How to Play Gauntle

Gauntle is a daily back-to-back puzzle gauntlet: 11 different mini-games, one overall timer. Every player gets the same puzzles each day. The lower your total time, the better.

Some games give bonuses which lower your time (e.g. -10s) if you do well. Others give penalties which increase your time (e.g. +10s) if you skip or fail. Green is a bonus, red is a penalty. The clock keeps running across the whole gauntlet.

Where practical, games are hand authored. Because I don't have infinite free time, Wordy, Angle, Conduit, Sudoku, Minesweeper, and Queens are algorithmically generated. While I have tried my best to ensure these generate fairly, bugs/issues may occur. No game content will ever be produced with Generative AI.

What it is: Guess the secret 5-letter word in 6 tries.

How to play: Type a 5-letter word, hit Enter. Letters turn green if they're in the right spot, orange if they're in the word but wrong spot, and grey if they're not in the word at all. Keep guessing.

Scoring:

• Solved in 1–3 guesses: −15s bonus
• Solved in 4: −5s
• Solved in 5: +5s
• Solved in 6: +15s
• Failed: +60s

You can skip after 45 seconds for +90s.

What it is: A small crossword puzzle (between 4×4 and 6×6 in size).

How to play: Click a square, type letters, fill it all in. Tab moves to the next clue. The board auto-checks when complete; if anything's wrong, you can use the "Check & highlight wrong letters" button for +30s, or just guess again.

Scoring:

• Solved: -20s bonus
• Used reveal letter button: +8s
• Used check board button: +30s
• Skip: +90s (after 45s)

What it is: Classic Takuzu. A 6×6 grid that you fill with two symbols — stars and circles. There are three of each in every row and every column, and no three of the same kind ever next to each other. Markers between some neighbouring cells lock those pairs together.

How to play: Tap a cell to cycle empty → star → circle → empty. Cells that break a rule turn red as you go. Watch for the markers sitting on the lines between cells: "=" means the two cells it touches must be the same symbol, "×" means they must be different. The grid auto-finishes once every cell is filled with no conflicts.

Use the "Reveal wrong" button (+30s) if you're stuck.

Scoring:

• Solved: -10s bonus
• Used reveal: +30s
• Skip: +90s (after 45s)

What it is: 6×6 Sudoku with 2×3 subgrids. Fill in digits 1–6 so every row, column, and subgrid contains each digit once.

How to play: Click a cell, type a number. If you put a digit somewhere it conflicts with another in the same row/column/subgrid, both cells turn red. The game auto-finishes when you've placed all digits correctly. Use the "Reveal wrong answers" button (+30s) if you're stuck.

Scoring:

• Solved: -10s bonus
• Used reveal: +30s
• Skip: +90s (after 45s)

What it is: Place 6 queens on a 6×6 colored grid so that no two are in the same row, column, color region, or diagonally adjacent.

How to play: Click a cell to cycle through: empty → X (marked as "no queen") → queen → empty. Conflicts are shown with red diagonal stripes. The game auto-finishes when 6 queens are placed with no conflicts. "Reveal wrong" gives you a +30s hint.

Scoring:

• Solved: -5s bonus
• Used reveal: +30s
• Skip: +90s (after 45s)

What it is: Classic Minesweeper. 12×12 grid, 20 mines. The puzzles are designed so no guessing is needed (every move can be deduced).

How to play: Left-click any cell to reveal it. If it's a mine, you lose. If it's safe, you'll see a number: that's how many mines are in the 8 cells touching it (including diagonals). A blank cell means zero adjacent mines, so all its neighbors auto-reveal as well. Use the numbers to work out where the mines must be, then right-click (or long-press on mobile) to flag each one. Once a number has the right count of flags around it, left-click that number to "chord", instantly revealing all its remaining safe neighbors. Start with the green X - it's a guaranteed safe cell that opens a large area.

Note: You do not need to flag every mine. If you clear every cell that isn't a mine, the game will autocomplete flagging the mines. This makes playing on mobile potentially easier.

Scoring:

• Won: -15s bonus
• Hit a mine: +60s (-2s per mine correctly flagged prior to failing)
• Skip: +90s (after 45s)

What it is: A picture puzzle. Clues tell you how many consecutive filled cells are in each row and column. Reveal the picture.

How to play: Each number is the length of a run of consecutive filled cells in that row or column. Multiple numbers mean multiple runs, in order, separated by at least one empty cell. So "2 1" in a row means a run of two filled cells, then a gap, then one more filled cell. Click a cell to fill it; click again to mark it × (definitely empty); click once more to clear. Drag across cells to fill a whole run at once. Clue numbers fade as you place their run correctly; a row or column border turns red if you've over-filled it. "Check for issues" (+30s) marks any rows or columns with issues. "Reveal cell" (+5s) marks any cell you click correctly.

Scoring:

• Solved: -20s bonus if no hints used
• Used check: +30s
• Used reveal cell: +5s
• Skip: +90s (after 45s)

What it is: A weirdly-shaped blob (with a hole inside it) needs to be cut. You draw a single straight cut from outside the shape to outside, aiming for a target ratio.

How to play: Hold and drag to draw your cut line, starting outside the shape. The line must enter and exit the shape. Release to commit. Your score is based on how close to the target ratio you got.

Scoring:

• Perfect (0% off): −21s
• 1–6% off: −18s to −3s (bonus zone)
• 7% off: 0s (neutral)
• 8% off and up: +3s and worse, capped at +45s

No skip (one cut, one attempt). Scoring is 3s per percentage point off target.

What it is: Five to seven letters appear one by one, then disappear. Figure out a word that uses them all.

How to play: Watch the letters. Once they're all gone, the typing field unlocks. Type any valid English word that uses exactly those letters (any anagram counts). Hints: Show letters again (+10s, multiple uses) or Reveal letters permanently (+30s, one-time).

Scoring:

• Solved: -12s bonus
• Each wrong guess: +10s
• Skip: +90s (after 45s)

What it is: Pairs of lettered dots. Join each pair with a line, without crossing, until every cell is filled.

How to play: Drag from a dot to draw a line to its partner. Lines can't cross or share a cell, and the puzzle is only solved once every pair is joined and every cell of the grid has a line through it. Drag from any point on a line to carry it on from there, or back over it to rub it out. Starting from a dot redraws that line from scratch. Drawing across another line cuts it, back off during the same drag and it comes back.

Scoring:

• Solved: -15s bonus
• Used hint: +30s penalty
• Skip: +90s (after 45s)

What it is: Three target angles, no protractor. Drag the arm round the dial until the wedge looks right.

How to play: You get a target angle and a dial with one fixed ray. Drag the arm around until the shaded wedge between them is what you think the target looks like, then lock it in. There is no readout while you aim, and the fixed ray points somewhere new each round, so the edges of the screen won't help. One attempt per target, and three rounds: acute, then obtuse, then reflex.

Scoring:

• Solved: Gives -2s bonus for every degree under 20° (total miss), and +2s for every degree over (capped at +45s).
• Skip: +90s (after 45s)

Hit ✨ FLAWLESS! ✨ status by:

• Completing the entire Gauntle in under 5 minutes
• Getting bonus time from Wordy, Ratiole, and Angle
• Never skipping, failing, or taking any penalty in any game
• Never using any optional hints

It's hard. That's the point. 🧡

The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a person's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.

How to play: It's the Gauntle you know and begrudgingly play, but far more of a challenge. Penalties are harsher, the games are harder, skipping adds ridiculous time, and you get a single shot per week. Make it count!

Hardmode gameplay changes:

• Wordy: Words are now hand picked to wind you up ensure high quality. You must use green letters in the same spot, as well as all of your yellow letters, in all your subsequent guesses.
• Mini Crossword: I think it's funnier to just not change the name. Grids go up to 10x10, for 4 times the area fun!
• Paire: Despite harder generation I still find this one fun. Sorry about that.
• Mini Sudoku: It's Mini Sudoku but 9x9 now and harder. Lifetime ban for anyone caught saying "wheel" or "reinventing". Patent pending.
• Queens: Slay Queens on a larger 9x9 grid with 3 more sections. Lazy pun? Maybe. Don't care.
• Minesweeper: “Make Minesweeper harder!!” everyone always tells me. 16x16 grid, 65 mines. With a whopping 25.39% mine density, it's a wonder it's solvable without guessing. There’s no need to thank me for that (but you should).
• Nonogram: Embiggened and more annoying drawings, because how else could I possibly make this harder otherwise? If you know please tell me. Genuinely. Please.
• Ratiole: Not a single real way to make this harder, so the scoring band is just halved. We'll give it to the next person.
• Clambers: More letters. 7-10 now. You just can't get this level of innovation anywhere else.
• Conduit: Bigger 9x9 board, get cracking.
• Angle: Smaller scoring band. It's a game where you make an angle. What more do you want.

Hardmode scoring changes:

• Wordy: ≤3: -25s, in 4: neutral, in 5: +15s, in 6: +30s.
• Mini Crossword: Clean is -85s, otherwise unchanged.
• Paire: Clean is -55s, reveal wrong is +45s.
• Mini Sudoku: Clean is -75s, otherwise unchanged.
• Queens: Clean is -30s, otherwise unchanged.
• Minesweeper: Win is -60s, fail is +90s with -1s credit per correctly flagged mine.
• Nonogram: Clean is -75s, check for issues hint is +50s
• Ratiole: Bonuses and penalties doubled, neutral band halved.
• Clambers: Clean is -45s, otherwise unchanged.
• Conduit: Clean is -30s, hint costs +45s.
• Angle: Bonus zone threshold halved to 10° total. -5s bonus for each ° under, +5s penalty for each ° over (capped at 75s).

You can skip any game after 60 seconds for +300s.