How to play
- Press any key to start. A word appears between the two fighters.
- Type it. Finishing the word lands a blow, and longer words hit harder.
- Keep a clean run going. A combo adds up to half as much damage again.
- A wrong key leaves you open and costs you health, so steady beats frantic.
- Your shadow strikes on its own timer. Empty its health bar before it empties yours.
You are fighting your own personal best
Every other stickman typing game pits you against a difficulty level somebody chose. The trouble with that is it tells you nothing: beating level three means you were good at level three. This game sets the opponent from your own best recorded result, so the shadow lands blows exactly as often as you would at the fastest you have ever typed here.
That makes the fight honest. Hold the speed you have already proved and it is close. Type faster and cleaner than your best and you win. And because the shadow is built from your record, it gets harder the moment you improve, which is the opposite of a game you eventually outgrow.
Why a mistake hurts
Most typing games only reward speed, which quietly teaches a habit that fails people on the day. A typing test subtracts uncorrected errors from your score, so a fast run riddled with mistakes can rate lower than a careful one. Here a wrong key takes health off you, which puts accuracy where it belongs: ahead of speed.
Four sets of words
- Classic uses everyday English, as a general typing test does.
- My weak keys builds the words from the characters you keep missing, read from your own record here.
- Job words uses dispatch, clerical, medical and accounts vocabulary.
- Numbers uses figures and reference codes, for data entry practice.
Tips for winning the duel
- Protect the combo. A run of clean words does far more damage than a scramble.
- Long words are worth more, so finish them rather than hesitating.
- Keep your hands on the home row. Hunting for keys costs you a blow each time.
- If the shadow is too quick, it is because your best is high. That is a good problem.
- Losing repeatedly? Switch to weak keys and fix what keeps breaking your runs.
Questions about the stickman typing game
It is a typing duel between two stick figures. You attack by typing the word shown between them, and every finished word lands a blow. Your opponent attacks on its own timer, so standing still loses the fight. The bout ends when one of you runs out of health.
In every other version the opponent is a difficulty setting somebody picked. Here the opponent is you. It strikes at the speed of your own best recorded result on this site, so the fight is against your personal best rather than against a stranger. Beat it and your best goes up, which makes your next opponent harder. It is the one rival a fixed word list cannot give you.
The shadow starts at 40 words per minute, which is a typical speed for someone comfortable with a keyboard, and the game says so on screen. Take one timed test and the shadow switches to your own figure from then on.
Because they cost you in a real typing test too. An uncorrected error is subtracted from your net words per minute, so accuracy is worth more than raw speed. Making a wrong key hurt is the same lesson in a form you can feel: a clean run of words does far more damage than fast, sloppy typing.
Yes. It is free, no account is needed and nothing is downloaded. It runs in your browser, and for a guest the record it fights against is the one kept in your own browser.
No. Game results stay out of your test history, your progress charts, the leaderboard and any certificate, because a duel is not a measured typing test. The only thing carried over is the keys you mistyped, which are added to your weak-key list so that practice can target them.
Raise the bar you are fighting
The shadow only gets stronger when your best does, and your best only moves in a measured test. Take a timed test, set a new record, then come back and fight it.