SEPARATION

01Start here

SEPARATION is online 1v1 football in the browser. One player is the wide receiver, the other the cornerback, and an AI quarterback throws the ball. Physics run on the server at 60 ticks a second and nothing is a dice roll: catches, tackles and swats are timing and position.

Pick your name and mode on the main menu, then TAKE THE FIELD. From the Promenade, walk through the tunnel on the west side (or use the ARENA tab on the room bar) to reach the arena; challenge a player standing next to you for a private duel.

02Controls on the field

Everything can be rebound under Settings (main menu, or Esc during a game). Defaults:

03A drive

• Every drive starts at the offense's own 20 with four downs; a first down needs 10 yards; a touchdown is 7.
• Possession swaps after a touchdown, an interception or a turnover on downs (the new offense takes over where the ball was, mirrored).
• A pick is not a turnover until the corner has secured it for about a third of a second: a hit stick before then knocks it loose, pass broken up. Secured, he returns it the other way against the receiver and the quarterback; across the goal line it is a pick-six.
• A catch or pick made in the air is pending until the feet come down: in bounds it stands, out of bounds it is incomplete.
• The play clock has two halves: the throw must come inside 14 s, and a live carry (a catch, a pick, a return) ends only on a tackle, out of bounds, a score, standing still for 2 s, or a 35 s cap. A long return at a jog goes the distance.
• The route tree. Each play the receiver is dealt one of 15 routes, painted on the turf with numbered cut points, and only the receiver sees it: Flat, Slant, Comeback, Curl, Out, Dig, Corner, Post, Go, Hitch, Fade, Slant & Go, Out & Up, Whip, Deep Cross. R and Tab step through the tree before the snap.
• The quarterback reads the same route and throws when you are open, when the route breaks with separation, when you call for it, or at 3.8 s regardless. He judges where you really are, so rounding a cut wide does not fool him, and if you leave the route he throws to where you are going.
• Big stops get the BURIED coffin: a fourth-down tackle short of the sticks, a safety, or a fumble popped loose by a hit stick.

04Playing receiver

Off the line

You start in a split stance and drive low for the first five yards. The CPU corner jams in press coverage: B within two yards throws a club and rip that swipes his hands off so you burst free ("SWIPED!"). If you both throw hands at once it is a stalemate and you are shoved apart.

Cuts and footwork

• Route cut G at a numbered point: tap for a stutter lean that keeps your speed, hold to kill momentum and drive out the next leg.
• Jukes Z/C: a tap is a one-yard side-step fake with control back in a blink; a press commits to the full cut about 4.5 yards out; a hold is a jump cut. Hit the other juke key during a fake to cut back instantly (fake and go). Cutting against a corner closing hard the other way breaks his ankles for a moment.
• Plants Q/E: hold to load onto that foot (the longer, the harder the exit), release to fire off it in the direction you hold. Hopscotch them (Q, E, Q, E) or chop both for a stutter breakdown.
• Decel: S while running hard plants and breaks you down instead of backpedalling. A quick S tap out of a full sprint is the hitch: a dead stop and a 180° snap back to the quarterback into a ready crouch.
• Sidestep: tap A or D while running for a crossover that keeps your speed. Jet-glide: double-tap A or D for a 320 ms thruster slide that sheds a wrap tackle; it costs a third of your stamina.
• Fighting-game tech: the rocker step (the other side in the first frames of a cut counter-cuts with extra pop), the wavedash (Space while sprinting diagonally), the dash-dance (release and re-press W within 100 ms to stutter without losing speed), and the gaze bait (whip the mouse toward the fake as you cut: your shoulders sell it while your legs run the real cut).
• Spin X: a tackle landing mid-spin is a coin flip to break. Dive F: lay out in any direction, with a tuck and roll to get up; diving catches count.
• Stamina: sprinting empties the bar in about five seconds and it refills slower. Under 5% you can only fake, not commit a cut. Your bones crack visually when you tire; it is cosmetic.

With the ball

• The ball goes high and tight into the catching arm and stays there through every move.
• Reach: hold left mouse to stretch the ball out almost a yard (dive while holding for a yard and a half). The ball crossing the plane scores and tackles are spotted where the ball is, but you run 20% slower and a tackle while reaching is always a fumble.
• Stiff arm right mouse: shoves a wrap or contact tackler from the front or side into a stumble for 20% stamina. Dive tackles beat it.
• Tackles are physics: a hard square hit wraps you up on contact; a slower or off-angle one is an arm wrap you can shed inside 180 ms with a plant or a jet-glide; far more momentum than the tackler drags him a couple of yards. Falling across the goal line from the one counts.

05Catching

• Hold left mouse to bring your hands up; nothing is caught with them down. Press it no earlier than about a fifth of a second before the ball reaches your hands: too early and it is "DROPPED, HANDS UP TOO EARLY", too late and it goes by. Within 50 ms of arrival is a perfect catch.
• See it in: keep the crosshair on the ball while it flies. The ring around it tightens and turns gold at full lock; a locked-in catch has a bigger secure radius and tight coverage cannot knock it loose ("SAW IT IN!"). Look away and the lock drains; low lock on arrival means a bobble or a drop.
• Catch bloom: with the option on in the crosshair customizer (K), the reticle swells while a catch is possible.
• Hands: you catch with the nearer hand; both go up only on a high ball or a jump. A ball right into the palm is safe, a fingertip grab is a gamble, contested and over-the-shoulder catches are harder. Just past your reach, a desperation grab sticks one time in ten ("CIRCUS CATCH!").
• Tips and the tip drill: a ball that only reaches the edge of your hand pops up and stays live; whoever gets hands under it before it drops takes it, a completion for you ("TIP DRILL!") or a pick for the corner.
• Pro catching (Settings): a click within 50 ms of the ball entering your hands is clean even on the fingertips ("PERFECT TIMING!"). The hands-up window is shorter in return.
• The one-hand snag: a ball behind and above your head, your gaze locked, a click as it crosses one-hand reach: you arch back and snatch it one-handed, then slide.
• In the air with the corner: a high ball, a hard crossing collision and a near-perfect press is the "SPECTACULAR SNAG!"; a mistimed press is jarred loose; running the same lane gets a hip ride and a tip; a slow jump ball is an upright contested catch.
• First person (V): your gloves rise into a receiving diamond and close on the ball; airborne, your reach grows and the view eases toward the ball.

06Playing cornerback

• Backpedal on S; A/D while pedalling opens the hips toward the break; Q/E plant a T-step; Shift+S is the speed turn, flipping you to run flat out with your head over your shoulder.
• Press: B within two yards is a two-hand jam that knocks the receiver off his line ("JAMMED!").
• Swat right mouse with the ball within reach: timed, it spikes the pass into the turf ("SWATTED!"); a hand on it without the timing tips it live ("TIPPED!"), and the tip drill is on.
• Intercept with left mouse, the same window as a catch. A pick is yours once you have held it for a third of a second; then return it.
• Tackle and hit stick right mouse: a square hit at speed wraps the carrier on contact; a trailing or side swipe is an arm wrap he can shed; the hit stick lifts and drives him back and can jar a fresh catch loose. A miss leaves you stumbling. Dive tackles at the legs beat stiff arms.
• The CPU corner at Rookie, Pro, All-Pro and Legend reacts faster and moves better at each step; it never reads the route.
• Spectators and the lobby: a third player in the room watches from the stands; when a seat frees, the longest-waiting spectator steps in.

07Quarterback (Triad and the QB Lab)

• Left mouse by press length: a flick with the receiver inside 14 m is a shovel, a tap a bullet, a longer hold a touch pass whose charge shapes the arc. Right mouse draws a lob; a tap pump-fakes.
• The ball is cradled high and protected while you read; hold it past 6.5 s and you are sacked.
• The landing marker (L) and the ghost arc show where the ball comes down; the flight is exact, so trust them.
• In every other mode the AI quarterback calls a cadence only the receiver hears ("Blue 80! Set, hut!") and throws on the reads described above.

08The Promenade

Open the game in hub mode and you are on the COSMO Promenade, a sealed space-station deck under seven girder ribs, with nebula windows, market tickers and a jumbotron. WASD walk, Shift runs, Space jumps, click for mouse look, E interacts with whatever the prompt names, 1–6 emote. The room bar at the top switches between PROMENADE, ARENA and SPACEWALK.

09Friends, duels, voice

• Friend codes: J on the deck (F7 on the field) opens the friends drawer with your 12-digit code. Add a friend's code to see when they are online, where they are, and to JOIN their room or VISIT their apartment. A code names you; nobody can play as you with it.
• Duels: stand next to someone on the deck and press E to challenge; they answer Y or N. Both of you land in a private arena room, the challenger on offense, with your outfits intact.
• Profiles: I next to a player opens their career card (record, catches, tackles, your head-to-head). T on the field is the tale of the tape against your opponent.
• Leaderboard: L on the deck or F8 on the field: wins, win % (three or more drives), touchdowns, interceptions and tackles; your row is lit; click a row for that player's card. The jumbotron shows the top five by wins.
• Voice: the mic button top right (or T on the deck) toggles your microphone; INCOMING ON / OFF silences everyone else. Voice is proximity-based: full within a couple of yards, half at 15 m, silent past 36 m. A speaker icon pulses over whoever is talking.

10Your look

Four layers travel together, saved on your device and under your account, and everyone sees them: on the deck, in the arena, in a duel.

• Customize (main menu or Esc): helmet and visor, grills, chains with a pendant, gloves, cleats that leave neon trails, neon colours and your number, the jersey, PS1-style fits (tees, hoodies, dusters, cargos and more), three bodies (Neon Skeleton, Shard Runner with a faceless or skull head, Shard Skeleton), the football's skin and air effect, meme gear (the giant bell chain, the shemagh hood, big red boots, backblings) and sound packs.
• Fit Customizer / Deck 07: the Orbital Deck outfit slot by slot, headgear to footwear, neck and hands, colourways and finish, with presets. J and I cycle presets and colourways mid-game.
• Shop and VOIDMARKET: ARMAGEDDON OF GAMES is the station locker-room shop; VOIDMARKET is a faux resale site with asks, bids, price charts and try-on. Buying is free for now.
• COSMO LOCKER (K on the deck): drip pieces that cover fit slots, including whole skins.
• BODY / IDENTITY: skin tone, hairstyle and colour, nails, tattoos, rings and earrings, painted onto the body.

11Settings and the radio

• Game: your name, the mode, CPU difficulty, what you start as, the practice drill, the QB voice cadence, pro catching, the landing marker, the physics readout.
• Feel: mouse sensitivity, invert Y, field of view, heading lock as hold or toggle, head bob in first person.
• Look: the visual mode (Orbital Deck is the game's look; Astro Olympus, Old School RS and PS1 Streetwear are alternates), retro pixels, neon glow, film grain (\), and the crosshair customizer (K): dot, cross, circle-dot, chevron or brackets, colour, size, gap, centre dot, catch bloom.
• Radio: N cycles stations and shows the name in the corner; O skips a song, U mutes the music, M mutes effects. Settings has the station, the music volume, bass boost (a sub-bass shelf with trunk rattle), a custom music folder of your own files, and a YouTube link (a video, playlist or live stream) as a station.
• Screenshots: F2 hides the HUD and frees the camera, F4 freezes the frame, Enter saves a PNG.

12Practice Lab

Every rep starts from the same spot with no downs, no clock and no out-of-bounds endings. Hotkeys are listed top right:

The telemetry panel shows your animation state, hit-stop and recovery frames, gaze lock and a colour-coded catch window (out of range, outer circle, fingertip zone, clean grab, perfect pro frame). The arena has a chalk grid with 5, 10 and 15 yard rings and a ghost arc of the ball's flight.

13Callouts

SAW IT IN! gaze-locked clean catch · PERFECT TIMING! pro-mode perfect press · FINGERTIP CATCH! held on at the edge · CIRCUS CATCH! the one-in-ten outer-circle grab · CONTESTED CATCH! won a jump ball · SPECTACULAR SNAG! the mid-air tangle · TIP DRILL! caught a live tip · REBOUND SNAG! the corner picked a live tip · JARRED LOOSE! contact knocked it out · DROPPED hands up too early or late · NEVER SAW IT you were not looking · SWATTED! timed swat · TIPPED! untimed hand on it · SWIPED! / JAMMED! the hand fight · SACKED! the human QB held it too long · BURIED the coffin.

14The test build (test.separation.gg)

The test build runs the kinetic combat overhaul, which changes daily and is not in the live game. Your account and outfits are separate there.

• Inputs: no G, Z or C. Cuts come off the Q/E plants or the stick at a route ring; jukes are in-stride A/D slides.
• Slides and the Glitch: a single A or D tap at a sprint slides you a lane without losing speed; A, D, A inside 400 ms is the Glitch cadence (a yard outward at full speed, the corner's tracking frozen for a beat, extra pop out); mash it wrong and you stutter at 60% speed. Double-tap for the jet-glide.
• 180° snaps: a quick S tap stops you dead and flips you to the quarterback into a ready crouch, with a launch bonus if you catch out of it. The corner's quick S (or W in a backpedal) is a T-step that drives downhill with a closing burst.
• Catching: the press cooldown is shorter; an early press with good gaze lock becomes a brief bobble you secure instead of a drop, with poor lock a live tip; a perfect press tucks at once with a moment of immunity to the hit stick. Two audibles per play, shown as a badge.
• Rules: a 3.5 s pocket clock (clean, then pressure, then a coverage sack for a 7-yard loss), rigid body collisions between receiver and corner, illegal touching out of bounds, and a match format of first to 21 or six drives with college overtime.
• HUD and extras: an always-on reticle with gaze lock and catch bloom states, a combo list with frame data, an emote wheel on a held T (the tale of the tape moves to G) with the MONEY SPREAD hold emote, a four-phase dive, a ballistic aim assist for the human quarterback and a new arena sound engine.