3SEC FEED beginner's guide: how the feed works
How a short works, the moves you will use, how hearts and speed work, and what happens in your first session of 3SEC FEED.
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3SEC FEED looks like a short video feed, but every short is a tiny game. A big title in the middle tells you the goal, a line under it names the move, and a time bar runs along the bottom. Do the move before the bar runs out, then swipe up for the next one. The tagline says it plainly: don't watch, let's play.
This guide covers what you need for your first runs: how a short is timed, the moves, hearts, how the feed speeds up, and where your progress goes.
How a short works
Each short asks for one thing with one finger. Timers are built from beats of half a second: the shortest shorts last 3 seconds at normal speed, and the longest regular ones last 6. In the last two beats a tick sound plays, and the time bar turns pink once two thirds of the time is gone.
Most shorts are won by doing the move in time. About fifteen work the other way round: in shorts like Dodge!, Keep It Up! and Balloon flight! you win by still being OK when the timer ends.
The moves
All 200 games in 3SEC FEED use one finger. Across them, these are the moves and how many games use each:
- Tap: 82
- Swipe in a direction: 30
- Drag: 25
- Hold: 14
- Rub: 11
- Slide left and right: 9
- Mash: 8
- Trace a line: 8
- Draw a circle: 8
- Pull back and release: 3
- Shake: 1
- Double tap: 1
Hearts and the end of a run
A wrong move, or a timer that runs out, costs one heart. When your hearts run out the run ends, and the result screen shows what you cleared and which shorts you missed. How many hearts you start with depends on the mode:
- Free feed: 4 hearts.
- Channel journey: 3 hearts, or 4 in the first episode (stages 1 to 10).
- Today's feed: 3 hearts.
The feed gets faster
In Free feed and Today's feed the speed goes up by 0.1 at every fourth clear, from x1.0 to a top speed of x1.7, and a Speed Up! card shows each new step. Speed shortens every timer, so at x1.7 a 3-second short lasts less than 2 seconds.
Clear 6 shorts in a row and you go viral: a Going Viral! card appears and the next 4 shorts pay 10 times the likes.
Your first session
A brand-new player sees the logo and one start card. Its Play button starts stage 1 of the channel journey straight away: 8 shorts from Season 1 at normal speed, with 4 hearts. After that first run the full home screen appears, and its big yellow button always points to the next thing to do: Today's feed if you have not played it today, otherwise your next journey stage.
On a computer, Space, Enter or the Up arrow moves on to the next short after a result, M turns sound on and off, and Esc pauses. The run also pauses by itself when you switch tabs or apps, and after 20 minutes of play a card asks if you need a tiny break.
Likes, followers and your channel
Every clear earns likes and followers. Followers add up to your channel total, which sets your creator rank:
- Sprout: from 0 followers
- Rookie: 5,000
- Popular: 30,000
- Trending: 150,000
- Star: 500,000
- Legend: 2,000,000
Saving, ads and purchases
Progress saves on your device by itself. Sign in with a DOPAPLAY account and you also get a cloud save that merges your devices, so your progress never goes backwards. Language and sound settings stay on each device.
The game is free. Ads only appear between runs: never before your first run, not in your first 3 minutes, and at least 90 seconds apart. Remove Ads (US$4.99), or the Supporter Pack (US$6.99, which includes Remove Ads), turns them off.
