Break into the vault, grab the loot, and reach the green exit — without getting caught.
Time only moves when you step or Wait. Guards and lasers advance one tick along with you, so every move is a timing puzzle. Plan first, then move.
Guards walk a fixed loop and have a line of sight. Don't be standing in their vision when the tick lands.
Lasers blink on and off — only cross while they're dark.
Swipe or tap an adjacent tile to move (or use WASD). Drag the Look-ahead slider to scout where guards and lasers will be on upcoming ticks. You can reverse your last step up to 3 times.
Grab cash and the hidden secret stash — most vaults hide one, the Citadel hides two. Slipping past guards builds a style multiplier. Clear out every stack to max your score — a full clear also unlocks the speed bonus, so the best runs grab everything.
A daily heist puzzle where time only moves when you do. Break into a guarded vault, grab the loot, and reach the exit — every guard route and laser is fixed, so there is always a solution to reason out.
Clockwork is a turn-based stealth puzzle. You play a thief breaking into a vault, and the whole level is a clock you control. Nothing happens until you act: every step you take, and every turn you choose to wait, advances the world by exactly one tick. Guards walk fixed patrol routes, laser grids blink on and off in a steady rhythm, and because none of it is random, the same sequence of moves always produces the same result. That is the core idea — it is a puzzle, not a game of chance, and beating a vault is about reading the timing rather than reacting on reflex.
You move one tile at a time — up, down, left, or right — by swiping or tapping an adjacent tile. Tapping yourself, or pressing Wait, lets the clock tick forward without changing your position, which is often the most important move in the game. Guards see in a straight line in the direction they face, and walls block their line of sight. Laser beams switch on and off on a short, fixed cycle. If a guard sees you at the end of a tick, or you stand in a live laser, the run ends. Your job is to thread a path through the gaps in those patrols and beams.
Because Clockwork gives you perfect information, you never have to guess. The look-ahead slider beneath the board lets you scrub forward in time and see exactly where every guard and laser will be several beats from now, without committing to a move. Strong players lean on it constantly — scout three or four ticks ahead, find a corridor that opens up at the right moment, then move. Learning to plan with the slider instead of stepping blindly is the single biggest jump in skill.
Cash is scattered through every vault in small, medium, and large stacks. You do not have to take all of it — simply reaching the exit clears a vault — but a full clear is worth far more. Every vault also hides at least one secret stash, tucked away from the obvious route and worth a large bonus; the biggest vault, the Citadel, hides two. Slipping past a guard at close range builds a style multiplier that lifts your entire score, so the tighter, riskier lines pay off. Every run is a balance of three things: how much you grab, how much risk you accept, and how fast you get out.
Your score adds up the loot and secrets you collected, multiplies that by your style, and then adds a speed bonus for finishing under the vault's par tick count. That split creates two honest ways to play any vault: the full-clear run, where you sweep every stack and both routes to the secret, and the speed run, where you ignore most of the cash and race the exit for the time bonus. The best scores come from players who can read a vault and decide which kind of run it rewards.
Once a day, every player in the world gets the same ranked vault — a freshly transformed layout seeded to the date, identical for everyone. You get a single attempt with no restarts, and your score posts to a shared leaderboard. It is the purest test in the game: same vault, same guards, one shot, best plan wins. A new one arrives every day, so there is always a reason to come back.
Is Clockwork random?
No. Every patrol route and laser timing is fixed, so identical moves always give an identical outcome. You can plan a full solution before you ever move.
Do I have to collect everything to win?
No — reaching the exit clears the vault on its own. Full clears and secret stashes are optional, but they are worth far more points.
What happens when I get caught?
The run ends. In normal play you can restart instantly; in the daily heist you get one attempt, so plan carefully.
Does it cost anything?
Clockwork is free to play. Cosmetic vault skins and an optional battle pass exist, but they are purely visual and never change the puzzle or give an advantage.
Read the full strategy guide for deeper tactics on reading patrols, timing lasers, and routing for the highest scores.