How to play Hit & Blow and tips for deduction

Hit & Blow modes

• Solo play (ソロプレイ): guess the answer within 10 tries. With "Repeat colors" (同じ色を使う) on, the answer may contain the same color more than once
• Random Match (ランダムマッチ): find an opponent online and take turns guessing the same answer
• Room Match (ルーム対戦): play a friend using a room ID

Basic rules of Hit & Blow

• The answer is a sequence of 4 colors chosen from the 6. Normally all 4 are different colors, giving 6 × 5 × 4 × 3 = 360 possible sequences.
• When you submit a guess of 4 colors, you get back the number of hits and blows. Hits are colors in the right place; blows are colors that are in the answer but in a different place.
• 4 hits means you have it. In solo play, if you have not guessed it in 10 tries, the answer is shown and the game ends.
• In solo play, with "Repeat colors" on, both the answer and your guesses may use the same color any number of times. The possible sequences grow to 6 × 6 × 6 × 6 = 1,296.
• Online play does not allow repeated colors. The two players take turns guessing the same answer, and the first to get 4 hits wins. If it is not decided within 20 guesses between the two of you, it is a draw.

How to play on Asobi Lounge

• Press the color buttons to line up 4 colors, then press "Submit these 4 colors" (この4色で決定) to make your guess. If you make a mistake, fix it with "Delete one" (1つ消す).
• In solo play, the result is also shown with black pins (hits) and white pins (blows). The position of a pin does not tell you which color in your guess it refers to, so use only the counts as clues.
• In online play, your opponent's guesses and their results also appear in the history. Their guesses are clues to the same answer too.

What your first guess tells you

Without repeated colors, the answer uses 4 of the 6 colors. If your first guess is 4 colors such as red, blue, green, yellow, the total of hits and blows tells you how many of the 2 colors you left out (purple and orange) are in the answer.

If the total is 4, neither purple nor orange is in it, and only the order is left to find. If the total is 3, one of purple and orange is in it; if it is 2, both are. Counting the result of guessing red, blue, green, yellow against all 360 answers gives a total of 2 in 144 cases, 3 in 192 cases and 4 in 24 cases.

How many guesses does it take?

We had a computer solve all 360 answers with a method that always picks the guess leaving the fewest candidates, whatever result comes back. With red, blue, green, yellow as the first guess, every answer was found within 5 guesses, about 4.1 on average. The 10 tries in solo play leave plenty of room if you use the clues carefully.

With "Repeat colors" on (1,296 answers), the same method (with red, red, blue, blue as the first guess) needed at most 5 guesses, about 4.5 on average. Because colors can repeat, you have more work recounting how many of each color there are.

Deduction tips

• Use your first guess to check which 4 colors are in the answer (whether purple and orange are in it), and from the second guess on, narrow it down by swapping colors and reordering them.
• If you get 0 hits, none of the colors you guessed belongs in the place where you put it. Writing down "this color is not in this place" keeps you from getting lost.
• If you change only one place from your previous guess, the rise or fall in hits and blows tells you clearly about the place you changed.
• In online play, you can use the results of your opponent's guesses for your own deduction too. Making use of the information they uncover to get the answer one turn sooner is the way to win.

Frequently asked questions

Are Hit & Blow and Mastermind the same?

They belong to the same family of games, where you guess a sequence of colors or numbers using how many are in the right place and how many are in the wrong place as clues. On this site you guess a sequence of 4 colors out of 6, not numbers.

Can I use the same color twice?

In solo play, yes, if you turn on "Repeat colors" (the answer may then contain repeated colors too). Online play only uses the no-repeat rule.

Can I see my opponent's guesses during a match?

Yes. Since both of you are guessing the same answer, all guesses and results from both players are shown in the history.

Does the answer change during the game?

No. In solo play the answer is set when the game starts, and in online play it is set when both players have joined. It stays the same until the end.

Is Hit & Blow free to play?

Yes, it costs nothing. Games against the CPU and solo modes work right away without signing in. Online play (random matches and private rooms) and saving stats or leaderboard scores require signing in with a Google account. To play with a friend, your friend also needs to create an account and register as your friend.

More puzzles and deduction

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