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Tap a dot to pop it. Its ring grows out to the dot's reach, and every dot the ring touches pops and sends out a ring of its own. Clear every dot within the taps the level allows. Hold a dot first to see what its ring would reach; lifting your finger on the dot taps it, and sliding off cancels.

Yes. Carillon is free on Google Play, and you can also play it in your web browser. The Android app has a few ads, never during play, and a one-time Supporter pack that turns them off.

No. Carillon plays completely offline, and your progress is saved on your device. The Android app goes online only for its ads and the Supporter pack, so without a connection the ads simply do not appear.

Every level allows one tap more than the fewest that clear it, which a solver finds for each level. Clear it in the fewest taps for three stars, or with the spare tap for two. Run out of taps with dots left and you retry with one tap.

The hint lights the best next tap from wherever the field is now. The rest of the screen dims, the dot's reach sweeps out, the dots its ring will pop are outlined, and the dot pulses until you tap. If no clear is left in the taps you have, it says so.

A dot's colour is a note of the C major pentatonic scale and its size is the octave: big dots are low, small dots are high. A pentatonic scale has no clashing intervals, so a chain in any order sounds like music.

Yes. Every level is generated and then solved by a program that finds the fewest taps that clear it. The tests check every level again on every build, including playing the solution through the game's own rules.

Every hint on the first 15 levels is free. After that the Android app gives you 3 free hints a day, and a hint beyond those asks for a short video you can choose to watch; if no video is available, you get the hint anyway. With the Supporter pack every hint is free, and so is every hint in the web version, which never shows ads.

The Android app does, and none ever covers a puzzle: a banner on the level list and below the field, an occasional ad between levels once you have solved the first dozen, and short videos you can choose to watch for extra hints. The one-time Supporter pack turns them off for good. The web version never shows ads.

A one-time purchase in the Android app, through Google Play. It turns off the banner and the ads between levels, makes every hint free, and helps pay for the next game. It stays with your Google account, so it comes back when you reinstall, and the Supporter pack sheet in the app has a Restore purchase button if it ever does not.

The game itself does not: there are no accounts, your progress and settings stay on your device, and it sends nothing of its own. The ads in the Android app come from Google AdMob, which collects device and advertising identifiers, approximate location from your IP address and how you interact with ads, with your consent where the law requires it. The privacy policy has the details.