How to Play

Objective

Unscramble the scrambled letters to form the correct word before time runs out!

How to Play

1. Choose your difficulty: Easy (5 letters), Medium (7 letters), or Hard (9 letters)
2. Click "Reveal Letters" to start the timer and see your scrambled letters
3. Click letter tiles or use the on-screen keyboard to build your answer
4. Submit your guess when you think you've solved it

Timer & Scoring

• You have 30 seconds to solve each puzzle
• After time runs out, you enter overtime mode
• The hint button unlocks after 30 seconds of gameplay
• 3 stars: Solved in under 15 seconds
• 2 stars: Solved in under 24 seconds
• 1 star: Solved after 24 seconds or in overtime

Tips

• Use the shuffle button to rearrange letters for different perspectives
• Look for common prefixes, suffixes, and letter combinations
• Vowels often appear in predictable patterns
• Don't waste time on one puzzle – try all three difficulties!

Objective

Crack the secret numeric code using logic and deduction before you run out of attempts!

How to Play

1. Choose your difficulty: Easy (3 digits), Medium (4 digits), or Hard (5 digits)
2. Click "Reveal Clues" to see helpful hints about the secret code
3. Study the clues carefully – each shows a code attempt and the feedback
4. Use the numeric keypad to enter your guess
5. Submit and analyse the feedback to narrow down possibilities
6. Keep guessing until you crack the code or run out of attempts

Understanding Feedback

After each guess, you'll receive feedback in Mastermind style:

• Right Place (Green): A digit is correct AND in the right position
• Wrong Place (Yellow): A digit is in the code but in the wrong position
• Not in Code: The digit doesn't appear in the secret code

Example: If the code is 1234 and you guess 1345:

• 2 digits in the right place (1 and 3)
• 1 digit in the wrong place (4 is in the code but not in position 4)

Attempts by Difficulty

• Easy (3 digits): 8 attempts maximum
• Medium (4 digits): 10 attempts maximum
• Hard (5 digits): 12 attempts maximum

Strategy Tips

• Use the clues: Study the initial clues carefully before making your first guess
• Eliminate systematically: Each guess should help you eliminate possibilities
• Track your findings: Keep mental notes of which digits are confirmed or ruled out
• Don't repeat: Avoid guessing the same combination twice
• Position matters: A digit in the wrong place is still valuable information
• Start broad: Your first few guesses should test different digits to gather information

Spotting Common Letter Patterns

One of the fastest ways to crack a scrambled word is to scan the available letters for recognisable prefixes and suffixes before trying to form the whole word.

• Common prefixes to look for: UN- (undo, untie), RE- (rerun, repay), PRE- (prefix, prepay), OUT- (outrun, output), MIS- (misuse, mishap). If you see a U and N together in the tile set, there's a reasonable chance UN- begins the word.
• Common suffixes to look for: -ING (running, making), -TION (action, nation), -MENT (moment, cement), -NESS (sadness, fitness), -LY (slowly, quickly), -ER and -EST for comparatives. In a 9-letter word, -TION alone accounts for four letters, immediately narrowing what the remaining five must form.
• Short vowel patterns: Many English words follow consonant-vowel-consonant patterns. If you see only one vowel, the consonants almost certainly surround it.

Using Consonant Clusters as Anchors

Rare consonant clusters are strong anchors because they can only go in a limited number of places within a word.

• TH, SH, CH, WH: These digraphs almost always stay together. Spot them early and treat the pair as a single unit.
• STR, SCR, SPL, SPR: Triple clusters like these can only appear at the start of a word or, less commonly, after a prefix. If you see S, T, and R in the tiles, try placing STR- at the front.
• CK, NG, NK: These clusters nearly always appear at the end of a syllable. Seeing CK suggests the word ends in -ACK, -ECK, -ICK, -OCK, or -UCK.
• Once you've anchored a cluster, fill in the remaining letters around it to see what word emerges.

When to Use the Shuffle Button vs Thinking It Through

The shuffle button rearranges the tiles into a new random order. Use it strategically rather than repeatedly:

• Shuffle early if you've stared at the letters for more than five seconds without a single candidate word coming to mind. A fresh visual arrangement often triggers instant recognition.
• Think it through if you already have a prefix or suffix identified. Mentally group those letters and work out what the remainder could spell. Shuffling at this point risks losing the pattern you've already spotted.
• Shuffle once more in overtime if you're still stuck. At that point the hint button is also available, so combine both tools: shuffle to get a new perspective, then use the hint if a letter position still isn't clear.
• Avoid rapid repeated shuffling. Each new arrangement takes time to read, and the 30-second clock doesn't pause.

Managing Time Pressure Effectively

The 30-second countdown is the core pressure mechanic. These habits help you stay calm and solve faster:

• First two seconds: Count the vowels before reading any letters as words. This orients you to the word's structure immediately.
• Don't build letter by letter from the start: Visualise the complete word first, then click tiles. Building one letter at a time wastes precious seconds correcting partial mistakes.
• Accept overtime gracefully: Overtime costs you stars but not a solve. A 1-star completion still counts toward your streak and statistics. Don't panic when the timer hits zero — stay focused on the word.
• Practice on Easy first: 5-letter words train your pattern-recognition instincts. The speed you develop on Easy transfers directly to Medium and Hard.
• Play at a consistent time of day: Mental sharpness follows daily rhythms. Many players find mid-morning or early evening their personal peak for language tasks.

Reading and Interpreting Clues Systematically

Before entering your first guess, read every provided clue from top to bottom as a unified set of constraints — not as isolated hints.

• For each clue, note separately: which digits are green (right position), which are yellow (wrong position), and which are absent.
• Build a mental table: columns for positions 1 through N, rows for each digit 0–9. Mark each cell as Confirmed, Possible, Wrong Position, or Excluded.
• A digit that appears in one clue as yellow and in another clue as absent (in a different position) tells you exactly which position it cannot occupy — powerful negative information.
• Look for any digit that appears green across multiple clues in the same position. That position is solved; carry it forward into every subsequent guess.

Process of Elimination Strategy

The optimal approach to LockCode is to eliminate possibilities faster than you confirm them. Each guess should rule out the maximum number of digits.

• Cover new digits early: Your first one or two guesses should use digits not yet tested in any clue. This quickly partitions the 10 possible digits into two groups: "in the code" and "not in the code".
• Avoid repeating excluded digits: Once a digit is confirmed absent, never use it again. This sounds obvious but is easy to forget under pressure.
• Prefer guesses that distinguish between two candidate codes: If you've narrowed to three possible codes, choose a guess that will have different feedback for each one. Even if it isn't the answer, you'll know which of the three it is after one more attempt.
• On Hard difficulty (5 digits, 30,240 possibilities), information-dense early guesses are essential. Try opening with digits spread across as many positions as possible.

How to Use "None Correct" Clues to Narrow Possibilities

A clue row where every digit scores "not in code" is the most powerful kind of information in LockCode, yet many players underestimate it.

• A single "none correct" clue on a 3-digit code eliminates three of ten digits at once, reducing the search space by 30% immediately.
• Two "none correct" clues across different digit sets can eliminate six digits, leaving only four candidates for all positions — the code is often solvable in one or two more guesses.
• Deliberately construct a guess using digits you haven't tested yet just to generate a "none correct" result. The sacrifice of one attempt can save two or three later.
• Combine "none correct" clues with yellow/green clues to pinpoint which of the remaining digits are in the code.

Position-Tracking Techniques

In Medium and Hard modes the position of each digit matters as much as whether the digit is in the code at all. Keep track rigorously:

• Yellow means excluded from that position: If digit 7 shows yellow in position 2 across two different clues, you know 7 is in the code but cannot be in position 2. Cross it off that column.
• Green locks a position: Once a position is green-confirmed, stop varying that digit. Many players waste attempts by accidentally changing a confirmed digit.
• Write it down: On Hard mode especially, jot the digit-position exclusions on paper or in a notes app. Mental tracking across 5 positions and 12 attempts is error-prone.
• Prioritise unsolved positions: Once two of five positions are solved, concentrate your remaining attempts on varying only the unsolved positions while keeping the confirmed digits locked.