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Play Iris: The Broken Arc — a free Greek-myth parkour runner
Play Iris: The Broken Arc free. A Greek-myth 3D parkour runner: run the shattered rainbow, leap the floating shards, gather the seven colours, and free Iris from Typhon's storm cage.
Iris: The Broken Arc is a free browser 3D parkour runner built on Greek myth. Typhon tore the rainbow out of the sky for spite, and the seven colours fell like warm rain. Iris went up after them and did not come back — the storm serpent coiled around her at the summit and made a cage of lightning. You are Zephyrus, the west wind, wearing the last pair of winged sandals in the world, and the only road left is the road that fell.
The run is simple to learn and hard to put down. You run forward automatically; steer left and right, jump with one press and again in mid-air for a second jump. Land on the floating shards of the arc, read the drifting decks, thread the cloud pillars, and reach the gate at the end of every chapter. Three hearts, checkpoint braziers that relight the road behind you, and star shards placed high enough that three stars means running the chapter clean.
How to play
- Run. The west wind never stops. Steer with A/D or the arrow keys; on a phone, drag anywhere.
- Jump. Space, W or ↑ jumps. Press again in the air for the second jump — the winged sandals answer twice.
- Read the drift. From Act II the islands slide sideways. Watch the deck, then commit: half a heartbeat, no more.
- Light the braziers. Checkpoints relight the road behind you. A fall costs a heart and returns you to the last one.
- Take the shards. Three golden star shards float above every chapter. Finish with all three for the full three stars.
The power-ups, exactly
| Power-up | What it does | Lasts |
|---|---|---|
| Feather | A much higher jump — reach shards you could only stare at | 8 seconds |
| Aegis | A shield that absorbs one hit, wall or scythe | Until it breaks |
| Gale | Your running speed up by a third — faster, and therefore riskier | 8 seconds |
| Checkpoint brazier | Relights the road behind you; your respawn point | The whole chapter |
The four acts of the climb
| Act | Chapters | Where you are | What changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| I · The Falling Shards | 1–8 | The low sky above the Aegean | Learn the run, the jump and the second jump. Gaps only. |
| II · The Cloud Stair | 9–16 | The stair the messengers built | Drifting islands, cloud pillars, and a gale that pushes sideways. |
| III · The Star Fields | 17–24 | The arc's old scaffolding | Crumbling tiles, storm blades, and the narrowest decks yet. |
| IV · The Storm Cage | 25–30 | Inside Typhon's coil | Everything at once, at speed. Chapter 30 frees Iris. |
Why every chapter is provably beatable
No chapter in Iris is a designer's guess. The level generator and the physics share one deterministic core, and the same code ships with a planning bot that reads the road ahead, schedules every jump from the real jump arcs, and runs all thirty chapters end to end without a single fall or hit. If the bot cannot clear a level, the level does not ship. What you play is what has already been beaten.
Strategy that actually works
- Jump late, not early. The second jump is free height and free distance — spend it at the top of the first arc, not as a panic button.
- Aim for the middle of the far deck. Landings near an edge steal the runway you need for the next hazard.
- Drift reads in two beats. One glance at the deck's slide, one correction mid-air. Do not steer the whole flight.
- Pillars are lanes. A cloud pillar splits the road in two; pick your side early and hold it.
- The gale is a bet. A third more speed is a third less time to read the road. Take it on long decks, skip it before tight ones.
Technical notes
Everything is generated: no image is loaded by the game, no audio file is played, and no third-party script runs. The sky, the marble shards, the storm coil and the runner are drawn on a Canvas 2D surface from seeded code, every chapter is built deterministically from its number, and every footfall, chime and thunder is synthesised with the Web Audio API. It runs on desktop, tablet and phone in portrait or landscape with touch or keyboard. Chapters, stars and your endless record are stored locally under iris.arc.v1. Nothing is uploaded, because there is no server.
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Iris: The Broken Arc — frequently asked questions
What is Iris: The Broken Arc?
It is a free browser 3D parkour runner built on Greek myth. Typhon tore the rainbow out of the sky and coiled around Iris at the summit, and the seven colours fell as motes. You play Zephyrus, the west wind, wearing the last pair of winged sandals. Thirty chapters across four acts take you from the low sky above the Aegean to the inside of the storm cage, plus an endless sky mode.
How do you play it?
You run forward automatically. Steer left and right with A and D or the arrow keys, and jump with Space, W or the up arrow. Press jump again in the air for a second jump. On a phone, drag anywhere to steer and tap to jump. Land on the floating shards, clear the gaps, and reach the gate at the end of the chapter. Three hearts per chapter; a checkpoint brazier relights the road behind you.
What are the stars for?
Each chapter hides three golden star shards above the road. Finish the chapter and you keep whatever you found: one star for finishing, two for two shards, three for all three. Shards sit high enough that you have to jump for them, and some are over a gap, so three stars means running the chapter clean rather than merely surviving it.
What happens if you fall?
A fall costs one heart and returns you to the last checkpoint brazier you lit, which is why the braziers matter more than they look. Hitting a wall, a pillar or a storm scythe also costs a heart, but you keep running. Lose all three hearts and the chapter ends; there is no penalty beyond starting it again, and your stars are safe.
What are the power-ups?
There are three, and they float in a ring of blue light. The feather gives you a much higher jump for eight seconds. The aegis wraps you in a shield that absorbs one hit. The gale pushes your running speed up by a third for eight seconds, which is faster and therefore riskier. All three are optional; none of them is required to finish a chapter.
Is there an endless mode?
Yes. The Endless Sky builds a fresh road every round from a fixed seed. Each round is a little faster than the last, and drifting islands, pillars, scythes and crumbling decks arrive in that order. You have three hearts and no checkpoints. Your distance and your best round are kept in your browser.
Does it work on phones and does it save progress?
It runs in any modern browser on desktop, tablet or phone, in portrait or landscape, with touch or keyboard. Chapters, stars and your endless record are stored locally under iris.arc.v1. Nothing is uploaded, because the game has no server and loads no third-party script.