PULSEBOUND is a rhythm roguelite and a bullet heaven. You only move: your instruments fire by themselves on the beat of the song, and every pick you make changes what you hear.
A run
- Move. With your finger on a phone, or with the keyboard or a controller on a computer. You never aim or shoot.
- Collect notes. The Static, the shapes that come for you, drop notes when they fall. Notes fill your level bar, and every level up offers a new instrument, a new FX pedal or a level for one you have. A run holds up to 5 instruments and 5 pedals.
- Dodge. Some of the Static shoot. Every shot is slower than you, aimed shots and rings show their path a beat before they fire, and every ring leaves a gap.
- Keep moving. Stay in one spot too long and chargers and drones come for you.
The 7 instruments
- Kick: a shockwave around you on every kick that knocks the Static back.
- Snare: a fan of sound bullets at the nearest enemy on every snare hit; at higher levels they pass through more of them.
- Hi-Hats: a fast needle at the nearest enemies on every hi-hat tick.
- Bass: orbs that circle around you and surge on the bass notes.
- Arpeggiator: a laser on every note of the arpeggio that cuts through everything in its line.
- Pad: an aura around you that burns and slows the Static.
- Bells: a falling star on every bell note that hits everything where it lands.
Each instrument goes up to level 7. Each of the 7 artists starts a run with one of them and a small bonus of their own.
The 11 FX pedals
A pedal makes the whole band stronger. Each level gives:
- Overdrive: +10% damage
- Reverb: +10% area
- Delay: +12% chance that an attack plays again an eighth note later
- Chorus: more bullets, needles, orbs or beams
- Compressor: +1 armor and +4% max health
- Amplifier: +20 max health
- Pickup: +30% pickup radius, so notes fly to you from farther away
- Looper: +8% experience
- Metronome: +8% move speed
- Limiter: +0.25 health every second
- Royalties: +15% royalties and +10% luck
A pedal goes up to 5 levels, the Chorus up to 3.
Build-up and drop
Notes fill the hype meter, and so does every hit on a boss. When it is full, the song goes into a build-up: hold on for 4 bars and the drop lands. A wave runs out from you across the arena: it clears every enemy shot, wipes out the Static it reaches and pulls the notes to you. While the drop plays, every instrument hits 50% harder.
Remixes
Every instrument has a partner pedal. Take an instrument to level 7 while you have its partner, and the next drop remixes it:
- Kick and Overdrive: Subquake, bigger, harder shockwaves that slow the Static.
- Snare and Amplifier: Thunderclap, a full circle of twice as many bullets.
- Hi-Hats and Delay: Needlestorm, twice the needles, and each one goes through more.
- Bass and Compressor: Leviathan, three more orbs, bigger and harder hitting, in a wider ring that wobbles.
- Arpeggiator and Chorus: Prism, longer, wider lasers that split in three.
- Pad and Reverb: Cathedral, a bigger aura that heals you as it pulses.
- Bells and Looper: Constellation, bigger stars, each linked to the one before by a beam of light.
The bosses
In a Concert they arrive at 3:00, 6:00 and 9:00; in the Tour, a boss ends every stage.
- METRONOME. It swings a pendulum and fires along it. One beat before each shot the lane glows gold: step out of it. Stay close, and your instruments hit it by themselves.
- FEEDBACK. It circles you and fires rings of bullets. Every ring has a gap: find it and walk through. Every few bars it jumps to your other side, and you see where first.
- SILENCE. Spiral storms of bullets, a ring of Shades around you, and now and then it mutes one of your instruments. Beat it to win the show.
5 ways to play
- Tour: 30 short levels in 5 stages, each with a goal and up to three stars. A boss ends every stage.
- Concert: the whole show in one run: three bosses and one song, with your Studio upgrades and items.
- Sprint: ranked. The same level for everyone this week: clear it as fast as you can.
- Daily Set: ranked. The same song and instrument for everyone today: last as long as you can.
- Survival: ranked. The same start for everyone this week, no ending, harder and harder: last as long as you can.
Sprint, Daily Set and Survival are the same for everyone: no Studio upgrades, no items, no continues, and nothing bought counts there.
Between runs
- The Studio: 19 upgrades you buy with the royalties you earn in runs. They count in the Tour and the Concert, never in ranked play.
- Orbs: 18 looks for your orb. They change nothing else.
- Your songs: every run writes its own track. Replay it, export it as a WAV file, or share its code so others hear exactly what you played.
- Every day: daily missions, login streaks, and leaderboards for today, this week and all time.
Ready? Play free in your browser.
Menu names are the game's English ones; the game shows them in your language.