Carry-Forward explained: what it costs to storm the Throne
BumpOne.lol active value is credit, not a debt you repay. Worked example with real numbers from the board mechanics.
Carry-Forward, explained: what it costs to storm the Throne
The stake you put on the board is capital that follows you.
The mechanic
On BumpOne.lol, every profile has active value - the dollars you've staked, still standing. Rank is active value, sorted descending. #1 has more than #2, always.
When you want to move up, you don't buy a new position. You pay the difference between what you hold and what your target holds, plus a $10 minimum top-up. The money you've already put in keeps working for you.
The worked example (numbers are the rulebook, not marketing)
Say the board looks like this:
- #1 holds $700
- #50 is you, holding $500
You want the Throne (the colossal center tile that marks #1 on the board). What do you pay?
$700 − $500 + $10 = $210.
Your active value becomes $500 + $210 = $710. That's not $710 paid for the Throne - $500 of it is the stake you already had. You just topped up $210 to be strictly above the King, because a takeover must exceed the target - there are no ties, no photo finishes, no permanent rank ceiling.
Now every profile below you computes the same equation about you. And the displaced King gets the notification.
Why the design matters
Two properties fall out of this, straight from the product rules:
- Climbing is cumulative. Nobody wipes your progress. Fall to the Graveyard (the analog billboard below the visible 100), come back, and your next top-up still builds on what you've spent before - the market keeps the score.
- The gap is always a number. To take a position, you can see exactly what it costs, because spends are public. Profiles show both active value and lifetime spend. There is no hidden buy-in, no mystery pricing.
That second rule is the honest part of an attention market. A competitor can't be secretly richer than they look. Their spend is on the profile, right next to their current strength.
The smallest legal move: $10
Entry is $10 minimum. That won't take a Throne - but it takes a tile of your own on the outer ring, and the ranking doesn't stop at 100.
Do the math on whoever is at the top of your category. The number you land on is probably smaller than you think.