Apsis's daily puzzle: three hearts, one clock and a streak

In the Apsis daily, every player gets the same system and three hearts, and the clock never stops for a miss. How it works, and how your daily streak is counted.

Shravan GoswamiShravan GoswamiMakes the gamesShravan runs Chaosmos. He designs the games, plays every build on his phone, and decides what ships., 5 min read
An Apsis daily system of pastel arrows on three rings round a glowing sun, three red hearts above it and a gold clock sweep running round the outside

Apsis has a daily puzzle now. Each day there is one new system of arrows round the sun, the same one for every player, with three hearts and a clock. This post is about how the daily plays, why a miss hurts more here than in a level, and exactly how your streak is counted.

The basics

The daily opens once you have solved the first chapter, which is 20 levels. Then the Daily puzzle button on the title screen takes you to it.

  • Everyone gets the same system on the same day.
  • It changes at 12:30 in the afternoon in India, which is midnight at UTC-7, the same moment Play Games starts a new daily leaderboard.
  • The clock starts when the system appears, and your time is your score.
  • There is no hint.
  • Only your first solve of a day counts, though you can play it again.

What a daily system is like

A daily system uses only what the first chapter teaches: short arrows on three rings, and nothing else. There are no locks, ghosts, second suns, wormholes or mirrors, so the only question is the one Apsis always asks. Which arrow has a clear way out?

The week gets harder from Monday to Sunday. Monday has 8 to 10 arrows, and Sunday has 15 to 17. A Monday system comes free in four waves, where each wave is every arrow that can leave once the ones before it have gone. A Sunday system takes five or six. At the start, only two to four arrows in any daily have a clear way out.

Every daily system is built backwards from an empty sky, so there is always a way to clear it without losing a single heart.

Why a miss costs more here

Tap an arrow whose path is blocked, and it flies, hits, springs back, and you lose a heart. That is the same as in the levels. What is different is what happens after.

In a level, running out of hearts offers a short video for one more heart. In the daily there is no extra heart. Out of hearts, Retry puts every arrow back where it started, and the clock keeps running through all of it.

So a miss in the daily costs you twice: a heart, and the seconds it takes to recover. Three misses cost you the whole run so far.

Being fast without missing

Speed in Apsis comes from tapping with confidence, not from tapping quickly.

Look along the arrow first. An arrow flies in a straight line, so trace that line from its tip to the edge of the screen. If it crosses another arrow or the sun, it is not free yet. Habits that save hearts shows this on real levels.

Clear what you are sure about. With only two to four free arrows at the start, find them, send them, and look again. Each arrow that leaves can free others, so the board gets easier as you go.

Watch the sun. A straight line across a circle easily passes close to the middle. An arrow that looks free but whose path grazes the sun will bounce, and that is an easy one to overlook when you are hurrying.

Do not rush the last few. At the end, the board looks almost empty and it is tempting to tap without looking. One careless miss at the end of a good run still costs a heart and time.

How your streak counts

The streak is the part of the daily that keeps you coming back, so it is worth knowing exactly how it works.

Two weeks of daily days in a row: a run of 3 days, then a day solved later that breaks it, a run of 7 days that includes a missed day kept with the streak flame, a missed day, and a run of 2 days so far

  • Solved on the day: the day counts. Each one in a row adds one to your streak.
  • Missed: the streak breaks once the day is over. Until then nothing is lost, so your streak does not drop to zero in the morning just because you have not played yet.
  • Missed, then kept: a missed day from the last week can be kept with a short video or a Streak keeper. It then counts as if you had solved it, and the streak carries on through it.
  • Solved later: you can play any past day from the calendar, and its time is saved, but it does not count for the streak or the leaderboard. That day was already decided.

Your best streak is kept as well, so a broken run is never forgotten.

The calendar on the Daily puzzle screen goes back to the very first daily. Today’s system is always free, and a past day opens after a short video and then stays open. With the Supporter pack every past day is free.

Play Games, and sharing a time

When you solve today’s system, a sheet shows your time, where it stands and your streak.

Apsis's daily result sheet over the cleared sky: 0:41, "Your time is on today's leaderboard", an 11 day streak and a button to see today's leaderboard

Signed in with Play Games, your first time each day goes on today’s leaderboard, fastest first. A second leaderboard ranks the longest daily streaks. Achievements follow the streak too: Daily habit for your first daily, then Full week, Full month and Hundred days for 7, 30 and 100 days in a row. Your progress is saved to your Google account, so it moves with you to a new phone.

The share button sends your time and streak to a friend, with a link to the game. They get the same system that day, so they can try to beat you.

Find it on the title screen

Solve the first chapter and the daily is waiting under the other buttons. There is more about Apsis on its page.

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