Hull Rupture ships with six game modes. Classic Mode is the one you start with — base building, resource management, exploration and tower defense across 20 alien waves — and each of the others changes one rule of that loop rather than reskinning the numbers: Trade Mode replaces alien attacks with economic pressure, Cursed Mode makes you pay with humans instead of tokens, and Endless Mode became a standalone mode with its own settings.
The six Hull Rupture game modes
The core Hull Rupture experience, combining base-building, resource management, exploration and tower defense. You survive 20 alien waves, and this is the mode you begin with. Everything on this site is written against Classic unless a page says otherwise, and the 20-wave survival plan is the core reference for it.
Trade Mode
The combat-free mode: alien attacks are replaced by economic pressure, forcing you to focus entirely on resource management and long-term planning. It was introduced alongside Classic Mode in the Steam Next Fest demo. The trade mode guide covers how a Trade run actually plays.
Cursed Mode
Everything you buy must be paid for with humans instead of tokens. Despot's own justification is that this is a perfectly reasonable exchange.
The rule sits on top of the normal economy rather than replacing it, so the same production chains, module kits and hull construction rules apply — what changes is the currency the shop and the game ask for. That makes Cursed Mode a re-run of the economy under a much tighter budget: you are spending the same resource your human workforce is made of, so every purchase decision is a crew decision, and every converter you build competes with the shop for the same bodies.
Beyond that currency rule, Cursed Mode has no separate strategy guide or difficulty tuning of its own, so there are no published modifiers to prepare for — only the currency swap to plan around.
Endless Mode
Endless Mode became a separate mode with its own settings at release, and it no longer begins automatically after completing a Classic run. The endless mode guide covers what changed and why it matters for performance as well as for balance.
The sixth mode and how modes unlock
The developers have also said a mode that leans much more heavily into combat is in the works, which accounts for the sixth slot in the full game's line-up of six.
The design rule behind the whole list is that each mode puts a different spin on the core gameplay, with the goal of giving players variety and fresh challenges that push them to adapt their strategies. Trade Mode is described as their first step toward expanding the mode selection beyond the standard experience, and explicitly not as a set of adjusted numbers.
Modes are unlocked through progression. You begin with one ship and Classic Mode, and more ships and modes unlock as you play — the ship models guide covers the ships half of that progression.