Frequently asked questions

When does a new vault open?

At midnight in your own timezone. The Vault uses your device's local date to pick the day's puzzle, so it rolls over when your calendar day does — not at some fixed hour in another country. Everyone plays the same numbered vault on the same local date.

Why isn't yesterday's answer in the archive yet?

Because at any given moment the world spans three calendar days. When it is already Tuesday in Auckland it is still Sunday in Honolulu — so a vault that finished “yesterday” where you are may still be live for someone else. We publish a vault to the archive only once it has closed everywhere on earth, which is roughly two days after it opened. It costs us a little freshness and guarantees we never spoil a live game.

Do I need an account?

No — there is no sign-up, no email, no password. Your streak, statistics and collection are stored in your browser's local storage on the device you play on. The trade-off is real and worth knowing: clearing your browser data erases your museum, and your progress does not follow you to another device.

Can I play past vaults?

No. Each vault is live for its day and then closes for good. You can read exactly how a past vault worked in the archive, but you can't play it for credit — the treasure it held is gone if you missed it. That's the point of a daily: everyone faces the same puzzle on the same day, once.

What is par?

Par is the number of attempts a deterministic solver needs to crack that exact code on that exact keyboard, never making a guess inconsistent with the feedback so far. It is computed per day, not estimated. Beating par usually means you spotted the pattern instead of grinding the deduction — see the strategy guide.

Can a symbol appear twice in the code?

Not any more. From vault #6 onward every code is a sequence of five distinct symbols — no repeats. That rule is also your best weapon, because it turns any five-symbol guess into a clean membership test. The very first vaults (#1–#5) used random codes that could repeat; they are marked as such in the archive.

I lost my streak because of a timezone or a device change. Can you restore it?

Unfortunately not — and not because of a policy. Your progress exists only in your own browser; we hold no copy of it, so there is nothing on our side to look up or restore. If that sounds like a limitation, it is the same property that means we hold no personal data about you at all.

Is it free? Are there ads?

The game is free and there is nothing to buy. Ads may appear on the results screen once a game has ended — never during play, and never before you have made a choice in the cookie banner. You can change that choice at any time from the footer of the game, and the details are in the privacy policy.

What languages is it available in?

Five: English, German, French, Italian and Dutch. The interface, the treasure names, the stories behind them and the pattern names are all translated — you can switch language from the footer of the game at any time.

Something not answered here? Get in touch.