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How to Play Daily Number

Daily Number is a code-breaking puzzle: figure out a hidden 4-digit number in 6 tries. After each guess the tiles turn green, yellow, or gray to tell you exactly how close you were. This guide covers the precise rules, how to read each clue, and a repeatable deduction method that gets you to the answer in fewer rows.

1. The goal and the rules

The game hides a secret 4-digit number. Each position is an independent digit from 0 to 9, which means the number can start with a zero (like 0472) and can repeat digits (like 4471 or 9099). Treat every position as a separate slot rather than assuming four distinct numbers.

• Type a full 4-digit guess and submit it. Empty or partial rows can't be submitted.
• You have 6 rows on a normal day. Roughly one day in seven is a Hard day, marked with a HARD chip, where the daily gives you one fewer try (5 rows). Practice mode is always the full 6.
• You win the moment all four tiles turn green. If you use every row without doing that, the game reveals the answer and the round ends.
• The daily is one ranked solve per day. Want more reps? Switch to the unlimited Practice (∞) mode, which generates a fresh random number every round and never touches your daily streak.

2. Reading the clues

Color is the entire feedback system, so getting fluent with it is most of the skill. Each tile lands on exactly one of three states:

• Green — right digit, right position. This slot is solved; lock it and never change it.
• Yellow — right digit, wrong position. That digit is somewhere in the answer, just not in the slot you tried.
• Gray — that digit, or that extra copy of it, is not in the number.

The subtlety is duplicates, and Daily Number scores them honestly. Greens are counted first, then each leftover copy in your guess is matched against the digits that remain. So if the answer contains a single 3 and you guess two 3s, only the better-placed 3 lights up and the other turns gray. That gray is not telling you "no 3 exists" — it's telling you "there's only one 3, and you've already found it." Reading grays on repeated digits as a count, not a flat no, is what separates a guess from a deduction.

3. A deduction method that works

You don't need luck to solve this consistently. You need to spend your early guesses on information and your later guesses on placement.

1. Open with four different digits. A first guess like 0 1 2 3 tests four candidates at once. You learn which of those four are in the answer and roughly where — far more than you'd get from a guess that repeats a digit on turn one.
2. Probe fresh digits on guess two. If your opener returned mostly gray, play four new digits next, for example 4 5 6 7. Across two clean guesses you've now tested 8 of the 10 possible digits, and you can infer the last two (8 and 9) by elimination.
3. Track candidates as you go. Keep a simple mental (or scratch-paper) list: digits confirmed in, digits ruled out, and which slots are still open. Every gray permanently removes a digit from play; every yellow adds a digit you must place.
4. Chase yellows into open slots. A yellow digit belongs in the answer but not where you put it. On your next guess, move it to a slot you haven't tried for it. Two yellows in different rows often pin a digit's exact position by elimination.
5. Lock greens, then permute the rest. Once a slot is green, freeze it and only rearrange the unsolved positions. This shrinks the puzzle from "4 unknowns" down to 3, then 2, fast.
6. Account for repeats before you commit. If three slots are solved and your remaining known digits don't fill the fourth, the answer almost certainly repeats a digit you've already confirmed. Try doubling your most likely green before guessing a brand-new number.

A worked example. Say the hidden number is 4 7 0 7. You open with 0 1 2 3: the 0 comes back yellow (it's in there, wrong spot) and 1, 2, 3 go gray. Guess two, 4 5 7 6: the 4 is green (right spot), the 7 is yellow (it's in there, but not in slot three), and 5, 6 are gray. You now know the digits are 0, 4, 7 and that slot one is 4. Guess three, you place 4 in slot one, move the 0 toward the back, and test a second 7 because two known digits can't fill four slots: 4 7 0 7. All green. Notice the move that cracked it was recognizing a repeat rather than reaching for an untested digit.

4. The daily format and streaks

The secret is generated from the calendar date, so it isn't random per player — everyone worldwide gets the exact same number on the same day. The puzzle rolls over at midnight UTC, which is why a friend in another time zone may already be talking about today's number before it unlocks for you. Because the board is shared, comparing how many tries it took you is a fair, honest contest.

Solving the daily keeps a streak going — one solved day after another. Miss a day and the streak resets, though the game is forgiving in small ways so a single slip doesn't always wipe a long run. Practice rounds let you warm up or keep playing after you've spent your one ranked solve, but they're deliberately kept separate so the streak stays meaningful. Your win count and a distribution of how many guesses you usually need are tracked in the stats panel, so you can watch your average drop over time.

5. Common mistakes

• Assuming all four digits are different. They aren't guaranteed to be. Plenty of answers repeat a digit, and players who rule that out lose rows chasing impossible combinations.
• Reusing a gray digit. Gray means gone (for that copy). If you keep slotting a ruled-out digit back in, you're spending guesses to learn nothing new.
• Leaving a yellow in the same spot. A yellow is a hint to move the digit. Re-submitting it in the place it just failed wastes the clue entirely.
• Wasting the opener on repeats. Guessing 1 1 2 2 on turn one tests only two digits. Early rows are for coverage; save repeats for when you actually suspect one.
• Forgetting it's a Hard day. When the HARD chip is showing you have only 5 rows, so don't burn two guesses on pure exploration — be a little bolder with placement sooner.

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