Duaddu Help

Duaddu is a dynamic visual puzzle. The aim is to find duads (pairs of matching counters or tiles). The puzzles utilise a wide range of visual techniques, including arrangement in tesselated patterns, motion, transformations of tiles, overlapping tiles, color effects - and more - to provide a complex and engaging challenge.

Duaddu is available for purchase on the Apple App Store. You can find it by searching for 'Duaddu' in the App Store or following the link on this website.

You can download Duaddu for free and play 16 puzzles and one Daily Puzzle competition. You can purchase a license at any time to unlock all other features. Duaddu uses in-app purchasing, available from the Settings menu or by clicking on any licence-locked screen. When you click to purchase you are transferred to Apple's secure system to process the payment via the App Store, and the App Store maintains the license. Licensing gives you access to all 64 puzzles in Duaddu, extended difficulty levels, nine levels of the Daily Puzzle, Statistics View, and the Palette Designer. The license is valid for all devices on which you use Duaddu with the same Apple ID.

The free version of Duaddu allows you to play the first two tiers (16 puzzles) as often as your like, and the first tier of the Daily Puzzle one per day. The Daily Puzzle features a selection of eight puzzles drawn from the first four tiers (32 puzzles) in the Standard version, so you can sample some of the more difficult puzzles. You cannot submit scores to the Daily Puzzle Leaderboards in the free version.

There are three modes available on the tool-bar at the bottom. Choose Learner (school hat icon) if you are new to Duaddu. Click on the start page and after a brief intro you'll see a demo of the first puzzle. Follow the instructions and you'll be introduced to the various types of puzzles and features.

In Learner mode, some of the puzzles have demonstration pages to introduce new features. The demos appear over a sample puzzle, and may "play" the puzzle to demonstrate how it works. You cannot play the puzzle yourself during the demo, but you can pause, play or restart it. When the demo is complete, it is your turn to play the puzzle.

When you start a puzzle the intro page is briefly shown. It includes the puzzle name and number, a sample tile or counter, and various symbols to show the puzzle type, difficulty, and features such as whether there is an Odd One Out. It may also show symbols to indicate the motion type, for accessibility reasons. The number transitions red-amber-green, then the puzzle starts, so get ready! You can start immediately by clicking on the intro. When you complete the puzzle you will see a summary page, which includes your score and other statistics. You can click on the title of the puzzle at the top of the summary page to replay it, or on the title of the next puzzle in sequence on the bottom, to play that. If you stop the puzzle before completion, you will see an alternative end page with the message "Puzzle cancelled" and a red cross.

Duads are pairs of matching tiles or counters. In some puzzles all the duads are visible at once, but usually only some of them are visible at any one time, and some counters on-screen do not have visible partners. In some puzzles there are gaps between the tiles, in others they are tesselated so you can't clearly see where one ends and another starts. In some they are overlapping! Concentrate on identifying the individual tiles or counters. Usually the counters in duads are identical, but in some puzzles they are transformed (e.g. reflections of each other). The intro page will warn you of any transformation. Check carefully to find a matching pattern - sometimes it is easiest to look at tiles holistically, sometimes to focus on a prominent sub-pattern. You can select one counter and then actively search for its partner, or visually scan the field and wait for a duad to "pop out."

Click once on a tile or counter to select it - it will darken to indicate that it is selected. Then, click on the matching counter. If you have found a duad, both will flash gold and a high double-note will sound. The score gauge at the top-right of the upper toolbar will register an extra point. The duad will be removed from live play - depending on the puzzle either disappearing, becoming faint and inactive, or (on some Obverse levels) becoming face up, solid and inactive. If you make a mistake the pair will flash black, and remain in play, and a discordant note sounds.

You can deselect a counter by clicking on it a second time, or by clicking on the background area around the puzzle or in any gaps between counters.

The score gauge on the top-right of the upper toolbar tells you how many duads there are in the puzzle, and counts how many you have found. The note played on successful selection changes with each duad, and a short motif plays on every eighth duad, so with a little practice you can tell how you're doing just by listening.

Duaddu has a number of basic puzzle types: Static; dynamic (Chain, Swap, Shuffle, Columns and Slider); Heap; and Mesh. In Static puzzles tiles or counters are arranged on a grid pattern and don't move, although new ones may replace solved ones. In dynamic puzzles the counters are placed on a grid and move according to different rules for each type. In a Heap, the counters are placed arbitrarily, not on a grid, and may overlap. They don't move themselves but can be repositioned by dragging them. In Mesh, the counters are aligned on a finer grid pattern, may partially or wholly overlap each other, and can be moved by dragging (but snap back onto the mesh).

On Obverse puzzles, the "obverse" of the counter (i.e. like the back of a playing card) usually shows (all tiles have a common outline pattern on the obverse). You only see the face of a counter if you select it. Obverse levels are a test of memory. They are indicated by a grid symbol on the left of the intro page.

Duaddu puzzles usually feature more counters than can fit on the grid at once, which are progressively introduced. When you find a duad the duad counters are removed and fade out, and extra counters fade in. In Column puzzles the tiles drop down from the top of the grid into the gapswhen duads are removed and new tiles are introduced at the top. In Heap and Mesh puzzles the tiles are usually piled on top of each other, and as duads are removed they reveal the ones underneath.

On Obverse puzzles, a failure to identify a duad when you select a second counter is only treated as an error if you have already seen the counter matching the first selected (i.e. you've made an unforced error). You can avoid excessive mistakes by "peeking" at counters by clicking twice - once to select the counter and see its face, a second time to deselect it - and remembering the position. There is a small penalty for peeking at a counter you've already seen, but lower than that for making an error. So, it is better to peek, but not too often.

In Odd One Out puzzles, there is a single extra counter that doesn't belong to a duad - the "Odd One Out". If you select the Odd One Out any duads you have found are cancelled and the puzzle is reset to the starting point (unfortunately, the Timer and Accuracy aren't reset). A cheerful musical motif is played 😁. Odd One Out puzzles are indicated by the theatre masks symbol on the right of the intro page. You have to be particularly careful to complete an Odd One Out puzzle successfully. If there is an Odd One Out counter in a Slider game, it is the counter that is moving around the grid (with others getting out of its way).

Sometimes duads are formed by non-identical counters that are related by a transformation. A duad transformation is indicated by a symbol on the left hand side of the intro page. There are several geometric transformations: a Y reflection is a reflection in the Y axis (i.e. left-to-right), an X reflection in the X axis (top-to-bottom). A pi-rotation is 180 degrees (pi radians) rotation. A general rotation (of shapes such as stars) is a rotation through an arbitrary angle that makes a regular shift (e.g. keeps the points of the stars at the same set of angles, but shifts the colors around the star). A color mapping is described in the topic below.

Color mapped levels are marked by the color mapping symbol in the intro presentation - they are among the hardest Duaddu puzzles. In a color mapping, the colors of the two members of a duad are related by a permutation, but the overall layout pattern remains the same. You need to match counter patterns despite the colors. The permutations are consistent: for example, every red element in the first member of the duad becomes green in the second member of the duad. It does not necessarily follow that red in the second becomes green in the first! Sometimes some colors may remain unchanged, or two may swap, sometimes they all change.

Duad measures the time taken on the puzzle (there is a timer in the toolbar), and the accuracy - that is, the proportion of times you were correct when trying to select a duad. The score is based on time, accuracy and the difficulty of the puzzle, so to score highly go as quickly as possible with minimal errors. On Obverse and Mesh puzzles there are additional penalties that affect the accuracy - see below.

On Obverse puzzles, there is a small penalty for selecting counters, and a penalty for unforced errors when nominating duads. On Mesh levels, there are penalties for dragging counters. The penalties are taking into account by reducing the accuracy.

Click on the puzzle and you will select a tile (it darkens); if it is partially behind another tile you can see the boundary of the visible area.

Yes, you can move Mesh tiles by dragging them, which can make it much easier to identify duads. However, there is a penalty for dragging, and you can't drag again for a period of time (the Timer in the toolbar turns red while drag is disabled). Both the penalty and the drag-freeze time get higher for harder levels, and even increase linearly for each move in the hardest levels, so use this power sparingly!

Yes, you can move Heap counters freely - there is no penalty for doing so. Rearranging the Heap can be an important strategy for solving these puzzles.

There are two modes of navigation - by tier, and by individual puzzle. To see tier summary results you need to navigate and play by tier. The Daily Puzzle can only be played by tier.

To navigate by tier, first use the up/down arrows on the upper toolbar to select the desired tier. Then click on the start of tier page to begin the first puzzle. When each puzzle is finished, click at the bottom of the summary page to play the next puzzle in the tier. When you complete the last puzzle in the tier, click on the bottom of the summary page to move to the end of tier page, and click on that to start the next tier.

To navigate by puzzle, use the buttons on the upper tool-bar: up/down arrows to move tier, left/right to move between puzzles. A summary description of the currently-selected puzzle is presented, similar to the intro page but with a large play button. Press the play button to start the chosen puzzle.

Yes. You can abandon the current puzzle by pressing the stop button on the upper toolbar. A red cross appears, and the summary page is shown with a red cross in place of the usual statistics. If you are trying to complete a tier, the tier is also abandoned. You can also pause a puzzle by pressing the pause button or swiping up or opening another app. Just press on the pause screen to restart where you left off.

Duaddu's Standard mode has eight tiers of puzzles, with each tier successfully more difficult. In addition, you can 'boost' the difficulty of all eight tiers by selecting 'Hard' or 'Are you having a Falafel?' difficulty from the Settings pages. The Daily Puzzle tiers each draw puzzles from particular difficulty levels. You can also increase the number of duads in Standard mode puzzles. The 'Level Up' option assigns 32 duads to the majority of puzzles, even those that usually present a (smaller) fixed field of duads. Long duration assigns 64 duads to each puzzle, and Epic duration 128. If you choose Epic duration, remember there is a pause button and drink plenty of fluids...

The Daily Puzzle presents a curated set of puzzles each day. It is designed for competitive play. Anybody in the world playing the DP gets the same set of puzzles and configurations on a given day. Play by-tier, as described in the navigation by-tier topic above. You can only play the DP tiers once, even if you cancel them there is no second chance! The topic below describes how to submit your Daily Puzzle scores to the Duaddu Leaderboards.

To compare your score with other players you must have a licensed version of Duaddu, and register with Apple Game Centre Leaderboards. Turn on the "Submit scores to leaderboards" option on the Game Center Settings page, and if you are new to Game Center complete the registration process. Complete a Daily Puzzle playing by-tier. There are nine Daily Puzzle tiers, each drawing from a different subset of the Standard set at one of the three difficulty levels, so choose the one most suitable for your level and style of play. Once completed you can compare your scores on the Daily Leaderboards. You can also organise a competition with friends.

You can interrogate your past performance on the Statistics page. The Rating gives an overall assessment of your performance over recent time (the last ten days). A green or red arrow may appear to show if it has gone up or down much recently. From the toolbar you can choose whether to show statistics for the Standard or Daily Puzzle mode. If you choose Standard mode, you can also select the difficulty level (Standard, Hard or Falafel). Above the table are two pickers. One Picker selects whether to show the Mean scores in the table (averaged over the last month), or the all-time Best score. The other Picker decides whether to show statistics for puzzles or tiers (in Daily Puzzle mode, only tier statistics are available). You can click on row and column headings in the table to select which statistic, for which puzzle or tier, should be displayed in the graph. The selected row and column are marked with an asterisk. You can scroll the table left-to-right to see all puzzles and tiers. The Picker above the graph determines whether it shows daily results for the last 30 day period, or weekly results for the last year, so you can track progress over time.

The Time is the time taken to complete the puzzle or tier, and T/duad is the average time taken per duad. The Accuracy summarizes the proportion of correct duad selections, but also takes into account penalties for actions such as peeking, dragging, and unforced errors on Obverse and Mesh levels. The Rating is a combination of time per duad and accuracy, adjusted for the difficulty of the puzzle(s) - you can think of Rating 100 as 'on par' for the puzzle. The score is the rating multiplied by the number of duads.

The Palette Designer, available from the Settings menu, is used to customise the color palettes used in the Standard mode puzzles. There is a scrollable swatch featuring system palettes, with some blanks below to allow you to create your own custom palettes. Click to select the palette and (on a custom palette) a color within the palette. A selection arrow appears to the right of the palette, and - for a custom palette - a circular color selector icon. Click on the color selector and use the color definition tools to choose a color in a custom palette. To assign a system or custom palette to an individual puzzle first select the difficulty level, tier and puzzle with the selectors at the bottom of the editor. This shows you the current palette assigned to the puzzle, and a sample tile/counter. Select the new palette from the swatch, then press the downwards arrow button to assign the palette. You can press the chevron to return to play the puzzles, and see how the palettes look in practice. If you are happy with the edits, return to the Palette Editor and press the Apply button (tick button). If you do not press Apply, any changes will be lost when you close the App. To restore the palettes to their default settings, press the Reset button (trash icon) in the Toolbar. Duaddu has two color modes, each with their own swatches and palette assignments: Standard and Accessible (designed for color-blind users). Select which of these to work with using the toggle in the Toolbar.

Duaddu uses various visual and cognitive tricks to challenge players; the accessibility options include alternatives that try to maintain difficulty level and to provide an equivalent experience while adjusting for different needs. From the Settings menu, choose Accessibility. The color-blind option provides an alternative set of palettes, with adjustments for red-green color blindness where necessary. Duaddu also uses color pulsing effects, which you can disable or mitigate (which reduces scale and speed of color pulsing by 50%). For players with motion sensitivity, rotation effects and lateral motion can be adjusted. Rotation effects can be turned off, or mitigated by switching from continuous rotation to 'tickwise' rotation (i.e. discrete movements similar to a clock). Lateral movements are found on Columns and Slider puzzles, you can replace smooth motion with fade-in/fade-out translation. The intro page for puzzles includes symbols above the top line to indicate color pulsation and motion effects, so you can choose to skip puzzles with effects that you find uncomfortable.

Sometimes they reflect what the puzzle does, sometimes how it feels (or makes the player feel!), and sometimes it is a mystery - but there is always a reason!