How to play Crack the Code

Crack the Code is a daily code-breaking logic puzzle. A four-digit code is hidden, four clues about it are printed on the board, and your job is to reason out the one code that satisfies all four. This page covers the rules, every clue label, a worked example, and strategy.

What Crack the Code is

Crack the Code hides one four-digit code and gives you exactly four clues about it up front. The code is always built from four distinct digits — no digit ever repeats — which is the most useful fact in the game: placing a digit removes it from every other position. Every puzzle has exactly one solution, so once your deductions pin all four positions there is no second answer to second-guess.

There is no losing in Crack the Code. Attempts are unlimited, and a wrong guess just shakes the board and hands it back. You dial each digit on a vertical wheel — swipe or scroll it up and down — and press Unlock once all four are set. A timer runs from the moment the board becomes playable until you solve it, and your solve time is saved, so the only stake is how quickly you get there.

The five clue types

Each clue is a four-digit guess paired with one of five labels, and every label is an exact count rather than a minimum. A clue reports all the matches in that guess, so it tells you as much about the digits it rules out as the ones it confirms.

• Nothing is correct — none of the four digits in that guess appear in the code.
• 1 correct and well placed — exactly one digit is correct and in the right position, and no other digit in that guess is in the code at all.
• 2 correct and well placed — exactly two digits are correct and in the right positions, and no further digit in that guess is correct-but-misplaced.
• 1 correct but misplaced — exactly one digit from that guess is in the code, but in the wrong position.
• 2 correct but misplaced — exactly two digits from that guess are in the code, and both sit in the wrong position.

Read the exactness both ways: "1 correct and well placed" fixes one digit in one position and eliminates the other three digits of that guess entirely — often the more valuable half of the clue.

A worked example

A worked example shows how four clues collapse into a single code. Each line below is a guess and the label printed beside it:

• 1396 — Nothing is correct
• 3972 — 1 correct and well placed
• 1754 — 2 correct but misplaced
• 1503 — 2 correct and well placed

1. 1396 is a total miss, so 1, 3, 9 and 6 are not in the code.
2. 3972 has exactly one right digit in the right spot. 3 and 9 are already out, so it is either 7 or 2 — and whichever it is, the other is not in the code at all.
3. 1503 has two digits correct and well placed. 1 and 3 are out, so 5 is in position 2 and 0 is in position 3.
4. 1754 has two digits correct but misplaced. 1 is out, and 5 and 0 are already pinned, so its two must be 7 and 4 — but 7 sits in position 2, which is 5. Contradiction, so 7 is out and the pair must include 4. That leaves 4 and 5: 5 is confirmed (misplaced here, since it sits in position 3 of this guess), and 4 is in the code but not in position 4.
5. Back to 3972: 7 is out, so the well-placed digit is 2 in position 4.
6. Only position 1 is left, and 4 is the only digit still unplaced, so the code is 4502.

No step there required a guess — every line followed from a clue read exactly.

Strategy tips

The fastest route through a Crack the Code puzzle is to eliminate before you place. Start with the clue that removes the most: a "Nothing is correct" line kills four digits at once, and a "1 correct and well placed" line quietly kills three. Cross those digits off every other clue before working out positions — most clues get far simpler once their dead digits are struck through.

Then lean on the no-repeats rule: placing one digit removes it from every other slot, so each confirmed position makes the rest easier. Use "well placed" clues to fix positions and "misplaced" clues to forbid them, and when two clues share digits, compare them instead of solving each alone — the contradiction between a pair is usually what cracks the puzzle open.

A new puzzle every day

Crack the Code publishes a new daily challenge, and it is the same puzzle for every player. The day resets at local midnight. Difficulty follows a repeating easy / medium / hard rotation — challenge #1 is easy, #2 medium, #3 hard, #4 easy again, and so on. Easy puzzles always include a total-miss clue and an anchor clue, handing you a free elimination and a fixed position. Hard puzzles give neither: no free eliminations, and you need all four clues at once before anything is certain.

Where to play

You can play today's puzzle, work back through the past challenges in the Level Hub, or read the frequently asked questions about streaks, accounts and Puzzle Run Plus.