trickle (a small spurt from the
// neck stump on the headless boss). Anchors are approximate body offsets [x, y, rise]; most
// frames a wound drips nothing, and the tight spread keeps each thread thin. Bounded low.
// Where each body opens up, one anchor per WOUND STAGE and cumulative: at stage n it bleeds from
// the first n. Read through the same config.woundStage call the skins are, and deliberately the same
// length as that variant's ZWOUND row, so the blood and the drawing it comes out of cannot drift —
// the two used to be written by hand against different constants. (The brute's old cumulative
// if-chain is what this replaces, and it reproduces it exactly. The steward gained a trickle here
// that his wound skin had always implied and never had.)
const BLEED = {
  a: [[0.28, 1.35, 0.85]],
  b: [[0.28, 1.35, 0.85]],
  d: [[0.30, 1.62, 0.90]],
  e: [[0.28, 1.35, 0.85], [0.05, 1.55, 1.60]],                                    // gashed, then throat open
  h: [[0.32, 1.72, 0.95], [-0.30, 1.68, 0.90], [0.05, 2.05, 1.80]],
  g: [[-0.30, 1.95, 1.10], [0.42, 1.90, 1.00], [0.05, 2.35, 2.00], [0.00, 1.20, 0.70]], // arm, both, head, gut
  k: [[-0.36, 2.30, 1.15], [0.50, 2.24, 1.05], [0.06, 2.80, 2.10], [0.00, 1.50, 0.75]], // the same, a head higher
};
// the kill fall's bleed-out: low anchors around the corpse itself, thin drops but many — the flow
// reads as the body emptying, not as a heavier version of the standing trickle (blood stays thin,
// the settled rule; this is more EMISSIONS from where the body actually is)
function gushProne(zb) {
  if (parts.length > 150) return;
  for (let i = 0; i < TUNE.killGush; i++) {
    if (Math.random() > 0.75) continue;
    parts.push({
      x: zb.x + (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.55, y: 0.22 + Math.random() * 0.3, z: zb.z + (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.3,
      vx: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.9, vy: 0.5 + Math.random() * 1.1, vz: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.5,
      t: 0.35 + Math.random() * 0.35, dark: Math.random() < 0.55 });
  }
}

// NETPLAY DEATH MATCH: the opponent is the LIVING O — a human sprite with no wound skins to climb
// (Oliver: "the normal opponent does not have wound states — this was the reason I said increased
// dynamic bleeding"). So the score reads on him as BLOOD: each point taken off him this game opens
// another anchor and thickens the flow, love → game point, and the burst (matchGameWon) resets it
// with the body. Same thin-drop discipline as bleed() — more EMISSIONS, never heavier drops.
const O_BLEED = [[0.12, 1.55, 0.9], [-0.22, 1.2, 0.8], [0.16, 0.9, 0.7]];
function bleedO() {
  // THE BLOOD IS THEIR BLOOD, not our scoreboard (Oliver, 2026-08-22). This read points-this-game,
  // which is a different clock from the one that actually kills them: it resets to zero every game,
  // it ignores the heal a won game pays them, and it said "unhurt" to a friend two points from
  // death. Their phone puts its real hp on the position stream (net.js), so the flow now tracks the
  // pool that ends the match. The old count survives as the fallback for a build that sends none.
  const o = G.net.opp;
  const k = o && o.hp !== undefined
    ? Math.min(3, Math.ceil(Math.max(0, G.hpMax - o.hp) * 3 / Math.max(1, G.hpMax)))
    : Math.min(3, score.pts[0]);
  if (!k || G.hideO || parts.length > 120) return;
  for (const w of O_BLEED.slice(0, k)) {
    if (Math.random() > 0.14 * k) continue;         // ramps: one light nick → gushing at game point
    parts.push({
      x: O.x + w[0] + (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.04, y: w[1] + (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.04, z: O.z + (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.04,
      vx: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.35, vy: w[2] * (0.6 + Math.random() * 0.5), vz: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.3,
      t: 0.3 + Math.random() * 0.3, dark: Math.random() < 0.55 });
  }
}

function bleed(zb) {
  if (parts.length > 90) return;
  let wounds;
  const anchors = BLEED[zb.variant];
  // the boss reads as a FRACTION of full health, not against hardcoded hp numbers: his hp scales
  // with the run now (racketHpPerGame), so `hp === 2` would leave a late-run boss bleeding from
  // nothing until the very last hit. Must stay in step with drawZombie's skin thresholds.
  if (zb.variant === 'r' && zb.hp / (zb.hpMax || TUNE.racketHp) <= 0.34)
    wounds = [[0.05, 1.5, 2.4], [0.4, 1.15, 0.9]]; // headless: neck spurt + torn arm
  else if (zb.variant === 'r' && zb.hp / (zb.hpMax || TUNE.racketHp) <= 0.67)
    wounds = [[0.4, 1.2, 1.0]];                    // racket: torn-off arm
  // Still sparse as the damage stacks — more ANCHORS, not a heavier flow (blood stays thin).
  else if (anchors && woundStage(zb, anchors.length)) wounds = anchors.slice(0, woundStage(zb, anchors.length));
  else return;
  for (const w of wounds) {
    if (Math.random() > 0.4) continue; // sparse: most frames this wound emits nothing
    parts.push({
      x: zb.x + w[0] + (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.03, y: w[1] + (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.03, z: zb.z + (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.03,
      vx: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.3, vy: w[2] * (0.6 + Math.random() * 0.5), vz: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.28,
      t: 0.3 + Math.random() * 0.3, dark: Math.random() < 0.55 });
  }
}

// Split out of updateZombies because particles are NOT a zombie feature: the ball's bounce dust
// fires in TENNIS too, and while this loop only ran in splatter, tennis dust was born, never
// ticked, and sat on the clay forever — the "marks where the ball hit" testers saw.
export function updateParts(dt) {
  for (let i = parts.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
    const p = parts[i];
    p.t -= dt;
    if (p.smoke) { p.vy = 0.55; p.vx *= 0.97; p.vz *= 0.97; } // smoke rises and spreads; it does not fall
    else p.vy -= 14 * dt;
    p.x += p.vx * dt; p.y += p.vy * dt; p.z += p.vz * dt;
    if (p.y < 0) { p.y = 0; p.vy = 0; p.vx *= 0.5; p.vz *= 0.5; }
    if (p.t <= 0) parts.splice(i, 1);
  }
}

export function updateZombies(dt) {
  moanT -= dt; whumpT -= dt; bossHurtT -= dt;
  // FIRE HAS A SOUND OF ITS OWN: one crackle clock for the whole court, faster and a little louder
  // the more is burning (sqrt, so a lit wave is dense, not deafening) — never one loop per body.
  let lit = 0;
  for (const zb of zombies) if (zb && zb.burnT > 0) lit++;
  if (lit && (crackleT -= dt) <= 0) { crackle(Math.min(0.26, 0.12 + 0.035 * lit)); crackleT = Math.max(0.07, 0.2 / Math.sqrt(lit)); }
  if (moanT <= 0) { moan(); moanT = 2.5 + Math.random() * 4; }
  if (G.net && G.net.death && G.match) bleedO(); // the friend's damage, read as blood (see bleedO)

  if (G.mode === 'splatter') { // transition spawns are scripted, not timed
    G.splatT += dt;
    if (G.horde) tickHorde(dt); // horde: dense spawns + machine gun, ignores the cap
    else if (G.mgT > 0) { // machine-gun tin: horde firepower, regular rules
      // The burst clock ticks in EVERY phase. It used to tick only during 'rally', so anything that
      // moved the phase mid-burst (a duel calling setupPoint) froze mgT above zero forever — and
      // `G.mgT > 0` blocks serving, so the game locked up with the gun racket stuck on screen.
      G.mgT -= dt;
      // whichever gun-like weapon is armed sets the rate and the round (see config.WEAPONS). A
      const gw = WEAPONS[G.gunId] || WEAPONS.gun;
      // NO PHASE GUARD. It used to require 'rally', and the beats that fire the moment a burst
      // clears the court all park the phase in 'over' (a point, a won game, the mop-up) — so the
      // weapon fell silent exactly when it had killed everything, which reads as the gun jamming
      // ("it should just fire on"). A burst is its own control mode for its whole `len`, like a
      // horde: the clock above is what ends it, never the beat playing behind it.
      if (gw.rate && (G.mgCool -= dt) <= 0) { firePellet(gw); G.mgCool = 1 / gw.rate; }
      if (G.mgT <= 0) { endBurst(); setupPoint(); } // window over: spend the tin, resume the serve loop
    }
    if (!G.horde && !G.changeover && !G.interlude && !G.clearing && !G.bossFight && !G.drill && !G.bench) { // breathers, duels, the mop-up after a won game, a boss fight, a drill round AND the sprite bench all get a quiet court (no new spawns)
      spawnT -= dt;
      // The spawn director: games finished sets both crowd size and tempo. Both curves used to hit a
      // wall — the cap pinned at 14 by game 11 and the gap floored at 1.0 s by game 10, after which
      // the game literally stopped changing. The gap is hyperbolic now so it keeps tightening on its
      // own instead of running into a floor; zSpawnMin is only a safety stop.
      // TEST MODE overrides the whole director with one fixed medium setting, so the sandbox is the
      // same wave whether you triple-tapped in game 1 or game 40.
      const cap = G.testMode ? TUNE.testZMax
        : Math.min(TUNE.zMaxCap, TUNE.zMax + Math.floor(G.runGames * TUNE.zMaxPerGame));
      if (zombies.length >= cap - 1 && !G.testMode) aside('ump_hindrance', 0.6); // the court is genuinely full
      if (spawnT <= 0 && zombies.length < cap) {
        spawnZombie((Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 4.8, -1.5 - Math.random(), pickVariant());
        spawnT = G.testMode ? TUNE.testSpawnEvery
          : Math.max(TUNE.zSpawnMin, TUNE.zSpawnEvery / (1 + G.runGames * TUNE.zSpawnAccel));
      }
    }
  }

  // ponytail: crude swept collision — grow the contact window by half the distance the ball
  // covers this frame. A full-draw smash moves ~0.7 m per frame (1.6 m on a 25 fps device, where
  // main.js clamps dt), which is wider than a shambler, so a discrete point test tunnels straight
  // through bodies. Upgrade to a real segment-vs-circle test if the fudge ever reads as a phantom
  // hit; at these speeds and radii it doesn't.
  const ballSweep = ball.active ? Math.hypot(ball.vx, ball.vz) * dt * 0.5 : 0;

  // The flame ball lights everything it FLIES PAST, not just what it kills. Without this the
  // fire never actually spread: full pierce meant the ball killed its whole lane outright, and
  // the only bodies left to catch were the ones it had already removed.
  // The flame ball lights what it FLIES PAST, outside the body loop below — so it has to stamp the
  // cause itself. Without this the trail's burn kills inherited whatever CAUSE was left from the
  // previous frame and filed under 'ball'.
  if (ball.active && ball.flame && ball.y < 2.6) { CAUSE = ball.wid; ignite(ball.x, ball.z, TUNE.burnBallR); }

  // The umpire called time. The changeover is a MANDATORY breather for the player — no serving, no
  // walking — so it is one for the dead too, which is the joke: they wait, because it's still a
  // tennis match. They stand where they are, still bleeding, still burning, still lit by anything
  // in the air, but nothing advances and nothing can eat you. (The alternative — letting the player
  // walk freely during the beat — was tried and vetoed: he never walks freely during play either.)
  const held = !!G.changeover;
  if (G.hurtT > 0) G.hurtT -= dt;
  if (G.hurtFlash > 0) G.hurtFlash -= dt;
  if (G.hp < G.hpMax && G.mode === 'splatter') bleedPlayer();

  for (let i = zombies.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
    const zb = zombies[i];
    if (!zb) continue; // a bomb detonation splices several out mid-loop and can gut the array under us
    zb.walkT += dt;
    const faceX0 = zb.x; // which way he is walking, for the sprite mirror in drawZombie
    if (zb.burnT > 0 && burnTick(zb, i, dt)) continue; // the fire finished it — the array moved under us
    // a chapter boss is excluded: bossAI owns BOTH of its axes, and leaving this in advanced it twice
    if (!held && zb.variant !== 'B') zb.z += zb.v * (zb.burnT > 0 ? TUNE.burnPanic : 1) * dt;
    // ...AND A BODY ON THE GROUND IS NOT STANDING, which this line already said and did not enforce.
    // bleed()'s wound anchors are ABSOLUTE world heights — the headless neck spurt is pinned at
    // y = 1.5 m — so a corpse lying flat through the fall kept spraying from where its neck used to
    // be, two metres above itself. Oliver: "this looks like blood fountains midair." The falling body
    // is the one G.matchFall owns; every other body on court bleeds as before.
    if (!(G.matchFall && zb.variant === 'r')) bleed(zb); // open wounds bleed every frame they're standing
    // ...but a game-winning body BLEEDS OUT where it lies: once the drop has landed it, the prone
    // hold gushes from ground height until the burst (Oliver: "increased dynamic bleeding before
    // exploding"). Deliberately NOT bleed() — its anchors are standing heights, and a corpse
    // spraying from where its neck used to be is the "blood fountains midair" bug fixed above.
    else if (G.matchFall.kill && G.matchFall.t > 0.25) gushProne(zb);

    if (zb.shieldT > 0) zb.shieldT -= dt; // staggered chair comes back up when this runs out
    if (zb.hitT > 0) zb.hitT -= dt;       // boss contact cooldown (see TUNE.bossHitCool)
    if (zb.retT > 0) zb.retT -= dt;       // the champion's return stroke, held long enough to read
    // ---- the two RANGED attackers. Both wind up visibly before firing (TUNE.machWind / drawZombie's
    // charge glow) because a shot you cannot see coming is not a fairness contract, it is a gotcha.
    if (!held && !G.interlude && (zb.variant === 'm' || zb.variant === 'B') && G.mode === 'splatter'
        && zb.rollTo === undefined) { // a cart on the roll cannot aim — that is the window to close on it
      const boss = zb.variant === 'B', A = boss ? bossPlan(zb) : zb.art;
      if (zb.salvo > 0) {                       // mid-volley: the rest of the balls are still coming
        zb.salvoT -= dt;
        // A gap of 0 means the WHOLE volley leaves in this one frame — the mascot's wall of five,
        // which you dodge rather than parry. The loop still terminates: salvo counts down either way.
        const gap = A?.gap ?? TUNE.bossSalvoGap, spread = A?.spread ?? 0.35;
        while (zb.salvo > 0 && zb.salvoT <= 0) {
          zb.salvo--; zb.salvoT += gap;
          fireAtPlayer(zb.x, zb.z, (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * spread, A?.shot ?? TUNE.bossShotSpeed); // aimed at where
        }                                        // you are NOW, with only a hand's width of scatter
      } else if (zb.windT > 0) {
        zb.windT -= dt;
        if (zb.windT <= 0) {
          if (boss) { zb.salvo = A?.volley ?? TUNE.bossVolley; zb.salvoT = 0; growl(0.32, bodySize(zb), 0.18, 0.6); } // the volley starts next frame, on a bark
          else fireAtPlayer(zb.x, zb.z, 0, TUNE.machSpeed);
        }
      } else if ((zb.fireT -= dt) <= 0) {
        zb.fireT = boss ? (A?.cycle ?? TUNE.bossCycle) : TUNE.machCycle;
        // windMax rides along for render: the telegraph glow fades in over the ACTUAL wind. It used
        // to divide by TUNE.bossWind whatever the shooter, so the machine (0.9 s) and any design
        // with wind > 0.5 spent the first stretch at an invalid negative alpha — full brightness,
        // no ramp, on the one effect documented as the fairness contract.
        zb.windT = zb.windMax = boss ? (A?.wind ?? TUNE.bossWind) : TUNE.machWind;
        if (boss) growl(0.32, bodySize(zb), zb.windT, 1.35); // the tell: he draws breath for the whole wind-up
        else pock(0.3, 1500);                                // the machine's tell: a mechanical click as it loads
      }
    }
    if (G.mode === 'eaten' && G.eatenAt && zb.variant !== 'm' && G.eatenT < EATEN_SUMMARY) {
      // You are down. Nothing else matters to them: every body on court converges on the spot and
      // packs into a ring around it, and the ones already there feed (the bob is in drawZombie).
      // This is the whole point of the death — you go under a CROWD, not under a puff of gore.
      // Each one claims a SPOT around the body, kept from wherever it happened to be standing, so
      // they form a ring and crowd in from all sides. Sending them all at the one point instead
      // stacked every body on the same pixel and read as one fat zombie, not a swarm.
      if (zb.eatA === undefined) {
        zb.eatA = Math.atan2(zb.z - G.eatenAt.z, zb.x - G.eatenAt.x) + (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.4;
        zb.eatR = EATEN_FEED_R * (0.8 + Math.random() * 0.7);
      }
      const tx = G.eatenAt.x + Math.cos(zb.eatA) * zb.eatR;
      const tz = G.eatenAt.z + Math.sin(zb.eatA) * zb.eatR * 0.55; // squashed in depth: the camera is low
      const dx = tx - zb.x, dz = tz - zb.z, d = Math.hypot(dx, dz);
      zb.feeding = d < 0.12;
      if (!zb.feeding) {
        const sp = zb.v * 1.8 * dt; // they hurry for a kill
        zb.x += dx / d * Math.min(sp, d); zb.z += dz / d * Math.min(sp, d);
      }
      continue; // no shambling, no eating you twice, no crossing the baseline for a point
    }
    if (G.mode === 'eaten' && G.eatenAt) {
      // The summary is up. They have finished with you: the pack breaks up and shambles away up-court
      // instead of standing on the body twitching in a heap for as long as the screen is on.
      zb.feeding = false;
      const away = Math.sign(zb.x - G.eatenAt.x) || (zb.walkT % 2 < 1 ? 1 : -1);
      zb.x += away * zb.v * 0.5 * dt;
      zb.z -= zb.v * 0.7 * dt;                       // back the way they came
      zb.face = away;
      continue;
    }
    if (zb.variant === 'o') { // the barrel just rolls, turning at the sidelines. It never attacks.
      if (!held && G.mode === 'splatter' && !G.interlude) {
        zb.x += zb.dir * TUNE.barrelRoll * dt;
        zb.roll += TUNE.barrelRoll * dt;                 // drawn spin, so it reads as ROLLING
        if (Math.abs(zb.x) > 4.4) { zb.dir = -Math.sign(zb.x); zb.x = Math.sign(zb.x) * 4.4; }
      }
    }
    else if (zb.variant === 'm') { // the machine wheels itself around instead of being bolted down
      if (!held && G.mode === 'splatter' && !G.interlude) {
        if (zb.rollTo !== undefined) {
          const d = zb.rollTo - zb.x;
          if (Math.abs(d) < 0.06) { zb.rollTo = undefined; zb.repoT = TUNE.machRepo * (0.7 + Math.random() * 0.6); }
          else {
            zb.x += Math.sign(d) * Math.min(Math.abs(d), TUNE.machRoll * dt);
            if ((zb.rollT -= dt) <= 0) { pock(0.16, 150); if (Math.random() < 0.6) squeak(); zb.rollT = 0.4; } // castors grinding, and one of them squeaks: it announces itself
          }
        } else if ((zb.repoT -= dt) <= 0) { zb.rollTo = (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 3.6; zb.rollT = 0; }
      }
      if (zb.hp < zb.hpMax * 0.5 && Math.random() < dt * 6) smokePuff(zb.x, 1.1, zb.z, 0.25); // wrecked: it smokes where it stands
    }
    else if (held || zb.variant === 'r') { /* nothing moves on a changeover; a duelling opponent owns his x */ }
    else if (zb.variant === 'B') { if (G.mode === 'splatter' && !G.interlude) { bossAI(zb, dt); bossAdds(zb, dt); } }
    // A DRILL BODY HOLDS ITS LANE. The homing below is a gore-mode behaviour — bodies converge on
    // your x as they cross the net — and in the drill it undoes the spacing at exactly the moment
    // spacing matters most: they arrive nicely spread and then bunch into an unreadable knot right in
    // front of you, which is the "space them not too close" note coming back downstream. Their lane
    // IS the puzzle here (it decides what screens what), so they walk it straight in with nothing but
    // the wobble. They still reach you — the lane runs past the baseline — so the threat is unchanged.
    else if (zb.drill) zb.x += Math.sin(zb.walkT * 1.7) * 0.12 * dt;
    else if (G.mode === 'splatter' && zb.z > COURT.netZ) { // on YOUR half they close in — each on its own lane, not a column
      const tx = P.x + zb.homeOff;
      zb.x += Math.sign(tx - zb.x) * Math.min(Math.abs(tx - zb.x), zb.v * 0.7 * dt)
            + Math.sin(zb.walkT * 2.3) * 0.25 * dt; // shamble wobble — the approach reads organic, not tracked
    } else
      zb.x += Math.sin(zb.walkT * 1.7) * 0.15 * dt; // far half: aimless shamble
    // CONTACT IS STILL INSTANT DEATH — settled decision, and the ball machine's chip damage does not
    // soften it. Two threats that demand two different responses is the point. The machine ('m') is
    // furniture and cannot eat you.
    if (!held && G.mode === 'splatter' && !'mo'.includes(zb.variant) // furniture and barrels cannot eat you
        && !(G.dodgeI > 0) // ...and a sidestep gets you out from under one. It is the ONE escape from this
        && Math.hypot(zb.x - P.x, (zb.z - P.z) * 0.75) < TUNE.eatenR + (zb.variant === 'g' ? 0.2 : 0)) // z weighted down: depth is foreshortened, so a head-on shambler eats you when it LOOKS on top of you
      killPlayer();
    if (ball.active && ball.lastHit === 'P' && ball.y < 1.9) {
      CAUSE = ball.wid; // re-stamped per body: burnTick above shares this loop and moves it
      const d = Math.hypot(ball.x - zb.x, ball.z - zb.z);
      if (d < hitR(zb) + ballSweep && !(zb.hitT > 0)) { // brute and boss are bigger targets
        // the serve's deferred praise pops on the FIRST body the ball meets — this is the impact
        // the word was waiting for (armed in hitServe, see praiseWord)
        if (ball.praise) { popText(zb.x, zombieH(zb) * 0.8, zb.z, ball.praise, UI.warm); ball.praise = null; }
        if (ball.bomb) { // detonate on first contact, whatever the pace
          explode(ball.x, ball.z); ball.bomb = false;
          spentBall(); break; // zombies mutated — stop this frame's loop
        }
        if (ball.flame) { // burns through anything it touches — no quality gate, no chair, no pace tax
          if (isBoss(zb)) { // a boss takes a heavy wound AND catches light
            zb.hitT = TUNE.bossHitCool;                 // ...and the ball is SPENT on it: a boss is not
            ball.lastHit = 'X'; ball.vx *= 0.3; ball.vz *= 0.3; // removed, so an unconsumed pierce ball
            if (wound(zb, TUNE.dmgFlame)) splatter(i);  // re-wounded it every single frame
            else zb.burnT = TUNE.burnTime;
            continue;
          }
          const vx0 = ball.vx, vz0 = ball.vz, bx = zb.x, bz = zb.z;
          zb.ashes = true;                           // burnt, not burst — see killZombie
          splatter(i); ball.vx = vx0; ball.vz = vz0; // undo splatter's pierce tax: full pace through the lane
          ignite(bx, bz, TUNE.burnIgniteR);          // ...and everyone standing near the body goes up
          continue;
        }
        if (isBoss(zb)) { // boss: splat-quality wounds it; soft balls the racket one rallies (racketAI)
          // NOT IN THE MATCH. Regicide made sense in the duel (one sudden-death point, any weapon
          // counts) but in a full game every hard serve that happened to meet the body was a free
          // kill nobody aimed — Oliver: "the killing by smashing occurs too often. i cant really
          // control it". A match ball NEVER damages the opponent; it passes through like any soft
          // ball and racketAI plays it. The score is the only way through — which also makes the
          // wound stages exactly the scoreboard, with no side-channel smearing them.
          if ((ball.pow || 0) >= TUNE.zSplatQ && !G.match) {
            zb.hitT = TUNE.bossHitCool; // belt-and-braces: this ball is spent below, but the cooldown
            const dead = wound(zb, TUNE.dmgBall); // is what stops ANY lingering contact multi-wounding
            pock(0.6, 300);
            ball.vx *= 0.3; ball.vz *= 0.3; ball.lastHit = 'X'; // spent on the hit
            if (dead) { splatter(i); continue; }               // killing blow: full gore + point
          }
          // ...AND THE CHAMPION RETURNS THE REST. Every other body in the game can be worn down with
          // soft balls; the final boss sends anything under splatter quality straight back at your
          // head, which is what makes him the one you have to out-HIT. The ball is spent on his
          // racket and comes back as an incoming shot — parry it, swish it away, or step aside.
          else if (bossPlan(zb).rally) {
            fireAtPlayer(zb.x, zb.z, (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.4, bossPlan(zb).shot ?? TUNE.bossShotSpeed);
            zb.retT = 0.3;                                     // the throw frame, so the return is drawn
            ball.vx *= 0.2; ball.vz *= 0.2; ball.lastHit = 'X';
          }
          continue; // soft balls pass through ON PURPOSE, for racketAI to return — that rally IS the
                    // feedback that it wasn't hard enough, so no clank here; see PROJECT.md
        }
        if (zb.variant === 's' && ball.vz < 0 && !(zb.shieldT > 0)) { // chair up, ball at its face: BLOCKED
          zb.shieldT = TUNE.shieldDown; // ...but the block staggers it — the chair drops, kill window opens
          zb.z -= TUNE.zPushback * 0.5;
          pock(0.9, 1800); // wooden clank
          ball.vx *= 0.4; ball.vz *= -0.2; ball.lastHit = 'X'; // ball caroms off the chair, spent
          continue;
        }
        if (zb.variant === 'f') { splatter(i); continue; } // the sprinter is GLASS — any touch, any quality, it bursts
        // ANY multi-hit body soaks, and hp is the ONLY thing that says how many. This used to be a
        // chain of per-variant branches — brute+machine, then shamblers — and every body NOT named
        // in it fell through to "splat-quality kills outright" below. That silently one-shot the
        // steward (5 hp, commented "a brute's worth of hp") from the day he shipped, and then the
        // ball boy, bouncer and roller man the moment they existed: Oliver's "the bigger guys were
        // way too easy to kill". Pellets and melee always read hp properly; only the BALL skipped it.
        if ((zb.hpMax || 0) > 1) {
          const meat = zb.variant !== 'm';               // the machine rings and does not bleed
          const heavy = 'gmhk'.includes(zb.variant);     // a heavy body is not shoved back by a ball
          const sz = bodySize(zb);
          if ((ball.pow || 0) >= TUNE.zSplatQ) {
            if (--zb.hp <= 0) { splatter(i); continue; }              // the killing blow
            if (meat) woundBurst(zb);                                 // a bloody wound, not a death
            // meat THUDS (wet, and pitched by how big the body is), the machine still rings
            if (meat) { thud(0.65, sz); splat(0.3, sz); } else pock(0.6, 700);
            if (!heavy) zb.z -= TUNE.zPushback * 0.5;
            ball.vx *= 0.3; ball.vz *= 0.3; ball.lastHit = 'X'; continue; // ball spent on the wound
          }
          if (!heavy) zb.z -= TUNE.zPushback;            // soft ball staggers the light ones, bounces off the rest
          if (meat) thud(0.4, sz); else pock(0.6, 500);  // a soft ball off a body is a duller version of the same hit
          ball.vx *= 0.6; ball.vz *= 0.6; ball.lastHit = 'X'; continue;
        }
        // chair-down shield zombies (and anything hit from behind) obey the normal rules:
        if ((ball.pow || 0) >= TUNE.zSplatQ) { splatter(i); continue; }
        zb.z -= TUNE.zPushback; // weak sitters only stagger them
        thud(0.4, bodySize(zb));
        ball.vx *= 0.6; ball.vz *= 0.6; ball.lastHit = 'X'; // spent — one stagger per ball
      }
    }
    if (Math.abs(zb.x - faceX0) > 0.004) zb.face = Math.sign(zb.x - faceX0); // sticky: a body standing still keeps facing where it last walked
    if (zb.z >= COURT.L + 0.7) {
      // A BATCH BODY THAT GETS PAST YOU IS A FAILURE, not a free despawn. Drill bodies hold their
      // lane, so one in a lane you are not standing in walks the whole court and off the back
      // without ever touching you — and since the sequence names it, the round is left asking for a
      // body that no longer exists. That is the un-winnable state the whole mode is built to
      // prevent, and it only appeared once the roster became the alphabet: types move at different
      // speeds, so the runner leaves long before the roller. It counts as caught.
      if (G.drill && zb.drill) { zombies.splice(i, 1); drillCaught('GOT PAST YOU'); continue; }
      aside('ump_unsportsmanlike', 0.5); zombies.splice(i, 1); if (G.mode !== 'eaten' && !G.horde && !G.clearing) splatPoint('O');
    } // it reached your baseline (during a mop-up, a straggler that reaches the line just despawns — no point for them)
  }

  for (let i = pellets.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) { // gun rounds flat and fast; lobbed ones ride an arc
    const pe = pellets[i];
    // A rocket blast can bank the last kill of a game, and the beat that follows (a duel, a chapter
    // boss) empties this array — so every remaining index reads undefined and the frame throws. Same
    // guard, and the same reason, as the one in the shots loop and the body loop.
    if (!pe) continue;
    CAUSE = pe.wid;
    pe.t -= dt; pe.x += pe.vx * dt; pe.z += pe.vz * dt;
    let hit = false, landed = false;
    if (pe.arc) {                                  // a thrown round: it falls, and landing is a hit
      pe.vy -= pe.g * dt; pe.y += pe.vy * dt;
      if (pe.y <= 0.05) { pe.y = 0.05; landed = true; }
    }
    // A JET PLUME, not a shower of sparks: the exhaust is laid down tight on the flight line,
    // barely moving, so it reads as a rocket motor drawing a line through the air. Scattered
    // sparks with their own velocities looked like a firework, which is not what a rocket does.
    if (pe.jet && parts.length < 240)
      for (let k = 0; k < pe.jet; k++) {
        const b = (k + Math.random()) / pe.jet;             // spread ALONG this frame's step
        parts.push({
          x: pe.x - pe.vx * dt * b + (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.05,
          y: pe.y - (pe.vy || 0) * dt * b + (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.05,
          z: pe.z - pe.vz * dt * b + (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * 0.05,
          vx: 0, vy: 0.25, vz: 0,                           // it hangs and lifts, it does not fly off
          t: 0.30 + Math.random() * 0.30, jet: 1, spark: '#fff2c0' });
      }
    // ...and a FINE thread for the beacon: one small mote a frame, tight to the ball, so the ball
    // itself is the bright thing and the trail only says where it has been.
    // ...and a FINE thread for the beacon: one small mote a frame, tight to the ball. An IGNITE
    // round (the flamer) throws fat embers instead — same loop, but `fire` motes that are 2px and
    // warm rather than 1px and flat, they LIFT as they burn out, and they live long enough to leave
    // a body of flame hanging in the air behind the stream instead of a dotted line.
    if (pe.trail && parts.length < 320)
      for (let k = 0; k < pe.trail; k++) parts.push({
        x: pe.x + (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * (pe.trailR ?? 0.12),
        y: pe.y + (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * (pe.trailR ?? 0.12),
        z: pe.z + (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * (pe.trailR ?? 0.12),
        vx: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * (pe.ignite ? 0.5 : 0), vz: (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * (pe.ignite ? 0.5 : 0),
        vy: pe.ignite ? 0.9 + Math.random() * 0.8 : 0.12,
        t: pe.ignite ? 0.30 + Math.random() * 0.34 : 0.16 + Math.random() * 0.16,
        fine: pe.ignite ? 0 : 1, fire: pe.ignite ? 1 : 0, spark: pe.ignite ? 0 : (pe.col || '#fff') });
    for (let j = zombies.length - 1; j >= 0; j--) {
      const zb = zombies[j];
      if (!zb) continue;
      if (Math.hypot(zb.x - pe.x, zb.z - pe.z) < hitR(zb) + (pe.r ?? TUNE.mgPelletR)) {
        // Pellets used to skip the boss entirely, so a GUN burst (and every horde) did literally
        // nothing to him with no feedback at all. They CHIP him now: dmgPellet is fractional, so
        // three rounds take a point off and the gun is a slow, committed answer rather than a no-op.
        // EVERY new weapon comes through here, which is why none of them can silently no-op on a
        // boss the way three of the five once did.
        if (pe.ignite) ignite(pe.x, pe.z, pe.ignite); // the flamer lights the spot, and fire spreads itself
        // A round with no impact damage (the flamethrower) only LIGHTS what it touches — the burn
        // does the killing. Without this guard `hp -= 0` fell straight through to killZombie and the
        // flame cone deleted the crowd on contact, which is a machine gun that happens to be orange.
        const dmgHp = pe.hp ?? TUNE.dmgPelletHp, dmgBoss = pe.dmg ?? TUNE.dmgPellet;
        if (isBoss(zb)) { if (dmgBoss > 0 && wound(zb, dmgBoss, false)) killZombie(j, true); else pock(0.45, 240); }
        else if (dmgHp <= 0) { /* fire only: it is already alight from the ignite above */ }
        else if ((zb.hp -= dmgHp) > 0) pock(0.5, 260); // only brutes soak now; a shambler drops to one round
        else killZombie(j, true);
        if (pe.boom) { explode(pe.x, pe.z, pe.wid); hit = true; break; } // the rocket takes the crowd, not the body
        hit = !pe.pierce;                 // a laser keeps going down the whole lane
        if (hit) break;
      }
    }
    // A thrown round that reaches the ground goes off THERE, whether or not it touched a body —
    // "like a bomb, the projectile is a rocket". Without this a rocket that missed simply expired.
    if (!hit && landed) {
      if (pe.boom) explode(pe.x, pe.z, pe.wid);
      else if (pe.ignite) ignite(pe.x, pe.z, pe.ignite);
      hit = true;
    }
    if (hit || pe.t <= 0) pellets.splice(i, 1);
  }
  if (G.beam) { G.beam.t -= dt; if (G.beam.t <= 0) G.beam = null; } // the laser's wedge fades and is gone

  // ---- INCOMING hostile balls (ball machine, chapter boss volleys). Three outcomes, in this order:
  // a timed swing inside the volley window RETURNS it as your own ball flying up-court, the panic
  // swish (meleeSwipe, above) merely bats it away, and reaching you unanswered costs a point of hp.
  for (let i = shots.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
    const s = shots[i];
    // A shot landing the KILLING blow routes through killPlayer, which empties this array from
    // under us — every remaining index then reads undefined and the frame throws. Same guard, and
    // the same reason, as the `if (!zb) continue` in the body loop above.
    if (!s) continue;
    s.t -= dt; s.vy -= s.g * dt;
    s.x += s.vx * dt; s.y += s.vy * dt; s.z += s.vz * dt;
    let done = s.t <= 0 || s.y < -0.25 || Math.abs(s.x) > 8 || s.z > COURT.L + 2;
    // The PARRY keeps the 0.8 depth weighting — a racket sweep really is wider than it is deep.
    // The HIT does not: weighting depth shrinks it, so contact registered while the ball was still
    // most of a metre up-court. That mismatch between what you saw and what hit you was the bug.
    const dP = Math.hypot(s.x - P.x, (s.z - P.z) * 0.8);
    const dHit = Math.hypot(s.x - P.x, s.z - P.z);
    if (!done && P.swingT >= 0 && P.swingT <= TUNE.parryWindow
        && dP < TUNE.parryReach * bonus().parry && s.y < CONTACT.maxY) {
      // the parry: it becomes an `extras` clone — that array is already ballistic and already kills
      // zombies, so "returned shot is a live weapon" costs nothing to build.
      // It is a GLANCING blow, not a mirror. Reversing the incoming line sent every return straight
      // back up the line it arrived on — which is where the thrower is standing — so a boss was a
      // free wound per throw. Where you meet the ball across the racket face now sets the angle:
      // hitting it back INTO him is a shot you have to place your feet for.
      const off = Math.max(-1, Math.min(1, (s.x - P.x) / (TUNE.parryReach * bonus().parry))); // -1..1 across the face
      const ang = (off * TUNE.parryDeflect + (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * TUNE.parryJitter) * Math.PI / 180;
      const sp = Math.hypot(s.vx, s.vz) * 1.15;
      extras.push({ x: s.x, y: s.y, z: s.z, g: TUNE.gravity, pow: TUNE.parryPow, t: 2.5,
        vx: Math.sin(ang) * sp, vy: 4.2, vz: -Math.cos(ang) * sp });
      pock(0.85, 1300); popText(s.x, s.y + 0.4, s.z, 'RETURNED'); cheer(0.8, 0.3);
      done = true;
    }
    if (!done && dHit < TUNE.shotHitR && s.y < TUNE.shotHitY) { hurtPlayer(TUNE.machDmg); done = true; }
    if (done) shots.splice(i, 1);
  }

  for (let i = extras.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) { // triple-serve side balls: full ballistic clones
    const e = extras[i];
    if (!e) continue;   // same as pellets/shots: a kill here can start a beat that empties the array
    CAUSE = e.wid || 'ball';   // a triple's wings; a parried machine ball is just a ball
    e.t -= dt; e.vy -= (e.g || TUNE.gravity) * dt; // e.g: a clone flies under the SAME topspin as the ball it came from
    e.x += e.vx * dt; e.y += e.vy * dt; e.z += e.vz * dt;
    if (e.y <= 0 && e.vy < 0) { e.y = 0; e.vy = -e.vy * TUNE.bounceY; e.vx *= TUNE.bounceXZ; e.vz *= TUNE.bounceXZ; }
    let dead = e.t <= 0 || Math.abs(e.x) > 7.5 || e.z < -2 || e.z > 25.5;
    if (!dead && e.y < 1.9) for (let j = zombies.length - 1; j >= 0; j--) {
      const zb = zombies[j];
      if (!zb) continue; // killZombie can sweep the court mid-loop
      if (Math.hypot(zb.x - e.x, zb.z - e.z) < hitR(zb)
                                               + Math.hypot(e.vx, e.vz) * dt * 0.5) { // same sweep: clones inherit the smash pace
        // Side balls used to pass THROUGH the boss doing nothing at all, which is most of why a
        // TRIPLE serve read as "he can't be hurt". They wound him like the main ball now.
        if (isBoss(zb)) {
          if (e.pow >= TUNE.zSplatQ) { if (wound(zb, TUNE.dmgSide)) killZombie(j, !!G.horde); }
          else thud(0.4, bodySize(zb));
        }
        else if (zb.variant === 's' && e.vz < 0 && !(zb.shieldT > 0)) { zb.shieldT = TUNE.shieldDown; pock(0.9, 1800); } // chair blocks these too
        else if (e.pow >= TUNE.zSplatQ || zb.variant === 'f') {
          if (zb.hp > 1) { zb.hp--; thud(0.55, bodySize(zb)); splat(0.25, bodySize(zb)); } // wounds brutes AND shamblers
          else killZombie(j, !!G.horde);
        } else { zb.z -= TUNE.zPushback; thud(0.4, bodySize(zb)); }
        dead = true; break; // a side ball is spent on its first touch
      }
    }
    if (dead) extras.splice(i, 1);
  }

  updateParts(dt);

  const boy = G.boy; // the boy mops any gore he passes over
  for (let i = gore.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
    const d = gore[i];
    // He scrubs HARD only while stopped and working the mop; walking past barely touches it, so
    // the stain visibly dies under him rather than fading as he drifts by.
    if (boy && Math.abs(boy.x - d.x) < 0.8 && Math.abs(boy.z - d.z) < 1.3)
      d.a -= dt * (d.scorch ? 0.16 : boy.mopT > 0 ? 0.7 : 0.2); // craters scar the lawn far longer
    if (d.a <= 0) gore.splice(i, 1);
  }
  for (let i = piles.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) { // piles shave far slower than stains — net growth wins
    const pl = piles[i];
    if (boy && Math.abs(boy.x - pl.x) < 0.7 && Math.abs(boy.z - pl.z) < 1.2) pl.size -= dt * 0.25;
    if (pl.size <= 0.3) piles.splice(i, 1);
  }
}