Methodology Center

Editorial Standards and Source Boundaries

This page explains what the site is willing to claim, what it refuses to fake, how live patch changes are checked, where human judgment starts, and which desk owns each kind of article.

10Editorial desks
20Live blog articles
2026-03-28Last standards review

Why this exists

Stop repeating trust claims on every page

The site should spend most of its visible space on cards, relics, route pressure, and calculator boundaries. This page exists so the methodology lives in one place instead of leaking into every footer and hero panel.

No fake freshness

Dates, review notes, and patch claims should correspond to actual work on the page. If the work did not happen, the signal should not exist.

No fake authority

A calculator only owns the variables it actually models. A database only owns the fields the source data exposes cleanly. Everything else stays marked as judgment or stays out.

No fake completeness

Some pages are supposed to hand you off. A lookup page should not pretend to be a final answer page when the real job is threshold math or route planning.

Desk Map

Who writes what

No desk gets to hide behind one generic organization byline. Each article family has a visible owner and a narrow job.

Site operator

STS2 Calculator Site Operator

Runs STS2 Calculator as an independent fan-made publishing project, owns the final call on corrections and rights issues, and decides when a page should be revised, narrowed, deindexed, or removed.

  • Final site operator and responsible editor
  • Final responsibility for site operations, correction triage, rights review, and the overall editorial direction of STS2 Calculator.
  • Final contact: [email protected]
  • Response target: 1 to 2 business days

Site editors

STS2 Calculator Editorial Desk

Maintains site-build explainers, methodology notes, and articles about how the project is structured and reviewed.

  • Site structure and editorial scope
  • Source-boundary explainers
  • Index quality and maintenance notes

Strategy desk

STS2 Calculator Strategy Desk

Owns longform strategy pieces that turn card, relic, and route data into run decisions.

  • Draft priorities
  • Act pacing and route pressure
  • Shell fit and upgrade leverage

Tools desk

STS2 Calculator Tools Desk

Owns tool explainers and pieces about when a calculator is helpful, misleading, or too narrow for the room.

  • Input boundaries
  • Model assumptions
  • Threshold-driven tool usage

Patch desk

STS2 Calculator Patch Desk

Tracks what a live patch actually moved, what stayed stable, and which pages need rechecks before they stay indexed.

  • Patch comparison
  • Data refresh workflow
  • Revision triage after updates

Deck clinic desk

STS2 Calculator Deck Clinic Desk

Handles articles that diagnose why a run is failing and which boring fix matters more than another flashy pickup.

  • Deck diagnosis
  • Shell repair
  • Turn-two and tempo failures

Mechanics desk

STS2 Calculator Mechanics Desk

Maintains articles that explain where a mechanic actually changes play instead of letting vague memory replace printed rules.

  • Keyword and timing interpretation
  • Mechanic-specific breakpoints
  • Rule-surface clarification

Card review desk

STS2 Calculator Card Review Desk

Owns focused card-analysis pieces that explain when a card is premium, when it lies, and what shell actually carries it.

  • Card fit and shell context
  • Upgrade breakpoints
  • False-positive draft reads

Relic review desk

STS2 Calculator Relic Review Desk

Maintains relic-analysis pieces that separate real pickup value from shiny but context-free relic text.

  • Relic fit and ownership
  • Trade profile impact
  • Pickup timing

Route desk

STS2 Calculator Route Desk

Owns pathing pieces that explain when route shape changes campfires, elite tolerance, and future card value.

  • Map branching
  • Route pressure
  • Rest-site and elite sequencing

Co-op notes

STS2 Calculator Co-op Notes Desk

Handles co-op coverage where ownership, shared debuffs, and timing windows matter more than solo heuristics.

  • Co-op role split
  • Shared window planning
  • Trade and support timing

Source Boundary

What the site uses as source material

The site is a fan-made layer on top of live game material. That means some things are stable enough for databases, and some things only belong in human judgment.

Live game-facing data

Cards, relics, enemies, powers, mechanics, epochs, achievements, and potion pools are structured into site datasets when the underlying property is stable enough to expose cleanly.

Manual editorial judgment

Takeaways, shell fit notes, route warnings, counterexamples, and tool-usage boundaries are written by the relevant desk. They are arguments, not copied game text.

Deliberate omissions

If a rule branch is still too unstable, too hidden, or too messy to surface honestly, the site would rather point deeper or stay narrow than invent certainty.

Patch Workflow

How a live patch is handled

A patch update is not a timestamp update. The order matters because bad order creates false freshness.

  1. Recheck what actually moved

    The first pass isolates which breakpoints, pools, wording, or room assumptions changed before any editorial claim is touched.

  2. Update source data next

    Only after the moving rule is understood does the site update the underlying dataset that powers the visible page surface.

  3. Revise dependent pages last

    Tool guidance, deck clinics, curated notes, and related links are refreshed only after the raw source layer is trustworthy again.

Judgment Boundary

Where raw data ends and human judgment begins

Databases, calculators, and editorial pages do different jobs. Mixing those jobs is how fan sites become huge and still useless under run pressure.

Database pages

Databases answer what exists, how it is labeled, and where it belongs. They are not allowed to pretend one compact entry replaces shell, route, or combat context.

Tool pages

Tools answer threshold math and model-specific comparisons. They are only as honest as the visible inputs and the assumptions named on the page.

Editorial pages

Editorial pages explain why one line matters more than another, when a common conclusion breaks, and which deeper page should own the next click.

Corrections And Rights

How errors, attribution, and rights issues are handled

The clean rule is simple: if a claim stops being defendable, the page gets corrected, narrowed, or removed. Rights and copyright issues are handled with the same bluntness.

Report a stale claim or bad assumption

If a number, rule, or judgment note looks wrong, send the page URL and the conflicting evidence. Useful reports are how the site avoids silent drift.

Open contact page

Check rights and takedown process

Copyright, attribution, trademark, and related claims belong on the rights page with enough detail to review them quickly.

Open rights page

Use direct email for urgent fixes

If the page is causing a real factual or rights problem, email the site operator directly so the issue can be triaged without waiting on a form.

Email [email protected]