Order of Colors manual

Order of Colors


Order of Colors is a code-cracking game for two players. You play together, but only one can win.


Game objective

Crack the secret code with the fewest tries and outsmart your opponent.


Gameplay

You play in turns.
There is one secret code, you and your opponent must crack it. You can benefit from your opponent's turns because they try to unlock the same code. You must guess the exact colors and positions of the hidden colors.
The code consists of 4 colors. It is a combination of the six colored balls shown on the lower screen. All colors can be used more than once.

Choose 4 colors and drag them to the four empty spots. To confirm your choice tapclick on the ok button.

Then your guess will be checked. Right next to your guess small hint stones will be shown.

Black stone:
One ball has the correct color and is in the correct position

White stone:
One ball has the correct color, but an incorrect position

No stone:
One ball has a color that is not part of the secret code

The position of the hint stones does NOT refer to the ball's position.

Now your opponent makes a guess. They also gets hint stones.
Try to unlock the code with logic. Check all guesses and exclude wrong colors and try new positions of correct colored balls.


Example

In this example there are 3 rows set already. Let's try to solve it now!
First, assume something is correct and then check all tries if that assumption fits.
Here we go:
Let's assume that in try #1 the red ball is correct. That means cyan cannot be used anymore, because exactly one ball is correct. So in try #2 and #3 there must be 2 colors correct, that are not cyan. We got blue and yellow used in both tries, so we assume they are the ones.
In both tries yellow is at the same place and both tries got one black stone. So we assume yellow is right. Additionally it is not at the position of red, which we validated earlier.
Blue was the other color we think is right, but it only has a white stone (since we assumed black stands for yellow). So its position must be false. The only possible position left with red and yellow taken into account is the first spot.
Now we have one last spot to fill. Let's check for every color separately.
not possible, this would mean one more black stone in try #2.
not possible, this would mean one more black stone in try #1.
not possible, this would mean a black stone instead of the white stone in try #3.
might be.
might be.
might be.

So to fill the last spot we have to guess and try one of the remaining colors and hope for a bit of luck. This will also be a great time to use the hidden move, so your opponent cannot see which one you guessed and might try the same one if it was wrong.


Hide your move

You are one step away from solving the puzzle? Then hide this crucial move from your opponent.
Once in each game you can tapclick on the eye button.

Your balls will be wrapped in paper and are now hidden from your opponent for the rest of the game. They only see the hint stones to get an idea how close you are to unlock the code.


End of game

The payer who unlocks the code first is the winner.
The game ends in a draw when a total of 10 guesses were made without unlocking the code.


Revenge

The starting player is switched for every game. So everyone can be the second player equal times and benefit from the first player's move.


Order of Colors as a puzzle

In this section the differences between puzzle and normal game are explained. If you do not know how to play the game, please check the explanaition above first.

Puzzles are played without opponents. Break the code with as few tries as possible. Just like in the normal game your tries are marked with black and white stones. You solved the puzzle when you get 4 black stones!
You cannot hide your move because there is no one to hide it from.

Puzzles have a timer! In the upper middle of the screen is displayed how much time is left. If you run out of time, the puzzle counts as not solved.

With every retry you get a new puzzle. Also every participant gets their own random puzzle.

After solving the puzzle a copy button will appear in the lower right screen. Tap it to copy your tries to the clipboard. You can then paste it in the puzzle chat to share with others.

Enjoy the puzzle!

Play Order of Colors on elo.