The Doppit Almanac · No. 04

Dominit, a daily domino puzzle

Fit every domino to the region rules

What it is

Dominit is the house domino game, a Doppit original at No. 04. You are dealt a tray of dominoes and a board of tinted regions, most with a small demand printed in the corner. Every tile must find a berth, and every demand must be paid exactly what its label asks.

Each day's board has exactly one answer, and the pips already know it. Your job is to catch up.

How it plays

Cover the whole board and leave no region in arrears.

• Every domino in the tray goes onto the board. A tile may lie across a region border, and a one-square region takes half a tile.
• A plain number is a debt: the pips inside that region must sum to it exactly.
• A < label caps the region's sum below its number, and a > label demands more.
• An = region wants all its pips equal, a ≠ region wants them all different, and a blank region accepts anything.
• Drag a tile to place it, drag it back to remove it, tap it to rotate. A region flares red while its demand is broken.

The difficulties

Easy squares itself away in thirty seconds to a minute. Medium takes one to three minutes. Hard is three to six minutes of proper tile-craft, with regions that argue among themselves. Expert is a hard board with several of its labels loosened, so the sums stop settling squares on their own. You work from a square instead of from a domino: which tray dominoes can still cover this one? About three times a board, that is the only move left. There is a fresh board every day, and the game is free.

Nearby in the almanac: Plotit, Summit and Groveit