Regrade (Third Place Games)

About Regrade (Third Place Games)

Regrade takes the rules of Grade, Third Place Games' square survey-map puzzle, and moves them onto hexagons. Every hex now has up to six neighbours instead of four, the maps have irregular outlines, and they are larger, so each placed height reaches further across the board.

You fill every hex with an elevation. Touching hexes may differ by at most 1; a jump of 2 or more is a cliff and is drawn in red on the shared edge. Every row and every column must have exactly one summit, its highest value appearing in only one hex. Rows run left to right and columns run straight down and to the right, and tapping a hex redlines its row and column so you can see which lines it belongs to. An arrow at the end of each line turns green when its summit is unique. Hexes marked with a plus are fixed spot elevations, and each map has one solution.

There are three maps a day: 64 hexes using heights 1 to 7, 81 hexes using 1 to 8 and 100 hexes using 1 to 9. They follow the US Eastern date, so everyone gets the same maps, and each can be played once. Unlike Grade there is no points score: a finished map records your time and your moves, where placing, erasing, changing and undoing each count and the fewest possible is one move per empty hex.

The daily maps are free and need no account. Number keys, Backspace, the arrow keys and Z work on a keyboard. A finished map can be shared as a hex-shaped grid showing how many times you changed each hex, without giving away any heights. A one-time US $1 unlock adds unlimited practice maps, and the settings offer other colour ramps and a mode that hides the numbers.

How to play Regrade (Third Place Games)

1. Open Regrade on thirdplacegame.com, pick today's 64, 81 or 100 hex map and press Start.
2. Select an empty hex and choose a height from the bar, or type it; hexes with a plus are fixed.
3. Keep every pair of touching hexes within 1 of each other; a red edge marks a cliff.
4. Give each row and each column exactly one hex holding its highest value; tap a hex to see its row and column lines.
5. Finish the map with as few moves and as little time as you can, then share your result grid.

Screenshots

Tips

• Tap a hex before placing anything to see its row and its slanted column, which are easy to misread on a hex board.
• A fixed height limits everything around it: a hex two steps from a 1 can be at most 3.
• Place each line's summit early; every other hex in that row or column must then be lower.
• Every change and undo counts as a move, so work a region out fully before you start filling it.

Questions