Nine Near Daily
Work out where the digits 1 to 9 sit in a hidden 3x3 grid in four guesses, with clues for digits one square away.
Every day: One numbered 3x3 grid a day, the same for everyone (Daily #1 was Thursday 27 August 2026): place the digits 1 to 9 and work out the hidden arrangement in four guesses. New puzzle: Midnight, your local time.
Nine Near Daily is a small spatial deduction puzzle: the digits 1 to 9 are hidden in a 3x3 grid, and you have four guesses to find where each one goes. Green marks a digit in the right square, gold one that belongs a single step north, south, east or west, and everyone gets the same numbered grid each day.
About Nine Near Daily
Nine Near Daily is a free browser puzzle by L. O'Hara (lohara-games on itch.io). It looks like a tiny magic square, but there is no arithmetic: the hidden answer is simply an arrangement of the digits 1 to 9 in a 3x3 grid, each used once.
You fill your own grid with all nine digits and check it. Each square then turns green if its digit is exactly right, gold if that digit belongs one square away in a straight line (north, south, east or west, not diagonally), or white if it is neither. You then rearrange and try again, with four guesses in total, laid out side by side so you can compare them.
The daily puzzle is numbered, starting from Daily #1 on Thursday 27 August 2026, and the grid is the same for every player. It changes at midnight on your own device's clock. Played games, win rate, current streak and best streak are saved in your browser, and when you finish you can share a colour grid that shows how you did without giving away a digit.
A Practice tab offers unlimited extra grids that do not touch your daily record. The game works with touch or a keyboard, on phones and desktop screens.
How to play Nine Near Daily
- Open the itch.io page and run the game; the Daily Puzzle tab shows today's number.
- Choose a square and place a digit, until all nine digits 1 to 9 are in the grid.
- Check your guess: green is the right square, gold means the digit belongs one square north, south, east or west, white means neither.
- Rearrange the digits using those clues and check again; you have four guesses.
- Share your colour grid, or switch to Practice for more puzzles.
Screenshots
Tips
- A gold digit in a corner has only two possible homes, so corners resolve fastest.
- A gold digit in the centre square could belong in any of the four edge squares, so test it elsewhere first.
- White is useful too: it rules out the square and all its orthogonal neighbours for that digit.
- Swap digits in pairs where both are gold and next to each other; they may simply be in each other's places.
Questions
Is Nine Near the same puzzle for everyone?
Yes. Everyone gets the same numbered daily grid.
When does a new Nine Near puzzle come out?
At midnight on your own device's clock.
Does gold include diagonal squares?
No. Gold means the digit belongs one square north, south, east or west of where you put it.
Can I play more than once a day?
Yes. Practice mode gives unlimited extra grids without affecting your daily statistics or streak.
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