Ink Clans badminton guide
Badminton is the second game on the Ink Clans title screen: singles on a paper court with the same eight clans, each bringing two powers and an ultimate. This guide covers the rules as the game applies them, how hitting works, and what each clan's tricks do.
Scoring
Matches are singles with rally scoring: every rally wins someone a point, and whoever wins the rally serves the next one. You play to 5, 11 or 21 points. You must win by two, but not forever: at 9, 15 or 30 points respectively, the first player to get there wins whatever the margin.
A shuttle that lands inside the lines on your opponent's side is your point. One that lands out, hits the net or comes down on your own side is theirs.
Hitting
On a keyboard you move with WASD or the arrow keys and have three shots. J is a clear, a deep lift toward their baseline. K is a smash, best when the shuttle is high. L is a drop that falls just over the net. Space jumps, and K in the air is a jump smash; Space while running is a dive for a low, far return. The direction you hold as you hit aims the shot: left or right for the line, up for deeper, down for shorter.
Timing decides how good a hit is. Hit right on time and you get a PERFECT: a faster, cleaner shot that fills your power bar quicker, while early or late hits go wide and slow. Holding J or K charges the shot, fully after just over half a second, for a deeper clear or a faster smash, but an over-charged smash with poor timing sprays. Quick taps play a soft lift or a half smash.
Running, stamina and rally heat
Shift runs, 1.4 times faster, but drains stamina three times as fast as walking. A run cannot start below 12 stamina out of 100. Below 35 your feet slow down, below 25 a charged shot takes longer to build, and below 22 your jumps get lower. Stamina comes back when you stand still and after every point.
Long rallies heat up. The first four shots of a rally are played at normal pace; from the fifth the game speeds up gradually and power bars fill faster, until by the sixteenth shot the game runs 15% faster and the power bar fills 80% faster than at the start. Keeping a rally going is a good way to earn a power.
Powers and ultimates
Hits fill your power bar. A full bar lets you open a 10 second window with E for your first power or Q for your second; inside the window each press spends one use, at most one a second. Hits and lost points also fill a separate ultimate bar. At 100, R calls the ultimate: a comic cut-in, then it fires at once or on your next shot, depending on the clan.
Every ultimate comes with a tell, shown in the menu and announced when it is called, so the player on the receiving end knows how to answer it. The table lists them all, and each clan page explains its powers in detail.
| Clan | Powers (E, Q) | Ultimate | Its tell |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ninja | Shadow Step, Smoke Bomb | Thousand Shadows | Ten shots fly. Only the real one casts a shadow. |
| Karateka | Sky Breaker, Iron Guard | Heaven Splitter | It rises to the sky and chops down on the red X. Anyone inside the ring gets struck by lightning. |
| Sumo | Earthquake, Sumo Slam | Mountain Drop | Get out of the ink circle before he lands! |
| Samurai | Quickdraw Focus, Crescent Cut | Moonlit Cut | Lights out. Follow the moonlight glints. |
| Storm Ninja | Volt Dash, Static Net | Thunder God | It warps mid-air. A gold spark shows where. |
| Monk | Staff Whirlwind, Still Palm | Mandala Palm | For 7s every shot is drawn to the monk. |
| Nak Muay | Spinning Elbow, Clinch Pull | Eight Limbs | Aimed right at you. Hold your ground! |
| Capoeirista | Meia Lua Curve, Berimbau Save | Roda Storm | A whirlwind shot that lands on the ink footprints, then the roda returns everything for 6s. |
The computer
There are three difficulty levels. From Easy to Hard the computer moves faster, reacts sooner, makes far fewer mistakes and reads your ultimates more often: on Easy it answers one correctly about a third of the time, on Hard about nine times in ten. Its clan shapes its style too. Computer-played Nak Muay smash the most and aim at your body, Ninjas play the most drops, Karatekas jump the most, Capoeiristas hit the widest and miss the most, and Samurai miss the least.
Match options
Under Match options you can set the game speed (Normal, Fast at 1.2 times or Frantic at 1.4 times), the size of the crowd (Off, Cozy or Packed), a landing guide, Auto-move, vibration, and the look, Ink or Sketch. The Power Gallery loops every power and ultimate if you want to see one before you use it.
Controllers and phones
An Xbox-style controller works: stick or D-pad to move, A to jump or dive, X to smash, B to clear, Y to drop, LB to run, LT and RB for the two powers and RT for the ultimate. On a phone or tablet, play in landscape: your left thumb drags on the left of the court to move and aim, and your right thumb has Clear, Smash, Drop and Jump buttons plus the powers. Auto-move is especially useful on touch. Holding the phone upright pauses the match until you turn it back.
The crowd view
Watch a match puts you in the stands while two computer-played clans play a live match in your browser. Pick a seat (Courtside, Stands, Upper deck), drag to walk around the court or look through your own fan's eyes, and cheer for a side. The next match starts by itself. The invite link seats your friends at the same clan matchup, but each of them watches a match their own browser plays, not a shared broadcast.
Online badminton
Two friends can play each other from a link. The host chooses a name, a clan, the points and the speed, and sends the link; the guest picks a name and any clan, including the same one. Online badminton has two seats and no spectators, and it is for desktop browsers for now. If the connection drops, the match holds while it reconnects and then carries on.