Rules · controls · fair play
How to play
Every number on this page is read straight from the game's shared physics configuration, so it always matches what the simulation does.
Controls
| Steer | Press the direction you want to go on screen: W A S D or the arrow keys. Up is always up the screen. Each press is an instant, exact 90° turn; pressing the way you already go, or straight back, does nothing (no accidental U-turn into yourself). Presses faster than the game's 60 Hz tick are queued, one turn per tick. In the chase cam, and with "Relative" steering in Settings, A/D turn left/right relative to your bike instead. |
|---|---|
| Boost | Hold Space: 392 u/s, costs 45 energy/s. |
| Brake | Hold Shift: 210 u/s for precise timing, costs 20 energy/s. If boost and brake are both held, brake wins. |
| Normal | 280 u/s. Energy regenerates at 18/s (max 100) only when neither ability is held. |
| Camera | C cycles the camera: Follow (close, always north-up), Chase (behind your bike) and Whole arena. A minimap in the corner shows every rider, their trails and the border. |
| Settings | Esc. Online matches keep running while settings are open; practice pauses. All keys can be rebound. |
When energy runs dry mid-ability, your vehicle drops back to normal and the ability stays off until you release the key — no flickering on and off.
Trails and the safe wake
- Every light cycle leaves a continuous wall of light. A wall is lethal to everyone — including its owner. Its floor line marks exactly how wide the lethal wall is.
- Walls don't last forever: each piece fades over its last seconds and disappears 8 seconds after it was laid. A fading wall still kills until the moment it is gone.
- The last 22 units of path directly behind a living vehicle are its safe wake, shown as a faint wall still rising out of the floor. It is measured along the path, not as a radius, so turning back into your own older wall is still fatal — two quick taps in the same direction is a U-turn into yourself.
- Glow and reflections are decoration only: collision uses the wall width (7 units) and nothing else.
- Touching another vehicle eliminates both of you, whoever "hit" whom.
The arena
| Time | Arena |
|---|---|
| 0:00 – 0:30 | Full size (1600 × 900) |
| 0:30 – 1:10 | Shrinks evenly to 80% |
| 1:10 – 2:00 | Shrinks evenly to 50% (800 × 450) |
The orange border is lethal. Trail outside the border is removed; any part still inside stays lethal. A faint dashed outline shows where the border is heading next.
Winning, placements and draws
- 1v1 Duel: best of three rounds — first to two round wins. A round ends when one player is left, or after 120 s.
- Drawn duel rounds (both eliminated on the same simulation tick, or both alive at the time limit) award no point and are replayed. After two drawn replays, a third draw ends the match as a draw.
- 4-player FFA (coming soon): one round in a very large arena (2.5× the duel arena in each direction; it shrinks on the same schedule). Last vehicle alive wins; everyone else is ranked by how long they survived. Eliminations on the same tick share a placement. Several survivors at the time limit share first.
- Nothing is ever decided at random.
Connection problems
If you disconnect from an online match, your slot is held for 8 seconds. During that time your vehicle keeps flying straight with abilities off and can still be eliminated. The game never pauses for a disconnect. Reconnect within 8 seconds to take back control; after that, you forfeit the round.
Fair play
- Online, the game server runs the only authoritative simulation. Your browser sends key presses, nothing else.
- Every vehicle has identical physics. Nothing can be bought, and cosmetics never change hitboxes.
- Practice bots are always labelled and never appear in online queues.
- Ninety has no wagering, deposits, cash prizes or withdrawals.