Invokeys x Alas Daydreamer Switch Review

Being based in the United States, I feel compelled to wish all of my readers from the US a Happy Thanksgiving and a sincere hope that they got to take some time off to spend with friends and/or family. I’m not exactly picky about the specifics on that wish either – it could be in the form of a formal and proper sit down dinner on Thursday night or a near mosh-pit style fight with other families in a mall to get TVs or blenders in the early hours of Friday morning. However you all choose to try and relax on your days off is up for you to decide. For those of you not from the US, I hope that you are at least getting to enjoy the widespread Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals which seem to be coming from every single keyboard vendor for yet another year. Cheaper switches are always a win in my book and know that I did quite a bit of shopping myself during writing breaks for this article. Beyond spending way too much on switches like always, I haven’t done much during my week off and have avoided both the formal sit down dinners as well as Black Friday shopping insanity. With real world work having been fairly crazy and stressful over the last few weeks, I had made up my mind well in advance that simply taking a week off to just try and decompress, work on stuff around the house, and maybe spend a few days with friends and family that I care about was probably in my best interest. Oh, and write a switch review. It wouldn’t be a good and proper break from normal world responsibilities without some content work thrown into the mix!

**Figure 1:** Also recorded a bunch of force curves to add over the next few weeks!

Looking forward towards the rest of the calendar year, we have surprisingly few weeks left until 2024 rolls around, something which I’m not sure I’m entirely ready to mentally grasp yet. (To be honest, ever since COVID occurred, it really doesn’t feel as if time has been real and I’m wondering when, if ever, we will get back to it feeling real.) With the way that the review weekends have fallen, I am currently slated to have a review to publish on December 24th, which is Christmas Eve. While I would like to say with certainty that I will have something written and firmly together by then, my general plans for the last few weeks of the year are still a bit up in the air and I’m not entirely sure what I will be up to around that time frame. Regardless of whether or not I do publish a full length switch review then, know that I will still be putting out some content, even if it is just a few force curves or scorecards to add onto the pile. I’m really not a fan of missing content days in general and I’d like to think of anything I could put out then as little Christmas gifts for my audience, even if they are the same as what you’ve already received hundreds of times over in the past few years. Sue me, I guess – I already told you I was trying to relax and not go out Christmas shopping on Black Friday. At least be thankful that I’m not just getting you all socks.

Switch Background

In extremely similar fashion to the last review I wrote on the Sarokeys BCP switches, the Invokeys x Alas Daydreamer switches do invoke a certain ‘name game’ like presence in which knowing a bit about who Invokeys and Alas are will certainly help contextualize this switch quite a bit. Starting with the former, Invokeys Co. (often just shorted as ‘Invokeys’) is a keyboard vendor that started in late 2021 and is primarily known for their unique, high quality switch offerings. Previously I’ve done deep dives on a couple of Invokeys’ biggest switch offerings, and thoroughly documented the design and vendor history alongside them, including their Matcha Latte, Blueberry Chiffon, and Black Sesame switches. However, astute readers of mine will note that the latest of these reviews was done a bit over a year ago in October of 2022. Since then, Invokeys has certainly still been incredibly active in improving and expanding their in stock lines of switches, and have been more than generous in giving me some prototypes as a peek behind the curtain into this process. In addition to releasing V2, improved variations of each of the aforementioned trio of switches above, Invokeys has also introduced two more linear switches in the form of Red Bean and Purple Rice switches, continuing on their colored food theme for their solo switch projects. While the Red Bean switches were manufactured at Aflion like the Matcha Latte, Blueberry Chiffon, and Black Sesames before them, the Purple Rice switches were released in late 2023 and manufactured by BSUN – denoting Invokeys’ first deviation from their primarily Aflion-made line up thus far. While some further deviations from Invokeys’ Aflion-heavy affiliation will be discussed below with the Alas switch collaborations, they appear to be sticking with what has historically worked for them, even using the same squared off display packaging which was first introduced with the Black Sesame switches nearly a year ago. One additional change worth mentioning, as well, is that they’ve introduced both a Switch Sampler pack and 10-count switch offerings in addition to their original 70/90/110 quantities, something which is certainly appreciated among people collecting switches and/or just wanting to try out offerings without sinking a ton of money.

**Figure 3:** Invokeys Dustproof and Regular Red Bean prototypes with a mysterious, all-milky white prototype switch in the middle.

**Figure 4:** Invokeys Purple Rice Rev 1 and Rev 2 prototypes with another mysterious, baby blue prototype housing in the middle.

Alas, on the other hand, is not a switch vendor but rather an individual within the keyboard community. Involved in switches, vintage keyboards, and a whole slew of other sub-communities, she has been around for several years now and is primarily known for her involvement with Coffee Break Keyboards, otherwise known by the shorthand of CBKBD. Through CBKBD, Alas has previously released two different switches, including the Haimu-made Trash Linears in collaboration with the 40% keyboard community as well as Keygeek-made Red Velvet switches which are currently slotted to be shipped to consumers sometime within the next month or two. Originally designed to be Haimu-made offerings, the Red Velvet switches first suffered from MOQ-based pricing shifts at Haimu, forcing their change to Keygeek which then followed up with a series of manufacturing delays, pushing their original expected delivery in late October of 2023 back quite a bit. (It should be noted as well that this is not the first time that Alas has had poor luck with respect to manufacturers, vendors, and general switch releases, citing KTT Pines as another example of a switch outside of the scope of discussion for this article that also suffered as well.) Much like the Trash Linears and Red Velvet switches before these, the Invokeys x Alas Daydreamer switches feature her attribution as a result of facilitating contact between Invokeys and LICHICX, the up and coming manufacturer which has been discussed quite a bit on this site previously. Prior to Alas’ contact with Invokeys, Invokeys had no stated relationship with LICHICX nor their sales teams, and it was through this collaboration that the Daydreamer and Nightshade pair of switches were created in late 2023.

**Figure 5:** Switches which Alas has collaborated on including (L-R) Invokeys x Alas Nightshade, Red Velvet, Invokeys x Alas Daydreamer, and Trash Linears.

Summarizing the information laid out over the past few paragraphs, the Invokeys x Alas Daydreamer switches are thus one of a pair of LICHICX-made switches being sold by Invokeys starting in November of 2023. Priced at $0.65 per switch regardless of the quantity bought, the Daydreamer switches are medium-weight silent tactile switches featuring slight factory lubing and the LICHICX-made middle of stem silencing layer previously popularized in LICHICX Lucy switches. Alongside the Daydreamers, silent linears with matching weighting and silencing technology, known as Nightshades, were also released at an identical price point of $0.65 per switch. Both of these switches are reported to feature POK-material top housings, nylon bottom housings, and 63.5 g bottom out, 18-mm long springs. As of the time of writing this article, these Invokeys x Alas collaborations are also being sold through a couple of regional proxies, including KeebzNCables in AUS, Ktechs in SEA, SerpentKeys in the UK, and Pompokey in KR. While the longevity and life span of these switches is unknown, and especially so given that Invokeys has never engaged in a collaborative switch release before, it is assumed that these likely will see quite a long shelf life and vendor support if they are treated in similar fashion to Invokeys’ other flagship releases. This is especially true if Invokeys sees the silent tactile and silent linear offerings in Daydreamer and Nightshade switches as unique additions to their switch offerings which aren’t otherwise catered to.

Daydreamer Performance

Appearance

At the highest level, the Invokeys x Alas Daydreamer switches come in a three-tone colorway featuring light pink colored top housings, tealish-blue colored stems, and a darker, more rosy, pink colored bottom housing. By comparison, the Nightshade switches come in a much darker three-tone colorway with a redish-pink stem, deep red colored top housing, and nearly burgundy red colored bottom housing. Like the majority of LICHICX-made switches before them, the Daydreamers (and Nightshades) come in 5-Pin/PCB mount construction with a winglatch style for housing connections and a dustproof stem. Unlike those previous releases, though, the Daydreamers, as well as their sibling release in Nightshades, feature large letter ‘INVOKEYS’ nameplates which are imprinted into the top housings and occupy the entire nameplate slot. Beyond the unique three-tone colorway and the obvious identifying nameplate for them, further details worth noting in the Invokeys x Alas Daydreamer switches take place at an individual component level and can be found in the discussion below.

**Figure 6:** Color comparison between Daydreamer (Left) and Nightshade (Right) switches.

**Figure 7:** Invokeys x Alas Daydreamer switches and their components.

Looking first at the light pink colored, POK top housings of the Daydreamer switches, these are incredibly similar in design to other LICHICX switches and feature nearly identical design features as noted in the LICHICX Lucy Switch Review. The one exception to this near detail for detail match, though, being the recessed ‘INVOKEYS’ nameplate in all caps on the Daydreamer switches. The LED/diode slot for the Daydreamers is long, thin, and rectangular with only a thin bifurcating strip in the center which allows for increased flexibility with various forms of aftermarket LED/diodes. Externally, though, beyond the LED strip and nameplate region there is very little else to mention in the way of important design details. Internally these are identical to LICHICX Lucy switches and feature more flat, stem-contacting slider rails on the north and south sides of the housings as well as eight ejector mold circles located around the upper edges of the same sides of the housing. Additionally, the identifying mold mark for the Daydreamer top housings can be found in the upper right hand corner underneath the nameplate region, in the form of a single, capital letter.

**Figure 8:** Invokeys x Alas Daydreamer top housing external design showing embossed 'INVOKEYS' nameplate and thin, rectangular bifurcated LED/diode slot.

**Figure 9:** Invokeys x Alas top housing internal design showing capital letter mold marking in upper right hand corner and general structural similarities to other covered LICHICX switches.

Moving next to the tealish-blue colored, POM stems of the Daydreamer switches, these too are incredibly similar to the designs seen previously in other LICHICX stems. The upper blue portion of the stem with the keycap mount, dustproof walls, and center pole and the lower, milky-white portion featuring the tactile leaf legs and slider rails are separated by a transparent, silicone mid layer which acts as a dampening layer to mute the bottoming out of these switches. As was covered in the LICHICX Lucy Switch Review, this silicone layer silences the bottoming out of the switch by contacting the walls of the center pole hole at the bottom of the downstroke, rather than the bottoms of the slider rails or center pole as is common in most other switches. Similar to those other LICHICX stems, the slider rails on the Daydreamers have thin guiding ridges on either side and feature a pair of mold markings on the front plate of the switch, with both the blue and milky white portions having mold stamps between the protruding stem legs. As was mentioned above, the stems of the Daydreamers do come thinly factory lubed on all sides as well as the stem legs, though this was visually hard to capture when attempting to take photographs of the stems on their own. Trace amounts of the factory lube from the stem legs can be seen below on the leaves in the bottom housing internal photos.

**Figure 10:** Invokeys x Alas Daydreamer stems showing front plate pair of mold markings, ribbed slider rails, and three part silenced stem construction.

**Figure 11:** Side profile of Invokeys x Alas Daydreamer stems to show off shape of tactile bump.

Finally arriving to the dark, rosy-pink colored nylon bottom housings of the Invokeys x Alas Daydreamer switches, we again are greeted with features identical to those noted previously in the full length review of the Lucy switches. Internally, the bottom housings feature a mild south side spring collar, strange two-tiered north side spring collar, dampening pads on the base of the slider rails, as well as thin guide rails in the slider rails themselves to reduce the area of contact between the housings and the stems. Alongside these features, thin amounts of white factory lubrication can be seen on the leaves at the point of contact with the tactile stem legs make contact with the leaves, something which is commonly done to reduce leathery like scratch texture in tactile switches. Externally, the Daydreamer bottom housings are also quite unremarkable and feature identical mold markings to what have been seen before. For clarity’s sake, the mold marking seen here is identical in location and type to all other LICHICX-made switches previously and comes in the form of an inverted, subtle marking featuring one capital letter followed by one or two numbers. As well, it should be mentioned that the tiny slit on the edge of the bottom housing perfectly in line with this mold marking is also something which is generally uncommon and thus far commonly associated with LICHICX.

**Figure 12:** Invokeys x Alas Daydreamer bottom housing internals showing north and south side spring collars, guiders in the slider rails, and white factory lube present on stem leg/leaf contact points.

**Figure 13:** Invokeys x Alas Daydreamer bottom housing external design showing PCB mounting pins and small, inverted letter-number mold marking located between PCB pinout pads.

Push Feel

When I sit down to start preparing for a full length review, some of the very first work that I do involves collecting all of the measurements, force curves, break in testing, and comparisons that go into these reviews. Usually all of this work is done in that exact order, as well. So, imagine my surprise when I’m three or four hours deep into preparation and come across the following comparison force curve:

As luck would have it, it turns out the Invokeys x Alas Daydreamer switches are about as effectively close to the JKDK Crimson switches as you could get without them being the exact same switch. And before you ask, yes, I’m talking about the same JKDK Crimson switches which I did a scorecard on a few weeks ago. While on any other review this may dissuade me from continuing and I would instead have had to start my preparations all the way over again with a new switch, I kind of felt compelled to continue with this review because of how strange I had found the JKDK Crimson switches a few weeks ago. Don’t let the force curves for these silent tactiles fool you for these switches either, the odd feeling that I struggled to capture in that scorecard a few weeks back is not something which really shows up there at all, or at least not in a single curve...

As may have already been spoiled for you with the force curve comparison above, the Invokeys x Alas Daydreamer switches are a medium-strong tactile bump switch which punches early and quickly in the downstroke of a nearly normal-length stroke. Sometimes described as a “P-shaped” tactile bump because of the larger, at the top bump which has no pretravel leading up to it, the Daydreamers pack in quite a bit more punch than has been seen in the recent, few and far between silent tactile switch releases. (In fact, this common description is used both among people in the community and on the Daydreamer switch sales page itself, though I have chosen not to use it over the years as I don’t think it is necessarily descriptive enough.) As for the bottom out of the switches, there is almost no mushiness present as is commonly expected of traditional silent tactile and linear switches, and the topping out is surprisingly firm and muted as well which pairs up with the bottoming out almost seamlessly. The little factory lube that is present in these switches also helps to prevent a large amount of scratch both throughout the stroke of any given switch and across an entire batch of switches, though there is still some which does appear to come out towards the end of the downstroke in some switches. With all of those (mostly) positive performance notes in mind, I’m sure you’re wondering how I could have possibly found something strange that I would have struggled to capture in the scorecard of the similarly performing JKDK Crimson switches. Well, for all of the good things that these LICHICX-made switches do pack in, there’s really three chief concerns that I have with their performance:

-1. There is a weird ‘sticking’ issue that is present near the bottoming out of some of the Invokeys x Alas Daydreamer switches. Present partly in sound but largely in push feeling, its as if there is some sort of extra factory lube that is being pushed through in some switches which causes them to feel a bit more resistive at the point of bottoming out as well as their return.

-2. The return tactile bump of the Daydreamers, as well as the JKDK Crimsons, feels quite a bit stronger than the downstroke tactile bump. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing in the grand scheme of keyboard switches, I’m not sure I’m a particular fan of it as it both highlights the aforementioned strange sticking problem in some switches and makes the switch feel as if it is almost hesitating to return on the upstroke. Even though I have not explored this phenomenon beyond what it is addressed here in this review, my best initial guess as to why this is the case is because of the force differential across the return tactile bump being approximately 8 grams heavier than the downstroke tactile bump. A simple eye test of the other force curves for silent tactiles used in the comparison section below shows that this differential is quite a bit larger than the other switches, which lends some credence to this potentially being the root cause of what is going on, though ultimately I will need to explore this further before making a definitive statement.

**Figure 15:** Invokeys x Alas Daydreamer single switch force curve with upstroke (green) and downstroke (orange) max and min forces measured.

-3. Finally, the batch wide variability in these switches is not great. In addition to the strange, intermittent sticking issues noted above, there’s a good few switches in this batch that have both downstroke and upstroke tactile bumps which feel either heavier or lighter than the batch-average tactile force as well as slightly different travel distances. While this is historically something which doesn’t particularly show up well in force curve comparisons for switches, Figure 16 below showing force curves for four different stock Invokeys x Alas Daydreamer switches does seem a bit more varied than what we’ve previously seen in reviews here. Additionally, zoomed in views of just the upstroke and downstroke regions in Figures 17 and 18 really do highlight that there’s a not insignificant several gram difference between the tactile peaks of the random subset of stock switches analyzed here. However, I would really hesitate to call this data ‘definitive’ or really anything more than interesting when compared with the noted issues that I had with the performance of these switches.

**Figure 16:** Comparison of four stock Invokeys x Alas Daydreamer switch force curves.

**Figure 17:** Zoomed in view of just the downstroke curves from Figure 16.

**Figure 18:** Zoomed in view of just the upstroke curves from Figure 16.

Sound

Don’t worry, the sound section of this review will not be nearly as long as the push feeling section. For all of the hand-felt quirks that the Invokeys x Alas Daydreamers do pack in, they actually function surprisingly well as silent tactile switches and hardly produce any sound at all. What little sound that is produced comes in the form of incredibly muted, softened housing collisions as well as some small, leathery scratch from the stem/leaf interactions and the aforementioned ‘sticking’ near the bottom of the downstroke for these switches. Unlike many other silent tactile switches out there, the Daydreamers are rather good about not changing their volume drastically under faster typing speeds and really do not change their sounds nor increase in presence hardly at all. If it wasn’t for the aforementioned sticking issues present sporadically throughout the batch, these switches on the whole would sound much more absent and really stand out as strong silent tactile offerings from the up and coming LICHICX manufacturing facility.

Wobble

The Invokeys x Alas Daydreamer switches, much like the JKDK Crimsons before them, pack in a respectable but not necessarily overly great stem wobble performance. Equally present in both the N/S and E/W directions, what little stem wobble is there is not likely to bother most users but may be problematic for those that are more picky among us. It does not appear that the potentially different molds used as is indicated by the ‘INVOKEYS’ nameplates attempted to work on this performance metric at all when they were being made.

Measurements

If you’re into this level of detail about your switches, you should know that I have a switch measurement sheet that logs all of this data, as well as many other cool features which can be found under the ‘Archive’ tab at the top of this page or by clicking on the card above. Known as the ‘Measurement Sheet’, this sheet typically gets updated weekly and aims to take physical measurements of various switch components to compare mold designs on a brand-by-brand basis as well as provide a rough frankenswitching estimation sheet for combining various stems and top housings.

**Figure 20:** Numerical details regarding the Invokeys x Alas Daydreamer switch force curve diagram.

he latest in the content-adjacent work that I’ve picked up, the new ‘Force Curve Repository’ is now hosted on GitHub alongside the Scorecard Repository and contains all force curves that I make both within and outside of reviews. In addition to having these graphs above, I have various other versions of the graphs, raw data, and my processed data all available for each switch to use as you please. Check it out via the ‘Archive’ tab at the top of this page or by clicking any of the force curve cards above.

Break In

Break In Notes

17,000 Actuations

- At 17,000 actuations, the largest change to the feeling of the Invokeys x Alas Daydreamer switches is a reduction in the subtle, leathery scratch and ‘sticking’ phenomenon near the bottom of the downstroke as compared to stock switches. Without much of an explanation of what is necessarily causing these issues in the first place, I am making the even further assumption that lube migration during this break in testing is what is leading to the disappearance of these issues.

- As is common among most switches which I’ve done break in testing on, there is slightly more N/S and E/W direction stem wobble in the Daydreamers broken in to 17,000 actuations than their stock form.

34,000 Actuations

- At 34,000 actuations, not much has changed with respect to the push feeling nor stem wobble of the Daydreamers that didn’t already occur by 17,000 actuations. Really the only noted change worth mentioning here is that the sound of the Daydreamers caught up and they began to sound slightly less scratchy and more uniform in the batch that was broken in to 34,000 actuations.

51,000 Actuations

- Much like with the 34,000 actuation batch, very little push feeling performance change came after breaking in the Invokeys x Alas Daydreamer switches out to 51,000 actuations. It appears that whatever lube has migrated or parts that have worn down have done so well before 51,000 actuations and any further breaking in may just be redundant at this point.

- The one feature which did change slightly at 51,000 actuations as opposed to 34,000 actuations is another slight increase in N/S and E/W direction stem wobble. Again, this is not that surprising nor is it necessarily all that uncommon for switches being broken in based on previous review experience.

**Figure 22:** Comparative force curve diagram showing no distinctive trend in change of Invokeys x Alas Daydreamer force curve diagrams throughout the break in process. All variability seen already demonstrated as present in the stock switches.

Comparison Notes to Other Notable Silent Tactile Switches

Note – These are not aimed at being comprehensive comparisons between all factors of these switches as this would simply be too long for this writeup. These are little notes of interest I generated when comparing these switches to the Daydreamer switches side by side.

MODE Anthracite

- As can be seen in the force curve comparison between the MODE Anthracites and Invokeys x Alas Daydreamers below, the Anthracites hardly register as tactile by comparison. The tactile bump in the Anthracites feels about the same width as the Daydreamers, but with much less overall force.

- The MODE Anthracites have comparable amount of N/S direction stem wobble to the Daydreamer switches, but have much less wobble in the E/W direction.

- In terms of their overall volume, these two switches are fairly comparable to each other and incredibly quiet regardless of the typing speed on them. The difference in their sound comes from the much more audibly noticeable scratch present in the stem/leaf interactions of the Anthracites, even though it may not necessarily be as aggressive as in the Daydreamers.

Kailh Pro Midnight Light Yellow

- In terms of their sound profile, the housing collisions of the Kailh Pro Midnight Light Yellows are quite a bit louder than the Invokeys x Alas Daydreamers. As a result, the Pro Midnight Light Yellows are a bit more influenced by higher actuation speeds, getting a touch more loud when typing faster than the Daydreamers.

- The Kailh Pro Midnight Light Yellows have noticeably less stem wobble than the Daydreamers in both the N/S and E/W directions.

- Regardless of what the comparative force curves below may belay, the tactile bumps of these switches actually feel decently similar to each other. While it is clear in hand that the Daydreamers have a stronger bump, the size and general length of both of these bumps makes the Pro Light Yellows feel like a slightly more toned down version of the Daydreamers.

IDOBAO Elf Tactile-T1

- Much like with the comparison drawn above for the MODE Anthracite switches, the IDOBAO Elf Tactile-T1 switches hardly register as tactile when compared to the much stronger and sharper tactile bump of the Invokeys x Alas Daydreamer switches.

- Of all of the switches on this list, the Elf Tactile-T1s are the closest to the Invokeys x Alas Daydreamers in terms of stem wobble, though the Elf Tactile-T1s are slightly worse in both the N/S and E/W directions.

- The Daydreamer switches have a much better overall sound profile than the Elf Tactile-T1s, and even in spite of their weird audible stickiness issues. The Elf Tactile-T1s, by comparison, suffer from slightly louder housing collisions as well as an occasional ping tone which is present only in a fraction of the total batch which I received.

JKDK Crimson

- As was really well laid out in the ‘Push Feel’ section above, the Invokeys x Alas Daydreamers and JKDK Crimson switches are, for all intents and purposes, identical to each other.

- In order to address why the scores for these two switches are different from each other, then, consider that the only scoring differences come in the Context and Other categories. These score differences are based on the increased availability, brand recognition, and long term stability that is offered for the Daydreamers by Invokeys, as well as their lack of improvement over the original JKDK Crimson design.

Wuque Studio Dustproof Grey

- While both of these switches are fairly quiet, the Dustproof Greys have a bit more sound present from housing collisions as well as a spring ping noise which does cause them to be less silent than the Invokeys x Alas Daydreamers.

- As can somewhat be derived from the comparative force curves for these switches below, the Wuque Studio Dustproof Grey switches have slightly less force to their tactile bump than the Daydreamers, though the bump feels significantly longer, and thus feels as if it occupies the entirety of the stroke. By comparison, the Daydreamers definitely have a post-bump linear region to them that is noticeable.

- The stem wobble comparison between these two switches is hardly fair as the Daydreamer switches have far and away the better stem wobble in both the N/S and E/W directions.

Haimu Whisper

- Unlike the other appeals to comparative force curve diagrams made in this comparison list, the force curves for the Haimu Whispers do not really do them justice here. Even though they have a noticeably lower peak tactile force, they feel as if they are just as strong as the Invokeys x Alas Daydreamer switches, just drawn out over a longer distance by comparison.

- There is quite a bit more stem wobble for the Haimu Whispers in the E/W and especially N/S directions as compared to the Invokeys x Alas Daydreamers.

- In terms of their overall sound profile, the Daydreamers are quite a bit better with less consistently errant noise and an overall much less noticeable sound as a result of their housing collisions.

Scores and Statistics

Note – These scores are not necessarily completely indicative of the nuanced review above. If you’ve skipped straight to this section, I can only recommend that you at least glance at the other sections above in order to get a stronger idea of my opinion about these switches.