Hold Fast
Hold every glowing pad till its ring fills: four fingers, or four keys at once.
- Round
- 92 seconds
- Works on
- Mobile & desktop
- Category
- Skill
Hold Fast controls: Hold the lit pads with E R U I · D F J K (or the mouse) · up to 4 at once. Press Play, then the game takes the keyboard. Press Tab to leave it.
Use several fingers
Free play · 92 seconds · no sign-in
Hold the lit pads with E R U I · D F J K (or the mouse) · up to 4 at oncePress and hold each glowing pad · up to 4 fingers
How to play Hold Fast
Put a finger on a glowing pad (or press its key) to press it: it starts to charge.
Keep it held until the ring around the pad fills and the pad bursts.
Amber pads are different: when one fills it flashes, so let it go right then.
Never touch a red pad; it fades by itself.
While you hold one pad, press every new pad with another finger before its fuse burns down.
Survive 90 seconds: three mistakes (a cracked pad, a burnt-out fuse, an amber pad held too long or a red pad touched) end the round.
Controls
| Input | Action |
|---|---|
| Finger on a lit pad | Press it: the pad starts charging |
| Keep the finger down | Charge the pad until its ring fills |
| Lift when an amber pad flashes | Let it go cleanly for a bonus |
| 2–4 fingers at once | Hold several pads to multiply every completion |
| E R U I (top row) · D F J K (bottom row) | Press and hold the matching pad on a computer |
| Mouse button on a pad | Press and hold one pad alongside the keys |
Tips
Read the notches before you press: a pad with many notches pins that finger down for up to three and a half seconds, so press it with the finger you need least.
Never lift a finger until you see its pad burst. A slip of a few frames is forgiven, but a real lift cracks the pad.
Watch the amber pads: let go on the flash, not before. Lifting a hair early still counts, but holding on through the closing ring overloads it.
Press chord pads together: pads that finish at the same moment all count every pad you hold, so four pads pressed as one pay 400 points each plus the full chord bonus.
On a keyboard, rest four fingers on D F J K and reach up to E R U I with the same fingers: each column of pads belongs to one finger, so you never need two keys from one finger at once.
Go for the perfect press: landing within 0.4 seconds of a pad lighting up adds 50 points when it completes, and quick presses keep more pads charging at once.
About Hold Fast
Hold Fast is a multi-touch finger game built around one rule: don't let go. A console of eight glass pads sits under a tall window onto a sunset city. When a pad lights up, put a finger on it and it starts to charge; keep that finger down until the ring around it fills and the pad bursts for points. Lift it a moment too early and the glass cracks. Leave a lit pad alone too long and its fuse burns out. Three mistakes and the round is over. Every pad you hold lifts the warm light behind the console, so a good run turns the whole city gold.
The trouble is that the pads never wait for each other. Every pad has its own charge time, shown by the notches around its ring, and while one finger is still charging a long pad the next one lights up somewhere else. Early on one finger, then your two thumbs, are enough. Then the game teaches its tricks one at a time: amber pads that you must let go the moment they flash (hold on too long and they overload), a third finger, red pads that you must never touch, and finally a fourth finger, with chords of three and four pads that light up together and must all be held at once. Every run deals the pads in a new order, so you react instead of memorising.
Scoring rewards exactly that juggling. A completed pad is worth 100 points multiplied by the number of pads you are holding at that moment, so a pad that finishes while three others are still charging pays 400. Pressing a pad within 0.4 seconds of it lighting up adds a perfect bonus, letting an amber pad go cleanly adds 150, and pads that finish together form a chord worth up to 300 extra points each. The console is an instrument, too: every pad is a note of the chord the song is playing, held pads sustain their notes, and a chord finished together rings out as one. A round lasts 90 seconds, which makes Hold Fast one of our quick games. Free play is unlimited; when you are ready, press Ranked attempt to put a single run on the all-time and weekly leaderboards. Every top score is replayed on our servers before it is shown, so the board lists real results only.
Hold Fast plays on a phone or tablet and on a computer. On a touch screen it reads up to four fingers at once: two thumbs at first, then the phone flat on a table with two fingers from each hand. The pads stay well away from the edges of the screen, where phones keep their own swipe gestures. On a computer every pad has a key, laid out like the pads themselves: E R U I over D F J K, the keys under your two middle and index fingers, so four fingers on the keyboard hold four pads at once, like the chords of a rhythm game. The mouse holds one pad too. It is one of our multi-touch games, it sits among the keyboard games as well, and it runs in any modern browser with nothing to install.
If you like games that test your nerve and your reflexes at the same time, Hold Fast sits between our timing games and our reaction games, and it is the most hands-on of our skill games. Find more games for the touch screen in your pocket among the mobile games, more to play at your desk among the PC games, or compare scores with friends in the competitive games.
Details
- Category
- Skill Games
- Tags
- Genre
- Timing
- Orientation
- Portrait (9:16)
- Works on
- Mobile & desktopPhones, tablets and computers
- Controls
- Keyboard, mouse or touch
- Released
- Updated
- Credits
- Design and development: Gamefinity
- Age rating
- 4+
Hold Fast FAQ
How long does a game of Hold Fast last?
At most 90 seconds. The round ends earlier after three mistakes: a pad that cracks because you let go too early, a pad whose fuse burns out, an amber pad held past its flash or a red pad touched.
How is the score calculated?
Each completed pad pays 100 points times the number of pads you are holding at that moment (1 to 4). A perfect press (within 0.4 seconds of the pad lighting up) adds 50, letting an amber pad go cleanly adds 150, and completions that come together form a chord worth 100, 200 or 300 extra points.
Can I play Hold Fast on a computer?
Yes. Every pad has a key: E R U I for the top row and D F J K for the bottom row, so you can hold up to four pads at once with four fingers, and the mouse can hold one pad as well. On a phone or tablet you play with up to four fingers on the screen.
What are the amber and red pads?
Amber pads must be let go the moment they fill and flash; hold on through the closing ring and they overload. Red pads are decoys: never touch them, and they fade by themselves after a few seconds.
What happens if my finger slips off a pad?
A short slip is forgiven: the pad flashes red and pauses its charge, and it carries on as soon as a finger is back on it. If no finger returns within a tenth of a second, the pad cracks and you lose a life.
Do I need to hold the phone in a special way?
For the first half minute two thumbs are enough, with the phone in both hands. When three and four pads light up at once, it is easiest to put the phone flat on a table and use two fingers from each hand.
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