mainline: Dots and Boxes

mainline is the quietly ruthless game of dots and boxes. Join two neighbouring dots with a line. Close a square’s fourth side and it is yours, stamped with your mark, and you draw again, so a whole chain can fall in one turn. Draw a box’s third side and you hand your rival the fourth. Most boxes wins. A minute to learn, and a strategy game you keep turning over afterwards.

One board a day
Every day there is one shared board, numbered and built from the date, so everyone in the world rides the same one, with a pre-laid opening, a par and an operator to beat it against. Your first ride is the record; replay it after that as often as you like. Finish the day’s board and your streak holds, drawn as a rail across your week. One free Backtrack a day rewinds a whole exchange.

The Line
Under the daily runs the campaign: one transit line, 153 stations across 7 zones, from Riverside out to Terminal North, and past the end of the map the Night Network, which never ends. Each zone has its own operator, playing a sharper game than the last: the Sleeper, the Magpie, the Inspector, the Miser, the Conductor, the Signaller and the Nightwatch. Boards grow from 3×3 to 7×7, every station sets its own target, a win clears it and a decisive win strikes it for the medal. The Line is a map, not a level list, and every station plays offline against a computer opponent.

The kit
Three tools ride with you, and each asks before it spends a charge. Signal marks the strongest line you can draw. Survey tints every line that does not hand the next box away. Backtrack rewinds your last line and every reply since. Use one on a station and the run is marked assisted, which caps the medal.

The field
Sign in with Google and the day’s field opens: where your score landed against everyone who rode the board, the day’s spread, and the riders around your rank. Finishing pays Fare, and a top-half or top-tenth finish pays more once the day closes. Your streak, your frontier and your medals live on the phone whether or not you sign in, and follow your account when you do.

Carriages
The Line runs on carriages: a stock of five. A derail on a station past Riverside uncouples one, and one couples back every thirty minutes. Cleared stations, the daily and the first zone never cost a carriage. Empty, the frontier holds until one couples back, or until you couple one from the Kiosk. Nothing you buy clears a board; a carriage only lets you ride the next one now.

Fare and the Kiosk
Fare is the game’s currency. Signed in, every station you clear pays it, and so does every daily. Fare buys kit packs and carriages. Real money buys Fare bundles, a streak freeze that protects a missed day, a full set of carriages, and the Season Ticket, a track of rewards you climb by riding, with unlimited carriages while it runs. Nothing you buy unlocks a station. No loot boxes, no mystery packs. What you pay for is what you see.

The board
A night-only board drawn as a backlit plate. Dots are drilled holes, undrawn lines unlit grooves, your lines light up in emerald and the operator’s in violet, and a claimed box is a recessed panel with your mark engraved in it. Every legal move is visible on the plate, with no hint layer over it. The whole game is one small decision, over and over.

The details
- Free to play. The daily board never shows an ad, and the video that pays Fare is one you choose to watch.
- Plays offline. The daily and the whole Line run on the phone. An account is only needed for the field, Fare and purchases.
- Optional Google sign-in, one account across the app and the web.
- A Today widget: the day’s board, the clock to the next one, and your week.
- Sound with a switch, haptics on the board, and account deletion from inside the app.

A board game, a daily puzzle and a brain teaser in one quiet ride. Draw the line. Claim the box. See how far down the line you can get.