Hybrids

About Hybrids

Hybrids is a placement puzzle with a garden look. The day's board is a cluster of hexagonal cells, and some pairs of neighbouring cells are joined by a link marked with a symbol. You also get a set of flower tiles, one for each cell. Every flower differs in four ways: how many petals it has, the shape of the petals, their colour and the pattern at the centre.

A link's symbol names one of those traits, and the two flowers on either side of it must match on that trait. The deduction comes from overlaps. A cell in the middle may have links of three kinds, so its flower has to agree with several neighbours at once, and chains of the same link type force a whole run of cells to share a colour or a shape. Since every tile must be used exactly once, placing one flower narrows down where the others can go.

A new board arrives at midnight Eastern time, and earlier boards are in the archive. The game is free in the browser with no account or ads. It suits players who enjoy LinkedIn-style grid puzzles and the card game Set, where you look at several features of a piece at the same time.

How to play Hybrids

1. Look at the board's links and the trait each one names: count, shape, colour or centre.
2. Look over the flower tiles and note how each differs from the others.
3. Start with cells that carry many links; few flowers can satisfy them all.
4. Place flowers so every linked pair matches on the named trait.
5. Use every tile once; the puzzle is solved when all links hold.

Tips

• Follow chains of the same link type: every flower along the chain shares that trait.
• Two links of different types between overlapping cells can pin a tile to a single place.
• If a trait value appears on only one tile, any cell that needs it is decided.

Questions