Pixel Number

Rules

Pixel Number is a visual puzzle from University War. Each card is a small see-through grid with some squares filled in. When you lay cards on top of each other, their filled squares combine, and the right combination draws a digit. On the show the whole game was played in your head.

The cards

There are 15 pixel cards, numbered 1 to 15. Each round also has a set of target digits. Both players see all 15 cards and the targets at the same time.

A round on the show

1. Look for a group of cards whose combined squares make one of the targets.
2. The first player to spot one presses the buzzer.
3. They have 10 seconds to name the digit and the cards, for example “7: cards 4, 6 and 10”.
4. A correct answer scores 1 point. A wrong answer, or running out of time, passes the chance to the other player.
5. The round continues until every target has been made.

The match has 5 rounds. Rounds 1 to 4 have three targets each. Round 5 has two targets plus a secret target worth 3 points. The team with more points after round 5 wins.

Our version

The cards and digits

• Every card is 3 squares wide and 5 tall, and every digit is drawn in the same 3 by 5 font.
• An answer is 2 to 4 cards. The stack must match the digit exactly: a missing square or an extra square makes it wrong.
• Every board is built backwards: each target digit is split across 2 to 4 cards, then the other cards are filled with near misses. A solver checks every possible set of cards, so every target has at least one answer and at most four. Any exact answer counts.
• No single card is a whole digit on its own.
• You only pick the cards. The game works out which digit they make, so you do not name it.
• Cards can be used again for a different target.

Daily and Practice (solo)

• Make all three targets. Your score is your time.
• A wrong or repeated answer adds 10 seconds.
• You can give up and see an answer for every target.
• The Daily board is the same for everyone each day. Practice boards can be raced against friends in an online room.

Vs AI and online (show rules)

• Five rounds. Rounds 1 to 4 have three targets; round 5 has two targets plus the secret target.
• Press Buzz, then pick the cards within 10 seconds (20 on easy against the AI). You can also pick your cards first: the button then buzzes and answers in one go.
• A correct answer scores 1 point. A miss or running out of time passes the chance to the other player for 10 seconds. If they miss too, the buzzer opens again for both.
• The secret target shows as a question mark. It is a digit that is not one of the other two targets, and the board is built so it is the only other digit that can be made from 2 to 4 cards. Find any digit that is not shown and you have found it. It is worth 3 points.
• A round ends when every target is made, or after 3 minutes. Targets nobody found are then shown with one answer, and nobody scores them.
• A tie after round 5 is a draw.
• The AI solves the same board you see. On harder levels it is faster, makes fewer slips and more often knows an answer when the chance passes to it.

Stacking preview: with this setting on (the default), the board draws the combined shape of the cards you have tapped. Turn it off in Settings to play the show’s way, in your head.

Strategy

Learn the font. Know which squares each digit needs. An 8 fills all but two squares, while a 7 uses only seven.

Rule cards out first. Any card with a filled square outside the target digit can never be part of its answer. Crossing those off shrinks the search fast.

Look for the rare squares. Each digit has a square or two that few cards cover, such as the lower-left square of a 2 or the left notch of a 1. Find the cards that fill those and build the rest around them.

Start from big pieces. A card that already covers most of the digit only needs one or two small cards to finish it.

Check for gaps before you buzz. Trace the digit square by square in your head. A single missing square makes the whole answer wrong, and the chance passes over.

Hunt the secret by elimination. In round 5, look for any stack that makes a digit not on the board. Because nothing else can be made, the first clean digit you spot outside the two targets is the secret, worth as much as three ordinary answers.