Daily Brains · a proper American-style crossword every day, a quick grid on Monday to a themed Sunday special.
The Daily Cross is the crossword in Daily Brains (/daily): a real American-style grid every day, set like the puzzle page of an evening paper, with a blackletter flag, Newsreader type for the clues and Libre Franklin in the grid. Monday to Thursday bring quick 7x7 and 9x9 grids, Friday and Saturday hard 11x11 themeless grids, and Sunday a titled 13x13 special with three theme entries. Every grid is rotationally symmetric, fully checked (every square belongs to an Across and a Down word) and has no two-letter words, and every clue was written by hand. It is the straight-clued sibling of Twisty Crypticy, which sets one cryptic clue a day.
STORY & LORE
How a grid is made
The fill comes from a curated word list of about 24,000 everyday words and 1,300 common phrases (ICE AGE, ON CUE, SMALL TALK). It started from SCOWL size 50, kept only words that are genuinely common in modern English, removed abbreviations, crosswordese (ERE, ETUI, OLEO and friends), proper nouns and anything offensive or grim, and was then pruned again by hand while every grid was audited. A constraint solver with full arc consistency fills a symmetric block pattern from that list, blocks a word's close relatives in the same grid (no EGG with EGGS), and steers away from words already used elsewhere in the book. Every filled grid was then read by a person, any entry that was not fair, common and pleasant was banned, and the grid was refilled. Only then were the clues written.
Sunday specials
Each Sunday grid has a title and three theme entries in symmetric places across the middle of the grid: two of equal length mirrored top and bottom, one through the center row. The title names the idea (Color Wheel: BLUE MOON, BLACK HOLE, PINK SLIP), and the three entries never share a word. Sunday clues are written at Saturday strength; the theme is the foothold.
The weekly ramp
The week gets harder in two ways at once. The grids grow (7x7 on Monday and Tuesday, 9x9 on Wednesday and Thursday, 11x11 on Friday and Saturday, 13x13 on Sunday) and the clues change character: Monday is plain definitions and friendly fill-in-the-blanks, Wednesday and Thursday add the odd question-mark pun, and Friday, Saturday and Sunday win by misdirection rather than obscurity ("Served badly?" for LET, "Nitpickers' targets?" for LICE). Early-week fill is drawn from the most common words only.
HOW IT PLAYS
Playing
Tap a square to select it and tap it again to switch between Across and Down. The selected square is yellow and the rest of its word is pale blue. The current clue sits in a bar above the keyboard; tap the bar for the full Across and Down lists, or use its arrows to step through the clues. On phones and tablets the game uses its own on-screen keyboard, so the system keyboard never jumps the layout; the arrow key on the keyboard also switches direction. On a computer you type straight in, the clue lists sit beside or under the grid, and the arrow keys, Space (switch direction), Tab and Enter (next clue) and Backspace work as expected.
Typing
After each letter the cursor moves to the next empty square of the word, and at the end of a word it jumps to the next unfinished clue. Both behaviours can be switched off in Settings (Skip filled squares, Jump to the next clue). When every square is filled the game checks the grid: a correct grid finishes the day; otherwise it tells you something is wrong, without saying where.
Check and reveal
The Check button opens Check and Reveal for the current square, the current word or the whole puzzle. Check strikes through wrong letters in red; Reveal fills in the right letters in blue with a small corner flag. Each check costs 25 points and each revealed letter 40. Revealing the whole puzzle (it asks twice) ends the day unsolved.
Timer, pause and saving
The clock runs while the grid is on screen and stops while a sheet is open or the tab is hidden. Tap the clock or press Esc to pause; the grid is folded away until you resume. Every letter, check, reveal and the clock are saved as you go and restored when you come back, on the same device or (signed in) on another.
Scoring
A solved grid scores 600, plus a time bonus of up to 300 (full at or under the weekday's par, fading to nothing at three times par), plus 100 for a clean solve with no checks and no reveals, minus 25 per check and 40 per revealed letter, never below 100. The maximum is 1000; a clean solve is a perfect day.
Sharing
The share card has no emoji and no letters. It names the edition and day, gives the time, and draws the grid's block pattern in plain squares, with any revealed square marked, like a newspaper thumbnail of the puzzle.
GALLERY
THE WEEK
| Day | Difficulty | Grid | Clues | Par |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Gentle | 7x7 | Plain definitions, the commonest fill | 5:00 |
| Tuesday | Easy | 7x7 | Direct, a little more variety | 7:00 |
| Wednesday | Steady | 9x9 | Mostly straight, a few playful turns | 10:00 |
| Thursday | Tricky | 9x9 | More misdirection and question-mark puns | 13:00 |
| Friday | Tough | 11x11 themeless | Misdirection, not obscurity | 18:00 |
| Saturday | Hard | 11x11 themeless | Vaguer definitions, double meanings | 24:00 |
| Sunday | Fiendish | 13x13 themed, with a title | Saturday-strength clues around the theme | 30:00 |
REWARDS
| Event | Reward |
|---|---|
| Solve the grid | 15 Tickets |
| Clean solve (no checks, no reveals) | +25 Tickets |
| First Edition (first solve) | Bronze · 10 Tickets |
| Clean Copy (a clean solve) | Silver · 20 Tickets |
| Beat the Deadline (solve under par) | Bronze · 15 Tickets |
| Before the Ink Dries (clean and under par) | Silver · 25 Tickets |
| Weekend Edition (clean Friday or Saturday) | Gold · 30 Tickets |
| In Pen (secret: clean Saturday under par) | Gold · 40 Tickets |
| Sunday Special (solve a Sunday) | Silver · 25 Tickets |
| Every Edition (solve on all seven weekdays) | Gold · 40 Tickets |
| Three-Day Streak | Bronze · 15 Tickets |
| Full Week (7-day streak) | Gold · 40 Tickets |
| Puzzle Editor (30-day streak) | Legendary · 100 Tickets |
THE BOOK
126 grids: 18 for each weekday, one per week, so no puzzle repeats for 18 weeks. Every grid is checked by scripts/test-daily-cross.mjs.
| Weekday | Grids | Size |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | 18 | 7x7 |
| Tuesday | 18 | 7x7 |
| Wednesday | 18 | 9x9 |
| Thursday | 18 | 9x9 |
| Friday | 18 | 11x11 |
| Saturday | 18 | 11x11 |
| Sunday | 18 | 13x13 |
VERSION HISTORY
- First release: 126 hand-clued grids (18 per weekday), 7x7 Monday to 13x13 themed Sunday.
- Own on-screen keyboard on touch screens, clue bar with the full clue list behind it, check and reveal by square, word or puzzle, timer with pause, saved progress, streaks and an emoji-free share grid.
- Fonts: UnifrakturMaguntia (flag), Newsreader (clues), Libre Franklin (grid and keys), all SIL Open Font License, bundled locally.