PuzzleBeat

Glassworks

 

The art of fitting in

A handful of glass. A little imagination. A perfect fit.

How to play

Fill the outline with every glass piece. Tap a piece, then tap the board (or drag it there). Rotate turns it 60°; Flip shows its other side. Any complete arrangement counts.

Moving, turning, flipping or returning a piece already on the board is an adjustment. You get 3 hints a day; each shows one possible home for a piece from a full solution of your board. A hint rules out gold. End run shows a solution and completes the day with no medal. The three Studies are fixed practice windows and never count.

How to play Glassworks

Glassworks gives you the outline of a small window and a handful of jewel-coloured glass pieces. Every piece is made of little triangles joined edge to edge. Fill the whole outline with every piece, leaving no gap and no overlap. Pieces can be turned in sixth-turn steps and flipped over, and any complete fit counts, not only one stored answer.

  1. Look at the window outline. Its faint lines show the little triangles that must all be covered, and the caption under it says how many there are.
  2. Tap a glass piece below the board to pick it up. Each piece shows its number, so you never have to tell them apart by colour alone.
  3. Press Rotate to turn the piece 60° at a time, or Flip to see its other side. Then tap the outline to place it, or drag it there. It snaps to the triangle grid.
  4. A piece that would hang outside the outline or cover another piece is refused, and nothing changes. Drag a placed piece to move it, or press Return to send it back to the tray.
  5. When every piece is in and every triangle is covered, the window is complete. Undo takes back your last action, and Reset clears the board after a second press.
123
Three diamonds, each turned a different way, fill a small hexagon.

Tips and strategy

How the daily changes by weekday

Every window is about the size of the three hand-set studies. Through the week the pieces get bigger and more of the places where a piece fits lead nowhere.

Monday and Tuesday
Seven pieces filling 22 to 24 triangles, with most first placements still able to finish.
Wednesday and Thursday
Seven pieces filling 24 or 25 triangles, with more tempting dead ends.
Friday and Saturday
Seven larger pieces filling 25 to 27 triangles, at most one small diamond, and many dead ends.
Sunday
Eight pieces filling 27 or 28 triangles, the biggest window of the week.

Medals, hints and End run

Your medal counts adjustments, not the clock. Moving, turning, flipping or returning a piece that is already on the board is one adjustment, and so is an Undo that changes the board. Reset counts every piece it lifts. Placing a piece from the tray is free. Gold is at most three adjustments and no hint, silver at most twelve, and bronze is any finish.

You get three hints a day. A hint searches for a full solution that keeps every piece you have placed and shows one piece's home in it as a glowing outline. It never places or moves anything. If your board can no longer be finished, the hint says so and is not used up. A hint rules out gold.

If you are stuck, End run shows a complete window and completes the day with no medal. It counts for your streak, but not as a puzzle solved. Your share text shows the piece count, adjustments, hints and time, never the arrangement.

Practice mode

Tap Practice above the board for unlimited random Glassworks windows. Easy plays like a Monday or Tuesday, Medium like a Wednesday or Thursday, Hard like Friday to Sunday. The three Studies beside the board are fixed hand-set windows with unlimited hints. Neither practice nor the Studies ever change your streak, medals, Today's Six or stats.

Glassworks questions and answers

Can I flip the pieces?
Yes. Every piece can be flipped over and turned in steps of 60°, so each one has up to twelve orientations. Its size and shape never change.
Is there only one right answer?
No. The game checks that every triangle is covered exactly once by all the pieces. Any arrangement that does that is a solve, and most windows have several.
What is an adjustment?
Any change to a piece that is already on the board: moving it, turning or flipping it in place, returning it to the tray, or undoing a change to the board. Your first placement of each piece from the tray is free.
What are the Studies?
Three fixed windows, a triangle, a hexagon and a fox's head, made by hand for Glassworks. They are always the same, have unlimited hints and never count. The daily window is a new one every day.
Is the window the same for every player today?
Yes. It is made from the calendar date in US Eastern time, so everyone gets the same outline and pieces. Past days can be played from the archive, but only today's puzzle counts toward the streak.