Tapdown is a daily number puzzle on a grid of coloured tiles. Each tap lowers a tile and its neighbours by one. Clear the whole board to zero, in as few taps as you can.
A tap on a middle tile lowers five tiles, a tap on an edge lowers four, and a corner tap lowers three. The skill is picking taps that never leave a number stranded next to empty tiles.
Here is a 4×4 board cleared in par. The outlined tile is the one being tapped.
The order of taps never changes the result, and if you know the full set of taps, every one of them stays allowed whatever order you make them in. What matters is which tiles you tap and how many times. That is why the solution under each example in these guides is a count per tile, not a sequence.
The daily board is 5×5 and the same for everyone on the same date. It changes at midnight your time. Practice gives unlimited boards in three sizes, Easy 4×4, Medium 5×5 and Hard 6×6, and never touches your streak.
It is a cousin. In Lights Out a tap flips a light and its neighbours on or off. In Tapdown a tap counts them down by one, and a tile can need several taps, so you are solving with numbers instead of on and off.
No. Every board is built backwards from an empty board, so at least one solution always exists.
Par is the fewest taps that clear the board, worked out by a solver when the board is made.
No. The same set of taps clears the board in any order, as long as every tap is allowed when you make it. If a tap is blocked, make another tap from your plan first.