Some daily puzzles you can poke at until something works. These six punish that. In each one, a move you make without a plan costs you later: a tile in the wrong square, a slide you can't take back, a stack that wrecks the board for the next one. If you like the feeling of seeing three moves ahead, start here.
The six at a glance
| Game | What you do | What you're scored on | Where it gets hard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seams | Fit tiles so every touching edge matches | Time | Sunday: 3 by 4, 2 pinned tiles |
| Masonry | Lay dominoes so no row or column repeats | Time, plus 30s per hint on the leaderboard | Weekend: 6 by 6 |
| Glide | Slide a ball across three icy boards | Moves against par | The 9 by 9, with decoy stops |
| Theorem | Swap tiles to match three rules | Base × multiplier, for a medal | Extreme, after three golds |
| Stacks | Chain cards into six scoring stacks | Total score, for a medal | Sunday's modifiers pull against each other |
| Packline | Draw districts so the right side wins | Win or lose, then time | Big dots that decide a district alone |
No clock can make you lose in any of them, and Glide, Theorem and Stacks don't time you at all.
Two that have exactly one answer
Seams gives you a tray of square tiles and a small grid. Each tile side is a colored triangle with a number. Touching sides have to share a color, share a number, or add to 10. Every puzzle has one solution you can reach without guessing.
The trick that unlocks it: find a square that touches two pinned tiles. Whatever goes there has to match on two sides, which usually leaves one tile in the tray. Place it, and now you have a new pair. If you grew up on Tetravex, this page is for you.
Masonry is a sudoku made of dominoes. Every row and column holds each number once. Printed pips, joined squares and a few set dominoes are the clues, and there's one way to fill it. What makes it go is that a domino covers two squares, so one placement tells you about two lines at once. Pips players will recognize the controls; the Pips comparison covers the difference.
Both get harder through the week in a way you can feel: fewer pinned tiles, fewer set dominoes, and a bigger grid at the weekend.
One where every move costs
Glide is three ice boards in a row, 5 by 5, then 7 by 7, then 9 by 9. Your ball slides until a rock or wall stops it, and you're trying to reach the hole in as few moves as par. Undo costs a move, and Reset doesn't give any back.
The boards are built with dead ends and decoy stops: squares right next to the hole that are three slides away from it, or can't reach it at all. So the best route often heads away from the hole first. Work backwards from the hole instead. Our ice puzzle tips solve a board that way.
Two where the math is the puzzle
Theorem scores base × multiplier. The base is the sum of the tile numbers, and every match of every rule adds 1 to the multiplier. You get three submits per grid. The designer's advice is to sort the grid for one rule first, then work out how to rearrange it for the next without breaking the first. It's much easier than juggling all three.
Stacks is a grid of playing cards, aces through 5s. Chain touching cards that share a suit or rank, score it, and the cards above fall. Six stacks a day. The three modifiers do most of the scoring: "+20 for 4 or more cards", "×2 if it ends on a spade". The designer's tip for end-on rules is to start the stack on the card you want to end on, chain away from it, and tap Flip.
If you like watching a multiplier stack up, there's a page on both games and Balatro-style scoring.
One with an idea in it
Packline hands you a map of orange and purple voters and asks you to draw eight districts so the bar at the top comes true, which usually means the smaller side wins. You learn packing and cracking by doing it: squeeze the other side into a few districts they win by a mile, then spread the rest thin. The results screen shows people and districts as two bars, and they rarely match. More on how gerrymandering games work.
Which one first?
If you play sudoku, start with Masonry, then Seams. If you'd rather push a high score, Theorem, then Stacks. If you like finding a route, Glide. If you want something you haven't played anywhere else, Packline.
Only have five minutes? Seams on a Monday is a 3 by 3 with three tiles already pinned.
All six are free, run in your browser, and have a new puzzle every day. Each one has a guide: Seams, Masonry, Glide, Theorem, Stacks, Packline.