Pulse Lock

How to play

1. Notes fall down four lanes toward the judgement line at the bottom.
2. Hit the matching key, F, G, H or J, as the note crosses the line. On a phone, tap anywhere in that lane.
3. Hold notes have a tail: keep the key down until the tail reaches the line. Letting go early drops the hold.
4. Landing notes in time raises your Sync meter. Misses drain it, and when it empties the run ends.
5. One note in fourteen is gold. Hit eleven gold notes Perfect and Overdrive starts by itself: eight seconds of double score with no Sync loss.

Scoring

Each note is judged on timing: a Perfect (within about 55 ms of the beat) is worth 130 points and an early or late Good is worth 50. A completed hold adds 200. Consecutive hits build a combo multiplier that climbs to 3x at a 50-note combo, and a miss, a stray press, a tapped decoy or a dropped hold resets it. While Overdrive is active every point is doubled, so the biggest scores come from carrying a full multiplier into an Overdrive window.

Tips

• Listen rather than watch. The chart follows the music exactly, so once you have the groove your hands land ahead of your eyes.
• Do not press when there is no note to hit. A stray press breaks the combo and costs Sync, so resting your fingers is safer than drumming along.
• Treat gold notes as the priority. Only a Perfect on a gold note moves the Overdrive meter, so aim for the centre of the beat on those.
• From the second drop, hollow red decoy notes appear. Let them pass: tapping one costs a large slice of Sync.
• A dropped combo costs more than a single miss. When you feel the run slipping, play the notes you are sure of and rebuild.

Questions

Is Pulse Lock free to play?
Yes. Pulse Lock is free to play in your browser, with no purchase required to start.

Do I need to download or install anything to play Pulse Lock?
No. Pulse Lock runs in the browser. There is nothing to download, nothing to install and no plugin to add.

Do I need an account to play Pulse Lock?
No. You can play straight away as a guest, and what you earn is kept in this browser. A free account saves it to your account, so it is not lost when the browser data is cleared and it follows you to another device.

Can I play Pulse Lock on a school Chromebook?
Pulse Lock runs in Chrome with nothing to install, so it works on a Chromebook. It plays on the keyboard alone, from the start screen to the end screen, so there is no need for the touchpad. Whether a school network allows voidarcade.com is up to the school.

Can I play Pulse Lock on a phone?
Yes. Pulse Lock has touch controls and works on phones and tablets as well as on a desktop browser.

How long does a game of Pulse Lock take?
A run takes about 5 to 9 minutes.

What are the controls for Pulse Lock?
Use F G H J to hit the four lanes, Hold to keep the key down through a hold note, Tap to tap the lane on touch devices, Esc to pause.

Evolution log

Void Arcade games change after release. This is Pulse Lock's real update history.

1. Version 1.22026-09-30
   • One composed song with a real ending: 32 sections from 100 to 164 BPM, finishing on a final held chord
   • Taps are judged against the song as you hear it, so speaker and Bluetooth delay no longer push hits late
   • Lanes moved to F G H J, and short haptic pulses on phones
2. Version 1.12026-09-13
   • Rebuilt on an audio-clock conductor so the chart stays locked to the music on slow devices
   • Re-mixed instrument levels across verses, builds and drops
   • Fixed a crash on the phase change into Overdrive
3. Version 1.02026-06-16
   • Released to the arcade

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