Fourfold guide
Your first game of Fourfold
Sixteen clues. Four hidden groups. No experience needed.
Try a short puzzle with everyday words. It is just practice—no account or rating needed.
Try the tutorial puzzleThe idea, in 30 seconds
Each puzzle has sixteen tiles. Every tile belongs to exactly one group of four, called a quartet. Your job is to find all four groups. A connection might be a shared category, something the words can follow, or a clever feature of the words themselves.
- Look for a connection. For example, DRUM, FLUTE, PIANO, and VIOLIN are all musical instruments.
- Tap those four tiles. Tap a selected tile again to remove it. Selecting tiles does not use a guess.
- Press Submit quartet. A correct group locks into place and its connection is explained. Keep going with the remaining tiles.
What happens after a guess?
- Correct: those four clues leave the board. Find the other groups.
- Incorrect: you spend one of the four mistake dots. Reconsider the connection before trying again.
- “One away” is still incorrect and costs one mistake. Exactly three of your four clues belong together. The game does not tell you which one to swap.
Find all four groups before your fourth mistake to win. The fourth mistake, or Give up, ends the match. You can still continue in practice afterward; that does not change the result.
A few tricks that help
- Read every clue before committing. A word can have more than one meaning: a “bat” could be an animal or sports equipment.
- Look for four specific matches, not just words with a vague association.
- If you have five possible matches, try solving another group first. The leftovers may make the choice clearer.
- Use Shuffle for a fresh arrangement. It changes only the positions.
Know which approach the puzzle rewards
Independent: a strong, specific quartet should be safe to submit on its own. Interlocking: convincing decoys may be deliberate, so check whether the remaining clues can still form complete groups. These labels describe construction, not difficulty. Knowing the rules lets you choose your approach before spending guesses.
Use Plan sets below the board to arrange tentative quartets, move clues between sets, and check the remainder. Planning spends no guesses; only submitting the active set does. It is especially useful for Interlocking puzzles.
What if the classification seems wrong?
After playing, open More feedback and reporting and describe the quartet, plausible fifth member, or ambiguity you found. Explain whether the remaining clues resolved it. Where appropriate, use the Independent pseudo-quartet feedback reason. Guests need to sign in to submit feedback. Reports help creators and reviewers assess the puzzle; they do not automatically change its classification or result.
What do the other buttons do?
- Deselect: clears your current selection without using a guess.
- Plan sets: lets you organize several possible groups. Nothing is submitted until you press Submit Set for the active set. Selecting a fifth clue also opens planning and keeps your first four together as Set A.
- Assistance: contains creator hints. A hint appears automatically here once you find its quartet.
- Give up: ends the match and reveals the solution.
Do hints or topic reveals affect my rating?
Specialist topics are free to reveal. They describe knowledge the puzzle may use; they do not show the answers. Select the Knowledge requirement disclosure at the top of a puzzle to see its declared subjects. If that trait is absent, no specialist topics are declared; it is not a guarantee that every reference will be familiar. Suggest missing subjects in detailed puzzle feedback.
Creator hints change rated play. Taking a hint for an unsolved quartet before the result settles records an unassisted loss, then lets you continue on the assisted track. In Discovery your player rating stays protected. Guests and the tutorial puzzle are unrated. Hints earned by solving a quartet are free. Reveals after the result cannot change it.
The game explains any rating consequence before an eligible player takes a hint. Read the full rating rules when you are ready.
Where should I play next?
Discovery is a good next stop. Try new community puzzles while your own rating is protected. We start recommendations on the easier side for guests and players without a rated result; you can change the difficulty filters anytime.
Ranked is for established puzzles and competitive matches. It remains available during alpha while the community establishes the first qualifying puzzles. A puzzle normally opens in Discovery while calibrating, then Ranked once qualified. Replays, your own puzzles, and guest games are unrated.
Can I leave and come back?
Yes. Ordinary guest games are saved in the browser’s signed guest session, and account games appear in your history. Sign in from the same browser to bring guest progress with you. The tutorial puzzle saves practice progress on this device when browser storage is available.