Riddle Quest

How to play riddle quest

1. Every riddle has one answer and that answer is one word. None of the thirty answers here contains a space, and they run from three to eight letters: four of three, nine of four, seven of five, seven of six, one of seven and two of eight.
2. You spell the answer by tapping letters rather than typing them. The tiles are the answer's own letters plus extras, and the count of extras follows the answer's length: three extras for four letters or fewer, four for five or six, six for seven to ten. Over these thirty answers that works out as three extras on thirteen riddles, four on fourteen and six on three. There is one slot for every letter, so the slots tell you how long the answer is before you place anything.
3. Filling the last slot locks the tiles and sends the guess to be graded at once. A first solve pays a hundred stars for each point of the riddle's difficulty, and the difficulties here run from one to six, so a first solve is worth between a hundred and six hundred stars. Spelling is graded with one letter of slack, and two neighbouring letters in the wrong order count as that one slip.
4. A wrong answer costs one of five lives, and the letters you placed come back for another try. A letter that a hint revealed stays locked in its slot. One life returns every thirty minutes, and at zero lives the game stops and waits for one.
5. Three power-ups are offered on every riddle. Hint fills the first slot still empty with its correct letter and costs twenty stars for each point of difficulty. 50/50 costs sixty stars and removes half of the extra letters still standing, rounded up. Skip costs forty stars and sends the riddle to the back of the queue, so it comes back later instead of going away, and it is offered only while another riddle is left to deal. A saved token is spent before stars. A 50/50 that finds nothing to remove returns sixty stars, and it returns those stars even when a token paid for it, so the token is gone.
6. Solving fills the level you are on, and three solves fill one. Every level asks for that same three, because it is how thirty riddles divide over ten levels, so the thirtieth solve closes the tenth level and no riddle here is spare.

The two ways to play

What to do when you are stuck

• Count the slots before you guess anything. There is one slot per letter, and the tiles are the answer's own letters plus three, four or six extras, so the count of slots gives you the length and the tiles give you the letters that are even in play. Answers here run from three to eight letters.
• Spelling is graded with one letter of slack, and every answer here is short enough for that slack to be exactly one, so an uncertain vowel is rarely worth paying for. Two letters typed in the wrong order count as the same single slip. Fill the slots with your best spelling and let it be judged.
• A hint always fills the first slot still empty, so what you get for your stars depends on what you have already placed. Leave everything empty and it hands you the opening letter, place the letters you are sure of and it goes to the first gap instead. Whatever it reveals is locked in and survives a wrong answer, and a hint that fills the last empty slot sends the answer off to be graded by itself.
• Price the two aids against the riddle in front of you. A hint is twenty stars for each point of difficulty while 50/50 is sixty stars whatever the riddle, so the two cost the same on a difficulty three riddle and the cut is cheaper from difficulty four up. It buys you less, though: 50/50 only takes away extra letters, half of those still standing, and never fills a slot for you.

Controls

• Tap a letter and it fills the first empty slot. Tap a letter you placed and it returns to the tiles. A letter a hint revealed is locked and stays where it is.
• Filling the last slot locks the tiles while the answer is graded, so a late tap cannot send a second guess.
• A physical keyboard works too. A letter key plays a free tile of that letter and Backspace takes back the last letter you placed. When the key does not produce a Latin letter or a digit, the physical key code decides the letter instead, so a keyboard laid out in another alphabet still plays the right one. Keys are ignored while you are typing in a text field, a text area or an editable block, a letter key held with Ctrl, Cmd or Alt is ignored, though Backspace still clears a slot, and a tile that 50/50 removed stays out of reach.
• Every slot and every tile is a button element carrying a spoken label. A slot reads as an empty letter slot, or as the letter in it and that it can be tapped back, or as a letter revealed by a hint. A tile reads as its letter, or as a letter removed by 50/50.
• The back button on a riddle returns you to the map, and Escape closes the game and leaves the page as it was.

Questions about riddle quest

Do I have to type the answer?

No. The answer is spelled by tapping letters from the tile set, one slot at a time, and a letter you tapped can be tapped back out. A physical keyboard is an accelerator rather than a requirement: letter keys play the matching tile and Backspace takes one off again.

Is there a timer?

No. Nothing about a riddle is timed and nothing is scored on how fast you answer. The riddle module starts no timer and reads no clock at all, and the grading path records no time, so you can sit on a riddle for as long as you like.

Can I lose?

A wrong answer costs one of five lives, and at zero the game stops and tells you roughly how many minutes the next life needs. One comes back every thirty minutes, and while the day's free gifts last, six in all, a button puts one back at once. The riddle itself is never taken away and never marked failed: your letters come back and it waits for another try.

Does it save my progress?

Yes, in this browser. The level you are on, the riddles you have solved here and your lives are stored under a key that carries this page's own address. Your star balance, your daily streak and any saved power-up tokens are stored under keys with no page in them, so those three are not this page's own.