Tally (Mind Loft)

About Tally (Mind Loft)

Tally is a number puzzle on Mind Loft, a free site of daily browser games, in the sudoku family with a ledger twist. Each day gives a grid with a target printed at the end of every row and column, and a rack of number tiles. You place every tile so that each line adds up to its target.

What sets it apart from kakuro or a magic square is the supply. The rack holds exactly the tiles the grid needs, no more and no fewer, so when the arithmetic alone leaves two ways to finish a line, counting what is still on the rack decides it. Every board has a single solution.

The header counts your moves against the fewest possible (13 on the day we looked) and how many lines are complete. The fewest possible placements scores a perfect 10 and every extra placement costs a point. Tapping a placed tile cycles free notes that mark it as proven for its row, its column or both, and digits can repeat, so the rack tells you how many of each you have.

A new ledger goes up at midnight US Eastern Time, and the Sunday Edition is a bigger 6x6 board. Mind Loft suggests Crux, Span and Dating alongside it; for more sums, its Sums (kakuro) and Carve are close relatives.

How to play Tally (Mind Loft)

1. Open mindloftdaily.com/tally and press Start to see the grid, the targets and the rack.
2. Place a tile from the rack into a square.
3. Make every row and column add up to the target printed at its end.
4. Use every tile on the rack exactly once.
5. Finish in as few moves as you can; no wasted moves scores 10.

Screenshots

Tips

• Start with the lines whose target can only be made one way from the tiles you have.
• Keep an eye on the rack: if two fillings fit a line, the leftover tiles usually rule one out.
• Plan before placing, since moving a tile again counts as a move.
• Lines that cross several others settle the most squares; work them first.

Questions