About Ultimate Fantasy Challenge
The six trials
Dodge asks you to survive a volley converging from every edge. Gather asks for a quota of crystals before the clock. Timing asks for five clean casts as a rune crosses a lit arc. Weave asks you through the gaps in advancing walls. Hold asks you to stay inside a moving circle of light. Sort asks you to touch only the runes matching a shown sigil.
Every one of them is drawn from a mechanic that exists elsewhere on the site, which makes this the best diagnostic in the library: the trials you fail are the games you should go and practise.
The order is shuffled and never repeats a trial twice in a row, so the switching cost is paid every single round.
Pass, fail, and which is which
Dodge and Weave are survival trials: reaching the end of the clock passes them, and a single hit fails them outright. Gather, Timing and Sort are quota trials: meeting the quota passes, and running out of clock fails. Hold is a duration trial - stay inside the light for about seventy per cent of the clock.
That split is deliberate. If every trial were scored the same way, the switching cost would be about controls only. Because the failure condition changes too, you have to re-read what the game wants as well as how to move.
Three lives are shared across the whole gauntlet. Failing a trial costs one; clearing one banks a bonus that grows with the round number.
Why the bonus grows and the clock shrinks
Each cleared trial pays 260 plus 90 per round plus 20 per second of clock left, so the gauntlet pays more the longer you survive it. Meanwhile the clock shortens from fourteen seconds to nine and the quotas rise.
The effect is that a player who is strong at four of the six trials still has a hard ceiling, because the two they are weak at come round every three rounds and get harder each time.
That is the point of the game existing. It is not the hardest thing here to survive for thirty seconds; it is the hardest thing here to survive for five minutes.
How to play
- Press Space, Enter or tap to start the gauntlet.
- Read the trial name at the top - it tells you what this trial wants.
- Move with WASD, the arrows or by dragging in five of the six trials.
- Press Space to cast in the Timing trial - it is the only one that uses it.
- Dodge and Weave are survival trials: one hit fails them.
- Three lives are shared across the whole gauntlet.
Controls
| Where | What to do |
|---|---|
| Keyboard - move | WASD or the arrow keys |
| Keyboard - cast (Timing trial) | Space |
| Touch - move | Drag anywhere on the play area |
| Touch - cast | Tap anywhere during the Timing trial |
| Keyboard - pause | Escape or P |
Scoring
These are the point values this game awards, before the combo multiplier is applied where it uses one. Hit quality changes the figure: a strike at the centre of the correct moment is worth substantially more than one at the edge of it.
Tips
- Read the trial name first. The failure condition changes between trials, not just the controls.
- In Dodge and Weave, one hit is fatal. Play them far more conservatively than the others.
- In Hold, get inside the circle early - it moves, and catching up costs the whole trial.
- In Sort, the wanted sigil is drawn large at the top. Check it every time; it changes each trial.
- The trials you fail repeatedly point at which other game on the site to go and practise.
- Clearing quickly pays 20 a second, so finishing a quota trial early is worth real points.
Common mistakes
- Carrying the previous trial's instincts into the next one, which is exactly what the game tests.
- Playing Dodge like Gather and taking a hit while chasing something.
- Ignoring the sigil in Sort and touching runes by colour habit.
- Starting the Hold trial from outside the circle.
- Spending the clock in a quota trial being careful, and failing on time rather than on skill.
Features
- Six distinct trials drawn from mechanics across the whole site.
- A shuffled rotation that never repeats a trial twice in a row.
- Different failure conditions per trial, so switching costs more than controls.
- Bonuses that grow with the round while the clock shortens.
- Three lives shared across the whole gauntlet.
- Personal best round and trials cleared stored locally.
