Arclo User Guide

A complete walkthrough of everything Arclo can do. For quick fixes to common issues, see Troubleshooting.

The Idea

Arclo is a one-tap game. You control two orbs joined by a short tether: a fixed anchor and a swinger that orbits around it. Every tap swaps which orb is the anchor, and that swap flings the pair forward along the course. By tapping in rhythm you “walk” the pair through a line of gates while a void chases you from behind.

That single tap is the entire control scheme. There are no sliders, no joysticks, and no multi-touch.

Getting Started

First Launch

The first time you open Arclo, a short guided tutorial runs automatically. It introduces the orbs, the tap-to-swap control, the void that chases you, and your first gate. You can skip it at any time, and you can replay it later from Settings → Replay Tutorial.

Playing a Round

From the main menu, pick a mode (Orbit or Pendulum) and a tier (1 to 10).
Tap Play.
Tap the screen to swap the anchor and move the pair forward.
Steer the swinger through each gate’s gap without clipping a post.
Cleanly pass through the green finish gate to clear the level. The next level is generated a little harder.

Controls

Tap anywhere (or press Space) to swap the anchor orb. This is your only action during play.
The orbs and the tether do the rest: timing your taps is how you aim.

Keyboard (hardware keyboards on iPad, or a connected keyboard)

Space: swap during play, and confirm or start on menus.
Enter / Return: play or continue.
Esc: pause during play, or go back on a menu.
Number keys 1 through 0: pick a tier on the menu (0 selects tier 10).

The Two Modes

Arclo has two co-equal physics modes. They are never mixed in a single run, and each keeps its own separate progress.

Orbit

A constant-spin swing. The swinger rotates around the anchor at a steady rate, and tapping reverses the pivot. Orbit can be played horizontally (landscape) or vertically (portrait), or set to follow your device automatically. See Orientation below.

Pendulum

A true gravity swing. The loose orb falls and swings back and forth like a real pendulum, so timing your swaps against gravity is the core skill. Pendulum always runs vertically.

Orientation (Orbit only)

Orbit can travel along the long axis of the screen (horizontal) or down it (vertical). In Settings → Orbit orientation you can choose:

Horizontal: locked to landscape-style travel.
Vertical: locked to portrait-style travel.
Auto: follows how you are holding the device (landscape uses horizontal, portrait uses vertical). This is the default and works well for most players.

Pendulum ignores this setting because gravity always defines “down.”

The Run

Gates

Each gate is a pair of posts with a gap between them. Pass the midpoint of your orb pair cleanly through the gap to clear the gate. Touching a post ends the run. The final gate of a level is marked in green; you have to thread it cleanly to win, exactly like any other gate (and on the moving-gate tiers it can slide too), so reaching it is not enough.

The Void

A glowing wall chases you from behind for the entire run. If it catches you, the run ends.

Pass cleanly through a gate and the void is pushed back.
Miss or skip a gate and the void surges forward faster.

The void is the one threat that nothing can protect you from, so keeping ahead of it is the heart of the game.

Scoring

Each clean gate scores points. Clearing gates in a row builds a multiplier (shown in the top-left of the screen) that multiplies the points each gate is worth, up to a cap. A miss resets the multiplier back to x1, so a flawless run scores far higher than a scrappy one. Your run’s total posts to the Game Center leaderboards (see Leaderboards below).

The Timer

A run timer shows in the lower-left corner during play. When you clear a level, the results screen shows your finish time, and your best time for that level is saved and synced. Beating it shows a “Best” badge.

Tiers and Mechanics

There are ten tiers. Tiers 1 to 3 are free. Tiers 4 to 10 are unlocked with a single one-time purchase (see Unlocking the Full Game). Every tier is endless: clear a level and a slightly harder one is generated for the next.

Each tier adds one new idea on top of the last, so you learn them one at a time:

Tier 1: big turns. Gates are offset far enough that you have to swing wide to line each one up.
Tier 2: moving gates. Some gates slide across the lane, near or far, at varying speeds. Not every gate moves, and how many move varies by level. Orbit has more and faster movers; Pendulum has fewer and slower ones.
Tier 3: drifting hazards. Lethal orbs patrol across the lane.
Tier 4: the signature mechanic. In Orbit your spin flips direction at marked zones; in Pendulum you pass through tether zones that shorten or lengthen the tether, speeding up or slowing down the swing.
Tier 5: barriers. Gate-sized lethal walls sit beside a gate, so you cannot detour around it. You have to thread the gap.
Tier 6: fly-ins. Hazards fly in across the lane mid-run.
Tier 7: pulsing gates. Gate gaps breathe open and closed.
Tier 8: moving barriers. The lethal walls beside a gate now slide back and forth too.
Tier 9: tractor beams. An unseen entity sits just off one side of the screen (top or bottom in landscape, left or right in portrait) and drags the whole orb pair toward it, so lining up gates and dodging barriers becomes a fight against the pull. The drag is felt across the whole lane but grows the closer you drift to that side, so it is light on the far edge and strongest right beside the beam. You will see it coming: purple rings pulse inward from that side, then the whole thing eases off as you pass. The pull starts milder on early levels and reaches full strength deeper in.
Tier 10: debuffs. Drifting red anti-power-ups you weave to dodge (see Debuffs below).

Each top tier still carries everything below it, so tier 10 is every twist at once plus its own headliner.

Power-ups

Once in a while a glowing token drifts across the lane. Catch it with either orb to trigger its effect. Timed effects last about 10 seconds; a small badge with a countdown bar appears at the top of the screen while one is active. Power-ups get more common on higher tiers, and the hardest tiers (8 to 10) can occasionally drop two in a level.

Wide Gates: every gate widens, giving you more room to thread.
Shield: absorbs a single collision (anything except the void), then it is spent. The void still ends the run, so a shield is for surviving a hazard, post, or barrier, not for outrunning the wall.
Freeze: stops all moving elements (sliding gates, moving barriers, pulsing gaps, drifting and fly-in hazards) so you can thread a tricky section. The void keeps advancing, so you still have to keep moving.
Gate Pass: a saved charge with no timer. The next gate you would miss is credited as a clean pass instead, with no void surge and no broken combo. It is spent the moment it saves you. (The finish gate still needs a real clean pass.)

Power-ups are rare, so not every run will have one. They are also skipped during the tutorial and the free teaser of a locked tier.

Debuffs (Tier 10)

On tier 10, red warning tokens drift across the lane alongside the power-ups: anti-power-ups. Touching one is not fatal, but it applies a penalty, so you weave to dodge them while still threading gates. Their placement is fixed for each level (not random), so every tier-10 level is a consistent, fair challenge. Timed debuffs show a red badge at the top of the screen.

Void Surge: the void permanently speeds up for the rest of the level. Clearing gates will not undo it, so once it hits, a single miss can be fatal. It is placed early in the level, where it has the most room to run you down.
Narrow Gates: gate gaps shrink for a few seconds.
Frenzy: all environmental motion (gates, pulsing gaps, hazards, barriers) speeds up for a few seconds.
Gate Jitter: gates twitch and jitter for a few seconds, making precise timing harder.
Wide Barriers: barriers grow wider for a few seconds, shrinking the lane beside them. This one shows up just before a barrier, so the effect lands when it matters.
Teleport: instantly warps you back to before your last-cleared gate and un-clears it. You lose ground and have to re-thread that gate, but you are dropped in a safe spot, never onto a barrier or hazard.

Results

When a run ends, the results screen shows:

Whether you cleared the level or what ended the run.
Gates cleared out of the total.
How many gates you missed (if any).
On a win: your finish time, plus your best time for that level and a “Best” badge if you set a new record.

From here you can replay or retry the level, advance to the next level (after a win), or return to the menu. Your progress on a cleared level is saved the moment you finish, whether you continue or go back to the menu.

Pausing

During play, tap the pause button in the lower-right corner (or press Esc). The game dims and a pause menu appears with options to resume, restart the level, open settings, or quit to the menu. Pausing also pauses the music.

Settings

Reach Settings from the main menu, or from the pause menu during a run.

Audio

Sound Effects: toggle on or off, with a volume slider.
Music: toggle on or off, with a volume slider.
New song each game: when on, every run starts a fresh random track. When off (the default), the soundtrack picks up where it left off, like a continuous album.
Soundtrack Player: a built-in music player for browsing and playing every song in the game. This appears once you have unlocked the full game (see below).

Game

Orbit orientation: Horizontal, Vertical, or Auto (described above).
Orbit spin direction: choose which way the orbs spin in Orbit mode: Clockwise (the default), Counter-clockwise, or Random (each level picks a direction). Pendulum ignores this, since gravity defines its swing.
How to Play: opens the in-app manual.
Replay Tutorial: runs the guided first-time tutorial again.

Accessibility

Screen shake: on by default. Turn it off to remove the camera shake that happens on taps and impacts, if motion bothers you.

Challenge

Gate cap past level 25: by default levels grow to 30 gates by level 25 and then hold there. From level 26 on, you can raise this cap (up to 100) for harder, longer levels.
Raised-cap levels are worth more: each gate on them scores the cap divided by 30, so a harder, longer level earns proportionally more on the same leaderboard as everyone else. Players at the standard 30 are unaffected. The cap cannot go below 30.

Purchases

Unlock: buy the one-time full-game unlock.
Restore Purchases: re-apply a previous purchase on a new device or after reinstalling.

Progress

See your current level for the selected mode and tier.
Reset this tier: send a single mode and tier back to level 1.
Reset All Progress: send every tier in both modes back to level 1. This is double-confirmed because it cannot be undone.

About

The app version and build number, a Contact Support link, and a Privacy Policy link.

The Soundtrack

Arclo ships with an original instrumental synthwave soundtrack that plays through the songs continuously rather than looping one track. Gameplay and the menu draw from separate pools, and songs crossfade into one another for smooth transitions.

Soundtrack Player (full game)

Once you own the full game, Settings → Soundtrack Player opens a built-in music player. It lists every song in the game, grouped by where it plays (Gameplay and Menu), and lets you:

Tap any song to play it.
Use the previous, play/pause, and next controls.
Scrub through a track with the progress slider, with elapsed and remaining time shown.

The player plays at full volume so your device volume controls it. Like the rest of the game’s audio, it pauses when you leave the app or lock the screen.

Unlocking the Full Game

Tiers 1 to 3 are free forever. A single one-time purchase unlocks tiers 4 to 10 and the Soundtrack Player. It is not a subscription.

Tapping a locked tier, or the unlock button in Settings, opens the purchase screen.
After buying, the unlock applies immediately and syncs to your other devices through iCloud.
On a new device or after reinstalling, use Settings → Restore Purchases to re-apply it. Restoring is required by Apple and never charges you again.

You can also play a quick free teaser of a locked tier to see what it is like before buying.

Leaderboards (Game Center)

Best scores post to Game Center leaderboards. Boards are split by:

Mode: Orbit and Pendulum are ranked separately.
Band: a Free board (runs that stayed in tiers 1 to 3) and a Full board (any run).

Each board recurs weekly, so there is always a fresh chance to climb, and you can also view all-time standings. You need to be signed in to Game Center on your device for scores to post. Open the boards from the Leaderboards button on the main menu.

iCloud Sync

If you are signed in to iCloud, Arclo keeps your data in sync across your Apple devices automatically:

Level progress per mode and tier
Best scores and best level times
Your full-game unlock

Sync uses Apple’s key-value store and needs no account or setup beyond being signed in to iCloud. If iCloud is not available, everything still works and is saved locally on the device.

Tips

Clearing gates pushes the void back, so a clean run is also a safer run. Missing gates is what lets the void catch up.
In Pendulum, swap at the bottom of a swing for the most controlled launch.
In Orbit, use the orientation that matches how you like to hold your device. Auto handles this for you.
On the big-turn and barrier tiers, commit to the swing early. Half-measures leave you stranded between gates.
A Shield does not stop the void. Use it to survive a hazard or a post, not to outrun the wall.

Still stuck? Email nospam@edcaspersen.com.