Minecraftle rules

Guess the secret crafting recipe on a 3×3 grid. You have 10 guesses. After each check, every slot is marked Correct, Move, or Not needed. The same rules apply on the daily puzzle and on Unlimited.

The goal

Each puzzle hides one crafting recipe. Rebuild it by placing ingredients on the grid. You do not need the item’s name in advance. The marks after each guess say which ingredients belong and which slots are already right.

The tray is the whole pantry for every puzzle: Ashchip, Reedbind, Slatechip, Tinleaf, Brassdrop, Prismbit, Emberdust, and Kilnclay, plus Empty. Leaving a cell blank is often correct, because real patterns include empty slots.

Each round

  1. Open Daily on the homepage, or Unlimited if you want a practice recipe.
  2. Select an ingredient. Keys 1 through 8 follow the tray from left to right. Key 0 selects Empty.
  3. Choose a slot. Arrow keys move between slots. Delete or Backspace clears the slot you are on, unless hard mode has locked it. Selecting the same ingredient again on a filled slot removes it.
  4. Press Check recipe or Enter. You need at least one ingredient. A repeated arrangement is rejected so you do not spend a guess twice.
  5. Read the mark on every slot, adjust, and check again. You have 10 guesses.

A shape can sit in more than one place on the grid. A shift or a mirror can still match. Trust the marks rather than one fixed corner.

Correct, Move, and Not needed

Correct means this ingredient is in the right slot. On a normal round you may still change it, but you will spend another guess relearning a fact you already had.

Move means this ingredient is in the recipe, but in a different slot. Keep the material and try another cell. The mark does not name the right cell.

Not needed means this ingredient is not part of this recipe. Take it off. If you placed more copies than the recipe uses, the extras come back as Not needed after the copies that match have been claimed.

Correct slots are claimed before Move slots. That order matters when you use the same material twice. The first matching cell can be Correct while a spare copy is Not needed, or a misplaced copy can be Move while another cell of the same material is already Correct.

Empty is a choice, not a missed click. An empty cell that belongs empty is Correct. You do not have to fill all nine cells. You do have to place at least one ingredient.

A teaching pattern, not today’s puzzle

Picture Emberdust on the top and bottom edges, Reedbind on the left and right edges, and every corner and the center empty. That layout mixes two ingredients. It is a teaching pattern only. It is not in the recipe book, and it is not the live daily recipe. Recipes in the book mix ingredients too, so one Correct material is not the whole answer.

  • Reedbind on the top and bottom, and Emberdust on the left and right: each one is Move. Both materials belong, and each is on the wrong edge.
  • A Brassdrop in the center: Not needed. That cell wants to stay empty.
  • The empty corners: Correct, because the teaching pattern wants those cells blank.

The strategy page walks through that example in more detail, including how to use empty slots. It still does not reveal the daily recipe.

Daily and Unlimited

Daily is one recipe per UTC day. The homepage puzzle changes at 00:00 UTC. Solving it updates your streak. Losing it, or skipping a day after a streak has started, resets the streak. If today is still unfinished, yesterday’s streak remains.

Unlimited is practice. Open Unlimited or press Unlimited on the homepage. Each round can be a new recipe, and Unlimited does not change the daily streak. When a round ends, Another recipe deals a new one.

This browser stores the current board and your daily results on this device. Archive rounds for earlier UTC dates use the same rules and do not change the streak. Future dates do not open. See the archive.

After a round ends, Share copies a grid of marks. It does not include the recipe name.

Hard mode

Hard mode keeps every Correct slot locked. After a guess, any slot marked Correct — including a Correct empty slot — must keep that same ingredient on later guesses. Move and Not needed slots can still change. You still do not have to fill all nine cells. The lock only applies to cells the game has already called Correct.

Before any guess, the whole grid is free. If the first guess has no Correct cells, nothing locks yet. The moment one cell is Correct, that cell stops being a drafting space. Hard mode does not add guesses, remove guesses, or change how the three marks are scored.

On a normal round, a Correct cell is advice. You may move that ingredient if you think the mark was about a different orientation of the same shape. Hard mode removes that freedom so each Correct mark is a commitment. The daily recipe does not change. A friend on a normal round and you on hard mode are solving the same UTC puzzle with different editing rules. Streaks follow the daily result, not the toggle.

Because an empty Correct cell locks, casual blanks become commitments. Read the mark before you assume a blank is safe. The setting is saved in this browser. Reload and the button stays pressed. Another browser, a private window, or cleared site data starts with hard mode off. Turning it off mid-round does not rewrite guesses you already made. It changes whether the next edit must respect Correct locks.

Press Hard mode on the daily puzzle or on Unlimited, in the row with Rules, Stats, and Archive. 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.

Keyboard

  • 1–8 select ingredients in tray order.
  • 0 selects Empty.
  • Arrow keys move between the nine slots.
  • Delete or Backspace clears the current slot, unless hard mode has locked it.
  • Enter checks the recipe.
  • ? opens the short rules dialog on the board. This page is the long version of that dialog.

Each slot’s name includes its row, column, ingredient, and mark, so a screen reader can follow the board without seeing the recipe early. The finished pattern is shown only after you solve the puzzle or use all 10 guesses.

Questions

How many guesses do you get?

You get 10 guesses. Each guess is one arrangement of the 3×3 grid. Repeating an arrangement does not spend another guess.

Do empty slots count?

Yes. Recipes can include empty slots. You do not have to fill all nine cells. An empty cell can be marked Correct.

Where do I play?

Today’s recipe is the daily puzzle. Practice is Unlimited. Deduction notes are on the strategy page. Past dates are on the archive.