Shaft Field Manual

The goal

You are the left paddle in solo play; an NPC holds the right. In Versus, another player takes the right. Win by reaching the target score (24 by default) first, or by having the higher score when time runs out in Timed mode.

The whole arena is falling. The faster it falls, the louder the wind, and the more the world shakes. Growing your arena slows the fall.

Controls

Multiplayer

Finish one fall to open the Multiplayer panel. Versus ends at the target score; Versus Timed ends when the clock runs out. Both are unranked and award no LokTokens.

Same keyboard

Choose a mode under Local 2-player and press Start. Player 1 uses W/S to move, A/D to tilt, Space to thrust or aim the arm, E to activate it, and arrow keys to flip. Player 2 uses I/K to move, J/L to tilt, U to thrust or aim the arm, O to activate it, H/N to flip, and Y to slice tears at paddle height. Press C to rebind keys. Each player controls their own glass, paddle, and tears.

Private online room

Choose your settings and Create room. Copy the invite link for your friend; only the two players in the room can enter its private channel. The link carries a room code, not a public lobby. A friend can also type that code into Join room.

Public match

Choose Versus or Versus Timed and press Find public match. Public matches use fixed standard settings so players share one queue for each mode. Use a private room for custom arenas, score, or time.

Each browser runs the same match and exchanges ordered inputs. If packets go missing, the game waits and retries. A mismatched simulation stops the match rather than continuing with different scores.

Guests, accounts, and saves

Guest online play uses a PongFall session on this device. It does not replace an existing LOK account session. To use your LOK identity, enter the email for your existing account in the main menu and follow its sign-in link. When PongFall cloud sync is enabled, guest progress transfers once after sign-in.

In a solo or same-keyboard game, open the pause menu and choose Save match. Give the slot a name. The main menu lists saved matches with Load and Delete. A save made with an older simulation stays listed; if it cannot replay safely, loading shows an error and leaves the slot intact.

When PongFall cloud sync is enabled, LOK sign-in syncs finished matches, wins and losses, settings, unlocks, and named saves. Online play is unranked and grants no LokTokens.

Glass

Each side sits behind a pane of glass. When the ball gets past a paddle and hits the glass, that is a miss: the glass cracks. Every pane survives 3 misses and shatters on the next one. On Chill your glass survives one extra.

• Cracks branch out from where the ball hit and stay on the pane. The pane shatters along those cracks.
• Each side has its own counter ("GLASS 2" means two more misses and it breaks).
• Glass cannot be repaired. Once it is gone, that side is open.

A ball that leaves through an open side flies out into the shaft. It can bounce off the walls and come back in.

Scoring and falling

• You score: your arena grows, and the fall slows down.
• They score: your arena shrinks a little, and the fall picks up.
• Every score gives the fall a short surge and shakes the arena.
• If the arena grows until it is wedged against both walls, the fall grinds to a halt and the game ends.

The ball speeds up a little with every paddle hit. Where the ball meets your paddle sets its angle: hit it near an edge for a sharp angle.

Other arenas

You are not alone in the shaft. In the settings (the gear button) choose Solo, 1, 3 or 5 other arenas. They hang on a loose carousel around yours: slowly orbiting, spinning, bumping into each other and into you. Each one is playing its own match against itself, to 5, with its own glass. When a match ends it gets fresh glass and starts again.

On Sharp and Relentless, balls knocked loose from other arenas can also fly in and hit your glass. On Chill and Casual they never do.

Solo keeps the shaft to just you and the eyes. Scores are kept separately for each number of arenas.

Rocking

Your arena is a real body. Every hit shoves it, and a hit away from the centre also rocks it: hit near the top of your paddle and it tips one way, near the bottom and it tips the other. The arena swings back and settles on springs.

• A tilted arena rolls the ball downhill, so a big rock bends the rally.
• Thrust, boosted strikes, glass breaking and being bumped by another arena all rock you harder.
• The Rough Seas modifier (?mods=rough-seas) makes it much wilder.

Thrust

A short lunge of your paddle toward the other side, with real momentum. The speed of the lunge is handed to the ball when you hit it, so a well-timed thrust is a fast return. After using it, it recharges (see the small bar under the score).

Eyes and tears

The shaft walls are riveted metal plates with eyes set into them behind plate lids. Plain wall just bounces the ball. An eye reacts:

• Hit a wall eye with the ball and every eye in the wall opens for a while. The one you hit squashes, makes a wet sound, and drops a tear.
• Tears are big and slow, and the wind blows them around. Slice through them (drag or swipe) to collect them. You can hold up to 4.
• The eyes watch the ball, flinch when hit, and look shocked when glass breaks.

Far back in the dark there are fainter eyes. They glow when the wall eye next to them is hit. Later in a game they give way to something much bigger.

Pinball paddle

You earn the arm by collecting 4 tears and pressing E (it stays out for 12 seconds, and you can earn it again), or the optional shortcut: when your own glass breaks and your paddle is free, you keep it for good. It starts every match locked and grows out once earned. A second bar, the pinball arm, extends horizontally from the middle of your paddle into the arena. It works separately from the paddle (which still blocks) and swats up or down, always knocking the ball upward, hard.

• Swat: ↑ / ↓, left / right click, the FLIP buttons, or tap the top / bottom half on touch.
• Power hit: every third arm hit is a power hit: a big extra speed boost, a flash and a shove through the whole arena. It never switches off while you keep swatting.
• Power hit unloaded: hold a swat, then let go. The arm snaps back and also fires the ball forward.

Comeback rules

These rules do not apply in Sandbox, and on Relentless there is no second wind (the 6-point lock still applies).

Difficulty

Change it any time in the gear menu (it restarts the game). Scores are kept separately for each difficulty.

Modes and modifiers

Optional modifiers (web address ?mods=): Thin Glass, Fast Ball, Heavy Fall, Slick Paddles, Gale, Low Gravity, Heavy Sway, Rough Seas.

Settings

Open the gear button. Everything is saved in this browser.

• Game (restarts the game): difficulty, mode, other arenas (Solo, 1, 3, 5), score to win (7, 14, 24, 28 or the mode's own) and time limit (none, 1:00, 2:00, 3:00 or the mode's own).
• Sound: master, effects and wind/ambience volume, and mute.
• Graphics: fog quality (High uses a shader, Low is cheaper, Off removes it) and Reduce motion.
• Controls and HUD: show or hide the control hints and the wind gauge, show or hide the on-screen THRUST, PINBALL and FLIP buttons, and swap them for left-handed play.
• Reset to defaults puts everything back.

Custom game lengths change your local match setup. PongFall does not submit ranked scores.

Falls, unlocks and the menu

Every normal visit opens on the live intro. The first time you enter, you play a fresh 12-point Solo Fall match; your twelfth point wedges the arena against the shaft walls. After its result, Main menu leads to the original watching eye, which follows your cursor. The top bar switches between complete Classic and New menus. Every finished match is a fall; the first opens multiplayer and later falls open more choices. Settings has Reset main menu to reset the fall count.

Win at the target and you get You win... but at what cost? The arena keeps falling: if you grew it enough to stop the fall you may find out you survived; if not, the fall never stops. Then choose Retry or Main menu.

Flux (Settings): the NPC drifts between difficulty tiers and paddle sizes change on both sides of the other arenas. It is never ranked. The wall eyes stay shut for the first minute: a second hit makes them peek, a third opens them.

The 🎮 Trijam Game Jam Build chip (bottom-right) opens the separate frozen three-hour version. Its gameplay and background visuals remain those of the jam build. The link beneath it leads to the weekly Trijam.

Lens

Win your first match to unlok the Lens (Settings, Lens): a colour filter over the whole game with a hue shift slider and 8 looks. It only changes how the game looks.

Tips

• Start on Chill and try Sandbox to feel thrust before a real game.
• Do not chase tears with your paddle: slice them in passing, between rallies.
• Save your pinball paddle for when you are behind, or use it to close out a game.
• A thrust right as the ball arrives hits much harder than a normal return.
• Wind pushes tears sideways: slice with the wind, not against it.
• Sensitive to motion? Turn on Reduce Motion in the gear menu.

Scores and rewards

Your score is points scored times 100, minus the other side's points times 40, plus a bonus for winning (and a speed bonus for winning fast). Your best is saved in this browser for each mode and difficulty.

When cloud sync is enabled, PongFall can sync your record to an existing LOK account. Matches here remain unranked and grant no LokTokens.