Dead StopHow to Play Dead Stop
Tap the button to stop a running clock on exactly .000 of a second. Land on it and that's a DEAD STOP. There are two game modes: Dead Stop, a daily run you keep at until you hit, and Nine Lives, an arcade mode of red zones, points and nine lives.
The clock is your phone's own time of day, down to the millisecond. The miss after each stop shows how far off you were: minus is early, plus is late. Stop with the big button or the Space bar.
Dead Stop, the Daily Run
Dead Stop is all or nothing. Keep stopping the clock until you land on .000. The run ends at your first DEAD STOP, and the fewer tries it took, the higher you rank on today's board.
- One counted run a day on each difficulty. Each difficulty has its own run and its own board, so you can play all three. The day is your own local date.
- Keep Going carries on after your DEAD STOP, run after run, without counting. Each shows its tries next to your best.
- Today's board puts DEAD STOPs first, by fewest tries, then whoever got there first. Everyone still chasing it is ranked by their closest miss.
- All Time counts DEAD STOPs in daily runs on every difficulty together.
- Your streak is the days in a row with an exact DEAD STOP on any difficulty but Easy.
The Four Difficulties
| Difficulty | What you see |
|---|---|
| Easy | Like Normal, with a bigger DEAD STOP zone: anything within 4 ms of .000 counts, shown as a wider red bar at the top of the dial. Easy has its own board and doesn't count toward All Time or your streak. |
| Normal | The digits and a hand that sweeps once around the dial every second. |
| Expert | Just the digits. The dial shows the target and your past stops. |
| Unhinged | The clock runs for a couple of seconds so you can catch the beat, then it fades to black. Keep the beat in your head and stop on .000 blind. The fade comes at a different moment every try, and the button only counts once it's dark. |
After a miss the clock restarts by itself in about a second.
Nine Lives, the Arcade Mode
You have nine lives, shown as hearts, and every stop uses one. Each stop puts three red zones at random spots on the ring. Stop inside one to score it. Hit the tiny one and you win back the life it cost, so a run of 500s keeps a game going: there's no cap on a score.
| Zone | Width | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Wide | 91 ms | 50 |
| Narrow | 41 ms | 100 |
| Tiny | 9 ms | 500, and the life back |
The game ends when your hearts run out. Nine Lives has no settings: it's always played with the sweeping hand, and the clock moves on by itself after each stop. Signed in, your best game of the day goes on the Nine Lives board, Today and All Time.
Going for the 500 is the best play at every level of skill: it scores the most over a game, and every one that lands keeps you alive. The wide zone is the safe fallback.
How to Get Better
- Don't chase the digits. Reacting to something you see takes most people around a fifth of a second, so a tap that waits for .000 is already late. Feel the rhythm of the second and tap on the beat.
- Start on Normal. The sweeping hand is the easiest thing to time against.
- Watch your misses. If they lean late, start your tap a touch earlier; the spread of your misses shows how steady you are.
Why .000 is rare, and how the game keeps it fair on a phone: Can You Stop a Clock on Exactly .000?
Questions
Is Dead Stop free?
Yes. Dead Stop is free to play in any browser, with no ads and nothing to buy. Unbusied keeps it free.
Do I need an account to play?
No. Both modes play without signing in. Sign in with your email (a 6-digit code, no password) to put your runs on the board and keep a streak, and you can sign in after a game to save the score you just made.
How many times a day can I play?
As many as you like. Dead Stop counts one run a day on each difficulty, the first one; after its DEAD STOP, Keep Going plays on without counting. Nine Lives can be played again and again, and your best game of the day is the one on the board.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. It runs in Safari, Chrome and any modern browser on a phone, tablet or computer, and you can add it to your home screen to play it like an app. It plays offline too; only the board needs a connection.
Can I play with a keyboard?
Yes. The Space bar stops the clock, the same as tapping the button.
How is the board kept fair?
Every stop is sent to the server the moment it happens, and the server works out the score itself and checks the timing, so a typed-in score or a replayed run doesn't count. Players whose results are too good for their own record are kept off everyone else's board.