about node_shift

what it is

node_shift is a daily puzzle on a 4x4 board of colored, arrowed nodes. tap one and it turns, and the turn passes along the arrows, painting each node it reaches with the tapped node's color. make all sixteen match in as few moves as you can.

everyone gets the same puzzle each day, and each of its three colors is scored on its own. see the rules and the strategy guide.

how the puzzles are made

every board is generated ahead of time and searched exhaustively by computer, so the fewest moves for each color is known: the optimal score. difficulty climbs through the week (gentler monday to thursday, harder friday and saturday, hardest sunday), and nothing needs more than 4 moves.

the rules stay fixed. any new way to play would be its own mode, so scores stay comparable.

who makes it

hi 👋🏼 i'm John McGuinness, a software engineer specializing in building scalable, intuitive, and beautiful applications. i love a good cup of coffee and getting the job done ☕️ 😎 🚀 happy node_shifting →