Glossary
The words of the game, explained in plain English. Anywhere on the site, a word underlined with dots opens its definition.
How points are calculated
A puzzle is worth its effort — its difficulty, in points: around 600 for an Easy, 1,000 for a Medium, 1,900 for a Hard — when you finish it within the reference time. Twice as fast earns double; twice as slow, half. It never earns more than three times its effort. An assisted game earns half those points. Points add up for the day, the week, the month, and all time, and a daily challenge can only be played once a day.
Terms
- attempt
- Your game on a ranked puzzle. It starts the moment you click Start and counts even if you don't finish it.
- bet
- A digit placed before you're sure. Declare it and it becomes a hypothesis; otherwise the engine can still spot it.
- candidates
- The digits still possible in a cell. The Candidates button shows them for you; writing them yourself makes pencil marks. All solving relies on them: every technique removes some, and once a cell has only one left, or a digit has only one cell left in a zone, you place it.
- daily challenge
- The puzzle of the day that counts for the leaderboard, one per level from Beginner to Expert: one try, server clock, no pausing. Also called the ranked puzzle.
- effort
- A puzzle's difficulty, in points: the sum of the cost of every deduction needed to finish it. It's also what it's worth against the reference time.
- expected time
- Your expected time on this puzzle, based on your recent games. It needs at least three measured games.
- hint
- A help that shows the next deduction. It makes the game assisted.
- hypothesis
- A digit you try out just to see — keep it or undo it with one click. Counted separately from mistakes.
- measured game
- A game played on a puzzle whose cost is known precisely; only these games count toward your rate.
- ranked puzzle
- Another name for the daily challenge. The puzzle of the day that counts for the leaderboard: one per level, from Beginner to Expert, one attempt, server clock, no pausing.
- rate
- Your solving speed, in seconds per unit of effort. The lower it is, the faster you are.
- reference time
- How long a regular player takes on this puzzle, based on its difficulty. Points are counted against it.
- streak
- The number of days in a row you've finished at least one puzzle.
- unassisted / assisted
- A game becomes assisted as soon as it uses a hint, auto-candidates, or the candidates layer of the magnifier.
- unit of effort
- A puzzle's difficulty measure, adding up the cost of every deduction it takes.
- wall
- The longest stretch where you placed nothing. The end screen says on which cell, and sometimes why.