Questions
FAQ
How it works, what gets stored, and what happens when you lose signal.
Is SETPOINT free?
Yes, entirely. No accounts, no subscriptions, no ads, and no email capture. There is nothing to buy and nothing to sign up for.
There is also no cookie banner, because there are no tracking cookies to consent to.
How do daily puzzles work?
Each day gets a puzzle generated from a seed derived from the date in UTC. Everyone playing on the same day gets the same puzzle, wherever they are.
Because the day boundary is UTC rather than local time, travelling across a timezone does not earn you a second attempt — and two players comparing scores are always comparing the same puzzle.
How are scores calculated?
Every game scores differently, and each one explains its own rules on its page. What they share is a scoring version: when a game is rebalanced, the version increments, so old scores stay comparable to the era they were set in rather than being silently mixed with new ones.
Runs are opened server-side and submitted with a signed token. Implausible results are flagged rather than deleted.
Is there an app?
No, and there is not going to be. Everything runs in the browser, so there is nothing to install and nothing to update.
You can add any game to your home screen if you want it one tap away — it will behave much like an installed app, without being one.
Do the games work offline?
Gameplay does. Every game runs entirely in your browser and never waits on the network to start, continue, or finish a round.
Leaderboards need a connection. If it drops mid-round you keep playing and simply finish unranked.
How do I get better at a game?
Each game has a guide that explains its rules properly and then the strategy underneath them. Filter's is at /blog/how-to-play-filter/ — it covers why halving the board every question beats asking about whatever looks distinctive, and why the game deliberately never eliminates faces for you.
The short version for any of them: the games are about restraint rather than reflexes, and the thing that feels most obvious to do is usually the expensive one.
Where is my progress saved?
In your browser's local storage, on your device. Nothing is synced between devices.
If you play in a private window, or your browser blocks site data, progress will not persist. The games still work — they just will not remember anything between sessions.