Daily Brains · everything follows a hidden pattern except one. Find it, then fix it.
Almost is the pattern puzzle in Daily Brains (/daily). Each board is a grid of tiles, a string of beads, a ring or a little network, and every piece follows a hidden rule except one. You find the piece that breaks it, then rebuild it so the rule holds again. The second step is the point: you can't fix it by luck, you have to understand why it was wrong. Everyone gets the same three boards on the same local day, and every board is checked by a built-in proof before it is served.
STORY & LORE
What a piece can be
A piece has up to four features: a shape (triangle, square, pentagon or hexagon, each with its own colour), a fill (solid, hollow or striped), an arrow pointing one of eight ways, and a number. Each board shows only some of them. Colour always follows shape, so nothing depends on telling colours apart.
The rules it uses
Grids: everything the same, steady steps along rows or columns (arrows turning by the same amount each time), whole-board planes, rows that are the row above slid sideways (and sometimes turned as well), repeating tiles, mirror and rotational symmetry, and rows that each step at their own pace. Strings of beads: repeats, steady turns, two runs woven together, steps that grow, palindromes, and numbers that are the sum of the two before (last digit). Rings: rotational repeats and mirror symmetry. Networks: each number counts its links to a certain kind of neighbour (any link, solid shapes, triangles, the same fill, a different shape, shapes with more sides, and so on). Several features can follow different rules at once.
How a board is proven
Before a board is served, the validator tries every rule in the language above on every feature, and every single-piece replacement it could make. The planted fix must be the simplest explanation by a clear margin: any other reading has to leave at least three more things free (for example a mirror symmetry that pairs pieces up, instead of a rule that ties a whole column together), and no rule may explain the board as if nothing were wrong. Networks are held to the strict version: exactly one smallest fix under any counting rule. A separate brute-force check in the test suite re-derives the same answer for hundreds of boards.
HOW IT PLAYS
Find, then fix
Tap the piece you think is wrong, then tap This one. A wrong guess marks that piece as fine and costs 50 points; after three misses the game shows you the piece. Then build its replacement with the controls under the board: shape and fill buttons, turn left and right for arrows, minus and plus for numbers. The piece on the board changes as you build. Tap Fix it to check. Undo and Reset are free. Change only what is wrong.
Hints
While finding: the first hint names the feature that is broken ("look at the fills"), the second dims everything but the part of the board it is in, the third shows you the piece. While fixing: the hint states the rule and lights up the pieces that prove it; the next one shows the fix. Each hint costs 40 points.
Scoring
Each board is worth 300: 150 for the find and 150 for the fix, less 50 per miss and 40 per hint. Three boards make 900, and a clean day (no misses, no hints) adds 100 for exactly 1000. There is no clock.
Practice
The Easy, Normal, Hard and Genius buttons open practice at that tier. The first board of each tier is a handcrafted classic; after that the generator makes as many as you like. Practice does not touch your streak or score.
THE WEEK
| Day | Board 1 | Board 2 | Board 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Easy | Normal | Normal |
| Tuesday | Easy | Normal | Hard |
| Wednesday | Normal | Normal | Hard |
| Thursday | Normal | Hard | Hard |
| Friday | Normal | Hard | Hard |
| Saturday | Normal | Hard | Genius |
| Sunday | Hard | Hard | Genius |
THE CLASSICS
| Tier | Name | Board | What breaks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | Quarter turns | 3×5 arrows | Each arrow turns a quarter right along its row; one points the opposite way. |
| Normal | Two beats | 12 beads | Shapes repeat every 3, fills every 2; one bead has the wrong fill. |
| Hard | Woven | 4×4 shapes, fills, arrows | Rows slide one to the right; one square has become a second hexagon. |
| Genius | Slide and turn | 5×5 arrows on squares and hexagons | Each row is the row above slid two right and turned 45°; one arrow is 45° out. |
REWARDS
| Event | Reward |
|---|---|
| Finish the day's three boards | 15 Tickets |
| Clean day (no misses, no hints) | +25 Tickets |
| Spotted (first day) | Bronze · 10 Tickets |
| Clean Sweep (a clean day) | Silver · 20 Tickets |
| Pattern Habit (3-day streak) | Bronze · 15 Tickets |
| Week Without a Miss (7-day streak) | Gold · 40 Tickets |
| Nothing Gets Past You (30-day streak) | Legendary · 100 Tickets |
VERSION HISTORY
- First version (prototype): three generated boards a day, practice at four tiers with a handcrafted classic each, find-then-fix scoring, hint ladder, streaks and a spoiler-free share card.
- Every board is proven before it is served: all rules in the language are tried, the planted fix must win by at least three degrees of freedom, and the test re-checks it by brute force.