The loop
Every level is played in short loops of 7 to 10 seconds, and you only get a few. When time runs out, it rewinds and the level resets: doors, plates and platforms go back to how they started. Finish within the goal for ★★★.
How to play
The rules of time
Everything you need to team up with your past self: how loops and echoes work, and every mechanic in the game, chapter by chapter, with a tip for each one.
The basics
How time works
Your echo
Each loop you finish becomes an echo: a copy of you that repeats exactly what you did, to the pixel, in every loop that follows. It presses plates and takes up space, just like you.
⚓ Anchor
Hold Anchor to end the loop right away. Your echo freezes on the spot and stays there in the next loops, holding whatever needs holding: a plate, a bridge, a laser beam…
↺ Retry and undo
Recorded something you didn't mean to? Retry loop replays the current loop without spending another one, and Undo echo erases your last echo and takes you back a loop. Hold Retry to restart the level.
Chapter I
Echo
Learn to work with your past.
Plate
First appears in level 1-1 “First Echo”
Opens the door of its color while someone is standing on it: you or any of your echoes. Once nobody is on it, the door closes again.
Tip Anchor on the plate: your echo will keep the door open in every loop that follows.
Play this level in the free demo
Timed door
First appears in level 1-2 “Window”
Opens for a few seconds when its plate is pressed, then closes on its own. Staying on the plate doesn't keep it open: what matters is when it gets pressed.
Tip Have your echo press the plate late, so the door opens just as you get there.
Play this level in the free demo
Spikes
First appears in level 1-3 “Spikes”
They send you back to the start, but the loop keeps running: you lose time, not a loop. Your echo will repeat the fall, too.
Tip If a fall ruins the recording, use Retry loop: it replays the loop without spending another one.
Play this level in the free demo
Light curtain
First appears in level 1-4 “Curtain”
Every crossing flips its door, whoever crosses and whichever way they go. At the start of each loop, the door goes back to how it began.
Tip Count the passes: an odd number flips the door, an even number leaves it as it was.
Play this level in the free demoChapter II
Weight
Plates that need more than one body.
Weight plate ×2
First appears in level 2-1 “Share the Load”
Needs 2 bodies on it at the same time to open its door. You and your echoes all count.
Tip Anchor an echo on the plate and join it in the next loop: every body adds weight.
Moving platform
First appears in level 2-1 “Share the Load”
Follows exactly the same path in every loop. Your echoes ride it too, because they repeat your every move.
Tip It's always in the same place at the same second: learn its rhythm once and it holds in every loop.
Present plate
First appears in level 2-3 “Present Tense”
Only you can press it, in the present. Your echoes walk over it and nothing happens.
Tip Save yourself for these plates and hand every other job to your echoes.
Past plate
First appears in level 2-3 “Present Tense”
Only your echoes can press it: stepping on it yourself does nothing. Someone has to walk over it in an earlier loop.
Tip Cross it in one loop so that your echo presses it for you in the next.
Resonance door
First appears in level 2-4 “Resonance”
Opens when 3 different bodies touch its plate in the same loop. They don't need to be there together, and once it opens, it stays open for the rest of the loop.
Tip Each body counts once per loop: send your echoes one after another, then go yourself.
Short memory
First appears in level 2-5 “Short Memory”
Only your last 2 echoes exist. When you record a new one, the oldest fades away.
Tip Plan the order: the echo that has to last until the end should be one of the last you record.
Chapter III
Body
Your echoes are solid: climb on them.
Solid echoes
First appears in level 3-1 “Stepping Stone”
Your echoes have a body: you can stand on the head of an echo that's standing on the ground and use it as a step.
Tip Anchor an echo wherever you need a step, and stack a few to build a tower out of yourself.
Red laser
First appears in level 3-3 “Shield”
Deadly to you, but your echoes block it. Its clock shows when it's on, and the beam flickers just before it fires.
Tip Anchor an echo in the beam: it becomes your shield in the next loops.
Green beam
First appears in level 3-4 “Beam”
Its door stays open while the beam reaches the receiver. Cut it, with your body or an echo's, and the door closes.
Tip Even your past casts a shadow: keep your echoes out of the light while you need the door open.
Chapter IV
Paradox
Your past has right of way.
Paradox
First appears in level 4-1 “Paradox”
Your past has right of way: if you block an echo's path or take away the ground under its feet, the loop starts over. A “!” over the echo warns you just before.
Tip If the same paradox happens twice in a row, the game undoes that echo for you: try another order.
Phase glass
First appears in level 4-2 “Phase”
Only solid while its clock is lit; the rest of the time it's a dotted outline you fall straight through. It blinks just before it changes and keeps the same rhythm in every loop.
Tip Check its clock before you anchor: if the glass appears inside an echo, that's a paradox.
Fragile bridge
First appears in level 4-3 “Collapse”
Holds while someone is on it, but falls shortly after the last body steps off. It shakes as a warning, and it's back in place at the start of each loop.
Tip Anchor an echo on the bridge: it never steps off, so the bridge holds for the whole loop.
AFTERSELF
Ready to bend time?
Chapter I is free in your browser: five levels to get the hang of your echoes. The full game has 20 levels and every mechanic on this page.