Despite being set within the same universe, and featuring many of the same characters, there exist many disparities in how certain events and concepts are presented and function between both Homestuck and Hiveswap. These disparities likely have many causes; Hiveswap was developed at a later time than Homestuck, was created by a large team as opposed to almost solely Andrew Hussie in the case of Homestuck, and required the developers to take into account the practical gameplay requirements of an actual adventure game that were not a consideration for Homestuck's webcomic format.
Some of these disparities are merely stylistic, but there are also some differences in how canonical universe mechanics, such as Strife, the Sylladex and Kind Abstrata, are presented and implemented. Often, it can be difficult to tell if a perceived disparity is due to different presentation of a consistent system, as Hiveswap's UI is very different to the equivalents in Homestuck, or whether certain mechanics work differently as implemented in the two works (or at least for their main characters). This is exacerbated due to the fact that, while Homestuck deliberately goes into detail about the workings of many of these mechanics, Hiveswap tends to leave the player light on detail, presumably to avoid confusing them when they are required to actually interact with said mechanics. This leaves a lot of missing information with regards to various Hiveswap concepts.
Generally, this wiki is written from the standpoint that conventions and norms as established in Homestuck are regarded to also apply to Hiveswap, except where otherwise specifically confirmed to not be the case. Differences in presentation and UI are usually regarded as being just that, and there are often hypothetical solutions to disparities between the two works. However, as some of this reasoning is merely hypothetical, or else relies on assumptions that have not been specifically confirmed, it is valuable to keep in mind that there may potentially be differences between the two works and to be aware of specific disparities and their potential implications.
Sylladex/Inventory[]
Hiveswap uses a simplified inventory with virtually no limitations other than a limitation to drop items at will. This is not in spirit of any MSPA, as the carapacians do not have an inventory system at all and therefore have to physically pick up and carry anything, and Problem Sleuth characters and the Midnight Crew have a distinct inventory system that can carry five items and one weapon (for Team Sleuth) or five weapons and one item (for the Midnight Crew).
The Hiveswap inventory is presented to be as convenient as possible for the player, and this was a deliberate decision on the part of the writers. According to the lead writer, the Sylladex "was never abandoned because it was never even considered. it’s funny to read about john struggling with his inventory because you are not john. when it’s your inventory you’re struggling with it just feels like a bad game".
The Hiveswap inventory can theoretically be interpreted as a Sylladex that uses the Array modus, with unused cards not being represented at all (rather than represented as empty cards, as in Homestuck), and for which, characters never run out of captchalogue cards. This would imply that Joey has at least 9 captchalogue cards available to her, which is far from the maximum number of cards ever attained by anyone in Homestuck, which is 52 (for Jade).
Communicator slot[]
The Hiveswap inventory system includes an element never seen before in Homestuck, which is a slot specifically intended to be occupied by a working communications device. It seems to work by placing into it anything that becomes a viable communications device, such as Joey's Walkie-Talkie, once she inserts its batteries into it.
While the communicator slot itself does not exist in Homestuck, stipulations regarding dialogue do exist. Dialogue in Homestuck must be contained in a log, which is defined by what is being used to communicate: examples include Pesterchum, which generates pesterlogs, sprites, who generate spritelogs, and god tier players with the Gift of Gab, who generate dialoglogs. This has at least some weight in Hiveswap, as the only two devices which generated direct dialogue in Act 1 were the Walkie-Talkies and the tablets.
Strife and Strife Abilities[]
- Main article: Abilitech
In Hiveswap, Abilitechs replace the Kind Abstrata of Homestuck and can also be utilized freely at any time for purposes that are not necessarily combative. It is generally assumed that there is a one-to-one correlation from Kind Abstrata to Abilitechs, but the reverse does not apply, as telekinesis, utilized both by Sollux in Homestuck and Xefros in Hiveswap, has been shown not to require being assigned to a Strife Specibus. Similarly, Joey talks about her flashlight being a weapon in the way her tap shoes and ballet shoes are not, which would imply that her flashlight is assigned to a Strife Specibus, while her tap shoes and ballet shoes are not.
While some of the weapons used by characters can be fit into existing Kind Abstrata, such as Jude's flare gun fitting into pistolkind, others, such as Joey's flashlight, do not.
The Strife Techniques seem to be utilized in a similar way in both Homestuck and Hiveswap, with Joey being able to use each Abilitech in different ways. However, in a single Strife scene, the use of the same Abilitech will always result in the same Strife Technique being used, whereas in Homestuck, when Rose is Strifing with Mom, she can choose to either attack her with needles directly or stick them in the wall socket in an Empty Suicide Threat.
Echeladder/Levelling up[]
In Homestuck, the Echeladder is typically reserved to Sburb players, who attain Boondollars upon climbing rungs, which are then used to buy things such as Fraymotifs. In addition, rungs are also attained, typically as a joke, by inanimate objects. While none of this directly carries over to Hiveswap, Joey also attains rungs after one of the Strife scenes, climbing three rungs. However, the stats she attains are seemingly random and do not affect her Strife abilities in any way, as, rather than depending on statistics, as a fight scene in a typical game would, a Strife scene in Hiveswap depends on using the right combinations of objects in the right time; as stated on the now-removed Greenlight page for Hiveswap, "EVEN THE FIGHTS ARE PUZZLES".