The Decoder
Every figure has a two-letter code. Work out what each letter is telling you.
A code system gives each POSITION one job. Here the first letter always reports the shape (R = circle, B = square, P = triangle) and the second always reports the filling (X = solid, Y = striped, Z = outline). How many copies there are is a decoy - it never touches the code. The way to crack any code is to hunt for two examples that differ in exactly one letter: whatever changed about the picture is what that position encodes.
- Step 1. Crack the code. Tap the letters. Watch which figures light up - that tells you what each letter means.
- Step 2. Encode it. Now write the code for the new figure. Drag letters into the slots.
What to say if they get stuck
- Tap a letter under a figure. Everything that shares its secret lights up.
- Find two figures whose codes differ by only ONE letter, then spot the one thing that changed about them.
- The first letter never changes when only the filling changes. So what must the first letter be about?
Shadow Match
One of these four shadows belongs to the figure at the top. Tap the one that matches it exactly.
A shadow keeps the outline of a shape and throws away everything inside it, but it never flips, turns or resizes the shape. So the safe method is to pick one distinctive feature and test it in every option rather than judging the whole picture at once. Here the arm sticking out on the right is the giveaway: one option has it on the left, which means it has been flipped, and another has it pointing down, which means it has been turned a quarter turn. Then check the outline for anything added or removed, which catches the option with the extra notch in its top edge. One feature at a time beats one glance every time.
What to say if they get stuck
- The shadow is the same shape, the same way up and the same size. Nothing is allowed to change.
- Pick one feature and check it in every shadow. The short arm sticks out on the right of the figure. Where is it in each shadow?
- Two shadows have the arm in the wrong place, and one has an extra bite taken out of its top edge.
Analogy Bridge
A becomes B. Watch how - then do the very same thing to C.
This engine’s own main skill is Visual Analogies. It practises compare visual attributes alongside it.
The bridge from A to B says: take 1 away. A visual analogy asks you to carry the very same change across to C - so compare A and B attribute by attribute (shape, shading, how many, which way up), name the one that moved, and leave everything else alone.
What to say if they get stuck
- Press and hold WATCH to see A turn into B. What changed, and what stayed the same?
- Only one thing matters here: take 1 away. Everything else stays as it was.
Matrix Machine
Build the missing piece. Two rules are hiding in this grid - one runs across, one runs down.
This engine’s own main skill is Matrix Reasoning. It practises compare visual attributes alongside it.
A matrix hides one rule per direction. Across the rows, the shape stays the same - star, moon, diamond. Down the columns, the count climbs 1, 2, 3 and the fill goes outline, striped, solid. The missing cell sits where row 3 meets column 3, so it must obey both at once: three solid diamonds.
What to say if they get stuck
- Read one row at a time, left to right. What never changes along a row?
- Now read one column at a time, top to bottom. Two things change as you move across the columns.
- Row 3 is the diamond row. Column 3 always holds three shapes, filled in solid.
The Club
Four of these belong to the same club. Drag them in - then put the odd one on the pedestal.
This engine’s own main skill is Odd One Out. It practises compare visual attributes alongside it.
Odd-one-out puzzles hide the rule in ONE attribute, and everything else is noise. Run through them one at a time - shape, fill, how many, angle. Shape is different for all five, so it cannot be the rule. Count and angle repeat on both sides, so they cannot be it either. Only the fill lines up: four striped, one solid. Find the attribute that splits the group 4-and-1 and you have found the rule.
What to say if they get stuck
- Drag a card into The Club. If it belongs, it slides into a seat all by itself.
- One card keeps getting pushed back out. What do the four that fit have in common?
- Forget the shapes and how many there are - look at what is INSIDE each shape.
The Marker Track
The tall square moves the same number of places each time. Count the move, then pick the track that comes next.
This engine’s own main skill is Tracking a Position. It practises compare visual attributes alongside it.
In the first track the tall square is in place 7. In the second it is in place 5, so it has moved 2 places to the left. Nothing else about the figures changes: they are the same pictures in the same order, and only where the tall square sits is different. Moving 2 places to the left again from place 5 lands it in place 3. The ends of the track do not join up, so a move that would run off the end is not an answer at all, and counting the gaps between the figures instead of the places they sit in is what puts the tall square one place too far.
- Step 1. Count the move. Look at the two tracks. How many places does the tall square move, and which way?
- Step 2. What comes next?. Now pick the track that comes next.
What to say if they get stuck
- Find the tall square in the first track and again in the second. Count the places it landed on, not the gaps it jumped over.
- Which way did it travel? The move keeps going the same way, so start from where it is in the second track and count on again.
- The tall square moves 2 places to the left each time, and the ends of the track do not join up.
