Code-breaker: rules, scoring and a few habits
Code-breaker is a four-colour code puzzle with the clues already on the table. There are six colours and four slots, and colours can repeat. Each opening clue row is a guess someone already made, with pegs beside it: a filled peg means one colour sits in exactly the right slot, and an outlined peg means a colour is in the code but in the wrong slot. Put the clues together and only one code fits.
Answers, the clock and ranking
Tap a colour, then tap a slot to place it, and submit when all four slots are full. The clock starts with your first tap and you have three minutes. A wrong answer gets its own pegs, stays on the board for you to edit, and counts against you. Six wrong answers or the end of the clock finishes the run. Every colour also carries a symbol, so you never have to tell two shades apart.
The opening clues always point to a single code, so a perfect day is one answer. Ranking goes by fewest answers first and time second. Monday and Tuesday give you five clue rows, Wednesday and Thursday four, and Friday to Sunday only three, so the weekend boards ask for sharper reading.
Reading the clues
- Start with the row that has the fewest pegs. A row with no pegs at all rules out every colour in it.
- Compare two rows that differ by one colour. The change in pegs tells you about that colour alone.
- Count filled pegs before outlined ones. A filled peg pins a slot, and that slot narrows every other row.
- Don't submit to test an idea. Each wrong answer costs you rank, so work it out on the clues first.
Everyone gets the same clue board on the same day, and it changes at midnight Pacific time. Free Play deals a fresh, unranked board whenever you want another, which is a good way to learn how the pegs talk to each other. Code-breaker is free in the browser and works with a finger on a phone or a mouse on a desktop. It's a quiet few minutes of deduction with one satisfying click at the end.