# BRIEFING — 2026-10-01T03:17:00Z

## Mission
Empirically challenge and stress-test the Milestone 2 Animation & Combat Feel remediation (Iteration 2 Gate) to determine whether to APPROVE or REQUEST_CHANGES.

## 🔒 My Identity
- Archetype: empirical challenger
- Roles: critic, specialist
- Working directory: c:\Projects\FreeExile\.agents\teamwork\challenger_m2_1_gen4
- Original parent: 8412af23-c7a8-41f5-aef2-b2a602fcfaf5
- Milestone: Milestone 2 Iteration 2 Gate
- Instance: 1 of 1

## 🔒 Key Constraints
- Review-only — do NOT modify implementation code
- Empirical verification required: all bugs must be reproduced by running tests/scripts
- Do not trust unverified claims or logs
- Report findings directly; do not fix implementation files

## Current Parent
- Conversation ID: 8412af23-c7a8-41f5-aef2-b2a602fcfaf5
- Updated: 2026-10-01T03:17:00Z

## Review Scope
- **Files to review**:
  * `c:\Projects\FreeExile\.agents\teamwork\worker_m2_2_gen3\handoff.md`
  * `c:\Projects\FreeExile\tests\unit\test_challenger_m2_adversarial.py`
  * `c:\Projects\FreeExile\tests\unit\test_m2_animation_and_combat_feel.py`
  * `c:\Projects\FreeExile\tests\e2e\test_poe2_ui_animation_vfx_e2e.py`
  * Client implementation files for CombatFeelEngine, AnimationEngine, WeaponSwingRenderer
- **Interface contracts**: `c:\Projects\FreeExile\PROJECT.md`, `c:\Projects\FreeExile\.agents\teamwork\ORIGINAL_REQUEST.md`
- **Review criteria**: Empirical correctness, resilience under stress (rapid cancel, zero/extreme inputs, high attack speed, variable FPS, no phantom visual artifacts).

## Key Decisions Made
- [Initial]: Will run the 89 adversarial tests first and inspect the 9 Iteration 1 failure points.
- [Initial]: Will construct empirical stress harnesses for CombatFeelEngine, AnimationEngine, and WeaponSwingRenderer to test edge cases.

## Artifact Index
- `DISPATCH.md` — Inbound instruction record
- `BRIEFING.md` — Working memory and identity index
- `progress.md` — Real-time progress and liveness heartbeat
- `handoff.md` — Final 5-component handoff report

## Attack Surface
- **Hypotheses tested**: [TBD - will test screen shake decay, hit-stop dt invariance, animation cancel race conditions, weapon swing cancellation artifacts]
- **Vulnerabilities found**: [TBD]
- **Untested angles**: [TBD]

## Loaded Skills
- None