ENDEAVOR: HOW TO PLAY

Note: This post builds on the information included in the Introducing: Endeavor blog. If you haven’t read that, we’d recommend starting there.

There’s so much to learn—and love—about our new strategic action game, Endeavor. But actually playing the game is pretty straightforward. In this post, we’ll cover the fitness and gaming basics so you can journey into unknown worlds with confidence.

CONTROLLING YOUR AVATAR

Change your rowing speed to move your avatar between the four lanes on screen. If you’ve played Pulse, our earliest game-based workout, you’ll be familiar with this mechanic. To move right, row more intensely; to move left; ease up.

The four lanes represent your Intensity Zones. From left to right, it’s Paddle, Steady, Race, and Sprint. This remains constant across all Endeavor workouts, but other aspects of the lanes will change, like the colors and the actions that they’re associated with.

ATTACK, DEFEND, & THE LANES

There are two main game actions you’ll perform.

Attack: Deal damage to your opponent.

Defend: Build up a shield to block your opponent’s attack. You can build up your shield over time to increase the total amount of damage you can block.

You’ll see in the image below that each lane is associated with an action: attack (represented by the sword), defend (represented by the shield), or a combo.

You’ll also notice that lanes have different colors.

The blue lane is the “defense lane” — it adds a 3x boost to block value, but removes all attack power.

The red lane is the “offense lane” — it adds 3x boost to attack value, but removes all block power.

The two silver lanes are neutral — they offer an even mix of attack and block power.

COMPLETING AN ACTION

To complete any action, you have to stay in a single lane until the timer on that lane hits zero—which is also represented by the lane "filling" with it's designated color. When it does, you'll complete the action, dealing damage to your opponent and/or building up your blocking shield.

The video below illustrates this. First, the player moves the avatar into the red attacking lane, which triggers an attack against the opponent. Next, they move the avatar into the blue blocking lane, which you'll see triggers a blocking action.

THE LANES HAVE MEMORY

The countdown timer on each lane remembers if you’ve spent time in that lane. If lane A has a 10 second timer, and you spend 5 seconds there before shifting to lane B for a little while, if/when you return to lane A, you’ll only have to stay there for 5 seconds to complete the associated action.

A NOTE ON LANE CHANGES

The prioritized red and blue lanes will change throughout the workout. For example, sometimes they’ll be at Paddle and Steady, while other times they’ll be at Steady and Race, or Paddle and Sprint. You’ll get an indication of when the lanes are about to change from this countdown timer on screen, pictured below.

If the lane change timer is less than your action timer, then you won’t be able to complete that action. Once the lanes change, you’ll have to start working toward completing a new action from scratch.

OTHER THINGS TO KNOW

• There’s no “one size fits all” way to defeating opponents.
• The prioritized lanes—the blue and red ones—will change throughout the workout. You can follow them, or chart your own path. That strategic choice is all yours.
• If you lose all your health, don’t worry—the game revives you with 50% of your maximum health and a slight ding to your score.
• Any block you have built up will degrade over time at a rate of 1 point every 5 seconds. This deters you from simply building up your shield. This game is about blocking and attacking.

FOR MORE LEARNING

Check out these blog posts for more information.

• Introducing Endeavor
• Upgrades
• Your Opponents