Questions & Answers

My Apple Pencil misses taps on the grid. Every second mark does not appear.

Turn Scribble off. On your iPad, open Settings → Apple Pencil and switch off Scribble. Taps register correctly straight afterwards — no restart, no reinstall, nothing to change in the game.

What is happening is not a bug in GRIDIGMA, and it is worth knowing why, because no setting inside the game can fix it. Scribble is the iPadOS feature that turns Pencil handwriting into typed text. To do that it has to watch every Pencil contact before the page below sees it, and decide whether you are writing or tapping. When taps come quickly — roughly four a second, the speed you naturally reach filling in a grid — it holds contacts back while it decides, and a large share of them are never handed on at all. The game receives no touch event, no pointer event, nothing: from the page's point of view your finger was never there.

We measured this. On one board, 25 taps about a second apart produced 25 contacts and 25 marks. The same 25 taps a quarter of a second apart produced 13 contacts and 13 marks — the other twelve never arrived. This is a known WebKit issue affecting web pages generally, not only this game (WebKit bug 217430).

Scribble stays off only where you want it: turning it off affects handwriting-to-text everywhere on the iPad, so if you rely on it elsewhere you can switch it back on when you are done playing.

Why does a puzzle sometimes need a "what if?"

Because that is what makes it hard. Every GRIDIGMA puzzle has exactly one solution and every clue is load-bearing, but the harder ones cannot be finished by reading one clue at a time — at some point you have to suppose something, follow it, and see whether it breaks. The hint system never guesses: it shows you a deduction that is already forced by what is on the board.

Can I zoom the board?

Yes. Pinch on the board to zoom it, and use the zoom controls beside it. The board zooms on its own, so the rest of the screen stays where it is.

I played a puzzle again and the answer was different. Why?

Because every play is dealt fresh. The story, the clues and the logic are the same puzzle, but which item goes with which is drawn anew each time you open it: the red float may belong to a different plot, the surveyor with the theodolite may stand somewhere else on the rope. Only an order that the story fixes — depths, positions, times — stays where it is. The names along each side of the board take a fresh order too, and so do the clues. In a puzzle with a false note, the letters on the notes are dealt fresh as well, and some of those puzzles come in more than one version, so the note that lies can change.

We do it to give you a richer game and to make every puzzle worth playing again: a second play of a favourite is a real solve, not a memory test, and a friend on the same puzzle is solving a board of their own. The difficulty is the same on every deal, so the times on a leaderboard compare.

Can I leave a puzzle and come back to it later?

Yes. Leaving a puzzle only pauses it: going back to the library, opening your profile or closing the app all do the same thing. Your marks stay where they are, the clock stops while you are away, and the puzzle waits in the library marked In progress. Open it again and you carry on exactly where you left off, on the same clock.

It follows you to your other devices too. Signed in to the same account on a phone and a computer, a puzzle you paused on one is waiting on the other the next time you open the game there.

What happens if I start another puzzle before finishing one?

Only one puzzle can be in progress at a time. Looking at other puzzles is fine — opening one and reading its story changes nothing. But the moment you place your first mark on a different puzzle, the unfinished one is abandoned: its marks and its clock are cleared, no time is posted for it, and opening it again starts it fresh. This holds across your devices as well: a first mark on your phone ends the puzzle that was waiting on your computer.

Do I need an account to play?

No. You can play the whole free catalogue and today's puzzle without signing in, and your nickname, your solved puzzles and your times are kept on the device you play on. An account is needed to subscribe, and to carry all of that to another device or through a reinstall.

Why was my nickname refused?

One of three things. It may be taken already — nicknames are unique, and capital letters do not make a new one: if Djemil is taken then DJEMIL is taken too. It may use characters we do not accept: a nickname is English letters, digits and the underscore, between 3 and 20 characters long, which is what stops two names looking identical on a leaderboard. Or it did not pass our check for offensive names, which follows our published rules. A nickname may not carry:

• Insults, slurs and hate, in any language. The check reads through the usual substitutions, so spelling a word with digits or accents does not get it past.
• Impersonation: pretending to be another player, a public figure or GRIDIGMA.
• Personal details, such as a phone number or an address.
• Advertising or a link.

When a name is refused as you type it, we do not say which rule it tripped, because telling people that is how a filter gets mapped and worked around. Pick another name.

If we reset a nickname that was already yours, we tell you which of the four rules it broke, in the game, with a button to choose a new nickname and a button to write to us. If you think we were wrong, or an ordinary name was refused, write to us from Profile → Support and a person will look at it.

How soon do you answer a support message?

We read every message and answer within two working days. Write to us from Profile → Support in the game. Signed in, the answer comes inside the game; signed out, leave an email address and it comes there.

What does deleting my account delete?

Everything we hold about you: your email address, your nickname, your solve history and your posted times. The times come off every leaderboard, which means a record can disappear when the player holding it leaves, and everyone behind them moves up. It is permanent — there is nothing left for us to restore afterwards. You can delete your account from your profile on the website, and in the apps once they are released.

Does deleting my account cancel my subscription?

Only a subscription bought on our website, and that one at once: the rest of the period you paid for is not refunded. A subscription bought in the App Store or on Google Play is billed by Apple or Google and keeps running if you delete your account, so cancel it in the store. To use the days you paid for, cancel first, where you bought it, and delete the account when the period ends:

• iPhone or iPad — Settings → your name → Subscriptions.
• Android — Play Store → your profile picture → Payments and subscriptions.
• Our website — Profile → Subscription → Cancel subscription.

Does GRIDIGMA show ads?

No — and it never will. There are no ad SDKs in the app at all, we do not sell your data, and we do not use your data to advertise to you anywhere else. A subscription is the only thing that costs money, and the free catalogue and today's puzzle stay free.

I subscribed on the website. Does it work in the app?

Yes. A subscription is honoured everywhere you sign in — the website today, and the iPhone and Android apps once they are released — whichever of them you bought it on, and it costs the same on all of them. Sign in with the same account and every past day and every themed shelf opens. Access runs while the subscription does: when it ends, it ends everywhere.

Your solved puzzles, your times and your place on every leaderboard stay yours either way.

Does a subscription give anyone an advantage?

Nothing we sell changes how a puzzle is solved, timed or placed on a leaderboard. The subscription opens more puzzles; solving them earns rank points the same way as any other puzzle.

What happens if I stop playing?

If you have not played for 90 days, we stop your subscription from renewing, so you are not charged for puzzles you are not playing. Playing means starting a ranked puzzle or finishing any puzzle, on any of your devices. We email you first: a week before a monthly renewal, 30 days before a yearly one. Playing before the date in that email keeps it renewing, and so does tapping Keep my subscription in the email or on your Profile. Everything you paid for stays open until the end of the period you paid for, and nothing is deleted. We stop subscriptions bought on the website or on Google Play ourselves; one bought in the App Store only you can cancel, so for those our email is a reminder and tells you how. If we said we would stop a renewal and you are charged anyway, we refund that payment in full.

How will I hear about a price change?

By email, 30 days before your first renewal at the new price, with the old and the new price, the reason for the change and the date. You do not have to do anything to keep your subscription at the new price. If you would rather not, cancel at no cost before that renewal, and the new price is never charged. For a subscription bought in the App Store or on Google Play, Apple or Google also tells you, and may ask you to accept the new price; if you do not accept it there, your subscription ends at the end of the period you paid for.

Can I have two subscriptions?

No. One account holds one subscription at a time, wherever you bought it: on the website, in the App Store or on Google Play. It opens everything on every device you sign in on. If a second one is bought anyway, we stop the one bought on the website and refund its latest payment in full. If both were bought in the app stores and one is on Google Play, we stop that one and refund its latest payment in full; if both are App Store subscriptions, we email you how to cancel one, and only Apple can refund an App Store payment. To get your subscription back on a new device: on the website, sign in with the same account; in the iPhone or iPad app, tap Restore Purchases while signed in to the same Apple Account.

Why can't I subscribe from my country?

Subscriptions are not available in every country yet. Our preparations are under way, and all countries will be available very soon. If yours is not open yet, the pricing page says so. If you subscribed in a country where we sell and are travelling, your subscription keeps working.

Why can't I play today's puzzle offline?

Because a daily is handed to your device by our server for each play — that is what makes the times on its board comparable — so if the device has never received it, there is nothing there to play. Open it once while you have a connection and you can finish it offline afterwards: a run that started online stays ranked, and posts its time when you are back.

How do I keep puzzles for playing offline?

Open the month or the shelf you want and use Keep for offline. Nothing downloads on its own — a month is a full set of puzzles and their pictures, and whether to spend that on your phone is your decision — and the same control removes them again. The free catalogue is inside the app already and plays offline always, with or without an account.

Kept puzzles are part of a subscription, so the app checks in with us about them from time to time. It carries on for a month without being able to check in; past that the kept puzzles lock until the next time you have a connection, and the app says it has not been able to check in. It will not tell you your subscription has ended, because offline it cannot know whether it has.

A new puzzle is on the website but not in the app.

The app carries its own copy of the free catalogue, which is what lets it play with no connection at all. That copy belongs to the version of the app you have installed, so a new catalogue puzzle arrives in the app's next release, once the store has reviewed it. Today's puzzle and the subscription shelves are not affected — those come from our server each time you play them.

How do I turn a notification off?

In the app, Profile → Settings → Notifications. The three kinds switch off one at a time: today's daily is ready, today's daily is still open, and a new best time. Your phone's own notification settings can silence the app entirely as well.

At most one notification arrives a day, and a new best time comes with it. It comes at the hour you choose for it; nothing arrives between 22:00 and 08:00 unless you chose such an hour.

Why does the app have music and the website does not?

Because a browser tab is not a place to start playing sound at someone. The app is opened to play, so music and sound effects are on when you install it, and both switch off in Profile → Settings → Sound. It respects your phone's silent switch, steps aside for anything else you are listening to, and stops when you leave the app. The website stays silent.

Why does it say this run will not be ranked?

Because your device never received a puzzle from our server for this run. A time on a leaderboard is measured against a board the server handed out, at a moment it recorded — that is what stops a time being invented — and a run that began with no connection has none of that behind it.

The same is true the other way round: if our leaderboard was unavailable when you started, the run has no board behind it either. That one is ours, not yours — playing the puzzle again later ranks normally.

It counts for everything else: the solve, your streak and your history all record it, and they reach us as soon as you are online again. And a run that started while you were online stays ranked even if the connection drops in the middle of it.

Can I keep my times off the leaderboards?

Yes, in two ways. In Profile → Settings, under Leaderboards, turn off Show my times to other players: your times stay on every leaderboard, your friends' boards included, with your place and your time, but other players see Anonymous player instead of your nickname, with no flag, no rank badge and no player card. You still see your own under your own name, with a note that others see you as Anonymous player. Or, before a run starts, choose Play unranked on the story card: that one run is posted nowhere.

Either way the puzzle still counts: your solves, your streak, your history and your rank points are kept. A hidden player is ranked like everyone else: they can be the day's champion, take a record and earn the finish badges, always shown as Anonymous player. A run played unranked is the one that earns none of that. Your friends, and the players in a race with you, still see your nickname, flag and rank, because you chose to become friends or to enter the race; and on a board with only a few players, such as your friends' board, they may still guess which row is yours.

You can turn the setting back on at any time, and your name returns to every board at once. A run played unranked stays off the boards for good.

Why can't my run win today's race?

Because the game was away from the screen for ten seconds or more during the run. Today's race is the one place where a time has to be set in a single sitting: the fastest clean time on the day's puzzle takes the day, and a clock that can be stopped while you think would not measure everyone the same way.

It is ten seconds in total, not ten seconds at once — short absences add up. The clock stops by itself whenever the game leaves the screen: switching to another app, locking the phone, or moving to another window or tab on a computer. Nothing inside the game stops it. A hint does not, a check does not, and reading the story does not — the clock runs through all of them.

The run is not thrown away. It still takes its place on the puzzle's own leaderboard, carrying a mark saying it includes pauses, and it still counts for the solve, your streak and your history. Only the day's race is closed to it.

If you want the day back, use Start over on that notice. It begins a genuinely new run with a fresh clock — resetting the board on the screen is not enough, because the clock and the pauses already recorded would survive that.

Do hints and checks change my time?

Yes, and that is the whole of what they cost — nothing is disqualified and nothing is flagged. A hint adds a set amount of time to the time you post, and a check adds a third of what a hint does. Both scale with the puzzle: a hint on a very hard puzzle is expensive, a hint on a very easy one is not, and the price is written on the control before you use it. The clock you watch while solving is your raw time; the time stored on the leaderboard is that clock plus what you used.

How do I earn rank points?

Your rank on the Career screen comes from points, and points come from four places:

• Solving a puzzle for the first time: Very Easy 1, Easy 2, Medium 4, Hard 8, Very Hard 13. Solving the same puzzle again earns nothing, and the tutorial earns nothing.
• A clean solve (no hint and no check) adds half of those points, at least 1: Very Easy 1, Easy 1, Medium 2, Hard 4, Very Hard 6.
• Weekly quests: three a week, 5 to 12 points each.
• Winning a race: the puzzle's points, half of them for second place, and none from third place down. Beating a player of a higher rank doubles them; beating your own rank keeps them; one rank below you halves them, two ranks below quarters them, and three or more ranks below pays nothing. A paid win is always worth at least 1 point, and a race never takes points away.

The ranks and the points that hold each one: Rookie 0, Sleuth 10, Investigator 30, Detective 60, Senior Detective 100, Inspector 160, Chief Inspector 240, Master Detective 350, Legend 500. A rank never opens or closes any puzzle.

What happens when I block a player?

Blocking is yours alone. Their nickname reads Blocked user wherever you would have seen it, to you and to nobody else, and they can no longer send you a friend request or a challenge. Their times stay exactly where they are on every board: a leaderboard is a record of what people solved, and blocking someone is not a claim that they cheated. You can undo it from your profile at any time.

Reporting is the separate control beside it. A report sends the nickname to us and a person reads it; nothing happens to anyone automatically.