Bluecurrent

About Bluecurrent

Bluecurrent is a swimming game that takes the stroke seriously. You set a rhythm with left and right, surge when you can afford it, recover when you cannot, and breathe — and breathing costs you, which is the whole tension of a race.

Every discipline is here: freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, medley, relays and open water, from a 50m sprint to a 1500m grind. They are genuinely different races, not the same race over a longer pool.

A career with skills

Power, endurance and technique are trained with credits earned from racing, and they pull against each other. A sprinter built for 50m freestyle is the wrong swimmer for 1500m, and the career makes you pick.

Start with the lesson

There is a guided swimming lesson that teaches one move at a time, and it is worth the five minutes. The wall turn alone is worth more than any amount of surging.

Controls

A and D set the stroke rhythm, Space starts and turns at the wall, B breathes, hold W to surge and hold S to recover.

How to play Bluecurrent

1. Open How to swim for the six-step lesson. It walks you through four good catches, breathing, the wall push and the paired-arm strokes before you race anyone.
2. Choose an event and a division, then take your mark on the blocks.
3. Wait for GO before pressing Space. The launch is manual and your reaction counts, but going early earns a start penalty.
4. Follow the next-arm cue. In freestyle and backstroke you alternate A and D, pressing each one as the marker enters the green zone; in breaststroke and butterfly a single press of Space strokes both arms together.
5. Tap B just after a stroke, while the blue breathe cue is lit, to refill your air.
6. Approaching the wall, press Space within the last 2.5 metres to prepare the turn, then push off and pick the rhythm straight back up.
7. Touch the finish. Your time locks in, and the final table appears once every lane has come home.

Bluecurrent tips and strategy

• Nothing swims for you. Stop pressing the stroke keys and your swimmer glides, slows and then stops. Every metre comes from a timed catch.
• Wait for the green. The game tells you exactly what went wrong: wrong arm, too soon, or a late catch that resets your rhythm. If you miss a window, let it pass and catch the next one cleanly rather than mashing.
• Do not let your air run low. Low air weakens your catch, so a skipped breath is not free speed. Breathing straight after a stroke is the cheapest moment to do it.
• Recover while you work. Holding S as you keep timing catches lets you recover without stopping. Save W surges for the finish, where the cost no longer matters.
• Prepare every turn. If you touch the wall without preparing, you have to press Space again to push off, which loses time on every length of a long race.
• Learn the medley orders. The individual medley goes butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle, while the medley relay runs backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, freestyle. In relays you swim every leg yourself, launching each new teammate with Space at the exchange wall.

Events, career and the championship

The event list covers 41 pool events plus two marathon swims. The 10km open-water race is swum at full distance and real race speed, with your lane following a buoy course rather than a pool wall, so breathing and recovery matter far more than the start.

The career has a clear path through it: finish your first 50m race, build rhythm over 100m, learn the backstroke and its turn, hold a breaststroke rhythm, master all four strokes, race all four relay legs and finally complete the 10km open-water race. Leaving a race early earns no credits, so it is worth swimming to the end even when a medal has gone.

The Bluecurrent circuit championship is three rounds: a heat, a semifinal and a final. Only the top four in each round go through, the rivals get faster every round, and your career training applies throughout, so a build that suits the event makes a real difference by the final. If you go out early, the rewards you earned on the way are still saved.