Minecraftle hard mode

What hard mode locks

After you check a guess, any slot marked Correct must keep that same ingredient on later guesses. That includes a Correct empty slot. If the secret pattern leaves a cell blank and your guess left it blank, hard mode treats that blank as locked. You cannot drop a material into it just to try something else.

Slots marked Move or Not needed can still change. You can slide a Move ingredient into another open cell, remove a Not needed material, or try a material you have not used yet. You still do not have to fill all nine cells, because recipes can include empty slots. The lock only applies to cells the game has already called Correct.

The lock starts after the first guess that earns a Correct mark. Before any guess, the whole grid is free, hard mode or not. If your first guess has no Correct cells, nothing locks yet. The next guess can rearrange everything. The moment one cell is Correct, that cell stops being a drafting space.

Hard mode does not add guesses, remove guesses, or change how Correct, Move, and Not needed are scored. Ten guesses is still the limit. Duplicate materials are still counted the same way. A shifted or mirrored shape can still match. The rules page is the full scoring reference.

How it differs from a normal round

On a normal round, a Correct cell is advice, not a cage. You may move that ingredient if you think the mark was about a different orientation of the same shape. That freedom is useful when you are still learning, and it is also an easy way to wreck a good guess. Hard mode removes that freedom so each Correct mark is a commitment.

The daily UTC recipe does not get harder in the sense of a different pattern. Everyone on that date still shares one recipe. Hard mode is local to your grid. A friend on a normal round and you on hard mode are solving the same daily puzzle with different editing rules. Streaks follow the daily result, not the toggle. Winning still extends the streak. Losing still resets it. Unlimited still leaves the streak alone, whether or not hard mode is on.

Because empty Correct cells lock, hard mode punishes casual blanks. If you leave the whole bottom row empty and those cells were supposed to be empty, you are stuck with that shape’s footprint. If they were not supposed to be empty, they will not be Correct, and you can still fill them. Read the mark before you assume a blank is safe. The hints page talks through that habit without showing today’s recipe.

Saved in this browser

The Hard mode button writes the choice in this browser. Reload the page and the button stays pressed. A different browser, a private window, or cleared site data starts from the saved default, which is off until you turn it on again. The setting is not an account and it does not follow you to another device.

Turning hard mode off mid-round does not rewrite guesses you already made. It changes whether the next edit must respect Correct locks. If you turn it on after you already have Correct cells, the next guess has to keep those cells. If you are in the middle of a daily puzzle and you only wanted to experiment, finish the experiment on Unlimited instead of burning today’s streak.

Archive days obey the same toggle. Opening ?puzzle=YYYY-MM-DD for a past UTC date still respects hard mode if the button is on. Those rounds do not change your streak either way. Future dates still do not open. Details are on the archive page.

Turn it on

On the homepage, press Hard mode in the row with Rules, Stats, and Archive. The button shows as pressed when the lock is active. The same button is on Unlimited. Leave it on if you want every practice round to use the lock, or turn it off before you press Another recipe.

There is no separate hard-mode puzzle and no extra reward. The point is a cleaner guess: once the game says a slot is Correct, you stop touching it. If you would rather see a worked example of the three marks, use the how to play guide. If you came here looking for a filled-in answer, the answer page explains the UTC reset, and the solver page is about reading marks yourself.

What does hard mode lock?

Every slot marked Correct, including a Correct empty slot. Later guesses must keep that ingredient. Move and Not needed slots can still change.

Does hard mode change the daily recipe or the streak?

No. It only restricts edits after a Correct mark. The UTC recipe, the 10-guess limit, and streak rules stay the same. The toggle is saved in this browser.

Also read: rules, archive, hints, today’s answer, solver.