Hextide

Tap a cell and it changes colour — along with every neighbour it touches, in all six directions. Keep tapping until the whole board is green. That is the whole rule, and it is enough for 120 boards. Every level is solvable, and every solution was checked before it shipped. There is no luck in Hextide and nothing is generated while you play: the board in front of you is a fixed problem with a known answer, and the only question is whether you can find it — and how few taps it takes. THE BOARDS The early levels hold you to a move count. Run out and the board is dealt again. Later ones are more forgiving: the count becomes a target rather than a rule, and finishing inside it earns the level its gold mark. Going back for the gold you missed is most of the second playthrough. Not every cell answers the same way. Reef, tide and ripple cells each bend the rule above, and one or two cells will not answer a tap at all. They arrive one at a time with a line of explanation — no tutorial to sit through, and nothing hidden behind a wall of text. WHAT IS NOT IN IT No advertisements. No timers. No lives, no energy, no daily streak, no account to make. Nothing is watching you play and nothing needs a network connection: the game works on a plane, and your progress stays on your device — and rides along to your next phone with Android's own backup. THE FULL GAME The first 35 levels are free. One purchase of $0.99 unlocks the remaining 85, once, forever — no subscription and nothing else to buy. ALSO • Thirteen achievements, for finishing levels, for finishing them in gold, and for finishing them with a move still in hand. • Ten languages: English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Hungarian, Korean, Hindi, Arabic and Simplified Chinese. Android's per-app language setting picks between them. • A tick under every tap, which can be switched off along with the sound and the music. • Phones and tablets, landscape.