The first CPS Challenge appeared on the CPS Test in November 2022: a set of clicking missions, like hitting a target a number of times or stopping when a light turned red.
The new CPS Challenge keeps the clicking and changes the shape. Every level is a monster. Each monster has one rule, and the game tells you the rule in a sentence before the fight starts.
How a fight works
A fight lasts 8 to 14 seconds and starts on your first click, just like the CPS test. Every click is a hit. Take the monster’s HP to zero before the clock runs out and you win; win quickly and without losing a heart and you get three stars.
The rules are where it gets interesting, because they ask for different things:
- Armor only breaks while you keep up a minimum pace. Slow down and your clicks bounce off.
- A mirror does the opposite: click faster than its limit and you are parried. It rewards control.
- Spikes glow orange, then red. Touch the monster while they are red and you lose a heart.
- Bombs land around the monster and have to be tapped away before their fuse runs out.
- A dodgy monster runs around the arena, and a hard shell only takes damage on a glowing core that keeps moving.
- Regeneration heals the monster every second, so every pause costs you.
- A guard blocks everything while its shield is up. You rest, and then you burst.
The first world introduces one rule per level. After that they start to mix, and every tenth level is a boss that switches to a new rule when its HP drops. After level 50 the five worlds come around again with tougher monsters, and the ladder has no end.
How hard is it?
Each level is built for a clicking speed: about 3 clicks per second at level 1, 8 at level 20, 12 at level 50 and 14 at level 100. We do not set a monster’s HP by hand. For every level, a simulated player clicking at that speed (with a little wobble in its rhythm, slightly sloppy aim and a human reaction time) plays the fight, and the HP is set so that it wins with a bit of time to spare. That keeps the difficulty rising smoothly, whatever mix of rules a level gets.
Wins pay coins, and coins buy upgrades in the Forge: more damage per click, lucky double hits, an extra heart or two, and a little extra time. The upgrades are capped, so they help you over a wall without replacing speed.
Keeping the board honest
You can play without an account; your climb is saved in your browser. If you sign in with Google, your climb is saved to your account and you can appear on the board of top climbers.
Every fight on an account is set up by our server, which picks the random seed and notes your upgrades. When the fight ends, your browser sends the record of your clicks, and the server plays the whole fight again from that record. The game is built so that the replay comes out exactly the same as the fight you saw, click for click. Only the server’s result counts. Clicks with the perfectly even rhythm of an auto clicker, or clicks that did not come from a real mouse or finger, are not counted.
That is also why an account starts at level 1: only fights our server has replayed can put a name on the board.
Try it
The CPS Challenge is free, runs in the browser on a computer or a phone, and your first fight takes about ten seconds.