Deduce

Deduce hides two things at once: a path drawn on a sixteen-square grid named A1 to D4, and the geometric transformation applied to it. The day's banner reads « GUESS THE ORIGINAL PATH » and shows a four-step path; the rules board lists seven transformations, from simple repetition to a 180-degree rotation, each illustrated by an original/transformed pair drawn on the same grid. A selector offers five levels, from Easy to Master.

1. Compose a path by typing the squares in order. The "YOUR GUESS" counter tracks the required length; Undo removes the last step, Clear erases everything.
2. Send with Submit. Each submission consumes one line of the attempts counter shown at the top of the board.
3. Read the scoring, which comes in double: the rules panel specifies that each feedback rates your guess both against the original path and against the transformed path.
4. When the clue card and the history converge, open Submit Answer and hand in the response in two parts: the original path, then the rule that transformed it.

Most colored-dot games hide an object and let you search for it. Deduce hides two: a path, and the function applied to it. Each guess is therefore scored twice, once against the object and once against its image, and it's the gap between the two scorings that's the real prize. You reason less like solving a word grid than like identifying a transformation, with seven candidates drawn on the table and a final form that requires both answers together. The format stays short, sixteen squares and a visible attempts counter, but the reasoning load per guess is noticeably heavier than it appears.

Three colors, read twice. Green marks a correctly placed square, yellow a square that belongs to the target path but in a different position, gray a square not part of that path. Because scoring is done against both the original and the transformed, the same square can be green on one and gray on the other: it is this disagreement between the two lines that signals the transformation, while their agreement narrows the path.

Daily Challenge

One grid per day, dated and numbered, with the attempts counter at the top of the board.

Five levels

A selector offers Easy, Medium, Hard, Expert and Master.

• The rules panel is also a cheat sheet: it draws the seven transformations side by side, each applied to the same example path. Keeping it open costs less than wasting a guess.
• The Classic rule reproduces the path identically. If your two lines of scoring are exactly the same, trial after trial, you already hold information about the transformation even before you know where the path runs.
• Reverse keeps exactly the same squares and only changes their order. Under this rule, a square gray against the original cannot come out green or yellow against the transformed: a single contradiction of that type rules it out.