Daily Brains · tap a node, watch the chain fire, match the target in the fewest taps.
Chainbrain is the network-logic puzzle in Daily Brains (/daily), currently a prototype. Each board is a little web of nodes joined by wires. Every node holds a level (empty or full, and on some boards half), and a small badge beside it shows the level it should end on. Tap a node and it fires down its wires by a fixed rule; pulses travel along the wires so you can see exactly what changed. Match every badge in as few taps as you can. A solver proves the fewest possible taps (par), and medals go to gold at par, then silver and bronze.
STORY & LORE
Daily and practice
The daily board is the same for everyone on the same local day and follows the week: Monday Easy, Tuesday and Wednesday Normal, Thursday and Friday Hard, Saturday and Sunday Genius. Practice has a tier picker (Easy, Normal, Hard, Genius) and never runs out: board 1 of each tier is handcrafted (First Spark, Relay Race, Three Levels, The Long Fuse) and every board after that is generated.
How boards are made
A seeded generator grows a connected layout, wires it without crossings, picks node types for the tier and sets a start and a target that are guaranteed to connect. The solver then measures the board: par, how many optimal answers exist, whether a greedy 'best match now' player would get there, how many chain reactions the best answer uses and whether the order of taps matters. Boards outside the tier's difficulty band are thrown away.
HOW IT PLAYS
Node types
Spark (blue circle) fills every wired neighbour by one step and leaves itself alone. Pulse (green hexagon) steps itself and its neighbours. Twist (red square, three-level boards only) steps itself up and its neighbours down. Echo (purple diamond) steps itself and every node on its dotted links, however far away; linked nodes carry a small purple pip. Relay (amber triangle) fires like a Spark when tapped, and also fires by itself whenever a pulse fills it. Levels wrap: one step past full is empty.
Chain reactions
A tap resolves in waves. The tapped node fires first; every Relay that wave filled fires together in the next wave; and so on. Each node fires at most once per tap, so chains always end. Because a Relay only fires when it lands on full, the order of your taps matters on Relay boards.
Scoring, hints and medals
Scores reward efficiency, never speed: 400 + 600 x par / taps, minus 150 per hint, at least 100, so a hint-free solve at par scores 1000. Undo and Reset are free; the tap count is the taps on the board. Gold is par, silver is up to a quarter over (at least one), bronze up to 60% over (at least two). Hint rings a node on an optimal route from where you stand and caps the medal at silver. Give up (tap twice) replays an optimal answer and resets the daily streak.
Controls
Tap or click a node. On desktop, hovering a node previews which wires and nodes it will hit. Keyboard: arrows move a ring between nodes, Enter or Space taps, Z undoes, R resets, H asks for a hint.
THE WEEK
| Day | Tier | Board |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Easy | 4-6 nodes, one type, fill them all |
| Tuesday, Wednesday | Normal | 8-12 nodes, two or three types; sometimes a Relay or three levels |
| Thursday, Friday | Hard | 14-22 nodes: Spark/Pulse/Echo webs, Relay boards or three-level Twist boards |
| Saturday, Sunday | Genius | Relay boards where order matters, or big three-level webs |
HANDCRAFTED BOARDS
| Board | Tier | Nodes | Par | Optimal answers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First Spark | Easy | 6 | 4 | 1 |
| Relay Race | Normal | 8 | 4 | 1 set (any order) |
| Three Levels | Hard | 11 | 6 | 1 |
| The Long Fuse | Genius | 15 | 9 | 576 tap orders |
REWARDS
| Event | Reward |
|---|---|
| Solve the daily board | 15 Tickets |
| Solve at par with no hints (perfect) | +25 Tickets |
| Live Wire (first solve) | Bronze · 10 Tickets |
| Short Circuit (perfect daily) | Silver · 20 Tickets |
| Charged (3-day streak) | Bronze · 15 Tickets |
| Full Current (7-day streak) | Gold · 40 Tickets |
| Power Grid (30-day streak) | Legendary · 100 Tickets |
| Wired Up (first board of every practice tier) | Bronze · 15 Tickets |
| Lab Rat (10 practice boards) | Bronze · 15 Tickets |
| Big Brain (gold on a Genius board) | Gold · 40 Tickets |
| Domino Theory (secret) | Silver · 20 Tickets |
VERSION HISTORY
- Prototype launch in Daily Brains.
- Five node types (Spark, Pulse, Twist, Echo, Relay) on two- and three-level boards, with pulses animated along the wires wave by wave.
- Daily board by weekday (Easy Monday to Genius weekend) and unlimited practice in four tiers, each opening on a handcrafted board.
- Exact par from a shared solver (linear algebra for order-free boards, breadth-first search for Relay boards); gold, silver and bronze medals; hints, undo, reset, give up; streaks and a spoiler-free share card.