Here is something that changes how you think about every shop phase in Deep Sky: Tracers: the glitches and chips in your shop are not generated from nothing. They are drawn from a finite, shared pool that both players pull from.
When you buy a glitch, it leaves the pool. When your opponent buys one, it leaves the pool too. When you sell a unit, copies can return. Every purchase, every sell, every SCAN interacts with this hidden supply — and understanding that is one of the things that separates reactive players from strategic ones.
[PICTURE OF A CONCEPTUAL DIAGRAM: TWO PLAYERS DRAWING FROM ONE SHARED POOL OF GLITCHES]
What a shared pool means
At the start of each match, the game creates a finite pool of glitch copies and chip copies. Both players draw from that same pool when their shops generate offers.
The number of copies per glitch depends on the unit's cost. Cheaper units are abundant — there are many copies in the pool, so they're easy to find early. Expensive units are scarce — very few copies exist, making them highly contested in the late game.
Chips follow a similar scarcity curve: lower-rarity chips are plentiful, while higher-rarity chips have fewer copies available.
[PICTURE OF THE POOL COPY TABLE: COST TIER TO NUMBER OF COPIES]
The higher the cost, the fewer copies exist. That means high-cost glitches are scarcer, and two players chasing the same expensive piece are directly competing for a limited supply.
How copies enter and leave the pool
The pool changes throughout the match based on player actions:
Buying removes a copy from the pool. When you purchase a glitch from your shop, that specific copy is now on your board (or bench) and no longer available to appear in either player's future offers.
Selling returns copies to the pool, up to the original cap. If you sell a unit you no longer need, its copy goes back into the shared supply and can appear in future shops.
Offers that appear in your shop are reservations from the pool. When your shop generates, it pulls from available copies. If you do not buy them and your shop refreshes (via SCAN or next turn), those reserved copies return to the pool before new ones are drawn.
CACHE keeps a specific offer reserved for you across turns. That cached copy stays pulled from the pool until you either buy it or the cache is released.
[PICTURE OF THE SHOP WITH ONE CACHED SLOT AND A FRESH SCAN BESIDE IT]
Why this affects drafting decisions
The shared pool turns drafting into something more than just shopping. It adds a layer of awareness about supply and competition.
If your opponent is buying the same syndicate as you, you are both draining the same subset of the pool faster. The pieces you need become scarcer. You might need to SCAN more to find them, or pivot your direction before the supply runs dry.
If you are the only player building around a specific faction or subtype, your access to those pieces is naturally better. Less competition means more of your target units stay in the pool longer, and your SCANs are more likely to hit.
Higher-cost pieces are inherently scarcer. Every purchase of an expensive unit matters more because the supply is tight. If you are relying on a specific high-cost piece to anchor your late-game board, and your opponent already bought some copies, your odds of finding it drop significantly.
[PICTURE OF TWO BOARDS WITH OVERLAPPING SYNDICATE DIRECTIONS, ILLUSTRATING SHARED POOL COMPETITION]
This does not mean you should constantly try to spy on your opponent's board. But having a general awareness — are they buying the same faction? Are they at a high tier pulling from expensive cost bands? — can inform whether your current plan is likely to find the pieces it needs.
What SCAN and CACHE do to the system
SCAN (1 CR per use) refreshes your non-cached shop slots. The old offers return their reserved copies to the pool, and new copies are drawn. Mechanically, SCAN is the tool you use to dig through the pool looking for specific pieces.
But SCAN has a cost beyond the 1 CR price tag: every reroll is a new random draw from whatever remains in the pool. If the pool is depleted in your target direction, SCANning aggressively burns credits without finding what you need. SCAN is most valuable when the pool still has good density of pieces you want.
CACHE (free) locks a shop slot across turns. The cached copy stays reserved — it does not go back to the pool. This is useful when you see a piece you want but cannot afford yet. It also has a subtle pool effect: that cached copy is unavailable to your opponent's shop for as long as you hold it.
Smart CACHE usage can preserve key pieces without spending credits, while also reducing the chance your opponent finds the same piece in their own shop.
How to use the idea without overcomplicating it
The shared pool is not something you need to calculate precisely during a match. You are not going to count exact copies while the Recruit timer ticks down. But you can use the concept as a thinking tool:
If you keep SCANning and not finding your target piece, consider that the pool might be depleted in that direction. Maybe your opponent already bought several copies. Maybe it is time to pivot instead of burning more credits.
If you sell a unit, know that you are putting copies back into the pool. That is fine when you are upgrading your board, but be aware that the piece you just sold could show up in your opponent's next shop.
If you see a strong piece you cannot use, buying it just to deny it from your opponent is rarely worth the 2 CR unless you are confident they need it and the match is close. But CACHEing it for free to hold it off the market for a turn? That costs nothing.
[PICTURE OF A PLAYER CACHING A HIGH-VALUE UNIT THEY PLAN TO BUY NEXT TURN]
If you are the only player in a specific faction, lean into it. Your supply is healthier, your SCANs hit more often, and your board direction has less competition. Contested factions are not unplayable — but uncontested ones are naturally smoother.
The shared pool is not about perfect information. It is about awareness. Players who understand that the shop is not random — that it is drawing from a finite, contested resource — make better decisions about when to SCAN, when to pivot, and when to commit.
Want to understand how tier affects what you see in the shop? Read the network tier guide. For economy principles, check out the economy guide.