About the game
"Don't Ketchup the Fries!" is set at an after-work happy hour at a bar. In the middle of the table sits a shared basket of fries, and your coworkers keep reaching in from every side with ketchup bottles, ready to squirt ketchup all over everyone's fries without asking. Dip or drizzle? It's a classic fries debate. Your job is to tap the hands before they get there. Each happy hour lasts 45 seconds. This page covers the controls, the kinds of hands, how happy hour gets busier, and how scores and titles work.
Getting started
On the title screen, pick "Today's Happy Hour" or "Practice". Happy hour starts with a "Cheers!".
- Today's Happy Hour: the order, direction and timing of the hands are fixed for each date. Everyone who plays on the same day gets the same happy hour, so you can compare results. The date comes from your device
- Practice: a different happy hour every time
Happy hour ends when 45 seconds are up, or when all 6 piles of fries have ketchup on them.
The screen
- Stopped: how many hands you've stopped so far
- ⏱: seconds left. It turns red under 10 seconds, and beeps every second for the last 5
- Fries: the state of the 6 piles of fries. 🍟 means no ketchup yet, 🍅 means it got ketchup
- Speaker (top right): turns sound effects on or off. You'll hear the toast, hands being stopped, ketchup being squirted, and the buzz of the bar
Controls
Tap (or click, on a computer) a hand before it reaches the basket to stop it. The hand pulls back with an "Oops" or a "Sorry". If it reaches the basket, it squirts its ketchup ("Splurt!") and one pile of fries gets ketchup on it.
- The tap area is a bit bigger than the hand you see: it reaches from the fingertips a little way up the arm. You can still stop a hand if your finger is slightly off
- You can tap with several fingers at once. Holding your phone upright and using both thumbs works well
- 0.35 seconds before a hand comes in, the tip of its sleeve peeks in from the edge of the screen. That's your cue for where the next hand is coming from
The hands
You can tell the hands apart by their sleeves. The times to reach the basket are for the start of happy hour (hands get faster later on).
| Hand | Sleeve | Movement | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coworker | Light-blue shirt | Goes straight for the basket in about 2.3 seconds | Tap once |
| Speedy intern | Orange hoodie | About 1.25 seconds, and speeds up as it gets closer | Tap once, early |
| Pushy boss | Navy suit, white cuffs | About 2 seconds. When stopped, backs off almost halfway and comes right back, about 10% faster each time | Tap 2 or 3 times |
| Polite coworker | Green cardigan | Says "Um…" on the way in, stops about halfway to the basket, and asks "Mind if I add ketchup?" for 1.6 seconds | Don't tap |
The bar under the polite coworker's speech bubble shows how long they'll wait. If you leave them alone, that counts as answering "Sure, go ahead". They say "Thanks!" and put ketchup on one pile, and you get manner points. If you tap them, they pull back with "But I asked…" and you lose points. The polite coworker shows up at most 3 times per happy hour.
Happy hour gets busier
As happy hour warms up, hands come in more often and move faster. There's a limit on how many hands can be reaching at once; while that limit is reached, the next hand waits its turn.
| Time | Time between hands | Hands at once | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 to 10 s | 1.5 to 2.0 s | Up to 2 | ×1 |
| 10 to 22 s | 1.05 to 1.5 s | Up to 3 | ×1.08 |
| 22 to 34 s | 0.8 to 1.15 s | Up to 4 | ×1.16 |
| 34 to 45 s | 0.6 to 0.9 s | Up to 5 | ×1.25 |
At first it's mostly coworkers. The pushy boss starts showing up at 10 seconds, and from 22 seconds on there are more speedy interns and bosses. About 40 hands come at you in one happy hour.
Scoring
| What happened | Points |
|---|---|
| Stopped a ketchup hand | +100 |
| Stopped it with less than 20% of the way left (close call) | +50 extra |
| Fries left without ketchup at the end | +200 per pile |
| Let the polite coworker through (manner points) | +300 |
| Stopped the polite coworker | −150 |
The pushy boss counts once, when your last tap sends them away (+100). If your total drops below zero, it counts as 0.
Example: you stop 38 hands (one of them a close call), let the polite coworker through 3 times, and end with 3 piles of fries left. That's 3,800 + 50 + 900 + 600 = 5,350 points.
Titles
The title on the results screen is checked from the top of this list down; you get the first one that fits.
- Ketchup Swamp: all 6 piles got ketchup
- Courtesy Crusher: you stopped the polite coworker 3 or more times
- Fry Guardian: you never stopped the polite coworker, and the only ketchup on the fries came from them (nobody squirted without asking)
- Ketchup Police: you stopped 30 or more hands
- Proud Dipper: 4 or 5 piles left
- Just a Squirt: 2 or 3 piles left
- The Last Fry: only 1 pile left
Results and sharing
Besides your score breakdown and title, the results screen lets you pick a side: "Team Drizzle" (ketchup on everything) or "Team Dip" (ketchup on the side) (tap it again to unpick). "Share on X" opens a new post on X with text like the example below. "Copy result" copies the same text.
| Don't Ketchup the Fries! (Today's Happy Hour) 🍟🍟🍟🍅🍅🍅 Clean fries: 3 of 6 5,350 pts, title: "Fry Guardian" I'm #TeamDip #DontKetchupTheFries #browsergame https://no-lemon.nacn.app/en/ |
If you don't pick a side, the "I'm #Team..." line is left out. "One more round" plays the same mode again, and "Back to title" returns to the title screen.
What gets saved
Your best scores for Today's Happy Hour and Practice, the side you picked, and whether sound is on are saved only in your browser. Your best scores appear on the title screen. A happy hour in progress isn't saved, so closing or reloading the page mid-game takes you back to the title screen. See the privacy policy for details.
Tips
- When a sleeve peeks in from the edge, move your finger toward it. Being ready before the hand arrives helps you keep up with the fast hands late in happy hour
- When several hands come at once, stop the one closest to the basket first. The speedy intern in orange is almost twice as fast as a coworker
- Keep your eye on the pushy boss after you stop them. They come right back from where they stopped, so keep tapping
- When you see a green sleeve, leave that hand alone. Letting it through is worth more than stopping it
- A close call is worth +50, but if the hand gets through you lose a 200-point pile of fries. Don't cut it too fine