The clock that makes you forget the time
Planck'O'Clock is an idle/clicker game built around a vintage Nixie tube clock. The clock displays the current time, and whenever the digits form a remarkable mathematical pattern, indicator lights illuminate. Click them before they expire to earn Plancks — the game's score.
Items in the Shop are purchased with Bosons (B), a separate currency. You start with 150 B. Earn more Bosons via Legacy (convert Plancks to Bosons at 1000:1) or Decay (5000:1, heavy taxation).
The interface mimics a piece of vintage laboratory equipment with screwed-on instrument panels, galvanometers, LED displays, and a complete power system.
| Plancks | Unlock |
|---|---|
| 15 | PlanckCounter (score display) — install from Bonus panel |
| 30 | Detection Buttons (pattern indicators) — install from Bonus panel |
| 50 | MultiPlanck unit — install from Bonus panel |
| 100 | DecaPulse unit — install from Bonus panel |
The clock reads the real time once at first power-on, then maintains it internally with a timer. Over time, the clock drifts — it gradually slows down:
The drift only progresses during inactivity. If you click anywhere in the game more than 3 times within 60 seconds, the drift level is frozen — it won't get worse.
The only way to reset the clock to the correct time is a PlanckTest. Click the Recalibrate button — the test runs for 5 seconds. If the power holds for the full duration, the clock syncs to real time and drift resets to zero. The button text is grey when the clock is accurate, turns red when drift is detected, and blinks when drift reaches the orange zone on the bargraph.
As the clock drifts, subtle anomalies start appearing on the instrument. At first they are barely noticeable — a digit flickering for a split second, a faint sound, a cryptic message in the console. The further the drift, the more frequent they become.
Beyond a certain threshold, brief spasms may occur: a single unit of the instrument glitches rapidly for a short moment before recovering.
If the VocaPlanck is installed, it announces drift milestones: drift detected, increasing, severe, and critical.
Since passive income (+1 Planck) is tied to game-clock seconds, a drifting clock means slower income. Pattern detections also shift in time. The MultiLock bonus disengages when drift reaches 10 seconds (bargraph red zone), leaving your multiplier unprotected.
When the Detection Buttons panel is installed, the game checks every second for remarkable patterns in the time digits HH:MM:SS.
| Tier | Points | Patterns |
|---|---|---|
| Legendary | 50 | Sequence, Repdigit, Fibonacci (11:23:58, 01:12:35, 00:11:23, 00:01:12, 00:00:11), Pi, Euler, Phi, Root2, Root3, Tau |
| Rare | 20 | Split, Round Hour |
| Uncommon | 10 | Palindrome, Pairs, Repeat |
| Common | 5 | Diff |
| Frequent | 2-3 | Pair Seq, Same Units, Sum, All Prime (3) |
| Minimal | 1 | Prime |
Multiple patterns can trigger on the same second. Click each lit indicator before it expires (1.5 seconds, or 2.5 seconds with TTL Extender) to collect the points.
Catching all 15 pattern types unlocks the Legacy bonus.
Mathematical constants are detected at multiple offsets. For example:
The MultiPlanck is the primary engine for scaling your income. It multiplies all Planck gains (pattern clicks and passive income bonuses). It is driven by your streak — the count of consecutive successful clicks without a miss. The higher the streak, the higher the multiplier:
| Streak | Multiplier |
|---|---|
| 0-1 | 1x |
| 2 | 2x |
| 5 | 5x |
| 10 | 10x |
| 20 | 20x |
| 50 | 50x |
| 100 | 100x |
| 200 | 200x |
| 500 | 500x |
A miss resets the streak to the threshold of the current tier. A second miss drops you one tier (unless MultiLock is active).
When charged, the next 10 catches earn x10 bonus on top of any other multiplier. Recharge costs 10 B (automatic with DecaMatic).
Once unlocked, every click in a round is multiplied by an escalating math constant:
The Shop displays your Boson (B) balance at the top, with three columns: Items (visible but too expensive), Available (affordable), and Owned (purchased). All items are priced in Bosons. You start with 150 B. Owned items can be recycled for 50% of their purchase price in Bosons.
| Item | Cost (B) | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| DecaPulse x10 | 10 B | Next 10 catches get x10 bonus (consumable) |
| UnitOrder | 20 B | Drag & drop to reorganize panels — place detection buttons closer for faster clicks |
| TTL Extender | 30 B | Doubles indicator lit duration to 2s — more time to click. Magic eye tube as visual countdown |
| Manual Fan | 40 B | Hand-pumped cooling for Lepton Farms — prevents thermal trips and cascades. No power draw |
| VocaPlanck | 180 B | Voice alerts (battery, thermal, overload, drift) — no need to watch the screen constantly (3W) |
| Lepton Farm +20W | 80 B | Automatic 20W power — frees you from cranking the RotaLepton |
| Prime Detection | 80 B | Toggle detection of prime numbers |
| PlanckTest | 80 B | 5-second lamp test (~107W max draw) — recalibrates clock if power holds. Essential to fix drift |
| Photon Catcher +10W | 100 B | Solar panel — stackable, free daytime energy. Multiple panels multiply output |
| RotaLepton +100W | 150 B | Extra manual generator with battery (pre-charged) |
| Planckoscope | 150 B | Oscilloscope timeline — predicts upcoming pattern gains. LED bargraph shows clock drift (green/orange/red) |
| One Miss Joker | 200 B | Survive one miss without losing streak (consumable) |
| Click All Joker | 200 B | One click captures all lit indicators (consumable) |
| DecaMatic | 200 B | Auto-recharge DecaPulse when empty |
| Binary | 250 B | BCD binary clock display |
| Amharic | 250 B | Amharic 14-segment display |
| RomanClock | 300 B | Roman numerals display |
| Code 39 | 350 B | Barcode display |
| QR Code | 400 B | QR code display |
| 3D AutoPlanck | 300 B | Autostereogram clock — hidden 3D time in colored random-dot pattern |
| MorseClock | 350 B | Morse code tape — time scrolls as dots and dashes on a wire, with audio beeps |
Bonuses are special abilities that appear in the Bonus column (left of the Shop). They appear progressively as you reach their unlock threshold. A chime sounds when a bonus unlocks.
| Bonus | How to Unlock | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| PlanckCounter | Reach 15 Plancks | Click to install the score display |
| Detection Buttons | Reach 30 Plancks | Click to install pattern indicators |
| MultiPlanck | Reach 50 Plancks | Click to install the multiplier unit |
| DecaPulse | Reach 100 Plancks | Click to install the DecaPulse unit |
| DecaMatic | Play manually + reach max multiplier | Auto-recharges DecaPulse (costs 10 B) |
| ConstantBooster | Click 3 indicators in one round | Math-constant multiplier from the 1st click: ×√2, ×φ, ×e, ×π |
| Legacy | Catch every detection type at least once | Converts all Plancks to Bosons at 1000:1 (max 10s, with ascending sound and golden light animation). Reusable — catch all types again to re-unlock |
| Decay | Accumulate ≥5000 Plancks | Converts all Plancks to Bosons at 5000:1 (heavy taxation). Always reusable — no pattern requirement, just enough Plancks |
| Expert Mode | Reach 100 Plancks | Indicators no longer light up — you must identify patterns by reading the time yourself. All points ×20. Wrong click costs 1000 Plancks. Can be toggled on/off |
Every panel in the instrument consumes electricity. Power is supplied by three types of generators:
Solar power is consumed first; remaining load is distributed equally across all other producers.
The rocker switch controls power to the entire instrument. It trips automatically if consumption exceeds available capacity. Click to re-arm after a trip.
| Unit | Base (W) | Max (W) |
|---|---|---|
| Clock | 8 | 8 |
| Indicators | 2 | 23 |
| Jokers | 1 | 3 |
| MultiPlanck | 3 | 8 |
| DecaPulse | 2 | 10 |
| Score LED | 5 | 5 |
| TTL Extender | 1 | 5 |
| Planckoscope | 5 | 12 |
| PlanckTest | 0 | 25 |
| UnitOrder | 1 | 1 |
| Main Switch | 1 | 1 |
| VocaPlanck | 1 | 3 |
| Alt. display mode | 3 | 3 |
| Full stack max | ~107 |
Unlock alternative clock display modes from the Shop (250–400 B). Activate them in Settings. Only one can be active at a time. Buying a new display automatically activates it.
| Icon | Action |
|---|---|
| 🤖 | AI Strategy Advisor — generates a complete prompt with game rules and your current state, to paste into an AI assistant for personalized strategy advice |
| ? | User Manual — this page |
| Video Demo — opens a YouTube gameplay demo in a new tab | |
| ⚙ | Settings — toggle tick/chime sounds, display modes, solar city |
| 💾 | Backup/Restore — save or load encrypted game state (.txt). Password-protected |
| ↻ | Restart — full reset (confirmation required) |
The right-side console logs all game events with color coding:
| Color | Event Type |
|---|---|
| Green | Planck gains |
| Cyan | MultiPlanck / streak changes |
| Violet | Shop purchases / recycling |
| Red | Joker consumed (One Miss) |
| Blue | Joker consumed (Click All) |
| Orange | General events / VocaPlanck messages |
| Dark red | Missed patterns |
The game adapts automatically to mobile screens (phones and tablets, portrait and landscape):
Every 60 seconds, the game pings /t.gif with an encrypted snapshot of your score (Bosons and Plancks). No personal data is collected.
The payload is XOR-CBC encrypted (IV=0xA5) with the key [0x50, 0x6C, 0x61, 0x6E, 0x63, 0x6B] ("Planck"), then Base64-encoded and URL-escaped. The cleartext format is nonce|gameId|bosons|plancks where nonce is a random alphanumeric string placed first to ensure full CBC diffusion, and gameId is a unique identifier generated at game start.