A cold trail of cancelled orders, burner custodians, and “round‑trip” transactions points to a dark pool where lives and liabilities are priced the same. Pull forensic threads through shell companies, crash an underground clearinghouse, and decide whether to seize the exchange, burn it, or take a cut. Ghosts in the Ledger turns finance noir into a breach—quiet servers, quiet hallways, and nothing quiet about the consequences.

Ghosts in the Ledger — DLC overview

Genre & tone:
FPS cyber-thriller with finance-noir investigation and infiltration. Low, tense atmosphere; stealth and intel matter as much as gunplay.

Premise (story):
A trail of canceled orders and “round-trip” transactions points to a hidden exchange where black budgets are laundered and lives are priced like options. As a day-coder/night-hacker, you pull threads through shell firms to a climate-controlled server farm doubling as an underground clearinghouse. Decide whether to seize it, burn it, or take a cut.

Playtime:
~2–4 hours for a critical path.

Structure & goals:

• Map the money: reconstruct trades, link custodians, and unmask the real counterparties.

• Breach the exchange: infiltrate the off-books facility via three routes (silent, social-engineered, or brute-force hybrid).

• Decide the outcome: expose, co-opt, or collapse the market—each path reshapes vendors, prices, and faction standing in the main game.

Core mechanics:

• Forensic Hacking Loop: Gather log fragments (broker notes, FIX messages, cancel/replace trails), run pattern-match puzzles, and unlock physical access points based on who actually owns what.

• Social-Engineering Toolkit: Proxy badges, voiceprint splices, and fabricated RFIDs to walk past mid-tier security.

• Silent Takedowns & Utilities: EMP glass, fiber taps, null gel, decoy holo beacons; stealth-first level design with alternative combat paths.

• Profit vs. Proof: Evidence can be sold for gear/favors or published to sway the world (market swings, vendor stockouts, security posture changes).

• Heat & Suspicion: A dynamic risk meter ties noise, bodies found, and leaked data to patrol density and forensic countermeasures.

Progression & rewards:

• New tech tree nodes focused on deanonymization , credential forgery , and silent breaching.

• Unique weapon mods themed around finance-grade “clean ops” (ghost-serial slides, suppressor rails, shard slugs).

• Permanent meta-perks if you co-opt the exchange (discounted black-market prices, insider alerts).

Level & encounter design:

• Street-to-Server Heist: Rooftop delivery ducts, courier tunnels, and a neutral “inspection” lobby with hidden cameras.

• The Exchange Floor: Bid boards, glass-walled cages, liquid-cool racks; alarms don’t just call guards—they move prices.

• Cold Rooms & Kill Corridors: Temperature-gated locks, condensation trails that reveal lasers, and fiber runs you can piggyback.

Challenges:

• Time-boxed clearing sessions : security performs scheduled “net-settlement” sweeps that wipe your breadcrumbs if you miss windows.

• Counter-intrusion AIs escalate from log scrubbing to active honeypots if you reuse credentials.

• Moral choices that trade civilian safety and whistleblower protection against lucrative gear pipelines.

Soundtrack & sound design:
Glassy, minimal synth with cold reverb tails; faint exchange ticks and cooling fans as rhythm. Combat peaks add clipped industrial percussion; stealth layers in room-tone drones and LED buzz.

Modes & replayability:

• New Game+ (Clean Hands / Dirty Ledger): finish without firing a shot or monetize everything—both grant unique cosmetics and vendor access.

• Score Attack – Silent Takedown Boards: short missions with leaderboards for zero-alert clears and highest “evidence value.”

• Contracts Mode: remixable mini-heists that reuse spaces with new objectives (swap custodians, different badge tiers, fresh AI routes).

What makes it unique:

• Treats money flow as a map —following trades literally reveals routes and access.

• Evidence is currency : sell, leak, or hold for leverage with persistent world effects.

• A heist where market mechanics (bids, cancels, volatility) meaningfully alter guard behavior and security patterns.