Daily Brains · one small logic puzzle a day, six rotating genres, thin lines and one red accent.
Minimal is the stripped-back logic puzzle in Daily Brains (/daily). Each day brings one puzzle, drawn in thin black lines with a single red accent and labelled with one word. The genre rotates through six kinds on a fixed six-day cycle, so every kind comes back once a week or so, and the weekday sets the size: Monday is gentle, Sunday is fiendish. Every puzzle is generated from the puzzle number, so the whole world gets the same one, and an exhaustive solver proves it has exactly one solution before it is shown.
STORY & LORE
Six genres
Dots: one dot in every row, column and outlined region, and no two dots touch, even at a corner. Flip: tapping a square flips it and its four neighbours; turn every square off. Line: draw one line from the dot through every square without crossing a wall. Arrows: number every square from 1 up so that each arrow points, any distance away, at the next number. Balance: shade a connected group whose numbers add up to the same total as the connected remainder; pinned squares cannot change. Mirror: set mirrors on the round sockets so the beam crosses every diamond and leaves through the ring, and every mirror you set is hit.
The week
Monday · Gentle, Tuesday · Easy, Wednesday · Steady, Thursday · Tricky, Friday · Hard, Saturday · Fierce, Sunday · Fiendish. The genre cycle is six days long and the week is seven, so each genre lands on a different weekday each time it returns. From Thursday on (Friday for Balance), the generators also strip away every wall, clue, pin or target that the solution does not strictly need.
One answer, always
Each genre has its own solver. Flip uses only board shapes whose toggle system has a single solution. Line adds walls until no other path exists. Dots nudges region borders until no other placement works. Arrows, Balance and Mirror add clues, pins or targets until the alternative answers are gone. The test suite proves uniqueness for more than a year of puzzles and checks that none repeats.
HOW IT PLAYS
Playing
Press Begin to start the clock. Tap squares to play: Dots cycles empty, dot and a small mark; Flip flips; Line extends the line (drag along it, or tap an earlier square to cut back); Arrows places the next number on a square the current arrow points at (tap a placed number to cut back); Balance shades and unshades (drag to paint); Mirror cycles a socket through /, \ and empty. On a keyboard the arrow keys move a cursor (or grow the line), Space or Enter taps, H asks for a hint and R resets.
Scoring
A solve is worth 600 points plus a speed bonus of up to 400: the full 400 at or under the day's par time, then par ÷ your time × 400. Each reset costs 60 and each hint 150, with a floor of 100 for any solve. Giving up shows the answer and scores 0. A clean sheet means solved under par with no hints and no resets. That is the perfect day, worth the bonus Tickets.
Sharing
The share card shows the puzzle number, the genre and your time, a row of seven squares filled to the day's difficulty, and your hints and resets. It never shows the puzzle itself.
SIZES AND PAR BY WEEKDAY
| Day | Dots | Flip | Line | Arrows | Balance | Mirror | Par |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday · Gentle | 5×5 | 3×3 | 4×4 | 3×3 | 3×3 | 4×4, 2 mirrors | 0:45 |
| Tuesday · Easy | 5×5 | 4×3 | 4×5 | 3×4 | 3×4 | 5×5, 3 mirrors | 1:00 |
| Wednesday · Steady | 6×6 | 4×5 | 5×5 | 4×4 | 4×4 | 5×5, 4 mirrors | 1:30 |
| Thursday · Tricky | 7×7 | 5×6 | 5×6 | 4×5 | 4×5 | 6×6, 5 mirrors | 2:00 |
| Friday · Hard | 7×7 | 6×6 | 6×6 | 5×5 | 4×5 | 6×6, 6 mirrors | 3:00 |
| Saturday · Fierce | 8×8 | 6×7 | 6×7 | 5×6 | 5×5 | 7×7, 7 mirrors | 4:00 |
| Sunday · Fiendish | 9×9 | 7×7 | 7×7 | 6×6 | 5×5 | 7×7, 8 mirrors | 6:00 |
REWARDS
| Event | Reward |
|---|---|
| Solve the day's puzzle | 15 Tickets |
| Clean sheet (under par, no hints, no resets) | +25 Tickets |
| Less Is More (first solve) | ◻️ Bronze · 10 Tickets |
| Clean Sheet | ✨ Silver · 20 Tickets |
| Three Lines (3-day streak) | 🔥 Bronze · 15 Tickets |
| Full Week (7-day streak) | 📅 Gold · 40 Tickets |
| Pure Form (30-day streak) | 👑 Legendary · 100 Tickets |
VERSION HISTORY
- Launch version in Daily Brains.
- Six genres (Dots, Flip, Line, Arrows, Balance, Mirror) on a six-day cycle, sized by weekday from Gentle Monday to Fiendish Sunday.
- Every puzzle generated from the puzzle number and proved to have exactly one solution by a built-in solver.
- Time-and-par scoring with hint and reset costs, a give-up option, streaks, a statistics sheet and a spoiler-free share card.