Mastermind Challenger

Four pegs to start, eight at the top. Every code you crack deals a harder one — the run ends when one beats you, and how far you got is your score.

Break the hidden code.

The machine hides a line of coloured pegs. You guess. It answers with pins: a green pin for a peg of the right colour in the right place, an orange pin for the right colour in the wrong place. Which pin belongs to which peg, it will not say. That part is yours.

A RUN, NOT A PUZZLE

Crack the code and the next one is a level harder. Fail to crack one and the run is over, and how far you got is your score. That is what makes a single number worth a leaderboard: not how well you did on one puzzle, but how far you got before one beat you.

The code grows from four pegs to eight and the palette from six colours to eight — 360 possible codes on the first level, 16,777,216 on the last.

THE BOARD

• Tap a colour to drop it on the cursor, or drag it into a particular hole • Drag a ball along the line to move it, or onto another to swap the two • Reuse a colour from a line you have already played, without hunting it in the picker • A full line answers itself • Optional: see how many codes still fit every answer on the board. Watching 1,296 fall to 4 is the whole game in one number

TWO HINTS PER CODE

Reveal gives away one peg and locks it. Deduce fills the line with a code that fits every answer so far — not the secret, just one of the codes still standing, so it can still be wrong. Each hint halves what the code pays, which is what makes spending one a real choice.

MADE TO BE PLAYED BY ANYONE

• Kids mode: shorter codes, fewer colours, two extra lines • Symbols on pegs, so the code can be read without relying on colour • English and French, switched inside the app • Light and dark, both drawn properly

ON EVERY SCREEN

iPhone, iPad and Mac. Your best run follows you through iCloud and goes to a Game Center leaderboard.

FREE TO TRY

The first three codes are free, which is enough to crack one, reach the next level and see the whole game working. One purchase opens every level above them — up to eight pegs from eight colours — on all your devices.

That is the only thing for sale. No ads, no consumable hints, no paid second chances: a run ends when a code beats you, which is the only reason the leaderboard means anything.

No ads. No account. No data collected.