Math skills and prerequisites
What this game practices
- Count the eight neighboring positions, including diagonals
- Use a clue and known flags to deduce hidden cells
- Explain when a reveal is guaranteed safe
Explore: Logic & deduction · Spatial reasoning & planning · Subtraction
Before playing
- Recognize numbers from 1 to 8
- Count neighboring grid cells
- Distinguish evidence from a guess
Getting started
Choose Easy, Medium or Hard.
Click a covered cell to begin. On touch, choose Reveal and tap a cell.
The opening reveal is safe and can open a group of empty nests.
How to play
- A revealed number counts rotten eggs in the surrounding cells, including diagonals.
- Use those counts to identify cells that must contain rotten eggs and mark them.
- On desktop, right-click to place or remove a flag. On touch, choose Flag and tap; Reveal switches back to uncovering. A long press is also a flag shortcut.
- When a clue's rotten eggs are all accounted for by justified flags, its remaining covered neighbors are safe to reveal.
- If the number of remaining hidden neighbors equals the number of rotten eggs still needed by a clue, those hidden neighbors must be rotten.
- Reveal every safe nest to clear the carton. Uncovering a rotten egg ends the board. Restart or Play Again begins a fresh board.
TRY THE REASONING
Worked example
Use a clue of 1
- A revealed 1 has one covered neighbor; all of its other neighbors are already revealed safe. That covered neighbor must contain the one rotten egg, so flag it.
- Another revealed 1 touches that justified flag and two other covered cells.
- Its one rotten egg is already accounted for. Those two other covered cells are safe to reveal.
A flag is useful when your reasoning justifies it. Subtract known rotten eggs from the clue before deciding what remains.
Scoring, success and round endings
- The timer records elapsed play time; the game does not show a point score.
- Safe nests progress is revealed safe cells divided by all safe cells. Flags do not increase this percentage.
- Platform progress rewards use safe reveals. The guaranteed opening reveal pays nothing and does not later become a retroactive award.
Modes, settings and progression
Easy
8 × 8 cells, with 8 rotten eggs and 56 safe nests.
Medium
12 × 12 cells, with 20 rotten eggs and 124 safe nests.
Hard
16 × 16 cells, with 40 rotten eggs and 216 safe nests.
Strategies and troubleshooting
- Include diagonal neighbors when reading a clue.
- Only treat a flag as known evidence if you can explain why it belongs there.
- Look for a deduction elsewhere on the board before guessing. The flag counter alone does not prove your flags are correct.
Classroom and home use
Suggested activity: Pause at a numbered cell and ask partners to explain one safe reveal or one necessary flag before making the move. Have them name the clue and the neighboring evidence.
Questions to discuss
- Which cells does this number count?
- How many rotten eggs are still unaccounted for after the justified flags?
- Is this move certain, or does the current evidence leave more than one possibility?
This is a teaching suggestion, not an extra mode or a promised learning outcome.
Play and progress
Guest play does not require an account. For shared arcade coin rewards, use a verified account with an active player profile. Game scores and shared coins are different; only confirmed platform awards update the shared balance. Follow each game’s guide for its own restart and resume behavior.
Play Eggsweeper
