The daily Plumb board: one puzzle a day, against the clock

Plumb has a daily puzzle now. Every day there is one board, and every player in the world gets the same one. The very first was on Monday 19 October, and it is the board on the calendar page above.

Levels are about getting three stars at your own pace. The daily is a different kind of fun: one board, a clock, and a streak that grows when you come back tomorrow.

How the daily works

The daily opens once you have solved the first chapter, which is 20 levels. Until then its button on the title screen shows a lock. After that, the Daily puzzle button takes you to today’s board.

A few things are different from a normal level:

• The clock replaces the stars. It starts when the board appears, and the time is your score.
• Moves are still counted at the top, but only the time matters.
• There is no hint. The bulb is not there at all.
• Undo and restart work as usual, but the clock keeps running through them.
• If you leave the app, the clock stops, and it carries on from the same second when you come back.
• Only your first solve of a day counts. You can play it again for fun, and your first time stays.

The board changes at 12:30 in the afternoon in India, which is midnight at UTC-7. That looks like an odd time, but it is the moment Play Games starts a new daily leaderboard, so the day’s board and the day’s leaderboard always change together. Until then, “Next puzzle in” on the daily screen counts down to the next one.

The week climbs from Monday to Sunday

Daily boards use only what the first chapter teaches: marbles that roll until something stops them, walls, and holes that each take their own colour. There are no pits, gates, portals or springs in the daily, so there is never a new rule to learn against the clock.

What changes through the week is the size of the board and the number of marbles. Monday is a 6 by 6 board with three marbles. By Sunday it is 8 by 8 with five.

The shortest routes grow with them. A Monday board usually takes five to seven tilts at best, and a Sunday board nine to twelve. So a Monday fits a short break, and Sunday is the one to keep for when you can sit with it.

Fast is not the same as few

In a level, three stars ask for the fewest tilts. The daily only asks for time, and that changes how you should play it.

If you can see a route of nine tilts straight away, take it. Spending a minute hunting for a route of seven loses more time than the two extra swipes. The quickest players are not always finding the shortest route. They are finding a route they are sure of, early.

That said, a few seconds of reading at the start are always worth it. The clock starts with the board, but a swipe you have to undo costs more than a look.

Reading a daily board quickly

There is no hint in the daily, so these habits are your hint.

Find the stops. A marble can only end a tilt against a wall, the edge or another marble. On a small board you can see all four places a marble could stop in a glance. Read the roll before you tilt has more on this, with pictures.

Start with the stubborn marble. Look for the marble that has no straight run to its hole. The other marbles can usually be brought home around it, so plan its route first and fit the rest in.

Use a marble as a wall. A marble stops the one behind it. When a marble needs to stop in open floor, parking another marble there first often does it.

Watch the marbles that are already home. Once a marble drops into its hole it is gone from the board, and so is the wall it was making for the others. A tilt that drops one marble home can send a second one rolling much further than you expected.

Undo, do not restart. A wrong swipe usually needs only one undo. Restart puts every marble back, and on a Sunday board the clock does not wait while you replay the good part.

Your calendar and your streak

The Daily puzzle screen keeps everything in one place. At the top is today’s board, with your time once it is solved and a button for today’s leaderboard. Under it are three numbers: your current streak, your best streak and how many days you have solved. Below that is the month as a calendar, every solved day filled in.

A day counts for your streak when you solve it on its own day. If you miss one, the streak breaks once a full day has gone by without a solve. A missed day from the last week can still be kept, with a short video or a Streak keeper, and your streak carries on as if you never missed it.

The calendar goes all the way back to the very first daily. Tap any past day to play it. Today’s board 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. A past day’s time is kept on your calendar, but it does not go on a leaderboard or count for your streak, since that day has already been decided.

So if you start playing today, you have a few weeks of boards waiting behind you.

With Play Games

Sign in with Play Games and your first time on today’s board goes onto today’s leaderboard, fastest first. There is a leaderboard for the longest daily streak too. Your first daily earns Daily habit, and streaks of 7, 30 and 100 days earn Full week, Full month and Hundred days. Your progress is saved to your Google account as well, so a new phone picks up where the old one stopped.

After a solve, the share button sends your time and streak to a friend with a link to the game. Same board, same day, so it is a fair race.

Where to find it

Solve the first chapter, then look for Daily puzzle on the title screen. There is more about the game on its page.