AVS03 Glossary — Every Official Term Explained

Meta-progression terms

BeanZ

The meta-currency. Earned by opening Safe Folders and clearing enemies, with higher Protocols rewarding more, per the demo launch announcement. Spent on permanent upgrades — full details in the BeanZ and meta upgrades guide.

Ranks

The official name for meta upgrades. The May 2, 2026 Warmfix changelog: “Meta upgrades are now considered ‘Ranks’ instead of ‘Levels’ to reduce confusion with player levels.” The store page counts 18 of them.

Stats Manager Menu

The menu where player stats are listed — the Warmfix added descriptions for player stats there. The store page advertises 18 player stats alongside the 18 meta upgrades.

Run structure terms

Protocols I–V

The five difficulty levels, introduced with the demo: Protocol I is the entry point and Protocol V is the extreme. See the protocols and policies guide.

Policies

15 run modifiers that you “apply… to any Protocol difficulty to switch up how the game is played”, per the release date announcement.

Safe Folder

An openable folder that keeps you actually safe while open — the demo launch announcement highlighted that fix. Demo Update 1.2 added a nearby respawn and a 30-second timer. In the full game, the Safe Folder also hosts the keyBuy store, where you choose to keep or sell leftover Keys.

Tasks

The store page advertises 200+ tasks — objective work tracked in the tasks guide.

Build terms

Weapons

24 ship at launch. Seven are named in official marketing: Pinball, Solitaire, Mines, Firewall, Bubbles, Paint and C: Drive — and the demo build’s data holds official descriptions for twelve, including Cut, Quarantine, Search, FontArt and HaD: DoCK. The weapons hub covers each.

Drivers

50 weapon attachments — “bespoke upgrades” that transform how a weapon works, with more upgrade paths as you level that weapon. Hub: drivers.

Plugins & Plugin Installer

62 run modifiers installed through the officially named Plugin Installer. Per the playtest announcement, a Plugin Installer grants a Plugin boon that is “either conditional, triggered or permanent”. Hub: plugins.

Keygens & Keys

You collect Keys by opening Keygens (playtest announcement) and spend them at Plugin Installers — skipping an install refunds the Key (Warmfix). In the full game, Cracked Installers don’t require keys and Legendary Installers require 3 keys.

Cracked / Legendary Installers

The full game’s installer tiers per the release date announcement: Cracked Installers need no keys; Legendary Installers need 3. The Warmfix separately noted the damage_level_scaling plugin is Legendary rarity — the only individually named plugin so far.

Combat terms

Heat, Lag and Infect

The three officially named status effects (Demo Update 1.2). All are stackable: every half second they affect the enemy and reduce by 20% until depleted. Heat damages; Lag slows, freezing with enough stacks; Infect deals reduced damage and weakens. Full mechanics: status effects guide.

Weapon Power

An upgrade that replaces Repel per Demo Update 1.2, adding status stacks and boosting knockback. Knockback varies by weapon — Pinball has the hardest, the AVD the softest.

vapor.exe

A file entity named in official changelog text: Demo Update 1.2 uses “drag a vapor.exe away from the Defrag Collector” as its drag-and-drop example, and the Warmfix added a sound limiter “for blowing up multiple Mines at once with Vapor.exe” — an officially described vapor.exe × Mines interaction.

World & extras

File types

33 collectible file types — “double-click on your favourite file types for rewards”. Named so far: LemWire, BigWave, Defrag. The full game adds “special files that you can activate on demand”. Hub: files.

AVSN Messenger Buddy

A demo-era enemy added in Demo Update 1.2: stationary, attacks from range, knocks you back with emoji.

Drag & drop

Added in Demo Update 1.2 — pick up and move world items, like pulling a vapor.exe away from a Defrag Collector you want to use right after, or grouping lemwire.exe files to process together.

Cursor Classes

Named in the playtest announcement and confirmed since in the demo build’s data with four shipped classes: Default (“Your regular old cursor - balanced, simple, beautiful.”), Brick (“A tank”), Null (“Weak and fragile, but has a lot of luck.”) and Vector (“A fast one”). Quoted descriptions are the game’s own strings.

Wave evolution modes

The demo build’s data ships three wave-pacing modes: Linear (“A consistent linear stream of more enemies being added over time.”), Variable (“A varied level of enemies that ramps up and down to give more moments of peace but harder increases.”) and Chaos (“A inconsistent unpredictable mess of difficulty. I couldn’t tell you what to expect.” — the developer’s typo and all, quoted verbatim).

Wallpapers & Themes

81 wallpapers and 8 themes of unlockable desktop cosmetics, “open .png and .jpeg files to unlock wallpapers and profile pictures” per the release date announcement.

Steam Deck Verified

Valve’s highest compatibility rating, awarded to AVS03 on September 17, 2026 — see the Steam Deck guide.