Attribute Match

How to play

1. What do I look at first?: Read the goal line and the check bar above the table. Every card has four features — number, shape, color and fill; Starter mode only uses the first three. Tap any card to begin; there is no start button, and a dot lights up on the check bar.
2. How do I pick a set?: Tap two more cards. The third tap judges the trio at once: each cell of the check bar flips to = (all the same), ≠ (all different) or ✗ (two alike, one different). No ✗ anywhere means it is a set.
3. What happens if I pick wrong?: The failing feature flips to ✗, the status line names it, the three cards shake, and after a short cooldown the picks clear. Nothing is deducted; the miss is simply counted.
4. What happens after I find a set?: The three cards fly into the set counter, the counter ticks up and three fresh cards slide in from the deck. If the table truly holds no set, the game scans it, says so, and deals three extra cards for you.
5. How does a round end?: Starter and Full deck end when the deck is empty and no set is left on the table; a Puzzle ends when you find all 6 sets among its 12 cards. The results card shows sets, time, hints and misses, with one tap to play again or open the daily puzzle.

Rules & variants

How is a set judged? Each card has four features: number (one to three shapes), shape (circle, triangle, square), color (blue, orange, ink) and fill (solid, dotted, hollow). For the three cards you pick, check every feature on its own: all three the same is fine, all three different is fine, but two alike and one different on any feature breaks the set. One blue solid circle, two orange dotted triangles and three ink hollow squares? Every feature is all different — that is a set.

Why does any pair of cards have exactly one partner? Each feature has only three values. If two cards match on a feature, the third must match too; if they differ, the third must be the remaining value. So for any two cards there is exactly one card that completes the set — which is also the fastest way to search: fix two cards, work out the missing one, then look for it.

Refills and extra cards: Starter opens with 9 cards, Full deck with 12. When you take a set, three cards are dealt back if the table dropped below its opening size; otherwise the last cards slide into the gaps so the table stays tidy. Whenever no set exists and the deck still has cards, three extra cards are added automatically and the status line tells you there really was nothing there. Deck empty and no set left ends the round.

The three modes: Starter uses 27 cards, only number, shape and color, and has no clock — ideal for a first game or for kids. Full deck uses all 81 cards and all four features, with a stopwatch that starts on your first tap. Puzzle lays out 12 cards that never change and hide exactly 6 sets; find them all to finish. There is also one daily puzzle, the same for everyone that day.

Using hints: one press lights one card from a set, a second press lights another, and the third card is always left for you. If you already picked cards and they cannot belong to any set, they shake and clear so you stop chasing a dead end. Hints are counted, and a round with hints does not set a best time.

Variants and house rules: only two widely known variants are included — the simplified starter version with one feature fewer, and the fixed-layout puzzle where you must find every set. To race a friend, send them the game link from the menu: the same deal code deals exactly the same cards, so you can compare time and misses, or agree to play without hints. If colors are hard to tell apart, turn on Color marks and each card gets a small corner tick whose position tells the color.

FAQ