MeatSlicer/docs/dev-debug.md

Debug Console

An in-game cheat / inspection toolset. It is gated behind a dev launch flag so it doesn't interfere with normal play, and it's documented here because the game is still in development — testers and players are welcome to use it.

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Enabling it

The console is gated behind a dev flag and is completely inert otherwise (the open key does nothing and G.devMode is false).

Launch	Flag
Packaged Electron app	MeatSlicer.exe --dev
npm start	npm start -- --dev
Browser (local server)	http://localhost:8123/?dev=1 → use play-dev.bat
Any browser (persistent)	localStorage.setItem('meatslicer_dev', '1') in devtools

Detection lives in debugEnabled() (js/debug.js). For the packaged app, the --dev flag is forwarded into the preload's process.argv as --ms-dev via webPreferences.additionalArguments (desktop/main.js), and desktop/preload.js exposes it as window.MSDesktop.dev (custom app flags aren't guaranteed to reach a renderer's process.argv on their own, hence the explicit forward).

Opening it

Press the backtick ` (or ~) key from play or pause. The game pauses (its own G.mode = 'debug'). ` / Esc / the [X] button closes it back to where you came from.

Navigate tabs with ←/→, number keys 1-8, or by clicking the tab tags.

Run tainting

Any mutating action sets G.debugUsed = true. When tainted:

• gameOver() skips the meatslicer_best best-score write.
• The HUD shows a red [DEBUG] tag and the game-over screen shows [ DEBUG RUN — SCORE NOT RECORDED ].
• The console footer shows TAINTED.

Read-only tools (the STATS tab, the render visualizers, the FPS counter, pinning) do not taint. Taint resets on the next run (resetRun()).

Tabs

1. PLAYER — hp/maxHp/shield/level number rows, full-heal, kill, +1 pending levelup, force-open the perk draft, teleport to cursor, +500 score, and three toggles: God mode (hurtPlayer no-ops), Infinite ammo (ammo topped up each frame), One-shot kill (damageEnemy forces dmg=1e9, which still respects Plate Father's plate mitigation).
2. WEAPONS — picker over all 16 WEAPONS. Equip (old weapon goes to the holster unless it was the Bone Popper), refill ammo, holster current, drop the weapon as a pickup at the cursor, spawn an item pedestal, set ammo.
3. ITEMS — picker over all ITEMS grouped by rarity, showing current tier. Give +1 (routes through giveItem), remove 1 tier, remove all, set to max tier, or set an exact tier. Presets: one of everything, max everything, clear build.
4. PERKS+ACTIVE — grant any of the 23 PERKS by id, remove a drafted perk, clear all perks. Set / fire an active item from ACTIVES.
5. WORLD — warp to floor N (genFloor + enterRoom), next floor, teleport to the boss/item room, clear room, kill all, kill boss, regen floor. Spawn any of the 11 ENEMY_TYPES (count + elite flag) or any of the 9 BOSS_DEFS by id (uses spawnBoss(floor, forcedIndex)), and spawn pickups at cursor.
6. PRESSURE — set G.pressure (clamped to PRESSURE_MIN..MAX), set the dial, and freeze pressure (the applyPressureDelta helper in js/state.js no-ops). Shows live pressureGainUnits/pressureDropUnits, streak, recent hits, and the Abattoir Engine multiplier.
7. STATS (read-only) — the full p.stats table in two scrollable columns, diff-highlighted against defaultPlayerStats(). Plus powerScore(), entity counts, FPS, floor/time.
8. MISC — timescale (0.25×/1×/4×), freeze + single-frame step, render visualizers (collision circles, arena bounds, enemy HP numbers, hazard/telegraph shapes, magnet radius), set score/kills/streak, trigger game over, and SFX/FX test buttons. The PIN toggle keeps the panel open while the world runs live behind it (and shows a compact always-on-top readout when the panel is closed but a visualizer is active).

How item/perk removal works (stat rebuild)

ITEMS[iid].apply(stats, p) and perk.apply(stats, p) are one-way mutations, so removal isn't a subtraction — it's a rebuild. debugRebuildStats() resets p.stats to defaultPlayerStats(), zeroes shieldHp, then re-applies every owned item tier (p.items[iid] times, mirroring giveItem) and every drafted perk (p.perks, tracked by grantPerk).

Two caveats:

• maxHp-lowering items (Blood Debt, Butcher's Oath) replay in ownership insertion order, so a rebuild can produce a valid but slightly different maxHp than the original build order. Current hp is snapshotted before and clamped to the new maxHp afterward.
• One-time player side effects baked into some apply functions (e.g. the immediate heal from Iron Stomach, the immediate shield from Bone Plate / Shield Heart) are re-granted on rebuild. This is intentional and keeps the model simple.

Architecture

Everything lives in js/debug.js, loaded after js/help.js and before js/main.js in index.html. It reuses the help manual's canvas UI primitives (drawPixelPanel, drawPixelTag, hfont, inRect, wrapText) and mirrors its HELP_PAGES / updatePauseHelp structure with a DEBUG_PAGES array.

The hooks into core code are intentionally minimal:

• js/state.js — debugUsed/debugFlags/debug panel state on G, plus the applyPressureDelta() helper.
• js/player.js — defaultPlayerStats() factory (extracted from initPlayer), perks: [] field, and the god-mode early-return in hurtPlayer().
• js/perks.js — one line in grantPerk() to record the perk id.
• js/enemies.js — one line in damageEnemy() for OHKO.
• js/rooms.js — two applyPressureDelta() call sites.
• js/bosses.js — optional forcedIndex param on spawnBoss().
• js/main.js — G.devMode in init(), the open gesture in play/pause, the debug case in update(), timescale in loop(), and the drawDebug/drawDebugOverlays/drawDebugPin calls in draw().
• js/hud.js + drawGameOver — the taint markers.