60
seconds
Two silhouettes on a dusty main street, the sun going down between them. When DRAW! flashes up, a word appears, and whoever finishes it first fires.
Every round starts with a Ready that lasts somewhere between one and a half and four seconds. You cannot count it, and the heartbeat speeding up is not a clue: it only tells you how long you have been waiting. The moment DRAW! appears, a word shows up in the middle of the screen. Type it, and the instant the last letter lands your gunslinger fires.
The outlaw across the street has a draw time too. It is their reaction time plus the time it takes them to type that word at their speed, so a long word gives a slow outlaw a chance and a short one is pure reflex. You can watch their gun hand coming up while you type.
Win two rounds and the outlaw goes down. Lose two and your run ends there.
Press a letter before DRAW! and your revolver goes off into the dirt. That round goes to the outlaw. A wrong letter jams the gun: it shows up red, and you have to Backspace it before you can carry on. There is no penalty beyond the time it costs you, which is usually enough.
Each outlaw you beat is worth 1,000 points. On top of that, every round you win adds (2,000 minus your draw time in milliseconds) divided by ten, so a 600 ms draw is worth 140 extra. After each round a small wanted poster shows your time next to theirs, so you always know how close it was.
Most typing practice is about holding a speed over a long passage. Quick Draw works on something else, reading a word in one glance and getting it out in a single clean burst. That burst is what makes short words feel instant in a normal test, and practising it with a sunset and a six-shooter beats doing it in a drill.
Their reaction time (from about 430 ms down to 230 ms) plus the word length times the time per character at their typing speed, with a little random wobble each round.
No. Only letters do, so you can press Space to step into the street without risking a round.
The letter turns red and the gun jams. Press Backspace to clear it and keep typing. The outlaw keeps moving while you do.