diff --git a/scripts/cluster_power_recovery.sh b/scripts/cluster_power_recovery.sh
index 4fba34fd..de4925ac 100755
--- a/scripts/cluster_power_recovery.sh
+++ b/scripts/cluster_power_recovery.sh
@@ -138,10 +138,11 @@ STARTUP_WORKLOAD_NAMESPACE_EXCLUDES_REGEX="${STARTUP_WORKLOAD_NAMESPACE_EXCLUDES
 STARTUP_OPTIONAL_KUSTOMIZATIONS="${STARTUP_OPTIONAL_KUSTOMIZATIONS:-}"
 RECOVERY_FLUX_OPTIONAL_KUSTOMIZATIONS="${RECOVERY_FLUX_OPTIONAL_KUSTOMIZATIONS:-ai-llm,bstein-dev-home-migrations,descheduler,finance,game-stream,gitops-ui,health,jellyfin,jenkins,longhorn-ui,mailu,nextcloud,nextcloud-mail-sync,outline,planka,quality,resource-guardrails,typhon,vaultwarden,veles,wallet-monero-temp,xmr-miner}"
 RECOVERY_FLUX_CRITICAL_KUSTOMIZATIONS="${RECOVERY_FLUX_CRITICAL_KUSTOMIZATIONS:-core,helm,cert-manager,longhorn-adopt,longhorn,metallb,traefik,vault-csi,vault-injector,vault,postgres,harbor,gitea,keycloak,oauth2-proxy,openldap,openclaw,monitoring,bstein-dev-home,comms,crypto,logging,maintenance,monerod,sui-metrics}"
+RECOVERY_FLUX_CRITICAL_HELMRELEASES="${RECOVERY_FLUX_CRITICAL_HELMRELEASES:-cert-manager/cert-manager,comms/othrys-element,comms/othrys-synapse,harbor/harbor,kube-system/secrets-store-csi-driver,logging/data-prepper,logging/fluent-bit,logging/opensearch,logging/opensearch-dashboards,logging/otel-collector,longhorn-system/longhorn,metallb-system/metallb,monitoring/alertmanager,monitoring/grafana,monitoring/kube-state-metrics,monitoring/node-exporter,monitoring/victoria-metrics-single,vault/vault-injector}"
 RECOVERY_FLUX_OPTIONAL_SNAPSHOT_FILE="${RECOVERY_FLUX_OPTIONAL_SNAPSHOT_FILE:-${HOME}/${STATE_SUBDIR:-.local/share/ananke}/longhorn_unlock_optional_flux.tsv}"
 RECOVERY_FLUX_RESTART_KUSTOMIZE_CONTROLLER="${RECOVERY_FLUX_RESTART_KUSTOMIZE_CONTROLLER:-1}"
 RECOVERY_FLUX_SUSPEND_BOOTSTRAP_KUSTOMIZATION="${RECOVERY_FLUX_SUSPEND_BOOTSTRAP_KUSTOMIZATION:-1}"
-RECOVERY_FLUX_APPLY_BOOTSTRAP_KUSTOMIZATION="${RECOVERY_FLUX_APPLY_BOOTSTRAP_KUSTOMIZATION:-1}"
+RECOVERY_FLUX_APPLY_BOOTSTRAP_KUSTOMIZATION="${RECOVERY_FLUX_APPLY_BOOTSTRAP_KUSTOMIZATION:-0}"
 RECOVERY_FLUX_ROOT_APPLY_TIMEOUT="${RECOVERY_FLUX_ROOT_APPLY_TIMEOUT:-15m}"
 RECOVERY_FLUX_SUSPEND_VERIFY_ATTEMPTS="${RECOVERY_FLUX_SUSPEND_VERIFY_ATTEMPTS:-6}"
 RECOVERY_FLUX_SUSPEND_VERIFY_SLEEP_SECONDS="${RECOVERY_FLUX_SUSPEND_VERIFY_SLEEP_SECONDS:-10}"
@@ -1028,6 +1029,17 @@ patch_recovery_critical_flux_suspend() {
   done < <(csv_each "${RECOVERY_FLUX_CRITICAL_KUSTOMIZATIONS}")
 }
 
+patch_recovery_critical_helmrelease_suspend() {
+  local value="$1"
+  local ref namespace name
+  while IFS= read -r ref; do
+    namespace="${ref%%/*}"
+    name="${ref##*/}"
+    [[ -n "${namespace}" && -n "${name}" && "${namespace}" != "${name}" ]] || continue
+    patch_helmrelease_suspend "${namespace}" "${name}" "${value}"
+  done < <(csv_each "${RECOVERY_FLUX_CRITICAL_HELMRELEASES}")
+}
+
 recovery_flux_unsuspended_list() {
   local names=()
   local name suspend
@@ -1153,26 +1165,32 @@ restart_kustomize_controller_for_critical_thaw() {
   fi
 }
 
-prepare_recovery_flux_root_apply_window() {
+prepare_recovery_flux_critical_thaw() {
   [[ "${EXECUTE}" -eq 1 ]] || return 0
 
   if kubectl -n flux-system get deployment kustomize-controller >/dev/null 2>&1; then
-    warn "Stopping kustomize-controller to create a quiet Flux root-apply window."
+    warn "Stopping kustomize-controller to create a quiet Flux critical-thaw window."
     run kubectl -n flux-system scale deployment kustomize-controller --replicas=0
     wait_for_kustomize_controller_scaled_down || true
   fi
 
   patch_recovery_optional_flux_suspend true
   patch_flux_suspend_all true
-  patch_kustomization_suspend flux-system false
 
   if command -v flux >/dev/null 2>&1; then
     run flux reconcile source git flux-system -n flux-system --timeout=3m || true
   fi
 
+  patch_recovery_critical_flux_suspend false
+  patch_recovery_critical_helmrelease_suspend false
+  if [[ "${RECOVERY_FLUX_SUSPEND_BOOTSTRAP_KUSTOMIZATION}" == "1" || "${RECOVERY_FLUX_SUSPEND_BOOTSTRAP_KUSTOMIZATION}" == "true" ]]; then
+    patch_kustomization_suspend flux-system true
+  fi
+  patch_recovery_optional_flux_suspend_without_snapshot true
+
   if kubectl -n flux-system get deployment kustomize-controller >/dev/null 2>&1; then
     run kubectl -n flux-system scale deployment kustomize-controller --replicas=1
-    kubectl -n flux-system rollout status deployment/kustomize-controller --timeout=2m || warn "kustomize-controller did not become Ready for Flux root apply."
+    kubectl -n flux-system rollout status deployment/kustomize-controller --timeout=2m || warn "kustomize-controller did not become Ready for Flux critical thaw."
   fi
 }
 
@@ -1582,12 +1600,13 @@ resume_deadlock_automation_after_core_recovery() {
     return 1
   fi
 
-  prepare_recovery_flux_root_apply_window
+  prepare_recovery_flux_critical_thaw
   if kubectl -n flux-system get deployment helm-controller >/dev/null 2>&1; then
     run kubectl -n flux-system scale deployment helm-controller --replicas=1
   fi
   if command -v flux >/dev/null 2>&1; then
     if [[ "${RECOVERY_FLUX_APPLY_BOOTSTRAP_KUSTOMIZATION}" == "1" || "${RECOVERY_FLUX_APPLY_BOOTSTRAP_KUSTOMIZATION}" == "true" ]]; then
+      patch_kustomization_suspend flux-system false
       run flux reconcile kustomization flux-system -n flux-system --timeout="${RECOVERY_FLUX_ROOT_APPLY_TIMEOUT}" || warn "flux-system Kustomization did not apply the recovery source revision before final suspension."
     fi
   fi