How to play

Reading the mysteries is open to everyone. A free account is needed to play the Game Master and to open hints and solutions, because knowledge that belongs to nobody cannot be scored fairly.

Take a hint. Hints open one at a time. The first hint of every mystery is free, and each one after it costs 3 tokens. Using them does not disqualify you; they only count on the tiebreak, where a solve with fewer hints ranks above one with more.

No. Every question is prepaid with one token, so you decide how long to dig.

A new Mystery of the Day is chosen every day, and the library keeps growing around it. Solving the daily one on its own day earns its own achievements.

AI helps write them; a person decides. Every mystery is reviewed, corrected and approved by a human before it is published (an unreviewed story never reaches you), and some are written by hand from the first line.

Yes! With a free account you can send us your own story from the “Send us your story” page (the link is in the footer of every page). We read every submission and answer by email either way. If it stands out, our AI builds it into a playable mystery: your text is polished and rewritten rather than published word for word, and the difficulty may end up different from the one you picked. It is then published with public credit (“A story by …” with your public name) on the story page, on its card everywhere it is listed, and on your public profile. There is a small daily limit on submissions, and the form tells you what it is.

One token = one question to the AI Game Master (every question you send, “I didn’t understand the question” included): write clearly and it will understand you. If a technical fault on our side ever leaves you without an answer, the token is refunded automatically. The first hint of every mystery is free, and each one after it costs 3 tokens. Revealing a solution costs 30, charged once per story: after that, re-reading its solution is free, on any device. Reading the mysteries themselves is always free.

Every so often we hide a key on one page of the site and publish a riddle naming that page. While a hunt is running the riddle appears by itself in the bottom-left corner of every page, so once you are signed in you cannot miss it. Solve it, open that page and look around: the first player to find the key takes 35 tokens, the second 25, the third 15, and everyone after them 7. It is completely free: every hiding place is a page you can already open without spending anything, and the key is never behind a solution, a hint or the Game Master.

No. They sit on your account until you spend them: no deadline, no monthly reset, no subscription.

No. Once a mystery’s narration or reel exists it is yours; playing it again costs nothing. A story you have solved (or whose solution you have revealed) keeps its narration and its reel even when your wallet is empty.

Payments are handled by our certified payment provider. Your card details go to them and never touch our servers, and the tokens land on your account as soon as the payment clears.

Yes, for anything you have not used at all: write to us within 14 days of the purchase and you get the full amount back, no questions asked. The first use ends that right: a token pack once any of its tokens is spent, a story once you start playing it, and the Pass the moment you buy it, because it starts at once. A double or mistaken charge, though, is always refunded in full, whatever it was for. Stripe returns the money to the same payment method, and a refunded pack’s tokens come off your balance (see the Refund Policy). Bought in the app through the App Store or Google Play? Then Apple or Google handle the refund.

Only clean first solves count. If the first time you met a story you revealed the solution or ran out of budget, that story can no longer rank for you. A mystery you WROTE yourself never ranks for you either, because you know the answer. Staff accounts are excluded too, so the board stays a players’ board.

You can open everything in it (hints, solution, narration, reel), and all of it free: it is your own work. What is missing is the Game Master, because you cannot guess an answer you wrote yourself, and a run would charge you tokens for nothing. You also cannot rate it, and it never counts towards the leaderboard or your badges. Everything else is untouched: your name is on the story wherever it appears, and your standing on every other mystery is exactly as it was.

You solved the mystery yourself, on your first run at it, without having seen its solution beforehand. Hints are allowed; they cost you only on the tiebreak.

Always, for the pleasure of it. Only your first run at a story can enter the leaderboard, so replaying changes nothing in the standings, yours or anyone else’s.

Only your public name: the one you choose when you register and can change any time from your account. The name you sign in with is never shown to anyone.

Yes. Upload your own or pick one of the ready-made avatars from your account page; it appears next to your name on the leaderboards and on your profile.

From your account page, in one step. Deletion is permanent: your record, your runs and any remaining tokens go with it.