Duckstep

Hit the beat. Wreck the board.

Duckstep is a rhythm game about a duck, his very strange friends, and a screen full of gems that need smashing. Gems fall down the lanes, you hit them on the beat, and every clean hit sets something off: your character's power, the skills you drafted, the items circling your head. The score in the corner climbs from thousands to millions to numbers that need new letters.

The catch: none of it runs on a timer. Every power, skill and item fires on YOUR press. Play on the beat and the whole screen plays with you. Lose the beat and it all goes quiet.

The loop

• Hit: Perfects in a row stack a streak multiplier. A Good holds it, a miss resets it.
  
• Draft: clean hits fill a meter. Fill it and the game pauses to deal you a hand of skills. Thirty skills, ten slots, and three copies of one evolves it.
  
• Duck Step: your streak charges the Duckstep meter. Fire it and your stepper turns into a pinball, banks everything you're holding, and shields your streak while it bounces.
  
• Jackpot: every Duck Step marks a Jackpot note. Hit it yourself for a rush where every press pays triple.
  
• Ultimate: reach a 400 combo and pick one of three Ultimates that rewrites the rest of your run.

Catch multiplier chips and let them ride, grab a lucky Fever ball, and play your HP back up with clean hits. Every run ends with a rank from S to C, judged only on your own presses.

Twenty steppers, twenty powers

Everyone plays the same songs. Nobody plays them the same way. Each of the twenty characters has a signature power that switches on at a 25 combo and grows at 100, 200 and 300, from a frog with a laser tongue to a duck with a ring of fire. Find the one that fits your hands, or unlock them all and see what breaks.

Twenty levels, twenty weird ideas

Every level has its own song, its own hand-made chart mapped to the song's real beats, and its own twist: bomb gems you should NOT press, lights that die the longer you last, a twin of your character that shows up to play your other hand, a DJ who flips the lanes mid-song. Easy, Medium and Hard are separate charts, four levels are endless, and HYPER and RAW are there when you want to suffer properly.

Earn everything. Buy nothing.

Every run pays out. Gems and Crowns unlock new characters, new skills for the draft and new Ultimates for the 400-combo pick, and the only way to get them is to play. Clearing a level opens the next, endless levels open theirs when you survive long enough, and nearly 90 quests keep handing you something new to chase. Some characters don't wait in the shop at all: play the right way on the right level and they come find you.

No premium currency, no energy bar, nothing to buy your way past.

Bring a friend (or a bot with an attitude)

VS puts two full cabinets side by side. Clean presses charge your counter, and when you send it, your combo becomes your opponent's problem. Nobody around? Take on the AI: Chill, Even or Sharp.

Play it your way

• Keyboard, controller or dance mat, with remappable lanes.
  
• A quick tap test tunes the timing to your setup.
  
• Grey Gems and Reduced Flash for easier reading.
  
• Played the demo? Your progress comes with you.