Mini Metro

Draw a subway for a growing city; one shared city a day for everyone.

Every day: The Daily Challenge: one shot each day at a city that plays out identically for everyone, ranked by passengers delivered. New puzzle: Once a day; the game does not state the time, but the Daily Challenge screen shows how many hours are left.

Play Mini Metro on store.steampowered.com

Mini Metro on Steam

Mini Metro key art from its Steam page

Mini Metro is Dinosaur Polo Club's minimalist strategy game about drawing subway lines for a city that keeps growing. Its Daily Challenge gives every player the same city, playing out the same way, with one attempt and a leaderboard of passengers carried.

About Mini Metro

Mini Metro is a minimalist strategy game by the New Zealand studio Dinosaur Polo Club, released in 2015. You draw subway lines between stations that appear as a city grows, each station marked with a shape, and passengers wait for a train that will take them to a station of their shape. Each week brings a new locomotive, line, tunnel or bridge to place. When any station overflows the game ends, and your score is the number of passengers you delivered.

The Daily Challenge gives every player the same city each day, set up to play out identically for everyone, and you get one shot at it. Your passenger count goes onto the day's leaderboard, so a day's result is a direct comparison with everyone else who played that city. The challenge is fetched from the developer's servers when the game starts.

Mini Metro is calm to look at and tense to play, and the daily turns it into a short contest of planning. It suits players who enjoy transit maps and slow-building puzzles more than reflexes. It is available on PC, Mac, iOS, Android and Nintendo Switch, and the mobile listings mention the Daily Challenge too.

How to play Mini Metro

  1. Choose the Daily Challenge from the menu and see the day's city.
  2. Drag between stations to draw subway lines; trains start running along them.
  3. Each week, place the new locomotive, line, tunnel, bridge or interchange where it helps most.
  4. Redraw lines as new stations open so no station overflows with waiting passengers.
  5. When a station overflows the run ends and your delivered passengers go on the daily leaderboard.

Screenshots

Mini Metro screenshot 1 from its Steam page
Mini Metro screenshot 2 from its Steam page

Tips

  • Leave room to extend lines: a loop or a long line through the centre is easier to adjust later.
  • Watch for the rare shapes; one star or diamond station can sink a run if no line reaches it.
  • Put extra locomotives on the busiest line rather than opening a new one too early.

Questions

Do I get more than one try at the Mini Metro daily?

The developer describes the Daily Challenge as one shot at a city that plays out identically for everyone.

How is the daily scored?

By the number of passengers you deliver before a station overflows.

Is the Daily Challenge on mobile?

Yes. The App Store and Google Play listings both mention competing against the world every day in the Daily Challenge.

More daily runs in video games