If you want to help me to translate this rules page into your language (or if you find a translation error and want to help me fix it), you can get the wording file here and send it with your translations to boardgamearena@delaforge.eu. Thanks for your help!
My name is Christophe, aka Tof63 on Board Game Arena, and I have two passions: board games and software development. Whether it's for work or hobbies, what I like most of all is to see my programs used and appreciated !
In addition to this game, I've also made a browser extension for Board Game Arena that adds a lot of cool stuff to the web site (dark mode, home page customization, etc...).
The full list of extension features can be found here.
And the extension can be installed from the following links:
Google Chrome, Edge, Brave, Kiwi (for Android)
and Firefox
You can try it, it's free! But if you like it (or if you like the game), why not buy me a coffee with the link above?
By cleverly placing available items on a grid, players create a puzzle for other players.
The fastest player to solve the puzzles of the other players wins the game.
- One individual game board per player.
Composed of the stock of available parts and a grid
- Mirrors of different shapes
- Black holes
- Light warps
At the start of the game, the same items (mirrors and black holes) are distributed to each player. Each player therefore starts with the same stock.
If the game is played with light warps, two light warps are permanently placed in the same place on each player's board.
Each player places the items of their stock on their grid to form a puzzle. The other players will have to guess where these items are placed.
To guess where the items are placed on the grid, the player is given the number of squares covered by a laser projected from the edge of the grid, with the following color code:
- Green: the laser exits through another square
- Yellow: the laser exits through the same square
- Grey: the laser is absorbed by a black hole
The mirrors reflect the lasers.
Black holes absorb them.
And the lasers go through one warp and out the other.
At any time it is possible to click on a square on the edge of the board to check the path of the laser.
The boxes on the edges are circled in red as long as the requested condition is not met.
To move an item from the stock to the grid, you must first select it in the stock, then click on a free location in the grid.
A click on an item in the grid returns it to the stock.
It is also possible to drag and drop items from the stock to the grid, or within the grid (does not work on mobile devices).
You can add or remove a lock on a cell by right-clicking on it (or long-press on mobile). It is not possible to add or remove an item on a locked cell. This may allow you to mark the cells for which you are sure that an item is well placed.
It is possible to display the stock items in two different ways: stacking them by type, or displaying all items. Choose the view you prefer in the 'preferences' menu at the top right of the window.
The game is played in one round less than the number of players.
Each player will have to try to solve the puzzles proposed by all the other players.
Bruce, Peter and Jennifer play the game.
In the first round, Bruce will have to solve Peter's puzzle, Peter will have to solve Jennifer's puzzle and Jennifer will have to solve Bruce's puzzle.
In the second round, Bruce will have to solve Jennifer's puzzle, Peter will have to solve Bruce's puzzle and Jennifer will have to solve Peter's puzzle.
During each round, players earn points according to their speed.
The points are distributed in such a way that, if a player wins all the rounds, he/she earns a total of 120 points.
For a 3 player game, the fastest player in a round scores 60 points, the second fastest player scores 40 points and the last player scores 20 points.
If a player drops out of the round, 20 points will be deducted from their score.
When creating a puzzle, the more squares the ray travels before exiting, the more difficult it will be to guess the location of the items.
Do not hesitate to use the light warps to complicate the course of the laser.
It is possible that there are several possible solutions to your puzzle, the other solutions will also be accepted by the game.
It is also possible for an opponent to find a solution to your puzzle without using all the items available.
To solve a puzzle, start by placing the items to solve the smallest paths. The other items will be easier to place.
Players compete on the same puzzles
During each round, the players try to solve the puzzle proposed by one of the players. The player who proposed the puzzle does not play during this round
The game is played in as many rounds as there are players and requires at least 3 players.
Randomly generated puzzles
In this game mode, players do not create puzzles. In each round, players all compete on the same grid that is randomly generated.
The game is played in 1, 3 or 5 rounds.
Team game
In this game mode, players form teams and do not play individually. In each round all players of the same team will necessarily win the same number of points.
During each round, the teams all compete on the same grid which is randomly generated.
In 'real time' mode, the players of the same team all start solving their puzzle at the same time. Each player sees the placement of the elements of all his teammates. And a puzzle is considered solved when all players in a team have solved it.
In 'turn-based' mode, players start solving their puzzle whenever they want. The points won or lost by each player are added up (with possibly a multiplier to correct the score if the teams do not have the same number of players).
The game is played in 1, 3 or 5 rounds
Solo mode
It is possible to play alone, trying to solve randomly generated puzzles, by choosing one of the following modes:
No challenge
The game ends when you decide. All game options are available.
Challenge 1 - Easy
You start the game with a heart, which gives you the right to fail 1 puzzle. If you fail to solve a puzzle then you lose a heart.
The game is won if you manage to total 3 points, it is lost if you fail on a puzzle when you have no heart left.
All game options are available.
Challenge 2 - Medium
The rules are the same as the first challenge, except that you need 6 points to win and you earn an extra heart when you reach 3 points.
It is not possible to play with less than 10 elements (but you can choose to play with more elements), and the time to solve the puzzles is limited to 15 minutes (but you can decrease this time to increase the difficulty).
Challenge 3 - Hard
The rules are the same as the first challenge, except that you need 10 points to win and you earn an extra heart when you reach 5 points.
It is not possible to play with less than 15 elements (but you can choose to play with more elements), and the time to solve the puzzles is limited to 10 minutes (but you can decrease this time to increase the difficulty).
Grid size
Number of items
Practice solving a random puzzle solo