Duel: 1 vs 1

Lineguard now has three ways to play: Run, Fight and, new on PixelPicked, Duel. Your ninja against someone else's, one on one, live.

How a duel plays

• Tap your opponent to strike: the head for a high kick, the body for punches and kicks that chain into a combo, the legs to sweep them off their feet.
• Press and hold on your own ninja to guard. A held guard stops almost everything, even sweeps. Only the elbow and the ultimates get through, and the third blow you block in a row breaks it.
• Draw a line and he dashes along it (draw upward to leap). Nothing can hit him mid-dash, so it's your way out of an ultimate.
• Best of three: win two rounds and the match is yours.

Everything you've unlocked comes with you: your moves, your ultimate, your upgrades and the way you've dressed your ninja.

Finding a fight

• Find an opponent: if nobody else is searching, a bot steps in so you're never left waiting, and you stay in the queue. When a real player turns up, they take over the fight.
• Fight a bot: Easy, Medium or Hard, any time.
• Invite a friend: you get a four-letter code and a link. They open it and you're fighting.

Players on PixelPicked, CrazyGames, Newgrounds, lineguard.cc and the Android app all meet in the same queue. Duel also works on mobile data now: two phones on 4G used to find each other but never connect, and that's fixed.

Brawl is now called Fight

The three ways to play now read Run, Fight and Duel, just like the buttons. Your progress, moves and leaderboard places stay as they were.

Three new ultimates

• Shuriken Rain: a leap, then a rain of exploding stars. Nothing blocks them.
• Whirlwind: upside down on his hands, legs sweeping round, kicking everyone near into the air.
• Shadow Clone: a shadow copy of you attacks from the other side. In a duel it's two against one for a few seconds.

They unlock with your ninja rank, and all three work in Duel too.

Also new

• Try before you buy: in the Shop's Build tab, your ninja wears whatever you tap.
• Smarter enemies in Fight: from wave 4 they get tougher every wave, surround you and punish a miss.
• A trick for every run: one button that comes back after a cooldown: Shield now, Slow time, Clear sky or Ink refill.
• Your record on the start screen: Run shows your best score and distance, Fight your best score and wave, Duel your win rate.
• Fixed crashes on older iPhones and when continuing a fight after a break.

Tips

• In a duel, don't hide behind your guard: block one or two blows, then let go and hit back before the third.
• Watch for your opponent winding up a big kick and tap them right then: a counter lands first and hits more than twice as hard.
• On a computer: click to hit, drag to dash, press E for your ultimate, and hold the mouse on your own ninja to guard.

Thanks to everyone who has played so far. Have you tried a duel yet? Tell me in the comments which bot level you beat first, and whether your match connected smoothly.