An upgrade recipe is not enough: test whether the required cards can appear

A recipe is decorative if its ingredients never appear

Ice Breaker's 12-turn Breakthrough mode can evolve Wall Charge level three plus Echo level one into Aurora from turn nine. A correct condition is insufficient if Echo disappears from the offer pool. The failure would occur before the evolution function, along the player's choice path.

The implementation merged on September 8 offers upgrades before turns 3, 5, 7 and 9 after a starter selection. The starter is Wall Charge or Shatter Seed. Once chosen, its primary ability and matching support remain candidates, with common upgrades filling the remaining space. This is not an equal-probability draw from every ability.

Keep a choice available without choosing for the player

Wall Charge pairs with Echo; Shatter Seed pairs with Fuse. The primary remains available until its cap, and the support until level one. A capped common card is replaced with another available upgrade.

That gives the player a route to an evolution. Choosing common upgrades or ending the run can still prevent evolution. Availability is not a guarantee that every player evolves, and it is not a measurement of preference or fun.

Follow choices instead of injecting a completed build

BreakthroughRun has no scene or UI dependency. GameSession supplies volley boundaries and selected cards. We could therefore inspect the sequence of offers and choices without running physics.

The existing WallBuild_OffersAttainableAuroraPairAtVolleyNine test follows this sequence rather than assigning a completed level state directly:

This summarizes the retained test flow. It checks relevant offers and Choose results, then the Aurora name, evolution flag and ability values. A separate seed-path test chooses Shatter Seed and Fuse and checks the changed trigger-hit count after evolution.

When adapting the approach, useful counterexamples include attempting evolution early, never taking the support, selecting a capped card, and calling evolution again after success. This article does not claim the retained tests cover every item in that proposed list.

Begin
Choose WallCharge
PrepareUpgradeChoice(3) → Choose WallCharge
PrepareUpgradeChoice(5) → Choose WallCharge
PrepareUpgradeChoice(7) → Choose Echo
SetVolley(9) → TryEvolve

Explain the action and the change

The actual card screen combines an icon with an action, such as strengthening the next direct hit after a side-wall bounce. It shows before/after values, such as damage +2 → +3, and the requirement of Wall Charge 3 + Echo 1 from turn nine. Echo describes adjacent-block damage; Snow Pack describes extra balls. These upgrades change different actions, so the cards say what each does.

Correct calculations and connected buttons did not settle layout. The release record documents screen-review fixes for overlapping HUD panels, a wrapped restart label, small result text and a retained card-selection tint. Passing rule tests was not treated as visual acceptance.

What the evidence establishes

Retained September 8 XML records EditMode 16/16, PlayMode 30/30 and a later graphics/button-wiring fixture 1/1. The figure is an actual runtime image from the final fixture. It was captured with temporary canvas settings and a 1080×1920 camera texture from a 640×480 Editor run, not direct play on a portrait Android device.

The 12-volley lifecycle check also uses explicit setup and forced recall. It supports choice, turn and result boundaries; it does not establish normal-input difficulty or session duration. The reusable lesson is to test both a route to the condition and the screen explaining that condition.