The Wire

The Wire is a map of the whole city full of jobs: open cases for heroes, scores for villains. Every job runs against the city itself, never another player, but the map is shared with your side: a job you leave sitting there is one somebody else on your side can take first.

It opens at level 10. Heroes take their calls from Dispatcher Vega; villains get their work from The Broker.

The Map

Every job is a pin on the city map. Drag, pinch or scroll to move around, and tap a pin to open its card: what pays, where it is, how long it takes, how many check-ins it has, and when it leaves the map. Prefer the old way? The List tab still shows every job as a board. The map is flat by default; the 3D button tilts the city back.

Each side has 12 jobs up at a time, spread across the districts. Any player on your side can claim one, first come, first served. A claimed job leaves the map for everyone, and a new one goes up a minute or two later. A job nobody takes expires after an hour. You can watch all of this live: a job somebody else grabs gets stamped TAKEN in front of you.

The districts are tinted by who holds them, and their names say whether that is your turf or the enemy's (see Districts and Territory below).

Your Crew

Your crew has its own spot on the map, separate from where you stand in Explore. Taking a job sends your crew to the scene, and they stay there afterwards. Any job within 5 blocks of your crew pays 5% more; a gold diamond around your crew marks that area, and the range on the job's card already includes it. Where you finish one job decides what is close for the next.

Stars

Every job has a rank from one to five stars, fixed by the mission itself: lifting a purse is always one star, taking the vault is always five. Stars decide the payout, how long the job takes, and how many check-ins it has. Higher ranks are rarer, and five stars is the only gold pin on the map.

What You Get Paid

Your payout is base × your level × territory × nearby bonus × the roll. The job's card shows the real range in real money for you, so the number you see is the number you can get.

The roll is weighted: most results land in the lower-middle of the range, and the top of it is genuinely rare. Nothing ever pays zero: there is no bust and no failure.

On top of that, the Penthouse Police Scanner adds 15%, and some flash events boost Wire payouts while they run. Payouts land in your bank, never on-hand cash, because a job usually finishes while you are away and on-hand cash is what a lost fight takes half of.

Check-ins

A running job has one or two moments where it needs you: one check-in for one to three stars, two for four and five. When one opens, your crew flares red on the map, the tab title calls out to you, and you get a notification if you have them on.

A check-in is loot, not risk. Answering one shows what happened on the job and rolls street finds on the spot. It stays open from the moment it appears until the job ends, so answering late costs nothing.

Miss one and the payout drops to the bottom of that rank's range, and you lose that check-in's loot. A five-star that could have paid up to 2.9× pays exactly 0.5×. This is the biggest difference between players who earn a lot from the Wire and players who don't. A Sidekick with Dispatcher cover can answer missed check-ins for you.

Walking Away

Took a job and then a better one turned up? Once a day you can walk away from the job you're on. It pays nothing, but it doesn't use up one of your jobs for the day, and anything you already found at a check-in is yours to keep. The job goes back on the map for someone else if it hasn't run out. Your one walk-away comes back at midnight.

Rare Finds

Scraps can turn up on any check-in at any rank. The Wire-only finds appear only on four- and five-star check-ins:

• A Crow (3% a check-in) or a Police K9 (2%), the two pets no shop sells. Otherwise they're only found Exploring. They join your pets straight away if your carrier has room.
• Snow Cone and The Last Slice, food sold in no shop

If your Lunchbox is full or you have no free pet carrier slot, the find is named but left behind, so make room before you take a big job.

Echoes

Every job leaves a mark. When a villain finishes a job, a hero job shows up at that exact spot; when heroes clear a scene, villains find an opening there. Echo jobs have a violet ring on the map and a tag saying the other side was just there. They pay like any other job of their rank.

Priority Calls

Three times a day for each side, around noon, 6 PM and 9 PM game time (the exact minute changes every day), a city-wide five-star job goes up with a siren banner and a countdown. It stays open for 10 minutes, and the first player to take it gets it. It pays like any five-star and counts toward your daily jobs.

Districts and Territory

A job's district is part of the job: you choose it by choosing the pin. Running a job on turf your side controls pays 25% more; enemy turf pays 15% less; unclaimed districts are unchanged. The Wire never affects the war or the Watch Tower.

The Dossier

Every mission you finish unlocks its case file in your Dossier: its picture, how many times you have done it, and your best payout. There are 45 per side, 40 missions plus 5 Echo jobs. Finish every mission of a star rank to earn that rank's badge.

The Nemesis

Every week each side has a nemesis to chase. Heroes hunt The Jackal, villains try to shake Detective Marlowe.

• Four-star jobs give you 1 lead and five-star jobs give you 2; their check-ins mention the trail
• At 6 leads you get a private five-star showdown that only you can see and take
• Finish it to earn the week's title: Jackal Hunter or Ghost to Marlowe
• A new hunt starts every Monday at midnight game time

Limits

You can hold one job at a time and finish five a day, reset at midnight. The Penthouse's Sixth Job gives you one more for the day. The daily count only moves when a job pays out.

The Ledger

Under the map, the ledger ranks Top Heroes and Top Villains by Wire earnings, both this week (reset every Monday) and all time. Last week's top villain gets the Most Wanted poster and the top hero is Top Cop. A player is listed under the side they are on now, and their whole Wire total moves with them if they change sides.

Around the Map

• Jobs you finished today leave a green check where they happened; the flame button shows a heatmap of everywhere you worked this week
• The city's light follows the time of day, with traffic on the avenues, rain on some nights, and a glow while a flash event runs