How to play

Tap green soft button to enter solution. You need to be fast while entering the solution, as the time spent on that is also counted as solving time. 5 second penalty is applied for failure to enter the solution.

Tap blue soft button to give up and see the solution found by the computer. If the solution exists, solving time for a player who gave up is extended to 5 seconds, if necessery, therefore giving up immediately makes sense only if the puzzle is obviously non-solvable.

A puzzle having no solution is counted as solved if the player gave up before the time was expired, otherwise it is considered as not solved.

Play mode

In play mode the cards are drawn from a deck.

When a puzzle is solved (or counted as solved), the cards are removed from play, otherwise they are sent to refill pile. Once the deck is short of cards it is refilled from the pile and a 5 second penalty is added to each player. A game may have up to two refills (i.e. up to three rounds). The number of refills is shown in the upper right corner.

The score is calculated as the following:

SCORE = SOLVED × 86400 / TIME

where SOLVED is the amount of solved or counted as solved puzzles, TIME is the amount of seconds spent on solving puzzles with addition of penalty time. In effect the score represents the amount of puzzles you can solve for 24 hours while keeping current pace.

Training mode

In training mode cards are drawn randomly, the number of sets is unlimited. There is also an option to play without solving time limit.

The score is not kept, however the amounts of solved and unsolved puzzles are still counted. If solving time limit applies, total solving time, including possible penalties, is also shown.

Feature Puzzle choice allow to get only puzzles that have a solution, or enter own puzzle to check if you solved it correctly, or to look for additional solutions.

Expressions

When a solution is presented as an expression (with Show solution as Expression in Settings), the following order of operations applies:

Merge sign is omitted between two numbers.

Examples:

Expression Corresponding sequence
7×6-6×3 7×6=42 6×3=18 42-18=24
6×2^3/2 2^3=8 6×8=48 48/2=24
65-41 6#5=65 4#1=41 65-41=24

Game Menu and Information buttons

?

The Game Menu, invoked by Menu soft button (☰), offers additional features like Terminate game or Quit training, Play next/previous music file, Change settings, Browse information pages. In game mode the game menu is unavailable at solving stage.

The Information button(?) allows to get information relevant to the current game mode.

Invoking Game Menu or Information Page results in suspending the game and background music, so the features can be also used for pausing.

Controlling the game

To terminate a game or quit training, press Back (left arrow) button or Esc key.

In game mode Back button is disabled at solving stage.

Game can be paused by minimising application window or choosing a different window. This pauses background music and hides current puzzle at solving stage.

Settings can be changed at any time by seleting Pages - Settings from the application (top) menu. The application menu also allows to select next/previous music track or browse information pages.

The Information button brings up information relevant to the current game mode.

The following table lists useful hot keys (standard US keyboard):

KeyAction
EscClose current page
⇧ Shift + Next music track
⇧ Shift + Previous music track
⇧ Shift + Pause music
⇧ Shift + Resume music
+ ,Bring up  Settings  page
+ /Bring up  Information  page
+ QQuit application
imediately (without prompt)
SpaceI know! or Proceed
BackspaceGive up