How to play decode

decode is a daily code-breaking game. Each day there is one hidden code — four tokens, each one of six colours (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet). Colours can repeat, so a code might be all one colour or four different ones. You have eight guesses.

Making a guess

Tap colours from the palette to fill the four slots (or, on a keyboard, press the letters R O Y G B V, Backspace to undo, Enter to submit). When four slots are full, press Guess. decode then shows a clue for that row.

Reading the clues

Symbol	Meaning
🟩	right colour, right position
🟨	right colour, wrong position
⬜	that colour isn't in the code (in that quantity)

Crucially, the clues are unordered — two greens and a yellow means "two of your tokens are exactly right and one more is the right colour somewhere else," but not which ones. Working that out is the whole game.

Winning & streaks

Get all four green (🟩🟩🟩🟩) within eight guesses to win. Solving fewer guesses is a better score, but simply solving keeps your streak alive. Everyone plays the same code each day, so results are comparable. Miss a day and the streak resets. Past puzzles in the archive are for practice and don't affect your streak.

Strategy tips

• Scout colours first. A guess with repeated colours (e.g. red-red-orange-orange) tells you how many reds and oranges the code contains, ignoring position.
• Total = 🟩 + 🟨. That sum is how many of your four tokens belong in the code at all. Reach four and you have every colour right — only the arrangement is left.
• Swap to place. Once colours are known, swap two of them between guesses; a 🟨 becoming a 🟩 confirms a position.
• Don't waste rows. With only eight guesses, make each one test something new.