Vespene (the currency)

Vespene (the currency, lowercase, same as the gas) is the site's optional spendable credit. One vespene equals one cent. Your balance lives in the header pill and in the F10 console's header; clicking either opens the "Support Vespene" modal, which is the wallet, the shop, and the ledger in one place.

Nothing on the site requires a balance to be useful. The currency exists to meter the genuinely expensive things (AI coaching) and to move prize money around (tournament pools).

Earning vespene#

Vespene comes from clearing quests. Uploading a replay no longer pays anything by itself; your uploads are what the quests count.

• Daily quests: +5 vespene each. You hold three at a time. Each is an improvement goal built from your own games in one matchup (more workers at 3:00, an earlier natural, less time supply blocked, and so on), with a target set from your own recent games, a step better than your usual. Hit the target in 3 of any 5 games in a row and it clears. A cleared daily is replaced at once, up to 10 cleared in a day. A daily you have made progress on stays until you finish it or drop it; one you have not touched is replaced the next day.
• Weekly quests: +25 vespene each. Three a week, for playing consistently, drawn from: play 60 games (any mode), win 35 games, play 25 games of Patch Clash (only offered if you play it), play 8 games as an off-race, and win 12 games in your most-played matchup.
• A one-time welcome grant of 10 vespene when your wallet first wakes up.

Quests are dealt when you open them (the The study desk, the quests row on the Command Console's Home tab, or the STUDY screen on a phone), and they count the games you play from then on. Only your own games count: a replay marked as casted never moves a quest (how the site tells yours apart is in Uploading replays, privacy, and ownership). The Companion's auto-upload keeps them moving while you play. Quests pay XP as well; the full rules, including Patch Clash dailies, are in Quests, XP, streaks, and achievements.

Private uploads count too, so turning "Share my replays" off costs you nothing in vespene.

Buying vespene#

The Support modal sells packs at five, ten, twenty, and fifty dollars, plus a custom amount between one and five hundred dollars, all at the full 100 vespene per dollar. Payment runs through Stripe inside the modal (card, Apple Pay, Google Pay).

The "Supporter" tier is a one-off ten dollar purchase: you get 500 vespene and half the money funds the site. It is priced like a monthly sub but never recurs, and it does not gate any feature. There is no premium tier hiding behind it.

Spending vespene#

• AI coach prompts. Your first five prompts each day are free (the day rolls over at midnight UTC). After that, each prompt costs 1 vespene, charged up front and refunded automatically if the answer fails to arrive. Running dry mid-conversation gets you an "Out of vespene" notice with a one-click way to top up.
• Tournament prize pools. Any public event with an on-platform pool takes contributions through "Fuel the prize pool". Contributions convert to Minerals for the winners, and refund if the event is cancelled. Season ladder pool contributions are the one exception: those are one-way.

The fine print that actually matters#

• A negative balance locks the wallet. That only happens after a reversed payment (a chargeback claws back credit you already spent). While locked you cannot spend, including the free daily prompts; earning still works and pays the debt down. The lock message points you at support.
• The coach charge happens before the model runs, so a failed or empty answer is refunded without you asking. If your connection drops mid-answer, the refund still happens; it just cannot tell you so.
• Every movement is a ledger row. If a number ever looks wrong, the history in the Support modal is the source of truth, and the bug reporter in the F10 console is the way to flag it.