Each day you set 24 toggles. Each one follows a rule hidden in public data. After the nightly lock, the lamps tell you how you did, and over the season you work out what drives each toggle and how.
The daily cycle
| UTC | What happens |
|---|---|
| 10:00 | The day's values are fixed. Your board for today opens. |
| 10:00 to 23:00 | Look things up and set your toggles. Your board saves as you go. |
| 23:00 | Every board locks, and the lamps light with your results. |
A save at 22:59:59 UTC counts; one at 23:00:00 doesn't. Each toggle keeps its setting from day to day until you change it, and you can set your board up to 14 days ahead. A toggle you've never set counts as wrong.
A season
A season is 84 days of play, then a 7-day reveal week when every rule, its source, and its daily values are published. There are four seasons a year, each with a theme that sets its names and voice.
You join each season with one click. Nobody is carried into the next one, and every season starts fresh. You can join at any time; the pace of your board runs from the day you join.
Toggles
| Toggle | You set | After the lock | Points a day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Switch | On or off | Right or wrong | 1 |
| Selector | One of 3 to 8 named positions | Right or wrong | 2 |
| Dial | A number in a range | Exact, hot, warm or cold, by how far you were from the answer | 3 |
| Light bank | Six lights, each on or off | How many lights were right, not which ones | 3 |
Later seasons add new kinds of toggles. This page explains each one when it arrives.
Two toggles on every board are personal: their answer comes from your own history, such as yesterday's score.
If a toggle's source fails on a day, the toggle is out of service that day. It doesn't score and doesn't break anything.
Opening your board
All 24 toggles are on your board from the start, but only 8 are active. When an active toggle is right 3 days in a row, the next one opens; each toggle can do that once. At least one more opens every 2 days whatever happens, so if you join on day 1 your board is full by day 33 at the latest.
Every season opens with the answers for the 3 days before day 1, for all 24 toggles, so you can see how each one behaves before you start.
Clues
Each toggle gets three clues: the general area by day 7, the kind of source by day 21, and the exact source by day 42. Clues 2 and 3 can come up to a week early for a toggle that few players have cracked.
From day 1 the season also has a few riddles in the Charter, one for each source behind its toggles. A riddle points at a kind of public data, never at the source itself.
Points
Every right toggle earns its points every day. A toggle also pays a one-time bonus the day you crack it, bigger the fewer clues were out:
| Clues out when you crack it | Bonus |
|---|---|
| None | 40 |
| 1 | 30 |
| 2 | 20 |
| 3 | 10 |
You've cracked a toggle after 7 straight right days that span at least 2 changes in the answer. Cracking a toggle also unlocks its field note: a short piece about the data behind it.
Perfect days and winning
A perfect day has all 24 toggles active and every one right, leaving aside any that were out of service. Win the season with 30 perfect days inside any 35-day stretch. Several people can win; winners are ordered by the day they finished. Everyone gets a final ranking by points.
If you join after day 50, you can't win that season, but every point still counts.
The streak freeze
You get one freeze a season. Declare it before a day locks: that day isn't scored, earns nothing, and doesn't break your perfect streak. You can move or cancel it until its day locks.
The Final Lock
After a 14-day perfect streak, a 25th toggle appears: the Final Lock. It has no clues and earns nothing day to day, but cracking it opens it for 100 bonus points, and it breaks ties between winners.
Sealing a toggle
Once a toggle's third clue has named its source, you can build its rule yourself from the Charter's steps. If your rule matches every answer so far, the toggle is sealed: it plays itself for the rest of the season. If not, you're told the first day your rule went wrong. You get 3 tries per toggle per day.
Leaderboards and badges
The leaderboards are public: season points, points from the last 28 days so a late joiner has something to race for, players who joined in the same week, and perfect streaks. Make a private leaderboard and invite friends with a link. Badges are awarded after each night's lock, for things like your first crack, a long streak, or cracking a toggle before any clue; some stay hidden until someone earns them. Your profile shows your badges and your seasons, never your board.
Reveal week
When a season ends, its page shows every rule, its source, every day's answer, and who cracked it first. Players who cracked a toggle can post a short note on how they did it. The season's data is free to download, you can replay the season a day at a time, and its winners join the Hall of Fame.
Away for a while
If you don't visit or save for 7 days, your board pauses: no points, and nothing breaks. Come back and it scores again from the next lock.