How a race works

Game 1 REWIRE

Puzzle · spatial reasoning

What you see

A 4×4 grid of wire tiles (straights, elbows, T-junctions and endpoints) scrambled into random rotations. One tile glows: the source. Two tiles are sinks.

How to play

• Tap a tile to rotate it 90° clockwise. Tiles never move, only turn.
• Powered wires light up live as you work, so you can see the current spread.
• You win when power reaches every sink and no live wire dangles into a wall or a closed tile.

Main: 4×4 grid, 2 sinks · Holding: 2×2 grid, 1 sink

Trace a path backwards from each sink to the source first, then rotate along the route.

Game 2 SWEEP

Logical · deduction

What you see

A minesweeper grid with a chunk of it already opened for you. That opening is not random: the server finds a cell with no mines anywhere near it, opens every connected cell like it, and then opens the ring of numbered cells around that whole region. So you always start with a border of numbers to work from, never a blank wall.

Every number counts the mines in that cell's eight neighbours, diagonals included. A cell showing nothing at all is a zero: all eight of its neighbours are safe, which is why zero regions open themselves.

Controls

• Left-click a cell to reveal it. If it is a zero, its whole region opens with it, exactly like the opening did.
• Right-click (long-press on touch) to plant or remove a flag. Flags are your notes: nothing is checked until you submit.
• A counter under the board reads Flags: n / total. The submit button only works at exactly the right number, so you can never submit a half-finished board by accident.
• Reveal a mine and the attempt ends instantly and a brand new board arrives. You lose the time you spent, nothing else: no currency, no penalty, no mark against your team.

The three deductions

Every board is generated so that these three rules alone are enough. There is never a coin-flip.

1. The satisfied number. If a number already touches that many flags, every other cell it touches is safe. A 1 next to one flag means the rest of its neighbours can be opened.

2. The exhausted number. If a number's remaining unknown neighbours are exactly as many as the mines it still needs, all of them are mines. A 2 with two unknowns left and no flags yet means both are mines.

3. Subset elimination. The one people miss. Compare two numbers whose unknown cells overlap. If one number's unknowns are entirely contained inside another's, subtract them.

How big the board gets

SWEEP is not a fixed board. It grows with your team's level, and the mine density climbs with it, which is why level 8 feels like a different game from level 1.

Holding board: 3×3, 1 mine · Bonus boards climb past level 10, up to 10×10 with 18 mines

Every board is checked by a solver before you ever see it, and re-rolled if pure logic cannot finish it. So if you find yourself guessing, the deduction is there and you have not found it yet. Nine times out of ten it is rule 3, and it is usually sitting on the edge of the region you just opened.

Game 3 MIRROR RUN

Divided attention · mazes

What you see

Two small mazes side by side, each with a runner and a flagged exit. A badge between them tells you how Runner B twists your controls: mirrored, rotated, or fully inverted.

How to play

• Every move drives both runners at once: Runner A obeys you directly, Runner B follows the twisted version.
• Swipe on the boards, tap the arrow pad, or use arrow keys / WASD.
• A runner blocked by a wall stays put while the other still moves. That's the trick for splitting them up.
• You win the moment both runners stand on their own flags after the same move.

Main: two 6×6 mazes, ~10–18 moves · Holding: two 4×4 mazes, ~3–6 moves

Park one runner against a wall that blocks it, then move the other freely. Walls aren't obstacles, they're parking brakes.

Game 4 DECANT

Sorting · planning

What you see

Six tubes holding stacks of four colours (plus empties), each tube holding up to four segments.

How to play

• Tap a source tube, then a destination tube, to pour.
• A pour moves one block, the top of the source tube, and it can go into any tube with room, even onto a different colour.
• You win when every tube is empty or completely one colour. You can't get stuck, but sloppy pours cost precious seconds, and Undo is there if you need it.

Main: 6 tubes, 4 colours, capacity 4 · Holding: 3 tubes, 2 colours (~2 pours)

Keep an empty tube free as workspace as long as you can. Burying a colour under two others is what costs you.

Game 5 ECHO

Reflex / memory

What you see

A 3×3 grid of pads. They flash one at a time in a sequence of five, and the sequence plays only once.

How to play

• Watch the whole sequence. Don't tap while it plays.
• Then tap the pads back in exactly the same order.
• One wrong tap fails the attempt and you get a brand-new sequence, so there's no second viewing.

Main: 3×3 pads, sequence of 5 · Holding: 2×2 pads, sequence of 3

Chunk it: remember "corner, centre, top…" as a shape traced across the grid, not as nine separate positions.

Game 6 OVERPRINT

Spatial · composition

What you see

A target pattern next to a workspace holding three transparent stamp layers. All layers print onto the same sheet, and the combined marks must match the target exactly.

How to play

• Pick a layer chip, then slide it with the arrow pad (or tap a cell to drop it there).
• ⟳ rotates a layer a quarter-turn; ⇄ flips the one layer that allows it.
• Press CHECK when your print matches. Extra marks fail just like missing ones.

Main: 6×6 sheet, 3 layers · Holding: 4×4 sheet, 2 layers (slides, one turn)

Place the biggest stamp first, then fit the small ones into what's left of the target.

Game 7 STACKDROP

Causal prediction · planning

What you see

A drop chamber: balls resting on numbered pins, walls and ramps below them, and a container at the bottom for each shape. Nothing moves until you pull a pin.

How to play

• Tap a pin to arm it, tap again (or press PULL) to remove it, then gravity resolves before your next pull.
• ═ pins hold a ball. ╱ ╲ pins and ◣ ◢ ramps roll it one cell down-slope, so a slanted pin steers a ball while it's there and lets it drop straight through once it's gone.
• Every ball must land in the container with its own shape. A hazard (✖) or the wrong container loses it.
• A pulled pin never comes back, so the order is the puzzle. Undo doesn't exist; RESTART resets the whole chamber.

Main: 8×6 chamber, 2 balls, 4 pins (~3 pulls) · Holding: 5×4 chamber, 1 ball, 2 pins

Trace each ball's fall before you touch anything, then ask which slanted pins have to still be there when that ball goes past.

Game 8 LANE SHIFT

Scheduling · planning under pressure

What you see

A conveyor of lanes carrying shaped packets to the right. Each lane ends in an exit marked with a shape, and junctions (→ ↘ ↗) sit on the belt deciding where a packet goes as it leaves that cell.

How to play

• Every turn you take exactly one action: flip a junction, spend a hold pad (⏸) to keep one packet still, or PASS. Then every packet advances one cell.
• Each packet must reach the exit carrying its own shape.
• Two packets landing on the same cell, a blocker (✖), the wrong exit, or falling off the top or bottom all lose the run.
• The small arrow on a packet shows only its next step, so there's no further preview. No undo; RESTART resets the belt.

Main: 3 lanes × 6 columns, 3 packets, 2 junctions (~8 turns) · Holding: 2 lanes × 3 columns, 2 packets, 1 junction

The belt never waits for you, so plan backwards: work out which turn each packet reaches a junction, and flip it on the turn before.

Game 9 SHADOW CAST

Spatial reasoning · 3D orientation

What you see

A solid block built from a handful of cubes, drawn in 3D. Beside it are two target silhouettes: FRONT (the shadow it casts straight ahead) and TOP (the shadow it casts straight down), each with a live copy showing the shadows your block is casting right now.

How to play

• Six buttons turn the block a quarter turn at a time around the X, Y or Z axis, one button each way. On a keyboard: x, y, z, with Shift for the other direction.
• You win the moment both live shadows match their targets exactly.
• A shadow cell fills if any cube sits behind it, so a shadow can't tell you how deep the block is, and several different poses can be correct.
• Cells that don't match yet are ringed and marked ✕. Turning is free and reversible; RESTART puts the block back where it started.

Main: 6 cubes in a 4×4×4 box, 2 turns from a solution · Holding: 4 cubes in a 3×3×3 box, 1 turn

Read the two targets before you touch anything. Both are the same width, so that's how wide the block must sit; the FRONT target's height is how tall it must stand, and the TOP target's height is how far back it must reach. That usually rules out most of the six turns before you try one.

Game 10 THREADLINE

Routing · planning under constraints

What you see

A grid with a START socket, an END socket, numbered anchors, and blocked cells (✕). Above the board: which anchor you need next, how many bends you have spent, and how long your cable has run.

How to play

• Draw one cable from START to END. Tap a neighbouring cell to extend it, drag across the grid to trace, or use the arrow keys.
• The anchors must be reached in their numbered order. Stepping onto a later one early fails the run, it isn't ignored.
• The cable can't enter a blocked cell or cross or touch itself; every cell is used at most once, so doubling back on your own line is out.
• Every corner spends one bend, and the board only gives you so many. A red bar on an anchor is a port: the cable has to cross that particular side.
• Tap a cell your cable already covers to rewind to it, or UNDO one step at a time. The board submits itself the moment a legal cable reaches END.

Main: 8×8, 3–5 anchors, 5–10 blocked cells, 6–10 bends · Holding: 5×5, one anchor, one obstacle

Bends, not length, are the scarce thing. Plan the corners first: count the turns a route needs before you draw a single cell, and prefer the one that lines an anchor up with the next one.

Game 11 BOMB DEFUSE

Manual lookup · divided attention under a fuse

What you see

A bomb: a big red countdown, a green OK button, a blue Give up, and six bays, some shut behind orange shutters, the live ones waiting to be worked. Plus a MANUAL button, because nothing on the bomb tells you what any of it means.

How to play

• Two people play this. You are the Defuser; your Grandmaster has the manual on their dashboard. Describe the bay, they read you the rule. You have a copy too, but flipping to it hides the bomb while the fuse burns, so asking is faster than looking.
• Tap a bay to open it. Maze: walk the blue marker to the red exit; the green tip tells you which of the manual's eight mazes you are in, and only the manual shows the walls. Simon Says: press the colour opposite the one that flashed, never the one you saw. According to number: find the displayed number in the grid the green 1 names, and press its column. The mini button: arm it, wait, then catch the red the instant it appears, hold until green, read the code and let go.
• There are no strikes. One wrong move and the bomb goes off: a step into a wall, a wrong colour, a wrong button, OK pressed too early, or the fuse running out. A fresh bomb arrives five seconds later.
• Press OK only once every live bay has shut behind its shutter. It starts flashing when they have, but on a bonus board that OK arms the next bank rather than ending it.

Main: 1 bay at level 1, 2 from level 3, 3 from level 6 · 90s fuse at level 1, tightening inside each band · Bonus boards come in banks: shut the first and a second arms behind it on a shorter fuse · Holding: one small bay, 35s

New to it? Practice mode has a ladder of fixed missions: one drill per bay, then the gauntlet.

Read the manual page before you start a bay, not during it. The Simon mapping is four lines and it never changes. Learn it once and you never open that page again, which is most of the fuse saved.

Duelist THE DUELIST

Head-to-head · the role

The role

Your Grandmaster can spend one of the team's four playing slots on a Duelist, a champion who never solves a puzzle. Instead you fight the other team's Duelist, over and over, for the whole match. Both teams must field one or neither does, because a duel needs two seats. You do not pick your game either: the server does, from the four below, and both champions play the same one.

How a single duel runs

Rounds, not turns. A duel is a sequence of rounds, and in each one you both commit at the same time. Neither of you sees the other's choice until the round has already resolved, and neither does either Grandmaster, so there is nobody to ask and nothing to look up.

The clock is per round. Every round runs on a window shown on your duel card, counting down and turning red at the end. Each game below has its own natural window, from 5 seconds to throw a hand up to 10 to read one. Your host can override it for every duel in the match from the lobby, anywhere from 3 seconds to 30.

Letting it lapse loses the round. Miss the window and you forfeit that round outright, so a guess always beats a freeze. If you both miss it, nobody is punished and the round is a draw.

A beat between rounds. After each round resolves there is a 3-second pause so you can actually see what was played before the next window opens.

The series: two duels a level

This is the part that surprises people. You do not fight once per level, you fight twice: the main duel, then a bonus duel starting 30 seconds after the first one resolves.

• Win the main duel and you are your team's green light. They cannot advance a level without you, and they can while you hold it.
• Lose it and your team is held until you take the next one, plus a 60-second advance lock on the whole team. That lock lands once per level only, so a bad run costs time and not the match.
• When the second duel of the level resolves, the series is over and both champions stand down and go green, the loser included. A Duelist who loses everything can never block their own team indefinitely.

What a win pays

Your team banks 2 coins for a duel win, and that doubles for every duel you win in a row, capped at 8. The streak is the reward, so the second and third win in a row are worth far more than the first.

The four duels

• RPS Duel Pure prediction. First to two, five seconds a throw.
• Crown Duel Five characters, counters, and one hidden rewrite of your hand.
• Number Clash Nine numbers, each spent once. First to four points.
• Bid War Staked with your team’s own coins. Five blind lots, every bid spent.

Every one of these four is a game about the person opposite you rather than a system to solve. What they did last round is the only real information you have, and they are reading yours the same way.

Duelist RPS DUEL

Head-to-head · nerve

How to play

• Pick rock, paper or scissors inside a 5-second window. Rock breaks scissors, scissors cut paper, paper covers rock.
• The higher hand wins the round. The same hand on both sides draws, and a drawn round is simply replayed: it costs neither of you a win.
• First to two round wins takes the duel. With draws replaying, that is usually three or four rounds of real play.

The shortest game here and the most psychological. Two rounds is not enough for a pattern to form, so the read that matters is whether they are the kind of player who repeats a winning throw or runs from it.

Duelist CROWN DUEL

Head-to-head · counters and memory

The hand

You both hold the same five cards: King, Knight, Guard, Assassin, Peasant. Each round you both commit one inside a 10-second window, and both cards are spent whatever happens. Only the same card against itself draws. Every other pairing has a winner, and the winner takes a Crown.

What beats what

Read it as two ideas stacked. The King crushes all three fighters but falls to the Peasant, and the three fighters cycle among themselves: Guard beats Knight beats Assassin beats Guard. The Peasant loses to every fighter, so it is a card that does exactly one thing, and your opponent knows it.

Winning the duel

• Three rounds, most Crowns wins. Taking two of them settles it early.
• Level after the third round and you both get fresh five-card hands for Sudden Death, where the first round that is not a draw takes the duel outright.
• If a hand ever runs out mid-duel, it refreshes, so you are never stuck with nothing to play.

Royal Sacrifice

Once per duel, before any round, you may destroy two of your unused cards to rewrite a third into a different character. Never into a King: the crown can be thrown away but not minted.

A round with a sacrifice is two decisions, not one. First both of you secretly commit to either playing normally or sacrificing. That choice resolves to nobody and scores no Crown. It only publishes that a sacrifice happened. Then the real combat window opens and you both pick a card. Once neither of you can legally sacrifice any more, that first step is skipped entirely and rounds go straight to cards.

They learn it happened, never what it did. Your opponent is told a sacrifice occurred. They are never told which two cards burned, which one changed, or what it became. That asymmetry is the whole game.

It costs tempo. Two cards out of the three rounds you have to play is a steep price for surprise. Two Peasants and a King is a real hand to hold, and nothing about it is guessable from outside.

The card you played is public the moment the round resolves, so this is also a memory game. Count what they have spent, work out what must still be in their hand, and remember they are counting yours. A sacrifice is worth its cost mostly because it breaks that count.

Duelist NUMBER CLASH

Head-to-head · spending

How to play

• You both hold 1 through 9, each playable once. Every round you both commit one inside an 8-second window.
• The higher number takes a point, equal numbers draw and pay nobody, and both numbers are spent either way. There is no way to hold a card back once it is committed.
• First to four points takes the duel, across at most seven rounds. Still level after the seventh and it goes to Sudden Death, running on until somebody reaches four.
• Nothing stays secret for long. Every number played is revealed as the round resolves, so both hands are fully known at all times. The only hidden thing is the number currently in flight.

Why it is harder than it looks

There is no power, no arithmetic and nothing to memorise, which is exactly what makes it awkward. The question is never which number wins, it is what a number is worth this round.

The 9 is a trap. Beating their 1 with your 9 wins you a point and hands them the better trade: they spent their worst card, you spent your best, and every remaining round is now tilted against you.

You have nine numbers and need four points. That means you can afford to lose five rounds outright. Deliberately throwing your 1 into a round you expect to lose is not a waste, it is how you keep your 8 and 9 for rounds that matter.

Watch the gap. Once you hold a higher card than anything left in their hand, that card is a guaranteed point whenever you choose to spend it, and they can see that coming too.

Duelist BID WAR

Head-to-head · the staked duel

This one is bought, not given

The other three duels are free. This one is fought with your team’s own coins, out of the same purse your Grandmaster buys perks from. Before it opens you ask them for a stake, they answer with whatever they choose, and you bid with exactly that.

They can grant any number. More than you asked, less, or nothing at all. Granting nothing is a legal answer: you still play, you just bid with an empty hand.

The two purses are not equal. That is the whole design. A Grandmaster who believes in their champion can outfund the other side, and pays for it in perks they now cannot buy. You are never told what the other team staked until the sale opens.

The grant is spent either way. It leaves the purse the moment it is granted and does not come back. Only what you win is paid back in. Stake 20, win 12, and your team is 8 down on the exchange.

Nobody answering is not a stall. If a Grandmaster leaves it too long, the server stakes a small default for them and the duel starts anyway.

How the sale runs

• Five lots go under the hammer, each worth coins. Both of you secretly name an exact bid inside a 10-second window.
• The higher bid takes the lot, and both bids are spent. The losing bid buys nothing at all.
• What you win goes back to your team’s purse. Most coins won takes the duel, however they were bought.
• Coins still in your hand at the end are worth nothing, and they are not refunded either. Sitting on them is the losing move twice over.
• An equal bid pays nobody and rolls that lot onto the next one, which is then worth both together. If the last lot goes unsold that way it becomes an overtime lot, and you both get a fresh 5 coins to fight for it, refilled until somebody takes it.

The lots are uneven on purpose

The whole sale is funded by the two stakes, and then cut into five deliberately uneven pieces. A pool of 160 might come out as 11, 11, 18, 45 and 75.

Some lots are not worth having. Most are modest, one or two are worth more than you can possibly bid, and a typical sale holds at least one you should simply let go. Working out which is which is the game. Paying over the odds for a small lot because you assumed it was the big one is nobody’s fault but yours.

You see one lot ahead. The lot on the block and the one behind it, never further. That is what lets you sit this one out and save for something better, and it is also what your opponent is doing.

Out-staking them does not make the sale richer. The pool is sized by whichever Grandmaster staked less. Staking more than the other side buys you bidding power and nothing else, so there is a right amount to commit and going past it is money burned for nothing.

One duel, not two

Every other duel is fought twice a level. This one is fought once. Both teams already paid for it out of their purses, and a bonus round would ask them to do it again in the same breath. When it resolves, both champions stand down green.

Both purses are public the moment the sale opens, so a low bid is never a bluff about your wealth, only about your intent. Two things stay genuinely hidden: what the lot after this one is worth, and which lot you have quietly decided to lose.