Choose your run

Five modes, one set of rules.

Every mode below uses the same connected-chain puzzle. What changes is the pressure applied to it: a streak, a clock, a life count, or another person. Pick by the skill you want to practise.

The rule that never changes

Start on any tile you like.
Each following tile must share an edge with the previous one. Diagonals never count.
Use exactly four different tiles. Tapping your most recent tile removes it.
The four numbers must add up to the target exactly.

Learn that once and every mode is playable. If any of it is unclear, the daily grid page walks through a worked example tile by tile.

Modes at a glance

How the five modes differ in what limits you, how difficulty behaves, and what gets scored.
Mode	What limits you	Difficulty	What is scored	Best for
Daily Grid	Three attempts	Fixed medium	Streak and time	Playing once a day and comparing with everyone else
Practice	Unlimited boards	Your choice of three	Not scored	Learning the rules, or drilling a difficulty you find hard
Timed Run	Sixty seconds	Fixed medium	Points plus speed bonus	Short bursts, and training fast pattern recognition
Endless Climb	Three lives	Rises with each round	Depth and points	Long sessions, and training consistency over speed
Friend Duel	One shared board	Fixed medium	Head to head	Settling an argument with one specific person

Daily Grid

The shared board everyone plays. One puzzle, three attempts, and a streak that only survives if you solve it.

One board is generated per calendar date, so every player worldwide solves the identical grid on the same day. The seed comes from the date rather than from you, which is what makes comparing times meaningful.

You get three attempts. A wrong sum costs one attempt and the board stays put, so you can adjust a chain rather than starting over. Solving keeps your streak alive; missing resets it to zero.

Limit: Three attempts
Difficulty: Fixed medium
Scored on: Streak and time

Play Daily Grid Rules and strategy for Daily Grid

Practice

Unlimited grids at Easy, Medium or Hard. No streak at risk, so mistakes cost you nothing.

Unlimited boards with the difficulty under your control. Easy uses numbers 1 to 6 and gives four attempts, Medium uses 1 to 9 with three attempts, and Hard uses 2 to 12 with only two.

Nothing here touches your streak, so it is the mode to use when you are still learning which chain shapes work. Every generated board is verified solvable before it is shown.

Limit: Unlimited boards
Difficulty: Your choice of three
Scored on: Not scored

Play Practice Rules and strategy for Practice

Timed Run

One minute on the clock. Speed is worth more than caution, because the bonus shrinks every second.

Sixty seconds, as many boards as you can clear. The clock does not pause between rounds or while you read a new grid, so hesitation is the main thing that costs you points.

A solve pays 100 points plus roughly one point for every second you did not spend, up to 60. Solving in ten seconds therefore pays far more than solving in forty, which makes committing to a likely chain better than double-checking a certain one.

Limit: Sixty seconds
Difficulty: Fixed medium
Scored on: Points plus speed bonus

Play Timed Run Rules and strategy for Timed Run

Endless Climb

No timer, three lives, difficulty that keeps rising. Rewards avoiding mistakes rather than moving fast.

No clock at all. You get three lives and can think for as long as you like on any round. A failed board costs a life and reveals the solution, which is usually the fastest way to spot a chain shape you were not considering.

Difficulty climbs as you go: rounds one to three are easy, four to eight are the standard range, and from round nine the boards use the hard range with only two attempts. Reaching round ten is a solid benchmark.

Limit: Three lives
Difficulty: Rises with each round
Scored on: Depth and points

Play Endless Climb Rules and strategy for Endless Climb

Friend Duel

Turns any board into a link. Whoever opens it plays exactly the same numbers as you did.

A board is generated from a short random seed, and that seed goes into the page address. Anyone opening your link gets the identical numbers and the identical target, so the comparison is fair without any server storing a match.

The link contains nothing but the seed. No name, no score, no identifier, nothing about your visit. Your friend needs no account and no app, and the same link always rebuilds the same board, so you can reuse it or send it to several people.

Limit: One shared board
Difficulty: Fixed medium
Scored on: Head to head

Play Friend Duel Rules and strategy for Friend Duel

Which should you start with?

If you have never played, start in Practice on Easy: nothing is at stake and you can retry the same board until the adjacency rule feels obvious. Once you can clear Medium boards reliably, the Daily Grid is the one worth returning to, because it is the only mode where everyone is solving the same puzzle as you.

After that, pick by what you want to get better at. Timed Run trains recognition speed and Endless Climb trains accuracy over a long sequence. They pull in opposite directions, and playing both is the quickest route to improving at the daily board.