On this page
What it is #
Pulsework is an idle clicker. In the middle of the screen sits a core, and every tap on it makes flux, the game's energy, at once. Tap fast and the core's charge fills: full, it goes into Overdrive and every tap counts double for a few seconds. Flux buys tools that make every tap worth more, drones that tap the core for you, and generators that make flux by themselves, and all of it keeps working while the game is closed.
A shift is a short rush order: in its time, the core must turn out a quota of flux. Sparks show on the four junctions round the core for a moment: tap one and its coins are yours. Glitches spark there too and drain the core until you tap them away; leave one to burn out and it burns one of your five fuses. The shift is lost when the last fuse goes, or when the time runs out short of the quota.
Shifts are numbered and never run out. A shift's number sets how hard it is, and its sparks and glitches are laid out anew every time you play, so a second try never plays the same way. As you get further, new kinds join in, each one introduced with a short line the first time you meet it.
How to play #
| Phone or tablet | Computer | |
|---|---|---|
| Tap the core | Tap anywhere on the field | Space (held down, it taps once) |
| Take a spark, clear a glitch | Tap its junction | The arrow that points to it: up for the top one, and so on |
| Abilities | Tap their buttons under the field | The digits 1 to 4 |
| The plant | Plant, on the menu. Tap the core for flux. Tap a tool or a generator for its card, double-tap it to raise it; tap an empty slot to build the generator picked in the bar | Space taps the core (or raises what a card is open on), arrows move between slots and tools, Enter builds or opens a card, the digits 1 to 4 pick a generator, Delete twice sells |
| Details | 👀 at the top turns off the cards that say what a tool, a generator or an ability does | I, or click 👀 |
| Menus | Tap the buttons | Left and right arrows change the shift, Space or Enter plays, Escape pauses and closes panels |
- A tap on an empty junction is a slip: the core stalls for a moment. Grey sparks, the duds, come later: let them fade.
- The first five shifts ask for your own taps alone. After that a shift also expects the plant a player has by then: if yours is short, the menu says so in red, and the plant is where to go.
- Your profile keeps your stats: time played, shifts met, taps and critical taps, Overdrives, glitches cleared, flux made, coins earned and spent, and more.
- The game comes in English and in Spanish (where it is called A Todo Pulso): EN and ES, at the top right of the menu, switch between them, and the site and its other games follow your choice.
- Light by day, dark by night: with the theme on auto (the foot of the menu), the game follows the sun where you are, going by your time zone, and fades to its night colours at dusk, even in the middle of a play. Set the theme to light or dark to keep one.
The plant, and the time you are away #
The plant is the core with its four tools on the junctions and a ring of slots for generators round them. Here too every tap on the core makes flux, with the same charge and Overdrive as in a shift.
- Coil: more flux every tap.
- Drones: they tap the core for you, one more a level up to eight, and faster every level.
- Conduit: every tap also takes a share of what the generators make in a second.
- Arc: now and then a tap is critical and makes ten times as much, more often and for more every level.
- Generators: dynamos at first, then turbines, reactors and lattices as you reach further shifts, each bigger kind growing faster as it is raised. A new colour shows every third level, and at level 7 each kind gains a special: taps that make more, glitches cleared for you, a burnout that burns no fuse, a longer Overdrive. Selling a generator gives back 75% of all it cost.
Generators and drones keep working while the game is closed. When you come back, the plant shows what it made while you were away: its flux, and a few coins, one for every 2,000 flux, rounded up. It runs up to two hours away at first; a video adds two more, the Overnight tank in the store adds hours, up to eight, and Night crew keeps it running a whole day. Coins from the plant are kept small on purpose: shifts are where coins are made.
Modes #
- Shifts: numbered shifts that get harder as you go, in worlds of ten, each world with its own colours and music. Every shift has three stars: meet it, take every spark, and meet it on the first try. Each star pays a reward you pick: 10% more coins from that shift, or 10% more flux in your next one.
- Daily shift: one shift a day, the same for every player, with a quota from your own plant so everyone is measured alike. A new one arrives at midnight UTC.
- Endless: cycle after cycle, each with its own quota, getting harder until a quota is missed or the fuses run out. Your score is the cycle you reach. The store sells more fuses for it, and Lifeline: a small chance that a glitch you clear gives a fuse back.
Coins you collect are kept even when you lose. Spend them in the store on upgrades (sparks that stay longer, glitches that burn slower, more flux from everything, more coins), abilities you use in a shift (Mend, Overdrive, Patch and Surge), more slots, a longer time away, shields that save a fuse, and new looks for your core, its rings and the floor.
The leaderboard ranks players with a free account: the furthest shift and stars, the best cycle in Endless, and the best plant. Its top 10 is in the game and on this page.
Top 10
| # | Player | Furthest shift | Stars |
|---|---|---|---|
| Loading… | |||
Players with a free account are ranked by their best results, under their player tag. As a guest your progress stays on your device: create an account to be on it.
Free, with or without an account #
Pulsework is free to play and needs no download. It works on phones, tablets and computers.
As a guest, your progress, coins and settings are saved in this browser, on this device only; we don't receive them, and clearing your browser's data for this site erases them. With a free player account, your progress and coins follow you to every device where you sign in. The first time you open the game, you choose how to play: log in, create an account or play as a guest. Creating an account or playing as a guest asks your date of birth; the answer stays on this device, and is saved with your account if you create one. See the privacy policy and your account page.