EMPTYFISHTANK PRESENTS

BYTEFALL

// DECRYPTION TERMINAL

// RULES & RECORDS

RULES

Encrypted bits fall into the terminal. Drop each one into a column.

A bit decrypts when its number matches the length of the unbroken line it sits in, across or down. Decrypting can bring more bits down into new matches for a chain.

// SCORING

A decrypted bit scores 10 plus its number (a [4] is 14), multiplied by the chain: the second link doubles, the third triples, and so on. Blocks wiped out by exploits score a flat 10.

On Easy and Normal, every 4 bits a single drop decrypts make a NIBBLE, worth 16 bonus points.

// LAYERS AND THE LINE

Encryption layers [=] rise from below every 8 drops. Decrypt a bit beside one to peel a layer off; the second peel ([-]) reveals the bit hidden underneath.

Keep your columns below the ======== line. If anything is still above it once the decrypting stops, the trace completes and you're caught.

// EXPLOITS

Each chain link lights a bar of the CHAIN METER beside the grid; fill all 5 for an EXPLOIT from your loadout. Tap the EXPLOIT button and it becomes your next drop.

The first three exploits are yours as they unlock; the rest are bought once with resources in EXPLOITS and kept until you RANK UP.

// THE BOTTOM ROW

Either side of the EXPLOIT button, an EXPLOIT SLOT holds an exploit you bring in from the main menu's EXPLOITS (the left one fills first). An empty one is the BLACK MARKET once the first layer rises: something for sale, a new one every 4 drops (each slot's pips count its own). Once what you bought is used, its slot sits out the next drop, then shuffles to a new offer.

At each end, a PATCH SLOT sells a patch mid-game, applied the moment you buy it. It keeps the slot while it works; used up, the slot sits out the next drop, then sells another. The slots open as you level up.

BLACK BOXES open into a random exploit, but some are INFECTED.

In CLASSIC and BLITZ, a bit freed from its last layer is now and then an INFECTED BIT: red, with a virus in its corner. Decrypt it with your next drop and it's quarantined for a ROOTKIT; leave it, and it goes off as an infection. INFECTIONS: OFF in the mode's settings on the main menu turns them off.

// STORY

Tap CLASSIC again on the main menu for STORY (and again for CLASSIC). In STORY every game has a key to crack, and every file of the story its own key: its ENCRYPTION STRENGTH, the points it takes, stays ENCRYPTED till a 5-chain from one drop finds it out, or you crack it anyway. Crack it for KEYS and the story's next file (a document, a message or a call), then GO DEEPER for a stronger key or DISCONNECT to end the game on a win. Deeper chapters need deeper keys; the ARCHIVE keeps everything.

STORY has no settings: it's played on the 7x7 board (with INFECTIONS, once someone's noticed you), and each key is harder than the last: 1,500 more points to crack, its layers sooner (every 8 drops at 128-BIT, 7 at 192, 6 at 256 and 384, 5 at 512 and 1024, then 4), and infections likelier.

You start STORY with nothing, and the story decides what you can use: the people in it introduce exploits and patches as it goes, and only those count in STORY, whatever you own or have unlocked elsewhere. Your chains earn the introduced exploits; the patches you're sent go in your kit, used from the PATCHES button beside your EXPLOIT button (up to 2 patches and 2 exploits a key). Later the BLACK MARKET opens from the same buttons, and later still you can bring your own from the STORE, chosen on STORY's main menu.

// DIFFICULTY

Easy shows the next bit, and a drop that clears nothing only takes one bar off the CHAIN METER (on Normal it empties it).

Hard is a full byte: an 8×8 terminal with bits up to 8, and new layers come faster as your score climbs. Every 8 bits a single drop decrypts make a BYTE, worth 256 bonus points, and 4 more a NIBBLE, worth 16. Its CHAIN METER empties after every chain: the 5 links have to come in one.

// RESOURCES AND LEVELS

Decrypting earns KEYS and resources (the STORE's [i] says how), spent in the STORE, the BLACK MARKET and the PATCH SLOTS. PATCHES bought there are switched on from the main menu before a game.

Every bit you decrypt is XP, 100 bits a level. Exploits, slots, themes, fonts and tracks unlock by level; at Lv 80 you can RANK UP to start again, earning a little more each rank.

Tap a column or its button, or press 1–7, to drop

EXPLOITS

§ WORM VIRUS

Burrows down the column it lands in and wipes out every block there.

+ BUFFER OVERFLOW

Floods memory: every bit goes up by 1. A bit pushed past 7 gets re-encrypted under two layers.

◈ TROJAN

Slips in quietly, then wipes out every block touching the spot where it lands.

? RNG

Scrambles every bit to a new random number.

BITFLIP

Turns every column upside down.

# DICTIONARY ATTACK

Throws every known key at the encryption: every layer on the board loses one level at once.

@ KEYLOGGER

Records the incoming stream: shows your next 3 bits for the next 10 drops.

⇆ PIVOT

Moves sideways through the network: the column it lands in swaps places with the one beside it. Pick the column, then tap the neighbor (← or →) to swap with: once picked, you're committed. Edge columns swap with their only neighbor.

SWAP

Spoofs two addresses: any two bits on the board trade places. Armed, tap a bit on the grid, then another (tap the first again to put it back); they swap, and any match they make decrypts.

~ PACKET SNIFFER

Taps the incoming stream: for your next 3 bits, tap CURRENT (or press ↑ / ↓) to choose each one's number.

! LOGIC BOMB

Lands as a block counting down from 3. Three drops later it detonates, wiping out everything in the 5×5 around it.

◎ HONEYPOT

Lands as a trap. When a bit next to it decrypts, every bit with that number within 2 cells of the trap decrypts too.

_ BACKDOOR

Opens a way in underneath: the entire bottom row is deleted, layers included, and everything drops by one.

* RAINBOW TABLE

Looks up the most common number on the board and decrypts every bit showing it.

BLACK BOX

Nobody knows what's inside. Armed, it opens into a random exploit: any of them, equipped or not.

STORE

YOUR RESOURCES

DAILY DROP FREE

Once a day: a free exploit for your next game (not in DAILY, PUZZLE or VS), 25 KEYS, and 3 each of BUGS, CACHE and CRYPTO. Every 7th day in a row you play, 3 MASTER KEYS too.

PATCHES

Switch one on from the main menu before a game.

TIER I EXPLOITS

Exploits of your own to bring into a game, from EXPLOITS on the main menu.

BLACK BOXES

A random exploit for less. Open it in a game.

⚠ BUYER BEWARE // NO REFUNDS

These come off the black market, and nobody checks what's inside. Some boxes are INFECTED, and it hits the moment you open one. Two infected boxes, two infections at once. Some want KEYS: tap them and they help themselves, and once they've got what they're after, they go. Or wait them out.

ADWARE blocks a column with an ad for 3 drops.
SPYWARE hides your next 3 bits.
RANSOMWARE locks 3 bits for 5 drops. They won't decrypt or fall.
MALWARE scrambles what your board shows for 3 drops.
CRYPTOJACKER steals the resources you earn for 5 drops.
SCAREWARE throws up fake alerts for 8 drops, up to 4 at once. Find the little X.

SUPPORT THE GAME

Everything in BYTEFALL can be earned by playing. These are for playing without ads, or having it all now.

PREVIEW // PURCHASES AREN'T OPEN YET

REMOVE ADS

No more banner ads, for good. Everything else stays as it is: exploits, themes and tracks are still earned by playing.

FULL ACCESS

Everything that unlocks by level, unlocked now: HARD and INSANE, every CPU, exploit, theme, font and track. No ads either. Your levels, ranks and achievements still count what you play.

Bought something on another device, or reinstalled the game? RESTORE PURCHASES brings back what your account owns.

// SETTINGS

// SOUND

LAYERED: the music builds with your stack, a layer at a time, more coming in as the danger climbs. FULL: every layer in, the whole game long (as in the MUSIC PLAYER).

// PLAYLIST

REPEAT loops the track. SEQUENCE and SHUFFLE play each track 4 times, then fade into the next (in order, or at random: SHUFFLE plays the official tracks only). RADIO is mostly brand-new GENERATED songs, with the SONG OF THE DAY and your tracks mixed in.

ON keeps the music going when you switch tabs or apps.

// CONTROLS

// DISPLAY

THEME

FONT

REDUCED, for slower phones: the backgrounds hold still, the glows go, and exploded bits break into fewer, bigger pieces.

The whole screen as an old tube: scanlines, the glass darker toward its rounded corners. FULL adds the phosphor stripes, a faint flicker and a slow rolling band.

// EXTRAS

The CPUs strolling along the bottom of the game card. Tap one to poke it.

After 90 seconds untouched (not in a timed game), the screen goes black but for the wandering bots, to save battery. Tap to come back.

BYTEFALL

// DECRYPTION TERMINAL

SCORE 0

BEST 0

CHAIN 0x

ENCRYPT IN 8

CURRENT

BYTEFALL

BYTEFALL

RECORDS

NOTICES

ARCHIVE

STORE

DAILY DROP FREE

PATCHES

TIER I EXPLOITS

BLACK BOXES

SUPPORT THE GAME

REMOVE ADS

FULL ACCESS

BYTEFALL

BYTEFALL

BYTEFALL

// BLACK MARKET

// HOW THEY'RE EARNED

// CLASSIC SETTINGS

// PATCHES

// IM

// PATCHES

// EXPLOITS

TRACE COMPLETE

BYTEFALL

BYTEFALL

RECORDS

NOTICES

ARCHIVE

STORE []

DAILY DROP FREE

PATCHES []

TIER I EXPLOITS []

BLACK BOXES []

SUPPORT THE GAME

REMOVE ADS

FULL ACCESS

BYTEFALL

TRACE COMPLETE

STORE

PATCHES

TIER I EXPLOITS

BLACK BOXES