The idea
Type to Defuse puts a bomb in front of you and fills it with short typing and word puzzles called modules. Clear them all and the bomb is defused. The moment it is defused, the next bomb slides in — bigger, with more module types in it — and the clock keeps running from where it left off.
The whole run uses one countdown. A normal run starts at 60 seconds, and a daily bomb starts at 85. Everything you gain, you gain by clearing modules quickly.
How the clock goes up and down
| What happens | Effect on the clock |
|---|---|
| Clear a module | Adds time back, roughly a fifth of the text length — between 2 and 8 seconds |
| Defuse a whole bomb | +4 seconds |
| Type a wrong letter (typing modules) | −1 second, and the module is marked as a mistake |
| Submit a wrong answer (answer-box modules) | −5 seconds, and one strike |
| Three strikes inside one bomb | Run over |
| Clock reaches zero | Run over |
Strikes are wiped when a new bomb starts. Mistakes on typing modules never cause strikes — they only cost a second each — which makes them forgiving but not free.
The modules
There are nine module types and they unlock gradually, so a run teaches you before it tests you. Two families behave differently, and knowing which one you are looking at changes how you should play it.
Typing modules have no answer box. Letters turn green as you get them right and red as you get them wrong, the module finishes by itself the moment the text matches, and there are no strikes. Answer-box modules make you commit: type a value, press enter, and find out. A wrong answer costs five seconds and one of your three strikes, and the same puzzle stays on screen so you can try again.
| Module | Unlocks | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Type it | Bomb 1 | Type the sentence exactly. Gets longer as bombs go up. |
| Reverse | Bomb 1 | Type the word backwards. Length grows with the bomb number. |
| Unscramble | Bomb 2 | Rearranged letters plus a definition clue. Longer words later. |
| Missing letters | Bomb 3 | Some letters are hidden; type the whole word. The clue stops by bomb 5. |
| Flash code | Bomb 4 | A code appears briefly, then vanishes. Type what you saw. |
| Mirror | Bomb 4 | The text is flipped. From bomb 6 it is sometimes upside down instead. |
| Math panic | Bomb 5 | Arithmetic, three difficulty tiers, gets harder with each bomb. |
| Ink check | Bomb 6 | Colour words printed in the wrong colour. Type the ink colour, not the word. |
| Rewired | Bomb 7 | Two letters are swapped. The screen shows the original; type the swapped version. |
Silent fuse
From bomb 4 onward, a normal run sometimes hides the clock: no timer, no ticking, and you are guessing how much time is left. It appears in about half of the bombs after that point. It never appears in the daily bomb, because a shared daily has to be the same challenge for everyone.
The daily bomb
Once per UTC day there is a daily bomb: one bomb, top difficulty, containing all nine module types plus one repeat — ten modules — starting from 85 seconds. It is identical for every player in the world, because it is generated from the date itself rather than chosen by a server.
- Dailies are numbered. #1 was 6 October 2026, and the number is on the card at the top of the screen.
- Your first finish of the day is the official result. Play again afterwards and the game calls it practice; your share button still posts the result you banked first.
- The daily day rolls over at 00:00 UTC — 07:00 in Jakarta.
- Everyone's best finish of the day is shown on the end screen as "Today's best", anonymously. There are no names attached.
Habits that keep a run alive
- Steady beats fast. A wrong letter costs a second and a wrong answer costs five. Typing at a pace you never miss at is almost always faster than typing fast and correcting.
- Bank the easy bombs. Bombs 1 to 3 are where you build the buffer for bomb 7. Finishing them with eight seconds to spare each is worth more than rushing into the hard modules with nothing in reserve.
- Read the clue on Unscramble and Missing letters. The clue is there precisely so you do not have to guess letters; using it is faster than brute-forcing an anagram.
- Do not submit on a hunch. The answer box keeps the same puzzle after a wrong answer, so a guess gains you nothing except a five-second penalty.
- On Ink check, slow down deliberately. The trap is reading the word instead of seeing the colour. Say the colour to yourself before you type it.
- Expect the silent fuse. When the clock disappears, play as if less time is left than you think, and finish the module in front of you before looking at the next one.
Endless, challenges and streaks
Endless is a normal run with no daily attached: keep defusing until you make three mistakes in one bomb. Your best number of bombs is saved in your browser. The run also tracks a combo — three clean modules in a row — and awards a "Clutch" badge when you defuse a bomb with under two and a half seconds left.
Every end screen produces a shareable result with a link. A friend who opens it gets your bombs and can try to beat your score, and the game tells you who won when they finish. Your daily streak counts consecutive days on which you finished the daily bomb; it is stored in your browser, so clearing your browser data clears the streak with it.
Options and accessibility
There is a sound toggle in the corner, and the ink-check module has a colour-blind mode that adds a different underline pattern to each colour so it can be read without relying on hue. The choice is remembered between visits. The game is fully playable with a keyboard on a desktop, and the layout adjusts when a phone's on-screen keyboard is open so the timer stays visible.
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